Calendar pricing errors

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A few months ago I updated my calendar with premium pricing for my peak season. I have a spreadsheet and memory of doing this. I noticed last week I got 3 bookings in the same day over my peak season. Initially I was pleased but then I just realized all those bookings were done based on default pricing. I noticed most are a “special offer”. I never negotiated a special offer with these guests. I think there was some glitch where when the calendar became available based on my window, the pricing I set up was replaced with my default pricing. Airbnb support does not believe anything happened with their software and these are all legit bookings.

  1. Has anyone experienced something similar? This happened to me a few years ago but wasn’t as financially punishing so I just updated the calendar again and moved on.

  2. Assuming I can’t work something out with Airbnb, I am considering canceling on these guests. I know Airbnb will likely block my calendar. I also know I will lose Superhost status but will Airbnb really cancel my account of I cancel on 2-3 guests? The help page says they might. This is a drastic measure but it is also costing me thousands of $$$. I would rather do something else with those dates potentially.

I have been a host for 6 years. I have never canceled on a guest. I have dealt with all the pains of finicky and rude guests in a generous manner. I have rolled with all the constant website updates of Airbnb over the years.

Anyways I’ve read all the help pages but wondering if anyone has experience initiating a cancellation on guests and what they recommend. Has anyone been threatened with being kicked off Airbnb based on cancellations?

Thanks!

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I recently checked my pricing for the next several months and found some days at $60, others at $91, and strange “specials” where my discount rules were arbitrarily applied.

I’ve gone back in and edited my pricing and rule sets (holiday weekends, longer stay discounts).

It’s always a good idea to check your listing after every one of Air’s “smooth” rollouts. I don’t know who does their QA before launch, but they stink.

I’m taking this to mean that you’ve called them and you spoke to one of the “special” superhost CS people?

Keep calling. Keep escalating.

Get the GUEST to cancel and try to block one day in the middle of their stay. Offer full refunds for a “family emergency,” unless you’ve already told them the prices are wrong.

Otherwise, see if you can send the price increase to them, citing the actual correct costs of the rest of the season that they can see for themselves.

You have options. I’d start with a note to the guests “Air’s latest software release reset our cabin’s pricing to off-season defaults. As such, I’m sending you a price adjustment for your stay that you need to accept in order to complete the booking. I’m sorry that your visit is caught in the middle of another AirBnB booking platform glitch. Sadly, when this happens, the effects are felt by all parties and it is not fun. If you don’t want to accept the price increase, please cancel and I’ll work with you and Air to get you a full refund and recommend Air refund your fees as well. AirBnB is a third-party booking platform for our business, and sometimes their software has issues and they throw the onus on to the host.”

They may argue, as many folks do, that because it was the advertised price that you should honor it. NO. The fault in pricing was NOT yours, it was Air’s software doing its thing.

Don’t worry about losing SH status, you’ll get it back quickly. Adjust all your prices, send price increases to the current guests, and bug the crap out of Air. It’s YOUR business, not theirs, they don’t care if you lose $$.

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Yes I called Airbnb and the person just threatened me with host penalties blah blah blah. She said she would escalate but promised me the escalation person would not have a different stance. I have been told this before but I feel like I was particularly ignored with this issue. Often in these situations I noticed the supervisor call back is at midnight my time or something so I can’t respond and they close the case.

I don’t care about my super host status (anymore) but I was worried I would be kicked off Airbnb.

I have not alerted the guests to this issue as I am still trying to figure out what happened and how much time I want to invest in this. I have a job outside of hosting.

I was really questioning my sanity as this is the 3rd time in 6 years where my pricing updates seemed to change from what I had set. I am going to start making screen shots but it seems ridiculous that I have to audit my calendar constantly as changes might not be saved.

I have also noticed this happen in my favor with extra guest fees. I actually stopped charged extra guest fees about 2 years ago because people just lied anyways and just upped the cleaning fee for everyone. Every now and then I still get extra guest fees from bookings plus the expensive cleaning fee and I have to go remove that fee again for future guests… Most recently happened September 2021.

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Keep trying to get a different person and report the person if they actually threatened you.

If they said that, report them to the next person. Keep asking for a supervisor right then and there.

I work as well - many of the hosts here have Air as a side gig.

If these reservations were just made, then please CONTACT THE GUESTS and get your seasonal money for the reservations. They’ll either understand or cancel and if you’re in a high-demand area, you’ll re-book. Use your SH cancelations. “I’m not comfortable” and “I get 3 cancels a year and I’m using them and you can’t kick me off and you can’t tell me my pricing is wrong”

Good luck.

It’s a bug-ridden platform, that’s for sure.

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The kicking off airbnb is from their help site:

The person I just talked to just said host penalties and fees would apply.

She didn’t seem technical enough to speak to any bugs or website issues so she just kept saying things off topic.

I’ve been persistent enough to get my issues resolved with Airbnb in the past and will keep trying. I am just exhausted but I agree that persistence does usually get you what you want from Airbnb I put many hours into an issue.

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My pondering —use whatever you wish.

Awful situation-I’m sure this has & is continuing to cause you heartburn.

No option as I see it is good so what is the least bad.

  1. It’s 3 reservations. Potential loss “thousands of $$”. Let it go. Ouch!!!

  2. As @casailinglady suggested contact the guests ASAP. Tell them the billing difference & why, offer pay or cancel with refund. Hope they pay. If you get pushback, determine next steps. I’m thinking 2 of the 3 will pay. You may cancel 1.

  3. Contact @Airbnbhelp via Twitter. Quick explanation. “Need assistance. 3 reservations with unknown/inaccurate discounts applied. The Correct rate should’ve been $$$/night. I set this rate for my peak season & Airbnb reservations defaulted to my off season rate. What steps to correct this can Airbnb recommend?”

Keep correspondence on Airbnb inbox.

  1. Cancel all & hope for the best.
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There is always the possibility of user error. I used to mess up setting prices all the time. Or a date range didn’t save or was selected incorrectly. I use FrontDesk Express PMS to sync to ABB. This has cut down errors for me. It also syncs Closed To Arrival, Closed to Departure, Minimum stay, etc. I can also close out inventory on OTAs but keep availability open on my direct booking engine. Good for holidays so you can maximize direct bookings in advance and open to OTAs only last minute if you don’t fill up direct.

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Do you have a screenshot? I was able to get an admin cancel when I had set booking 90 days out and someone booked for an event next August, because I had a screen shot showing the 90 day timeline. I’ve started capturing all the screens in my 2 listings because I don’t trust Air’s crappy software. I think it all started when they moved software to contractors.

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Your next words should have been “I need to speak to a supervisor who understands this kind of problem.” repeat until you get one, who also won’t know much but MIGHT connect you to an actual support person in the US.

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FYI - I never answer support phone calls. I make everything done via the messaging app. I tell them I am hard of hearing and it is difficult for me to use the phone. I even have in caller id under their phone number Airbnb do not pick up. I know some folks like to talk it out but I have found in the long run while it will take longer via email, it gives you time to respond and you have everything documented.

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Same here. Also the written word avoids a recurring challenge of when the CSR speaks too quickly with a lovely lyrical accent so I can’t understand 1/2 of the conversation.

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Me as well. I also like being able to choose my words and phrasing carefully, as that can make a big difference as to the response I get.

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As an update I was able to replicate the bug where sometimes weekend base pricing overrides special pricing. However special pricing stays consistent if I change base pricing. I have sent the bug and documentation to Airbnb. I advise checking your calendars as this bug has caused pricing errors on calendars from November 9 to yesterday.

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I had a booking error happen again yesterday as someone cancelled and then a new person rebooked at lower pricing than the cancelation despite me not changing the pricing for those dates. Other than the cancelation opening up a weekend my calendar is blocked.

I was then able to replicate the issue again and sent info to Airbnb. I screenshot everything. Super annoying as now I will have to document, timestamp and screen shot every pricing change I make in the future.

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thanks - not sure I follow your system but appreciate the tip. This wasn’t a user error even though I considered that. I was able to replicate the issue with screen shots.

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That’s great! I’ve definitely experienced this and was in a feverish rush to fix my prices back when it happened.

Since I switched to using only rules to adjust my prices (before I was changing them manually for special event pricing) I’ve not had the issue.

I just have to be careful about changing rules that I’ve applied to multiple dates.

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Yes! Happens regularly. Also often get the “special offer” option showing up when I didn’t offer it. I have regular glitches even changing prices daily. Many times the changes don’t “take” and revert to whatever was there when I tried to change it. It happens about a quarter of the time…once I noticed the problem I started actually waiting to view the corrected price showing up before moving on to update the next price. I had several times where it got booked at the lower price during a time they didn’t show the nightly breakdown and I was just SOL…glad I wized up!