Charging too low

Hi, I was messing with the prices earlier, and made the price £15 less and made cleaning fee £15 but then someone instantly booked for a week, which even has 10% discount, the person just instant booked now, is there anything I can do?
Thanks

Oh dear. How much will you lose?

Did you not mean to set at 10% discount for a full week?

I am one of the hosts that recommends new hosts turn off instant book while you become familiar with Airbnb to avoid these sorts of mistakes.

You can call Airbnb and explain the situation and see if they will be flexible, but if you want to cancel under their T&Cs there are penalties involved.

Does that person have a profile picture, ID etc? If not you can argue you’re uncomfortable with the reservation and cancel.?!

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Hi, I have messaged the future guest and told them about a mistake in the price, Although im still charging too low he agreed to pay a little extra…, I just hope he doesn’t leave a bad review, also his reviews are 3.5 stars and a previous host said he left place unclean with health condition needles lying around, anyways I will just hope for the best, he seems like a nice man anyway

I was really wanting to turn off instant booking, would make life much easier, however having a lot less people see your property means a lot less bookings unfortunately which i don’t want atm

@NewAirHost I would be upset if someone made me pay more than I booked for. You should cancel him because of that review. You’re allowed to cancel without any penalties.

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honestly I would rather do that, but I think it is too late because we already messaged and eventually came to an agreement :frowning: its fine anyway, if he leaves a bad review i will contact airbnb and see if they can take it off

I think your solution just got easier!

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I would definitely not be accepting this guest, regardless of your agreement. I would call Airbnb say you are uncomfortable hosting this guest because of previous reviews.

As a new host you get an artificial boost to your listing for up to a month or so. In your shoes I would turn off IB, so you can vet your guests more carefully before accepting a booking.

Airbnb won’t remove a negative review unless it breaks their T&Cs. Him saying you asked for more money after he booked would not be a reason for them to remove the review as it would be an honest reflection of what happened.

Have you had a look through their Help Centre yet. If not do have a read through and in particular familiarise yourself with Instant Booking, setting prices. cancellations, how the review system works etc.

You can snooze your listing ie put it on hold, so you don’t receive further bookings while you are familiarising yourself with how everything so you don’t get caught out again.

I agree with the advice others have given you.

It is not too late to ask Airbnb to cancel this reservation simply because you’ve been conversing with the guest. Because this guest used instant book, you can ask Airbnb to cancel the reservation, telling them you are not comfortable with the guest due to previous reviews about leaving needles lying about and being unclean.

Indeed, there are very, VERY few instances in which Airbnb will remove a guest’s review of you. As another forum member stated, they will only do so if the review violates one of the rules.

It may already be clear to you, but in case not, it bears reiterating that as a host, you should NEVER initiate the cancellation of a guest booking. Airbnb will impose penalties. As you move forward in hosting, you may have guests ask you to cancel a reservation. Do not do it. Tell them they must cancel the reservation themselves. They will want you to do it instead because then they will get their money back. If they do it, they may have to pay part of, or all of the reservation anyway, depending on your cancellation policy and how far in advance of the reservation they cancel.

Anyway, the hosts here could all write short novels about the ins and outs of hosting with Airbnb. Probably the best advice you can get right now is what @Helsi said. Do your best to become familiar with all of Airbnb’s policies. As well, the moment you realize you have, or might have a problem, come to this forum first, before you do anything. Many hosts here will help you through it.

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Everyone here has you well covered. I just wanted to add that I’ve been hosting for 4 years and although I’ve hosted plenty of unreviewed guests, and many with 5* that were still problematic, I’ve never run across someone with a low rating.

It’s actually kind of tough to earn a poor guest rating on Airbnb, so I’m a little concerned that this will be a bad situation for you. Being a new host is tough, even with the best of guests! I’m in the ‘call in to cancel as “not comfortable with this guest based on prior reviews”’ camp.

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