How prove to guest that they agreed to fees when Airbnb only shows my "current" rules/info?

We use to charge extra for pool heating because propane is expensive in the La Quinta area. We would charge guests $25/day paid in advance. A guest booked last May for next month under these rules. However, I have since increased my nightly rate so that I can include the heating cost. I went to collect payment from this guest who claimed the pool is supposed to be free referencing the live (current) rules which state nothing about the fee. She agreed to a set of rules that is overwritten by new rules. I spoke with Airbnb who shockingly doesnt keep records of which rules/terms guest booked under. So I have no way to prove to this guest what she agreed to. Thoughts/Help?

I don’t understand what you mean by charged and paid in advance. To me that means at time of booking. For example, I charge guests for pets in advance and if they don’t pay in advance they don’t get check in information. So it seems that these guests didn’t pay in advance. And I suppose there’s nothing in the message thread about it?

At this point you’ll have to let it go.

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I think you could push AirBnb to somehow back you up, tell the guest what the rules were then but you are just going to upset the guest and for how much? 1 month at 25 a day or just a few days?

I might risk the upset guest for $750, but not for $75

How long is the reservation for?

Welcome to the forum @deserthost

RR

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@DesertHost Explain to the guest that the pool heat isn’t really “free” for anyone- that since she booked last May, you simply decided to up your nightly rates so that the cost of the pool heating is included in that, so you wouldn’t have to mess around with an extra charge. Tell her what you are charging per night now, compared to how much she paid back in May. She can easily check your current rates herself on your listing.

Interesting how she picked up on the now free pool heat, but failed to notice the increased nightly rate. Very selective reading, I’d say.

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Hi and welcome to the Forum!
“She agreed to a set of rules that is overwritten by new rules.” So, she doesn’t want to pay the 25$ pool fees or the new rates?? Is mention of the pool access fee written onto a last May Air message? I can imagine the costs are higher in winter! Can you spell it out to her how the two pricing structures differ in amounts paid? Would you rather she cancel and re-book and or get a grumpy bad review??

Whatever the price listed during the booking process is the amount that you can and did collect. If you didn’t collect the pool fees at that time through Air, I don’t think you can ask now if there is no proof that they were there last year. She will get the bad karma for being stingy, remember… Changing from fees to be collected to a different nightly rate can get spongy fast, as we see here.

We are having hot water delivery problems and I made sure the listing is current and that it is mentioned in an Air message. When it is fixed I will update the listing asap.

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Reservation details has the house rules in effect at time of booking.

EDIT
I am wrong
They reservation details from the website not app, used to include the house rules under which they guest booked.
I checked the website & app—they are gone!

EDIT 2
Manage listing
Activity

Is a log of date, time & item changed
It will not drill down to the actual change

Maybe just maybe Airbnb can use the time stamp & show the change made.

New note to self: screen shot before/after house rules changes


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I remember seeing the house rules at the time of booking being attached to the reservation details, which makes sense because a reservation should not be subject to any changes in house rules that occur after booking.

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Yes. That is what I’m saying. I saw them too. They are no longer in the reservation details.

App & website have different functionality but the house rules at times of booking are gone.

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Leave it to Airbnb to take away something that protects both hosts AND guests.

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Reservation is for a full 3 months so the pool/spa fee would have come to $2,250 which I will now have to eat in propane fees. I have spoken with Airbnb and their attitude is that it’s not their problem.

My current/live terms state “Free Pool/Spa Heating” because I increased my rate. She doesn’t seem to understand that she agreed to the prior set of terms because she doesn’t see them. I think this is all Airbnb’s fault. How do hosts change their terms if new guests can’t see what they previously had agreed to?

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Given this experience I have decided to increase my nightly rates to never have to deal with extra fees again. Several rentals in the La Quinta area charge extra for heating and send a bill prior to check in. I stayed at a place like this and paid it no problem. But seems people don’t read terms so I’m done with this. Going to hope for a decent review. I have her staying for 3 months and planning on making her stay as wonderful as possible to help make up for this.

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Thanks for pointing me to the Activity log. While it doesnt show what I need I am going to see in Airbnb can use that data to pull our prior terms. Its a long shot but will see,

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Makes zero sense to me. If I book a hotel room at a given rate I don’t get to say that rate doesnt apply to me because it’s lower now. We all agree to the terms at the time of booking but Airbnb is failing in their responsibility to support this and putting hosts against guests. I am in a bad spot with this guest right now and Airbnb is 100% to blame,

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Oh gosh, that is great long stay but a lot of $ you are losing!

That’s why it’s best to communicate such things through the message center. When accepting a booking, on the welcome message it’s good to provide a recap of agreement so that you have it in writing.

At this point, I don’t think there is anything you can do.

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I started downloading my listings and also saving screen shots after every edit. I wish there was an easier way to do that.

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Airbnb has a record of what your listing and rates were when the guests booked so it should just be a matter of getting confirmation from Airbnb unless they really did change this.

At least they used to because a couple of times in the past I was told by CS reps that I have to offer what it said on my listing at the time of booking and that they can confirm this info.

I personally would send a written request via their messaging system and stay on top of it. I find unless it’s really time sensitive, this is the best way to communicate. But they will sometimes will try to call. I don’t answer Airbnb customer service calls.

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If you know when you changed it and it shows on your activity log, maybe that would help. If you can specifically tell them, I need a record of my listing on xx date. If it is true that they have a record then it may not be that easy to find and that’s why they don’t want to be bothered. They have millions of listings and I don’t know how often hosts make changes but it’s got to be millions per year.

Did you have this fee in your house rules or just in the description? If I go to my profile as a guest and click on trips, details like house manual and rules are there. Here’s a screenshot of the rules of a 2020 trip of mine:

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If this guest is acting in good faith she should be willing to look that up and verify that it was one of the conditions of her reservation. Maybe you could go talk to her in person and you could look at her reservation record together and you could show her in the rules where the fee is. If she isn’t willing to do that then she isn’t acting in good faith. The cost of propane has increased significantly since last year, so she’s getting a deal even at $25.

Make up for what? She’s already getting a deal and if she is unwilling to look at her reservation and see in the rules that she was required to pay for the propane I wouldn’t be inclined to take this approach.

When I said “let it go” I was thinking of a few days of charges, not thousands of dollars. I don’t know that I’d let that go.

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You are going to put up with a guest (actually she will be a tenant under landlord/tenant laws) for 3 months when she starts off being unreasonable, demanding, and aggressive? This will not turn out well. If she refuses to accept that these were the conditions she booked under, I would cancel this booking, regardless of penalties.

And why do you now mention in your listing that the pool/spa heating is free? Why mention what you don’t charge extra for?

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