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First post on here, if in the wrong place please move where it belongs.
Is anyone else experiencing problems since the recent update of the system at AirBnB?
We used to have seasonal, monthly stay discounts in place. That is to say, we offered a certain discount level for say, 6 months of the year, a lower level for 3 months and none for the remaining three months.
We set this up via calendar and later were able to go into Pricing & Availability and set it there, along with weekly-seasonal if required.
Now these settings are no longer in Calendar at all and the seasonal part of weekly/monthly discounts has disappeared (i.e. choose date range) from P & A.
With the update our actual discount settings were deleted as well. Therefore we have lost the settings and the ability to reset them.
Chats with the AirBnB team only give the “has been escalated…” or “tech team aware…will be sorted soon” response.
Over a month later nothing. For us, this makes AirBnB almost useless.
Has anyone else noticed this? (we are on the Beta scheme)
I’m not using the beta scheme so have not seen the issues you describe. I do use the discount settings you’re describing and they are intact outside of the beta. It causes me concern that they’re not present in what will soon be the new update for all. Please update if it gets resolved or not.
Unfortunately our Calendar looks completely different to yours. There is certainly no seasonal rates option.
The “custom trip lengths” is only half of the equasion, though might be useful as part of a work around.
Here is a reply I just received from Support;
“I want to inform you that the custom weekly or monthly pricing feature is currently being removed and may only be visible to certain listings that have used it before.”
Despite the fact that we were using it before. I suspect a miscommunicated message here and have asked for clarification.
I am having the same issues and grateful for this forum. Guests are trying to book and they are getting an error message stating try again later. Also Airbnb has been closing the support tickets and stating it is a computer glitch.
@Tranquility_Base seems to be using the “Professional” calendar. I use it, too. I don’t recall the process to sign up for it, but you don’t have to have multiple listings to use it.
Hi - It’s reassuring to see that, yes, airbnb recently made major changes and for the worse.
Through the calendar I used to be able to set “rule sets” for specific dates that would over-ride any global settings set up under the pricing/availability tab.
I want during the summer school holidays to ensure that people can only make requests to book for 7 night stays with a Friday check in/out day. That seems, with the new changed system, to be no longer possible!!
airbnb support directed me to the “custom trip lengths” that is now a feature with the changed system and appears under the pricing/availability tab.
But that seems fraught with errors. It doesn’t offer a check in/out day. The support person stated, as if speaking to a twit, that if I set up a 7 day minimum stay between Friday 7 and Thursday 13 July, that in order to stay 7 days the person would HAVE to arrive on the Friday. I could not disagree.
The problem arises if you want to set up 6 such weeks back to back. I added a second “custom trip length” starting on the 14th and finishing on the 20th (of July). The system promptly grouped the two “custom trip lengths” into one, meaning that a it is possible to book a 7 day stay arriving on any day from 7 July till 14 July.
Its just gob smacking how little airbnb understand the needs of holiday lets. What options do I have - not advertise in the summer on airbnb?
They are so unprofessional it is untrue - the answer came back - “Have you tried going to your multicalendar, then selecting the date range and then creating a rule set for those dates?” - I replied I would if she could tell me that would work - and to that she replied “We ensure to provide you the best answer on the questions you were asking, but you need to try it on your end to confirm if it’s what you are looking for or not. If this is not, please let us know”
My latest response is “Let me put this another way. How using the airbnb software do I configure my availability so I am able to assure that guests will only be able to request to book a minimum of 7 days with a Friday changeover during selected months”.
sorry first sentence didn’t make sense. What I meant is that it is reassuring to get confirmation from this forum that yes, airbnb have made major changes, because getting that out of airbnb support is like getting blood out of a stone
It has been over 2 weeks now and I am still experiencing calendar issues. Guests are unable to book. They are getting an error message to “try again later”. Any of you host having the said issues?
What a nightmare! It seems like we’re facing some serious calendar issues. I’ve reached out to individuals with Airbnb accounts to try and book, but they’re encountering the same error message: “try again later.” This situation has the potential for a class action lawsuit, as the support team is not seeking legal advice. They’re attributing the problem to the engineering team, but when I requested to speak with them for a status update, they closed the ticket. I’m diligently documenting all my daily messages and recording all my calls. This is the busiest season for me, and ordinarily, I would have bookings scheduled all the way through the end of the year.
Hi @fluff ,
Did you ever get any resolution on this? The inability to set seasonal discounts is driving me bananas. SMH.
Thanks for any information you can pass along!
Not at all, only confirmation of the removal of seasonal discounts.
ABB has been dead in the water for me since. gone to other channels now.
Coming from an OTA-geared market I have to say I find ABB completely useless, the system is very inflexible, you cannot have non-refundable only, now you cannot have seasonal discounts, support is rubbish, the review system is cock-eyed and heavily biased to the guests.
Overall it has been a very unrewarding experience, even the the much maligned Booking.com do better than this, a standard that should be very easy to better!
It depends on what is important to a host as to which systems are preferable. While I hate Airbnb’s often horrible CS dept, the platform works for me, with my one private room listing. I don’t offer any discounts, seasonal or otherwise, am not interested in a non-refundable policy, and don’t get the type of guests who leave bad reviews I have to try to get removed.
On the other hand, I would never use Booking.com, as I do not want guests to Instant Book, and guests don’t get reviewed, so that platform often attracts guests who have gotten bad reviews on Airbnb or other sites, at least in my area.
But I can sympathize with hosts who have lost features on Airbnb that were important to them.
Customer service sent me the link to the feedback page - so I made a pointed request that hopefully will not be jettisoned. Glad you’re finding other ways to get bookings. Can I ask you which platform(s) you’ve switched to? I don’t know if that’s against the group rules.
I am brand new to this page and driven here looking for the answer to “why can’t I customize my monthly rates” like I did before. I can give a global monthly discount. That is too dangerous. Having the monthly rate the same as my weekly rate in may opens me up to have people booking the high season for low season rates.
I am not sure why they are making these go away, but they are. I do know that Airbnb has a “squatter” problem. That seems to have to do with house they bill the customer. This is not an issue on VRBO. Airbnb “checks” a credit card when the guest signs up and then when they book. But they don’t collect the money until the stay is over. So squatters acquire a stolen credit card, make the booking for extended stays, then by the time airbnb actually bills it, the card is inactive and the squatter is there. Airbnb is of no help then, they write off the scam as a loss and move on. This is why yu will find squatters have a similar MO. They will contact you with less than a week before their long stay. they will want you to send them the access codes or key locations immediately.
VRBO works like an escrow account. Before the guest arrives they have collected the money. when the guest leaves they release the money. They bill in 3 installments and the same credit card must be used for all 3. If somebody is trying to use a stolen credit card, it is normally discovered in this process. at the very least you get paid for the time they are there.
It may be that Airbnb is trying to make long term stays less appealing.
under the “month” heading of my calendar there is “applied settings” . Select that I get a “monthly discount” option. Open that tab and it shows “custom monthly discounts” but then states "These will be discontinued in September 2023.
Where did you get the erroneous idea that Airbnb doesn’t charge guests until after a stay is completed? Guests get charged when they book, Airbnb holds the money and releases the payment to the host usually 24 hours after the guest checks in, not after they check out.
(Some bookings give guests the option to pay half when they book and the other half is charged about a week before check-in)
Long term stays are charged to guests on a monthly basis, and those payments are also released to the host near the beginning of each month.
One thing that’s a bit risky is taking last minute bookings, as the guest may already be in residence before Airbnb realizes their payment fell through.
But otherwise, you are misinformed as to how Airbnb collects $.
