Hello, Newbie here! I have been hosting on AirBnb for about a year now, and all good so far. My minimum nightly rate is set at £120, and with 5% and 10% discounts respectively for week or month bookings. This morning, I have a request for a 28 day booking for £65 per night - does anyone know how to stop this happening? Do AirBnb run their own special offers which I don’t know about? Many thanks, Peter
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What does it say in your calendar, pricewise that is, for the requested dates?
JF
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Welcome to the forum, I look forward to learning with you.
Not sure what is up with the price reduction, I would call Air and have them decline so it does not count against you. 28 days is a LOOONG time! I would not want a guest that long, but we all do what works for us.
RR
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I’ve had similar “bad math” experiences with Air. They can’t “math.” Call them to decline and ask about the rates. Then go through your calendar and make sure your prices are all correct.
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Did you turn on Smart Pricing? If so, make sure to set your min. price.
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Don’t think Smart Pricing is available in the UK, but could be wrong.
JF
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Holy @#$%! That reservation would cost you at least £1200 in lost revenue.
Definitely call Airbnb. This isn’t the first time somebody has posted that this happened to them. I doubt they’ll have a good excuse as to why it happens, but please follow-up on your post here to let us know what they say and the outcome.
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Thanks JF - £120 per night
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One to hit Airbnb CS with I reckon. See if they can work out how someone managed to make a booking request at such a low nightly rate. Check your Weekly/monthly discounts are still at the correct rates as well.
Let us know what they say. It’ll probably be BS, but you might get someone decent.
JF
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I would take it a bit further and insist that Air pay you the difference. I would phrase it like this to the CS person.
Why should the guests be penalized for your mistake?
RR
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Thanks RR. Apologies for delay in reply, it takes a few days to be cleared for the forum. I have had a few longer term stays, Cardiff attracts quite a few film crews for Doctor Who and Casualty episodes. I don’t mind them, but they are not worthwhile if they are offered at half price. I declined the stay, and it doesn’t appear to have shown in my statistics yet.
Thanks John. It shows £120 per night for every night. I still haven’t been able to work it out.
To be fair Brian, the guests might only have requested my place, or a long stay because the price was so cheap. I have smart pricing activated, I have the minimum set at £120 per night, and the calendar shows £120+ on every night. It is puzzling.
Thanks casailinglady, I’ve not contacted them, but I have declined the booking, and I have re-checked all of the settings, but all seems to be in order.
Never decline an inquiry, Just reply to them and that will keep your response rate up. Airbnb will drop you from search results for declining. I just answer with a question, so what brings you here or something but I do not hit the pre approve button.
RR
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Mind you, with cleaning fee, that’ll be close to £1900 for less than a month, not easy money?
Airb recommend 45% discount for a month, so it’s not too far out.
Thanks Barns, yes I understand your point, but I am in quite a fortunate location whereby I can recover the same revenue in half the time. If I were to take bookings for every night in a month, I will have a revenue of over £4000 (doesn’t usually happen!). Also, being fairly central to Cardiff the nightly rate shoots up for a music/sporting event. I accepted a booking at £90 per night last year, forgetting that Anthony Joshua was boxing on one of the nights. The cheapest hotels were charging £300 per night, and my neighbour got an AirBnb booking for £450 for one night. An Elton, Beyonce, International rugby, cricket or football match is terrific for the local area. My best guess is that the default 45% has been applied to this booking, despite the fact that I’ve set the 28 day stay at 10%. I did only change it recently, so maybe there is a lag.
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Great advice RR, thank you very much. I wasn’t aware of that.
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Is there a chance I am misunderstanding a customer request with an AirBnb request? I’ve just had another one come through, again with 45% discount requested for 4 months stay, and the message along with it asking for a FURTHER 50% off, which would take £120 per night down to £33 per night. I want to decline the offer, but I haven’t done so yet because of the danger to my profile. This has come directly from a potential guest, so if I decline this request, does this go against me, even though the 45% has been applied and I only offer 10% off. Sorry to sound dim, but maybe the guests’s request can be declined without affecting my statistics? The calculation for the 45% seems to be official, and nowhere on my profile do I offer this, even though AirBnb and continually suggest I offer 45% off for a month+ stay. If it does affect my statistics, I guess I’ll have to list with a maximum of 27 nights, to avoid any negative effect on my performance. Many thanks for any help you might be able to offer. I have just checked my figures and they are still showing £120 minimum per night for every night, and 10% for stays of over 28 nights. Thanks , Peter
Get together with someone who has an Airbnb account and go through the process of trying to book X number of days etc. That way you may get a better idea as to what is happening from both host and guest perspective.
Have you tried (using a different browser) doing searches yourself to see what prices guests are being offered?
JF