Listing problem .....

[Liz6854]

I have been in touch with some ambassadors over my listing price.  It's been £85 ever since I started and now, for over a month, the price is showing as £100 and as a result my bookings are really down.   

I have asked continuously for it to be changed back to £85 as it must be a technical issue.  I've been onto my pricing, doubled checked everything and made sure I don't have any discounts, or specialist pricing issues which could be affecting it from my end.

Can anyone help here?  I've checked with other listings and many of them seem to have the same issue - the prices in bold are the uplifted price, including airbnb's charges but are always slightly more than they should be.  Eg:  My uplift price with 14% should be £97 but I'm listed as £100.  The second figure, the nightly charge multiplied by number of nights is correct.  

Thanks in advance.

Liz

[Shelley159]

Hi @Liz6854 

I just want to check where you've been looking at your prices. It's best to understand how they're made up by clicking all the way through on a calendar block. Open your calendar as a host, click an available date and look for the small print "guest total" in the pop-up. Then click on it to see the detailed calculations. You can set your own prices for the line items other than the "guest service fee" (which is the Airbnb commission on the guest's bill). See which of those line items is out of line with what you want to charge (I don't see any in bold, so I'm not sure what price you were referring to as "uplifted price").

[Joan2709]

@Liz6854 

In order to assist, we would need a bit more information:

Are you using Smart Pricing?

What is the base price you have set?

Are you using and 3rd party dynamic pricing software?

Can you provide a screen shot of what you are referrring to as "uplifted" prices?

Can you provide a screen shot of your calendar where you set your prices?

[Liz6854]

Hello @Joan2709 

Please screen shots below - mine is on the farthest left on top row.  You can see that the listed price is £100 in bold, when it should be £85.  The second figure is correct, ie £85 x the number of nights a guest is looking for.  Bookings are way down as I'm clearly the most expensive in my area and I'm not.

The second screenshot shows my calender which has £85 across the board.  I have no third party pricing software, I'm not using Smart Pricing and the base price is £85.

If there has been a change of policy at Airbnb to show the base price plus the 14% airbnb charge then OK fine - but then it should be £97 and not £100.  I hope you can help.

Thank you.

Liz

Search listing - mine is on top row, left hand sideCalendar showing £85 per night across the board

[Joan2709]

@Liz6854 

The first screen shot shows Sept 27-29th as booking dates, but your calendar screen shot is showing October?

Can you post a screen shot of your calendar for September? 

Remember the price shown is for a 2night stay. If you have different prices on 9/27 and 9/28 it will show the average price on the thumbnail for those 2 nights.

Also, are you using a channel manager attached to your account, or have you recently changed your account settings to Simplified Pricing (Host pays the Airbnb Service Fee) vs Split Pricing (guest pays the service fee)?

[Liz6854]

Hi Joan

Here's the September calendar.  You can clearly see there is no differential in price between weekdays or weekends.  Every night is priced at £85 and always has been.

I don't know what a channel manager is.

I haven't changed my simplified pricing.  I pay 3% and the guest pays 14% thus  I receive £83 and the host pays £97 per night.  I didn't even know I could change this so it's always been this way .....?

Thanks

Liz

Screenshot of September showing searched for dates

[Joan2709]

@Liz6854 

I'm stumped...I tried booking as a guest for those dates and it showed the price per night as $112??  I know Airbnb has added a cross-currency fee to the Service Fee and since I am US based, they may be adding that into the Service Fee?

Last thing to try (shot in the dark)...go ahead and change your base price to $86. Be sure it shows as $86 on your calendar. Then go back in and change it back to $85. See if that makes any difference when you look at the guest view. 

If that doesn't work, can't really thing of what could be causing this, but maybe another Host has an idea? I would continue working with customer service and provide them with the same screen shots you provided here.

Let us know how it goes?

[Liz6854]

Thanks so much.  Yes, I know, it's very irritating and ambassadors don't seem to think there's an issue. I'll do as you say and see what happens - will get back to you.

Really appreciate your help.

Thanks

Liz

[Liz6854]

Just done as you suggested and changed to £87.  Price came up as £102 per night.  Here's the screenshots FYI

I think there's definitely something technical that's wrong but I'm having a terrible time trying to convince the ambassadors of this.  

Best

Liz

[Paula]

Hello @Liz6854 and @Joan2709,

I've been following your conversation, and it seems we might be able to lend a hand by forwarding Liz’s case to the technical team for review. Since we’re not part of the support team, if they find anything unusual, they will reach out to you directly.

@Liz6854, I’ll DM you if any additional information is needed 🙏

[Joan2709]

Thanks @Paula 

This one has me stumped...

The price difference of around $15 doesn't make sense. It is close to the average 14.2% guest service fee, but that should not be added to the price per night. Very strange.

@Liz6854 do you have any seasonal price changes on your calendar or Rule Sets that would be changing the price? Do you have any addl fees set on the Calendar? (these are only visible if you have Pro Tools turned on).

[Liz6854]

Hi Joan and Paula

Thanks for your support here.  I have been onto the help team who continually tell me they are forwarding to the technical department and nothing ever happens and then they shut the case down.  I have an open case at the moment - they told me this morning that their searches come out with £85pn but as you can see from a search done earlier this is not the case.

My price is £85 per night, every night,  I don't have any seasonal price changes or Rule Sets that would change the price (that I am aware of) - the calendar screen shot should tell you what you need to know here?  Or is there another page I should be looking at?

No additional fees set on the calendar - again think you should be able to see from the screenshot?

I'm afraid I also don't know what Pro-Tools are and if I have them turned on either.  Very sorry, I'm a basic user at best here!

Best

Liz

[Joan2709]

@Liz6854 

To check if there are additional fees:

Go to your calendar

Under pricing, scroll to the bottom

Click Addtional charges

You should see your cleaning fee. If there are additional fees, they would look like this:

[Liz6854]

Thanks for your help Joan.  I'm still battling it out with support.  

My price per night is £85. 

It is generally assumed that airbnb charge 17% fees on top by charging guests 14% and hosts 3%. - unless I have misunderstood this - perhaps you're able to confirm?

Airbnb are now telling me that my £85 per night is showing as £100 per night as they are now adding on a sum which equates to 16.8% - £85 x 16.8% rounds up to just under £100.  

Why couldn't they just inform the community that this is what they are doing?  They have said they are going to look at it and come back to me but one given reason thus far is that the additional two percent is a currency change charge, a bit odd since the majority of my guests are from the same country as me!

I have been doing a bit of research on other listings that appear with mine, and all are  now the same, more or less.  

I'm sure my room was advertised at £85 up until a short while ago - does anyone else have experience of this anomaly?

It's such a shame to have to go through this as up until now my experience on airbnb has been nothing but brilliant - fabulous guests and a very good back-up system.

With thanks in advance.

Best

Liz

[Joan2709]

@Liz6854 

Do you have a cleaning fee?  When I try to book as a guest it's not showing one? If you have a cleaning fee, what is the amount of the cleaning fee? If you cleaning fee is $15 then $85 + $15 comes up to $100 per night.

I have heard rumors that Airbnb has been saying they are going to incorporate the cleaning fee in the price per night spread out over the number of nights instead of as a separate line item? Perhaps that is what is happening?