Pricing discrepancy on booking??

[Marc13480]

Hi all,

My wife and I are new hosts. We just listed and have gotten a couple of bookings already for November, which is great considering we're in Canada and November is definitely slow season.

The issue I'm trying to understand is that we have a price set on the abb calendar that is set from PriceLabs, which seems to sync fine. Every date I check between abb and PriceLabs is the same. However, each of the two bookings we've gotten are for higher rates than what the calendar said. It's not a huge discrepancy, but one that the guest noticed and pointed out, and I cannot seem to trace why it's different. Here are the details of the bookings and discrepancies.

Booking 1 - Nov 2-5

Calendar rates: 190, 197, 200

Booked rates from reservation price breakdown: 209, 207, 208

Booking 2 - Nov 22-24

Calendar rates: 203, 199

Booked rates from reservation price breakdown: 212, 207

I only have an additional fee for cleaning, no other fees for additional guests or otherwise.

Is there something I'm missing? Do other hosts have this? Is there any way to trace and explain the discrepancy? If not, how do I explain this to my guests? 

[Paula]

Hi @Marc13480, thank you so much for bringing this topic to our community.

I am reaching out to some of our experienced hosts to see if they can help us understand what might be happening with your booking rates. @Shelley159 and @Joan2709.

Regards,

[Joan2709]

Hi @Marc13480 

If you can post screen shots of the reservation details on these reservations? (no guest info showing), we might be able to better diagnose what is happening.

[Marc13480]

Thanks for replying @Joan2709 

Here are screenshots of the two reservations in question.

Reservation 1

Reservation 2

[Joan2709]

@Marc13480 

The only thing I can think of is a pet fee or addl guest fee that would change per reservation. Airbnb doesn't show these as separate line items and averages the fee over the nights of the reservation. Doesn't look like you accept pets or have addl guest fee though?

Another possibilty...check your PriceLabs settings again. Do you have any price settings on PriceLabs that would increase or decrease a price based on length of stay, timing of stay (last minute booking, weekend vs. weeknight, etc.) These would change the price from the calendar price shown depending on what day of the week the guest booked, when they booked and if it is a last minute booking, etc. 

Another possibility.....check the addl fees section on the Calendar. Some of these fees are dependent on the number of nights or number of guests booked. Airbnb adds these fees to the price per night over the number of nights of the reservation and doesn't show them as a separate line item like the cleaning fee on a reservation. These fees are only available to Hosts who have Pro Tools turned on:

Community Fee

Resort Fee

Managment Fee

Linen Fee

Thats all I can think of at the moment 🤔.  I'm guessing you have already contacted PriceLabs regarding this? If not, they might be able to explain the reason this is happening and/or point you in the right direction?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marc13480 can I just check that all the above are in US $?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Marc13480 ignore this idiot - its all Canadian $ when you actually look at what you posted!

I have no other ideas unless smart pricing is on and its a weird timing issue of booking vs. calendar.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Marc13480 

I'm reluctant to guess as I don't know PriceLabs, but I wonder if @Mike-And-Jane0 is onto something with the timing difference. 

The nights are all more expensive in the bookings, but not in a pattern that seems to make sense. If your prices change with demand and you link software, it only syncs at certain times.

Sorry @Paula that I can't be sure, but I'll lean towards timing difference ...

[Marc13480]

Thank you @Joan2709 , @Mike-And-Jane0 , @Shelley159  and @Paula for all the insights. 

I have submitted a ticket to PriceLabs as well, and hoping to hear back soon.

The only fee I have set in abb is the cleaning fee. No other fees per guest or per stay or anything set in the calendar.

PriceLabs I have set up very simply using most default settings. I have a minimum stay profile set up but that doesn't affect pricing. I have a seasonal pricing profile set up but that only takes effect Jun-Sep.

There are several default pricing customizations that PriceLabs includes.  For example, there  is a "Last Minute Prices" default algorithm that applies a 30% discount over the next 15 days (2%/day), but that's a price reduction, so doesn't seem to explain the price increases I'm seeing. It is demand-based pricing, but I can't imagine there was a demand spike on just these dates and no other dates around them are affected.

I feel that to keep our integrity as hosts I will need to refund the discrepancy to these guests unless I can explain it to them. I'm fine with that to keep the guests happy, but without figuring this out I'm concerned it's going to just keep happening.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Marc13480 

The guests would only have been quoted the prices as shown in the breakdown, and they accepted them. Those were the dynamic prices at the time of booking, I don't think on the guests' side there's any discrepancy to explain?

[Joan2709]

@Marc13480 

As @Shelley159 mentions, the guest is shown the price before they actually confirm the booking and they accepted it. You would have to find out from PriceLabs how often prices are adjusted daily per their system that could explain the price differences. If the prices are updated numerous times per day,  then of course the guess might see one price when they search and even if they only waited 5mins, the price could changed depending on how often PriceLabs does adjustments.

I agree with @Shelley159 , the guest is shown the price detail before they book, so I don't think there is a need to refund anything to the guest. If you find out information from PriceLabs to explain the price change, then you can pass that along to the guest if they really want to know. 

[Marc13480 · Accepted solution]

@Joan2709 I got a response from PriceLabs. (BTW, their support response was excellent; very prompt, understanding, helpful, and very complete). They showed me a screenshot of the rates that PL pushed to our abb listing on October 27th, just before each booking was made, and they match what the guests were charged. So essentially their dynamic pricing was the difference seen by the guests. The reason I couldn't see it is because their pricing continues to update calendar rates in the event that there's a cancellation and those dates open up again, hence the reason what I was seeing right was different (a subsequent push of slightly different rates). Essentially it's what @Mike-And-Jane0 initially suspected.

So, mystery solved. I hear you on the point that the prices were clear when the guests booked and they chose to book, and I have the info from PL that backs that up.

It would be great if PL and/or abb provided a feature to view the historical pricing for dates so that hosts could see/verify the price on a particular date, especially with dynamic pricing that both PL and abb have.

Thanks everyone for jumping in with all the insights and suggestions. We're very appreciative of the help!

[Joan2709]

@Marc13480 

Thanks so much for letting us know! I was not aware that the prices continue to update even after a booking in case of a cancellation....good to know!