I need to cancel as a host - smart price not working

[Tina8336]

I joined airbnb as a host and set a base price of $800/night for smart pricing for my house that sleeps 10. Somehome, on the busiest weekend around here, when the price should have gone north of $800, someone was able to rent my house for $400/night on instant book! I have asked them to cancel the reservation but so far have not done so. There is no way I can rent my house out during this time for $400/night - just not worth it! I should be over $1,000/night for this particular weekend. I am very new to this and have not figured out how to cancel the reservation. Can someone help? I tried calling AirBnB and thier phone system did not register any of my responses so that was very unhelpful. 

Thank you in advance!

Tina

[Susan990]

Cancel it, select your reasons from the options offered and fill in your story of why you needed to cancel due to newby user and confusion about the system and how it works. I think fairly unlimited word text are offered. You are allowed I think a certain limit number of cancellations per year before it affects your ratings and even then it only affects a Super Host rating which you do have so don't sweat it.

[Susan990]

In addition cancel that smart pricing section immediately and also cancel Instant Book now. When you first load a new listing the system automatically puts in Instant Book and Smart Pricing without you being able to delete it until after you load it, then you can Edit your listing and remove these 2 things. Their reasons for doing these 2 things are to get a reservation going immediately which they think makes them and you some money right away but the tragic result is that you have given away your power to control your business and your property at the outset. In addition, the exploitative user crowd look for band new listings and target them to get a good deal lock in the reservation before you even know how to screen the guest for acceptance or what your rights are and the tools to use to manage your property listing.

[Tina8336]

Thanks Susan - that's what I did!

[Tracey76]

I do not think you are allowed cancellations as I am suffering same fate. A guest blocked all of Jan 2023 at a significantly lower rate, even lower than my minimum. Airbnb won't help and it is their program fault. They told me I should cancel, but have agreed if I do I will be penalized, property blocked from other bookings for Jan and go on my record.