Potential guest seeing 20% discount offer on request to book page, but I haven't put any discounts in place

[Meghan79]

A potential guest contacted me yesterday asking if a 20% special offer that showed up on the Request to Book page was reflected in the quoted price. I don't have any promotions in place. I searched my listing as a potential guest and saw the promotion: "Book now and save 20%. Book within the next 30 hours to get this special offer," but the quoted price did not reflect the discount. I called Airbnb customer service about it and have so far gotten nowhere--the representative that I spoke with said that Airbnb does not issue special offers, only hosts do. It makes no sense for this offer to appear on the Request to Book page since at that point the guest has seen the total cost (with Airbnb service fees and lodging tax included) and is likely to book without the additional discount as an incentive. Supposedly Airbnb technical support is looking into the matter, but no one has yet reported back to me. 

This same situation happened to me last November when a different guest inquired about the "Book now and save 20%" offer that she saw at the same point in the booking process. I called customer service, and the representative told me to ask the guest for a screenshot, which she wasn't able to send because she hadn't yet booked my property. I managed to send the potential guest my email address through the Airbnb firewall, and she emailed a screenshot of the promotion which I forwarded to customer service. 48 hours passed with no response, so I called Airbnb again. The customer service representative that I spoke to the second time told me that the promotion was a scam and that I shouldn't rent my house to the potential guest (despite the fact that she had numerous 5-star reviews). The rep was very evasive but adamant that I wouldn't want this guest in my house. He told me that he couldn't divulge why but that that I shouldn't worry because the guest wouldn't rent my house if I didn't offer the 20% discount. The whole exchange was so odd, but I took his advice and told the guest that I wouldn't be able to offer a discount, and she didn't end up renting my house. 

I am completely mystified and disturbed by this matter. All of the Airbnb customer service people that I have spoken to have said that Airbnb would not honor this 20% discount. It puts me in a terrible position as a host--I don't want to take the hit for the 20% off, but guests seeing this strange promotion are not likely to rent my house if they have been promised a discount and don't received it. 

Are any other hosts experiencing this issue? 

[Emilia42]

Hi @Meghan79, this is really bizarre. I do see the "promotion" when I go to book your listings but there is no kind of discount line item in the price details. It doesn't surprise me at all that Airbnb CS is totally clueless.  But it looks like Airbnb is offering this promotion and not the host, although I have never heard of Airbnb doing that before. Sorry, I couldn't be of more help - maybe someone else can chime in?

[Meghan79]

Thanks, @Emilia42! It is truly a mystery, and it distresses me to see that it isn't a one-off (i.e. you are seeing the special offer too). Still no word from the Airbnb technical team, alas. 

[Colleen253]

@Emilia42 @Meghan79  It must be a bug of some sort that's lodged the discount banner there. Let's not forget how bug riddled this platform is. Perhaps @Katie,  @Lizzie  or @Nick could check into this, since you aren't getting anywhere with CS, @Meghan79 . How frustrating.

[Katie]

Thanks for the tag @Colleen253

@Meghan79 I'm sorry to hear you're getting this problem, it does sound like something strange is going on with the banner here. I'll report this to the team and get back to you once we have more info.

[Meghan79]

Thanks, @Katie! 

[Katie]

Hey @Meghan79, I've just heard back from the tech team - they confirmed that this is an issue that had already been reported to them, and they are working on a fix, so fingers crossed it should be resolved soon 😊

[Meghan79]

Thanks, @Kate! I am hopeful that this issue can be resolved soon, as this bogus promotion is still showing up on my listing (see attached screen shot from this morning showing a 20% discount if guests book within the next four days). It distresses me that the technical team did not follow up appropriately when I first reached out regarding this problem in November. 

[Meghan79]

Hi @Katie, have you heard anything back from the tech team? While I've figured out that the erroneous 20% promotions are linked to custom promotions that I put in place for select dates, I would like to use the custom promotions as they do help boost interest in my property during the slow season (I've removed all custom promotions so that the bogus blanket promotion isn't showing up on my listing). Thanks, Meghan 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Meghan79 @Katie An important question that should be answered is if a booking is taken with a 20% discount does Airbnb or the host swallow it?????

[Katie]

Hey @Mike-And-Jane0, great question. In these instances there is no discount actually being offered against the total, it's just appearing in the banner for some reason, so fingers crossed it shouldn't be an issue 😊

[Meghan79]

Hi @Katie and @Mike-And-Jane0, 

It is actually a huge issue as the misleading banner--offering 20% discount if a booking occurs within a certain time frame--appears after the potential guest hits the request to book button. I have lost two bookings: the first because I was not willing to honor the discount (which I didn't set) for a September booking, and the second, for an August booking, because I offered to honor the discount two days after the initial inquiry (after trying to find resolution through Airbnb's customer service, unsuccessfully), and the guest was no longer interested in my property. 

Thankfully @Felicity50 wrote saying she was having the same problem and suggesting it was a bug tied to custom promotions. I too had placed two custom promotions on my calendar to try to secure bookings during two periods this winter. I removed the promotions, and the problem seems to be resolved (i.e. the fake 20% off banner is no longer appearing on my listing for other booking inquiries). 

@Kate, please direct the tech team to look into the bug tied to custom promotions. It would be best if the option to set these promotions were removed from the platform until the fix is found to save other hosts from dealing with this issue. 

Thanks,
Meghan

[Katie]

Thanks for the update @Meghan79 - I've fed this back to the team 🙂

[Felicity50]

Hey - this has happened to me twice and airbnb support can't figure it out. I'm wondering if the banner reflects something where the wording is wrong and they need to fix the banner to reflect something else. For example - I had a guest booking on Feb 13th for August dates say she saw the banner saying book within 48 hrs for a 20% discount. Her dates do NOT have a 20% promotional discount this far in advance. However, I am currently running a last minute discount of 20% for 14-17 Feb, so if she was to book a trip for DATES within 48 hrs she would receive a 20% discount. So I'm wondering is airbnb is autogenerating a banner but they have put in incorrect language. So possibly should be "Stay within 48hrs for a 20% discount". I def. feel that airbnb should take the hit not me as I didn't offer a 20% discount on august dates. As I mentioned, this is the 2nd time it's happened  -the first time I gave the guest a discount to keep them happy, but I don't want to continue to discount my rates (especially in my high season) just because Airbnb has made an error. My customer support rep Tatiana is looking into it further and will get back to me tomorrow, so I'll update on the resolution if I get one. 

[Meghan79]

Hi @Felicity50, 

I tagged you in another message too, but I wanted to let you know that I removed the custom promotions I had in place for my listing, and the 20% discount is no longer appearing in the "request to book" page on my listing for unrelated dates. Thanks so much for bringing this issue to my attention!

Best, 

Meghan