Pre-Approval Penalty

[Tom3209]

We have been a host for approximately six years. Several years back, we instituted an extra guest fee of $50/person/night after three guests, which always applied without incident.  Last week, we had an inquiry for 4 guests for a 2-night weekend stay, which would have triggered the extra guest fee to include an extra $100 for the 2 nights. During our back and forth with the guest, we sent them a "Pre-Approval." When I received my payout, I noticed that the extra $50/ night was not charged by Airbnb. When I inquired about this, believing it was a glitch in their system, I was basically told it was a penalty for pre-approving. 

This is the response from the AirBnB Support Ambassador:

"So at the time when the reservation was booked, it was pre-approved. As such, the price and total amount applied for the guest's reservation was the original pre-approval amount. Meaning that no extra guest fee was applied. So in order to this not happening again, you would have to be aware of sending invites for pre-approval reservation. In that way your regular pricing and the extra guest fee will apply."

I am curious if this makes sense to anybody or if they have experienced this.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tom3209 we had something similar once. A guest was in discussion for some dates which were later changed. When I tried to send an approval for the new dates the amount for the earlier dates was pre-populated and I just accepted it not realising that I was massively overcharging the guest. Did the original discussion only encompass 2 people?

[Tom3209]

The original reservation request had the 4 people listed. We do not use instant book - so I always make sure that the number of guests in the reservation is correct. The original request was the same as the ultimate reservation - 4 people for 2 nights. So, I never would have imagined that sending a pre-approval would eliminate the extra guest fee - to me, the logic of eliminating the extra guest fee would be like eliminating the cleaning fee, because we pre-approved the reservation. 

[Colleen253]

@Tom3209 That is definitely not how it works. Airbnb's so called customer service is outsourced to third party contract workers who know very little of how Airbnb works. The platform is super glitchy. Another host was complaining the other day that the extra guest fee was not being applied properly. I suspect this was a glitch for you. It is a good idea to examine every potential booking closely. Also check your settings regularly. I've had mine spontaneously change due to glitches, so I check them daily now. It's entirely possible your extra guest fee 'disappeared'.

[Sarah977]

@Tom3209  Sounds like a clueless response from a clueless CS rep. Makes no sense to me at all.