Venting over canceled trip....

[Jason1876]

I book a month stay in Dallas ---> willl be there in business.   Booked a house that was less expensive than some other houses in the area, but not crazy cheap.   Booked and waited for confirmation. 

Later that day, I get "denied" the stay, with a message that reads "Sorry: the price needs to be updated!".  So, it looks like the host say she was on the cheaper side then just punted my stay.

I asked if it was something about my profile or just a cost thing (I have all good reviews)... and the host says "Yeah! Sorry my calandar was not priced correctly"..

I guess this is allowed by AirBNB?   They can put cheaper prices out then deny people if rhey think they can get more?   Even it is allowed, I guess it the difference between AirBNB and actual hotel/apartments... I'm sure if it is allowed there are some weasel words in the contract, but it still seems like a bit of a bait and switch to me.   Guess I don't have to use this host at the higher price, but still...

OK vent over.  Let me know if I am just overreacting, and that AirBNB is just different than doing "normal business" with people.

[Huma0]

@Jason1876 

When you say you booked the listing but was then 'denied', do you mean you actually booked it (instant book or the host initially accepted your request to book) or you just requested and they declined?

[Jason1876]

Sorry I wasn't clear.   I went to book, then they had to "approve" the stay.   I didn't lose any money....

Is it recommended to do the "instant book"?   I guess not all hosts allow that.

[Huma0]

@Jason1876 

It sounds like you sent a 'request to book'. In that case, the host doesn't have any obligation to accept the booking. Booking someone's airbnb is not the same as booking a hotel room. The host has a say in which bookings they accept or not. If they enable instant booking (and that's optional), then you can go ahead and book without prior approval from the host. 

This is all pretty standard. Personally, I have never tried to up the price for dates a guest has already requested. Then again, it's possible that the host meant to raise the price and simply forgot until they received your request. I have no way of knowing really if it was an attempt at 'bait and switch' or a genuine oversight or just an excuse when there was another reason.

If you want to know in more detail the way booking works, it's like this:

1. You can send an enquiry (or inquiry as they say in the US). This is just a way to contact the host and ask them questions if you are not 100% ready to book or are unsure of anything. There is no obligation on either side, the dates are still open for others to book, but the host should respond within 24 hours to keep their rating up. They can also pre-approve your booking, allowing you to go ahead and book if you want to.

2. You can send a booking request, as you did. The host must either accept or decline this within 24 hours if they don't want their response rate to decline, but they may have questions for you before they do. In the meantime, the dates are not technically reserved for you, but no one else can request to book them. They can, however, instant book them, thereby trumping your request.

The host in under no obligation to accept your booking, but most hosts will if they feel okay with it, otherwise they get penalised by their acceptance rate going down, which can affect the listing's position in searches. So, most hosts won't do this lightly. 

Once the host accepts, the booking is made. There is often a 48 hour cooling off period (for the guest only), but after that, the cancellation policy applies and there are penalties to the host also if they cancel.

3. You can instant book but, as you mention, not all hosts activate instant booking as it's optional and, even those that do can choose to only accept these types of bookings from guests who have verified ID, previous good reviews etc. if they feel more comfortable doing that.

Once your booking goes through (subject to payment etc.) it's pretty firm but often you also have 48 hours to change your mind. Do always check the cancellation policies on each listing before either requesting to book or instant booking.

Hosts can still cancel an instant booking without penalty, but only up to three times a year and for limited reasons (price changes do not apply to this, but the host could still lie about the reason).

So, for sure, you could use instant book instead if you don't want to go through the whole requesting to book process. Just make sure you familiarise yourself with the listing first, read the house rules and ask any important questions, as you will be entering into a contract once you make the instant booking (bar the 48 hour grace period, if it applies).

[Jason1876]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I did another booking using the "instant book" method, and will probably just use that from now on.  

It just seemed a little weird that the first person went "oh, I'm not charging enough" and denied my book request (and was honest about why... she wanted more money), and a 2nd person went "whoops, the house isn't available for part of that time... either hosts are keeping up with things, or, IMHO, have found a bit of a loophole.

Part of this is on me: there is a different set of rules here than say, booking a hotel.   I can't imaging booking a hotel then having the hotel say "whoops, that is the wrong price... want to pay more?", using my time invested in booking to just pay more than I was willing.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jason1876  it is not easy as you think, hosts have listings on other platforms as well, each platform has different host fees, then there are different discounts like weekly, monthly, last-minute etc... , then weekends, top season, and holidays are more expensive, then there are pet fees, cleaning fees etc.. so calculating the prices and keeping all calendars up to date  is infact challenging and mistakes can happen .

[Jason1876]

Oh I know there are challenges to business: I run one myself.  It is just a different standard than I am put to: imagine with inflation and shipping rates as they are if someone inquires a product or service and I give them a quote.  Then, after they have decided to buy from me, instead of from someone else, I tell them the price has gone up because my costs have increased since the last time I updated my website?   Not sure I would have many happy customers.

But thanks for your perspective:  I will continue to use AirBnb.... part of it is just getting to know what is allowed and not around here.  However, my instincts, just like many who do a lot of corporate travel, will probably still rely of hotels and the such when "it really matters"... although the interface seems the same as AirBNB.... it just takes less time I'm found to book a hotel room, and the price can't change (at least in the US by law).

It seems to be allowed around here: it is just not a process, from the customer's perspective, you see very much these days in business.

[Huma0]

---

@Jason1876 wrote:

Part of this is on me: there is a different set of rules here than say, booking a hotel.   I can't imaging booking a hotel then having the hotel say "whoops, that is the wrong price... want to pay more?"

---

True, but you did not make a booking, only requested to book and are not booking a hotel, you are booking what is usually something entirely different. I could go into all the reasons why an Airbnb host in general has to be much more cautious than a hotel chain, but that would be a long discussion. Let's just put it this way, Airbnb tends to be guest centric rather than host centric because it needs guests more than hosts, so any safeguards it offers to hosts are limited, but there for a reason.

Hosts being able to accept or decline and choose who they allow to stay in their own properties is one of the few safeguards we are offered, but there are plenty of penalties for hosts for cancellations, slow responses, declining too may bookings etc. so we are pushed to accept rather than decline.

If you are the sort of person that just wants to book a place pronto and be done with it, there are some options for you on Airbnb (a lot of hosts do accept instant bookings from any guests and don't require much information), but if you want to get the most out of Airbnb and have more choice of listings, there are some things you can do to make this easier.

It could be a total coincidence, but being turned away by two separate hosts who suddenly changed their prices or no longer had full availability indicates to me a possibility that they were making excuses to not accept your booking.

I have no idea what you message to hosts when you request to book, but you only have one very brief review and no profile blurb. Personally, I don't accept any guests who don't tell me a bit about themselves, their check in time and that they have read my listing and house rules.  If I get an inclination that they are expecting it to be the same as a hotel, that guest is off limits for me. They should book a hotel instead!

Also, hosts cannot see your profile photo before the booking, but yours appears to be of two kids, which I assume are your children. Nothing at all weird about that, but the whole point of the profile photo from a host's perspective is that they can see who has booked the listing and be sure the person who arrives is that person for security reasons, so it's important that it's a reasonably clear photo of you.

Maybe I am overly cautious, but this is all due to experiences hosting. One has to be careful. I am not a hotel. I do not have security! 

[Anonymous]

@Huma0  In addition to @Huma0 's excellent points, I have to ask:  how many reviews did the listings you tried to book have? 

My first guess would be that they were pretty new and inexperienced hosts that you were dealing with. It's painfully common for new hosts to take a listing live before they've figured out how to manage their calendars and pricing, and Airbnb does not vet hosts at all to see if they know what they're doing. Years ago, I would give new listings a chance and try to book them, but I was wasting my time - none of those hosts were ready for prime time, some might have been fakes, and the bookings were ultimately cancelled. Now, I only book places with an established track record, with hosts who are local and actively engaged with the property (as opposed to remote hosts and bulk property managers). They're not necessarily perfect, but they don't make these rookie mistakes.

If my guess is wrong and it was actually very experienced hosts who declined you, then defer to Huma's advice and adjust the way you communicate in requests.