Honest Mistake from a Guest - Not sure what to do

[Sarah3749]

Hello everyone,

It has been a tough year, but I am starting a job next week! I am required to go into the office, about 3 hours away for a couple of days, and thought I would bring my family (Party of 4) to visit some cousins.

In short, I made a mistake when booking...I only entered the number of guests for 1 (Despite entering all our party and trip details into the notes). The host messaged us noticing the mistake, and let us know there are additional charges for having four guests. Being that we are on such a tight budget, we can't afford the extra charges, explained the honest mistake to the host, and asked if we could cancel the reservation with a refund (This was less than 12 hours after the reservation was made).

She refused the refund, stating that had a strict cancellation policy. This forced our hand: my family would have to stay behind as we definitely couldn't afford to book another property if we didn't receive a refund.

I messaged the host today asking for instructions to access the property, and she refused stating that there is a four guest minimum and if I didn't pay the extra fees, I would not have access to the property.

So now I am in an impossible situation: I have paid almost $700 for a reservation, that the host will not honor, and will not refund. I have been on the phone with support multiple times, escalated to higher support, done everything I can think, and they have told me they can only request a refund.

Surely this cannot be correct: a host refusing access to a property that has been paid for and will not issue a refund, and Airbnb cannot help? Please tell me I am not crazy as this is putting us in a dire financial situation and I cannot seem to get any sort of help.

Thanks,

Sarah

[Sarah3749]

And I am definitely sleep deprived and have been told I don’t have much common sense lol. Unfortunately I think this experience proves it

[Sally221]

The little kid years have many keen delights but they consume a ton of energy & being sleep deprived can make one feel like  anything from mildly buzzed to totally drunk.  On behalf of all the mamas out there-do something that feels totally decadent - the next time both kids are down for the count leave some of the endless chores undone & catch some ZZs yourself. XO

[Sarah3749]

Excellent advice. I’ll definitely try to let my ocd for cleaning and order go and enjoy a bath and a cocktail tonight. Definitely going to need to relax and let some of this tension go❤️

[Ute42]

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@Sarah3749   

I've read the whole thing and here's my take on it:

4 guests minimum required

I'm an airbnb host in Germany and thus have access to the airbnb host dashboard. In said dashboard as a host You can adjust these following settings, I'm refering here to the place You've booked which is „Architectural digest MOST BEAUTIFUL AIRBNB IN BAMA“

• maximum number of guests = 16

• base price = $267 nighly rate on weekends

• price for extra guests = $25

The base price always refers to the place being occupied by 1 guest. Starting with guest No 2, charges for extra guests will be applied.

There is no available setting in the airbnb host dashboard to set a baseprice for an occupancy of 4 guests, it just doesn't exist.

Obviously Your hosts wants to charge a minimumprice for 4 guests which is $267 for one guest plus 3x $25 = $75 for 3 additional guests which is total of $342. This setting though is not available in the airbnb-software. What Your host has to do, she has to set a baseprice of $342 for one guest and then instead of charging $25 per extra guest reduce the extra guest charge to apprx. $21 or what have You.

Conclusion: Your host wants to run a pricing model which just doesn't exist on airbnb. She has to adopt to what is available. I think Your hosts pricing is fraudolent.

If You've booked for 1 guest, she must accept 1 guest at the price of 1 guest. Call airbnb customer service again and explain what I've just layed out.

Being that we are on such a tight budget, we can't afford the extra charges,

You're on a tight budget but book a palace that sleeps 16 for the 4 of You?

$700 for 2 nights for a family of 4, wow.

I would bring my family (Party of 4) to visit some cousins

Were You planning to invite Your cousins over to the listing You had booked on that weekend? If so, How many would You have been alltogether, 16?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ute42 The host CAN set a base price of the current price plus 3x25 and then have a per guest amount that kicks in after 4 guests. At least the host could do this in the UK - no idea if the software is the same in USA.

[Ute42]

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@Mike-And-Jane0 

Can You post a screenshot where You can set that criteria?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ute42 Simple answer to your screenshot question is NO. To be clear this is not an Ute NO but rather an 'I don't know how to do that' NO!

If you go to 'pricing' in your listing and then 'standard fees and charges' and edit this and go to 'for each guest after......

[Kelly149]

y'all I'm still just completely bothered by this host... for one thing "set" - a pair of feet in a Kayak is the host, but in 2019 this place was hosted by Taryn. "Set" has 1600 reviews and really should know better. There are these glowing, wonderful, this place is terrific reviews and then there are these its gross, awful, I've been misled reviews. Are these people showing up to the same house or is this a repeat of the AJ, none of these good reviews are real scam?? And this host almost never reviews guests, is breaking a dozen rules in her listings, and has a horrible cleaning score despite having the ECP badge! I own a home in Tuscaloosa, the people in Alabama are usually lovely. I'm offended on behalf of Alabama, I'm offended as a Host, I'm seriously offended that we've all known good, decent hosts who've been abused by crooked Guests with ABBs help, but this Host is out here being allowed to be shady. How can any CS person look at these listings and side with this "host", it's embarrassing. 

[Colleen253]

@Kelly149 "How can any CS person look at these listings and side with this "host", it's embarrassing".  Well, we all know the sham that is Airbnb CS.  I agree this gets shadier and shadier the more we look at it.

[Kelly149]

@Colleen253 yes, but it's garbage hosts like this that make the rest of us look bad... @robin4 is out here being upset bc he got a silly 3* review and this host is allowed to carry on without a care in the world. CS could save a whole bunch of money chasing down problems if there was some kind of filter to put these people thru. Set a bunch of CC hosts loose to rate listings good/bad/otherwise. You could pay @sarah977 or @andrew0 or @ute42 a $1 for every listing they judged. Think of the riff-raff we could get rid of

[Sarah977]

@Kelly149  Thanks for volunteering me 🙂 Don't you want that job?

Yes, this may very well be one of those listings that Airbnb coddles because of the revenue they bring in. There's probably some note on the listing that pops up when CS looks at it that says "hands off this host".

[Kelly149]

@Sarah977 hehe... No, I don't buy it, this host isn't special, CS is just impotent.

And at this moment CS is full of folks *regardless of their age* who have no idea what is actually involved in hosting (or perhaps owning real estate, or raising children, or dealing with the public or whathaveyou) and who quite possibly are either overworked bc of how many staff were let go or maybe they got hired in as replacements after staff were reduced.

Meanwhile, in the last year there's been a whole cadre of good hosts who can't be hosting right now and no one ever looks around and thinks "hey, what if we hired some of those folks to take a few CS calls?"

Mind you, I'm not looking for another gig, I'm just saying this is part of what makes ABB so frustrating. There are these easy solutions staring whomever cares to look right in the face and yet, nothing.

[Colleen253]

@Kelly149 "There are these easy solutions staring whomever cares to look right in the face and yet, nothing." The lights are on, but nobody's home. Just like at my listing right now. Some things will never change.

[Sarah977]

@Kelly149  While I agree that the majority if CS is incompetent and clueless, in fact Airbnb does ignore ongoing complaints about listings that bring in tons of revenue, as evidenced by the AJ case. Those listings were apparently constantly reported as bait and switch, dirty, not as advertised, and Airbnb turned a blind eye until it got media coverage.

Yet a guest can make some bogus complaint about a listing of a small-time host that is contrary to all their other pages full of reviews and the guest gets handed a full refund and the host gets "warned".

It may not be the case with this host, but I know the platform is loathe to censure big earners.

[Kelly149]

@Sarah977 you're definitely right in that there are different rules for different players.

I tried a short experiment with professional listing management. When I was onboarding with them (in mid Nov), we were transferring my listing into their portal "oh, just click accept on that ECP button" me: "no, I won't" her: "ok" and what do you know my calendar was fine, open and available into December. But then the minute I deleted them from my profile and went back to being a single, self-managed property, my calendar was instantly blocked.