Airbnb Gives Long-Term Discounts Without Host Permission

[Noelle144]

We booked a long-term guest for 35 nights. We were shocked to see that Airbnb gave them a discount even though we didn't have one set. According to both chat support and phone support, Airbnb gives long-term guests discounts even if the Host hasn't set one. Here is a screenshot of the chat from today: This is crazy to me. Airbnb gave away $600 of our revenue without our permission. To make matters worse, they can't back this up by showing me their written policy because they said it's an internal policy and "internal policies come and go."  I just wanted others to be aware as Airbnb hasn't communicated this to us, so I'm assuming many don't know. The only solution is to set a max nightly stay so that you don't book a reservation that is over 28 nights.

[Noelle144]

Screenshot:

[Brian2036]

@Noelle144 

That is truly incredible. I don’t understand what they hope to accomplish.

We already have our maximum stay set at 28 days due to insurance regulations and tenancy laws.

You have just provided another excellent reason not to accept long term guests.

Internal policies come and go??? And we have no right to know what they are?

So why not just make a rule that hosts have to donate one week per month for Airbnb to use any way they like?

They could use that to pacify really horrible guests who got kicked out of other places.

 I guess if you want to stand on principle you can cancel that booking after telling the guest that it’s not worth it to rent for that price and suggest that they complain to Airbnb about their false advertising.

[Noelle144]

Right? It seems crazy, and two reps (one on the phone and one on chat) told me the same thing. The only other possibility is that their system glitched, providing the discount, and they don't want to take responsibility for it. 

[Isabel3693]

No their system didn't glitched they are doing this to me as well, people is paying 20 usd to stay at my home when they book longer than 28 days

[Sarah977]

@Noelle144  No, that isn't true. You have full control over your discounts. (Airbnb reps are poorly trained and more often than not, give out incorrect, incomplete, or confusing info)

When you set up a new listing, there are many things turned on by default. One is a 20% new listing discount (was the $600 20% of your rate?), one is Instant Book, there are many others. 

You need to go through all your settings and turn off the things you don't want.

Airbnb does not control your pricing, you do.

[Emiel1]

@Sarah977 

A new listing of OP has indeed the promotion discount of 20% active.

It has nothing to do with "long term stay", it also applies on short term stays.

This all is default (and communicated with the host when setting up the listing}.

It is the responsibiliy of the host to verify if the listing is setup correctly.

The promotional discount can be turned off in the calender.

BTW @Noelle144  is not the host, but the co-host.

[Noelle144]

Incorrect. We have two listings. This happened on the older listing and it also happened before the new listing went live. 

[Noelle144]

To be clear it happened on "SUPER Location, Pet Friendly, Remodeled Naples Gem." We've had that listing going since June 2021. 

[Jenny1575]

By applying a 20% discount without host's explicit permission, and with no transparency about that fact Air BnB is absolutely controlling pricing. If they were up front about it, hosts would not be posting in confusion about this. It's a violation of their repeated claims that "You are in 100% control of your pricing."

[Noelle144]

@Sarah977 It's not a new listing. The discount was about 10% but we don't have a monthly or weekly discount set nor any active promotions. Maybe it's not true, maybe it is, but Airbnb is 100% responsible for giving the guest the discount. We had nothing set on our end. 

[Noelle144]

[Emiel1]

This is the new(!) listing having promotional discount active:

[Noelle144]

That's correct. We want that listing to have a new listing discount. This issue was related to the other listing which is called "SUPER Location, Pet Friendly, Remodeled Naples Gem." That listing has been around since June. It does not have a new listing discount. Also, a reminder that the discount in question was 10 %, not 20 %. 

[Noelle144]

This is the listing in question: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/50237391