Airbnb Preview Price Showing Too High

[Katie1196]

Hi all,

After being a host for nearly four years and with a 4.9 rating, suddenly I am not getting bookings. I believe the problem is that the listing preview price is $208. My base price is listed at $166 and that's what should be showing up. I have tried calling airbnb with no luck. Does anyone have ideas how to fix this? Changing the base price isn't helping. 

Thanks,

Katie

[Lisa723]

@Katie1196 other hosts have reported the same.  Is the price correct when dates are entered? One theory is that for dateless viewings Airbnb is now displaying the average price from the past 60 days. Is this possible in your case?

[Katie1196]

That makes sense. Our pricing was pretty high during December. Bummer because it's not quite as high in January and now it appears so. I have the next three weeks sitting open during ski season which is our busiest time. I've been hosting for four years, so I generally know what to expect and I'm just perplexed. I never use Smart Pricing because it always suggests absurdly low prices, but this time, I have taken the price tips and still nothing.

Now I feel as if we are being punished for having a good November/December!

[Lisa723]

@Katie1196 yes, it really makes no sense for places with variable/seasonal pricing.  Our places are much more expensive in summer than winter and typically book months in advance, so the prices shown by this method are basically the exact opposite of what they should be. Hopefully most people know they need to enter dates for accurate pricing, but maybe not.

[Patricia1375]

@Lisa723 I appreciate the point you have made.  I do not have Smart Pricing.  Our cabin's prices change 4x per year, with the highest being $325 (summer) and currently $275 (November - March).  But if you were to look at our site today, Airbnb show's our cabin at $368/night.  We have never charged higher than $325.00.  The first person we talked to in customer service with Airbnb said Airbnb "averages" the lowest and highest price to come up with the $368. 

Since that clearly made no sense, we were referred to two more people before anyone could explain where $368.00/night pricing came from.  As someone who stays in Airbnb for business more times a year than I am in my own home, I can tell you that I scroll down the list looking at prices and that "first look" really matters.    I feel confident this action on Airbnb's part is having an impact on why I am currently getting very few referrals from Airbnb, and great business flow from VRBO.

[Katie1196]

Thank you for mentioning VRBO. The rep I spoke to tried to blame our duo on covid, but it didn’t make any sense as we’ve been booked more consistently throughout covid because of local travelers. This new policy is bonkers. I’m going to set up a VRBO now and sync the calendars to see what happens

[Patricia1375]

@Katie1196 I appreciate the point you have made.  I do not have Smart Pricing.  Our cabin's prices change 4x per year, with the highest being $325 (summer) and currently $275 (November - March).  But if you were to look at our site today, Airbnb show's our cabin at $368/night.  We have never charged higher than $325.00.  The first person we talked to in customer service with Airbnb said Airbnb "averages" the lowest and highest price to come up with the $368. 

Since that clearly made no sense, we were referred to two more people before anyone could explain where $368.00/night pricing came from.  As someone who stays in Airbnb for business more times a year than I am in my own home, I can tell you that I scroll down the list looking at prices and that "first look" really matters.    I feel confident this action on Airbnb's part is having an impact on why I am currently getting very few referrals from Airbnb, and great business flow from VRBO.

[Emiel1]

@Katie1196 

Your listing has only availabilty in januari and februari, the dates show variable prices. So it seems you are on "Smart Pricing" or you have set custom prices for specific dates, weeks or months. Please check all(!) price settings.

added:

sample booking in februarI:

In januari:

[Katie1196]

Thanks for looking. The pricing is correct when dates are added. It’s incorrect when previewing the listing, though.

[Patricia1375]

The same thing happened to me.  When I called Airbnb, they explained that the quote "list price" that they now show includes the cleaning fee, Airbnb's fee, and taxes.  So the price is more reflective of what the renter actually pays, but it is a good bit higher than what we call our daily rate.  We are upset about that, because renters may overlook our cabin because the price is too high.  But if Airbnb is doing this to everyone, then the prices should be higher for all of us.  We are not happy, but Airbnb made it clear they aren't going to change our listing. They also indicated this is something they only recently changed this pricing policy.

[Katie1196]

I wish it applied to everyone. Not sure if they’ve fully rolled it out yet. If so, the impact would be minimal, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. Puzzling.

[M199]

Well explained @Patricia1375 

I noticed the same Airbnb "price programming". 

I guess that Airbnb wants to be more price transparent to guests.  Again, at the expense of hosts, since only the perceived advertised total guest cost has changed, i.e increased.

I suspect that every host is in the same situation.