Help …. Monthly discount.

[Elizabeth2240]

I just had an experience that I blame airB& B for.   I never take monthly ( long term ) stays.     I relented while I was in hospital and my daughter took a family for 33 days between 2 months.   After looking at our break down , we realized AirB&B made a big mistake.  Guest only wanted 33 days.   Somehow, a 1500. A month discount was placed. I never put it in there and if you look on app it says 0 percent discount.   Well air B& B gave them 2 months discount!!! It should only be 1.. each 28 days is considered a month. So it should apply at 56 days.   Immediately I called and they said it was correct.  It got sent on to a supervisor.   I got a hold of guest and told him ( same day he booked) that there was a miscalculation and  we needed to cancel.  Well of course with a 75% discount, he insisted that we keep price, they wouldn’t budge!   Well AirB& B didn’t help.  Finally supervisor called  and  it would go on to  be looked at more.  Meantime guest is calling me a liar, not trustworthy etc.     i tried offering him a discount that was more reasonable .  The amount they would pay after our expensive meant a negative amount. 

so why did they give them 2 months discount? At 33 days.  Policy says EACH 28 days?  

why can’t customer service reps not see the issue and tell me and my guest that it stands  that if I cancel, the penalty applies? 

why customer service supervisor doesn’t get back to me? 

what can you do about guests that make me uncomfortable? prior to staying?  Calling me a liar etc… 

why does it say 0 % discount monthly but then give them1500. Discount.?   

Why are people so mean when a  mistake is made ( and they see the mistake) ?  Why do they treat hosts like a-holes ? 
rhetorical but I just don’t think like that!!!! 

why

[Jean-And-Don0]

From what i read, and what i experienced i am not surprised

[Huma0]

@Elizabeth2240 

I'm totally confused about this situation. The monthly discount is a percentage, not a fixed amount, so it doesn't matter if the stay is 28 days, 33 days or 56 days. 

I offer a 15% monthly discount, so 15% will automatically be deducted from the total price of the accommodation for any stays of 28 days or more.

So, let's say my nightly rate is £50...

A guest books for 28 days = £1,400. With the 15% discount, this becomes £1,190

33 days = £1,650 - 15% = £1,402

56 days = £2,800 - 15% = £2,380

Whichever way you look at it, they are getting a 15% discount, no higher, no lower. The percentage doesn't change depending on the number of nights they book.

I am sure you have already double checked your settings, but just in case...

- Go to your listing

- Click on pricing and availability

- Scroll down to discounts and check there are no weekly, monthly or other discounts applied

- Check you don't have any other discounts or special offers applied

- Check you are not using smart pricing. If you are, can you be sure the price didn't drop? What is your minimum nightly rate set at?

- On the booking breakdown, you should also be able to see the percentage of discount that has been applied.

If you are sure that there are no discounts in your settings and the amount the guests are being charged is below your minimum nightly rate, then you need to go back to Airbnb and fight your case. If it is a technical error, they need to do a penalty free cancellation for you. You might have to be persistent. Airbnb customer services is for the most part pretty rubbish.

[Elizabeth2240]

It is indeed a technical error.   
somehow there is 1500 per month discount. 
but they applied 2 $1500 month discounts.  
they gave a $3,000 discount. 

but the customer service first line people don’t understand.  They told me wrong several times and guest wrong.  

guest is irate. I fear for my house and myself/ family. 

customer service initially said I would have a $1000 fine if I cancel. 

finalky, someone understood and cancelled guest at no charge to  either of us.  

i do have a 10% discount weekly.   Zero % monthly .  That is what shows on app. 

[Huma0]

@Elizabeth2240 

Just so you know, if you apply a weekly discount, that will apply to all stays over a week, including those that are over a month, regardless of whether you have a monthly discount too or not.

So, guests booking for a month or more would also get 10% off their entire accommodation fee (before Airbnb fees). 

That still doesn't explain the massive discount. I'm glad Airbnb finally admitted it was a technical error. I also have a problem at the moment (unrelated to discounts, but have experienced problems in the past regarding discounts) that is due to a technical error. The CS rep kept telling me everything was fine and correct and it took many, many messages before she eventually accepted that it was indeed a glitch from the Airbnb end. It's not been fixed, but at least she finally stopped telling me my calculations were wrong!

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

Based upon what the OP wrote later in this thread, it appears that she may have made a clerical error when trying to enter a 15% monthly discount, maybe entering 15.00, but didn't realize that only whole numbers are allowed in the field.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

What I was saying is that I don't think that is possible. The monthly (or weekly) discounts are a percentage. You cannot enter 15.00, or any other specific amount, only the percentage. Say @Elizabeth2240 accidentally set a 15% discount by mistake, that would not explain why the guests get what she says is closer to a 70% discount.

What she said was that she might have tried to apply a 15% discount and ended up giving a discount of $1,500 a month instead, but this is not possible. I've just tried it with one of my own listings. You can't do it. You have to enter a percentage and it's not possible to enter a percentage of 150, let alone 1,500.

However, I did just now notice something below the weekly and monthly discounts, which reads: 

"

Custom monthly prices

Custom prices don’t just apply to trips that match these exact date ranges. When a guest makes a reservation that’s longer than 28 nights, we’ll apply your custom monthly price on a pro rata basis for any nights that overlap. Keep in mind that if you’ve also set a monthly long-term price, we’ll apply it for the additional nights of the reservation."

Now, here you can add a custom price for a specific month, which is a monetary amount you set. So, let's say you accidentally set that price at $15 for the month, thinking you are entering a 15% discount, and then any nights for their reservation that fall either before or after these dates are subject to any weekly or long term discount you have in place, you could end up with a very random and surprising total for the reservation.

I am not saying that is what happened here, but it is one explanation. I have never even noticed this setting before, so I'm not sure if it is new or not, but I can see how people could get confused as the setting sits directly below the fields for weekly and monthly discount.

[Elizabeth2240]

I have no idea how it happened.  I don’t remember doing a monthly discount.  We agreed to not do more than 28 days!!! 

but somehow, they have a 1500 discount per month.   
then gave a 3,000 discount for 33 days.  

customer service said it was right.  

my booking on my sight showed 0% monthly discount.    

i can’t explain it. Customer Service can’t explain it.   

what made it worse was how customer service dealt with it.  

[Helen744]

@Elizabeth2240 I imagine that customer service have not 'dealt with it ' but simply told you what was on the calculation screen was correct as they have zero input into the calculations , its automated and is, or was the best part about Airbnb  No longer . Depending who did the cancellation then penalties could apply . The customer can only be refunded what he paid not extra. He needs to get that refund from Airbnb and the bank , but if he booked in relatively good faith , although obviously he was hunting a massive discount, he is entitled to all of his money back in this situation , no matter your policy , because it was , theororetically your mistake.but he does not know where the money has gone and thinks you have it as most people do , unaware that airbnb hold the money until the booking commences . You should not refund anyone before a booking commences as you have not received payment yet.you raised the alarm , I imagine because the estimated payout was incorrect. If the glitch was caused by you or Airbnb was for you and Airbnb to work out pronto and one of you or in fact both of you to inform the guest , whose fault it was not . H

[Helen744]

Elizabeth , a discount of that amount has to be a custom discount , is it possible someone , besides you applied it , in your absence. It could also have been removed or applied simply as new days suddenly opened. Many customers are aware that a host may apply discounts for current days and then suddenly a number of days can open in the future as the three month calendar rolls out . they then snap them up . this type of fishing catches us all at one time or the other and if a discount applied for a certain weekend stays in place it will suddenly aplly in the future , once it has been applied then removing it 'after booking ' is not possible and CS should be able to tell you , what the discount was but not exactly why . Keep a good eye on your discounts  . H

[Helen744]

@Huma0 I thought that the month discount applied separately to the weekly discount and not both together . In other words a 35 day booking frinstance would have a 15 per cent discount applied for the first 28 days and the random extra week would recieve say the 10 per cent weekly discount . Not a weekly discount applied five times and then a monthly discount applied to the month only . I believe that it should be calculated at a price per day over the whole booking and then say 15 percent applied to the first month and 10 per cent to the random week . if they are your discounts that is . Not both applied at once . Maybe that was the glitch H

[Huma0]

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@Helen744 wrote:

 thought that the month discount applied separately to the weekly discount and not both together .

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True. The weekly and monthly discounts do not apply at the same time. It's one or the other. So, if you have a weekly discount, that will apply to the total accommodation cost for any stays that are 7 days or more. However, if you also have a monthly discount, any stays of 28 days or more will get that INSTEAD.

One or the other will be applied depending on the length of the stay, but then that discount will be applied to the whole stay and the total accommodation cost (but not Airbnb fees).

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@Helen744 wrote:

 In other words a 35 day booking frinstance would have a 15 per cent discount applied for the first 28 days and the random extra week would recieve say the 10 per cent weekly discount . I believe that it should be calculated at a price per day over the whole booking and then say 15 percent applied to the first month and 10 per cent to the random week . 

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Nope. It's not split into different levels of discount but applied to the WHOLE stay. So, if I have a guest that books for 27 days, they will get my 10% weekly discount applied to the whole 27 days. However, if they book 28 days, they will get my monthly discount of 15% for the whole 28 days. That's why it's actually cheaper to book 28 days with me than 27! If the guest books, let's say, 37 days, the 15% discount will be applied to the total accommodation cost for their entire stay.

Here's some real life recent examples:

As you can see, these guests booked 62 nights and 41 nights respectively, but the 15% discount is applied to their entire stay not just each 'whole' month. There is no 10% discount anywhere because the weekly discount is not relevant once they book 28 days or more. The monthly discount is then applied to the total stay.

[Huma0]

Also, this is totally off topic, but note the discrepancy in the Airbnb guest service fees. Guest one above is paying considerably more fees per night than guest two. I mean quite a lot more. Why?

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

Does the UK charge taxes differently based upon the length of stay?  In the state of Georgia, there are benchmarks for when to collect taxes for short-term accommodations.  If a guests books a stay for less than 30 nights they will be taxed heavily, but some taxes and fees fall off with a 31+ night stay, and there's no taxes for stays that are 90 nights and longer.  It's possible that Airbnb increases its service when there are less taxes to collect, because they feel the guest will be less sensitive or observant of it, because they are pleased with the tax reduction.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

I have absolutely no idea about the taxes that guest pay to be honest. I just pay my taxes (I have an accountant who is very thorough) and VAT on the host services fees etc.

I do not need to collect any taxes from the guests myself but I don't know if they pay taxes when they book. There is no mention of them in the payment breakdown.