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

[Helen744]

@Huma0  if the host has different rates for weekend bookings then the first calculation used to show , as it did on the public listing , rate per night over a week . this baffled guests who expected this rate to be applied over a weekend stay or random days . this seems to have gone . I imagine if you do long stays then these blips are not there but when I did long stays the only way I could get the numbers to add up was with the method I described calculated on a rate per individual days and then discounts applied after this in two or more batches. Airbnb have calculated and added the rate per day as a lump sum and then removed discounts on this amount . My pounds shillings and pence brain is a bit slow and it would take me a while . I do not think we operate on a different system,but another thing is a month is 28 days not as it shows here 31. H

[Helen744]

As I can see here your months are not containing the same number of days, one is 31 days and one is 30. The difference between these days is aprox five pounds , so that is the general rate I assume per day after the discount is applied but then the minus 7 odd pounds is not accurate and reflects a different rate . How so ?It still leaves the assumption that 30 days is a month ? Otherwise what is the random seven pounds ? H

[Huma0]

@Helen744 

Airbnb defines long term stays as those 28 days or over, and the monthly discount kicks in once a guest books 28 days or more.

However, long term stays are also paid on a monthly basis, and that is not 28 days, it's per calendar month, hence why the payments are split into 30 or 31 day periods above. As you can see, they are taken on the same date every month. The amounts then vary slightly depending on how many days there were before the last payment, i.e. that month. The amount will be a bit higher if it's been 31 days rather than 30.

[Elizabeth2240]

@Helen744  I have no idea .. 

we don’t do monthly rates anyway… 

we had an exception one time.   In Texas , after 28 days they can squat so we chose not to do that long.  After this experience, I won’t do longer than 14 days.  

thanks.  
we are in dollars though .
have a good day!  

[Elizabeth2240]

I don’t understand. 

the whole problem is that they gave 2 months discount to 33 days.  

my maximum stay is 2 weeks anyway.  I don’t have a different rate for weekends.   

Thanks!   

also the problem is customer service gave different answers to guest and host.  They told me to ask guest to cancel.  Then they told guest  he didn’t have to chance l the price was right and I would endure penalties if I cancelled. 
then later they told guest to cancel.  They confused guest.  
they told my daughter cancellation was correct .  
then told me it would go to escalations.. 

Them told guest if he cancelled he would have a penalty of paying 30 days.  

Guest demanded  a $3000 discount that was wrongly applied.   He got very ugly. 

i guess when I posted for help it was t on figuring out rates.   It’s more how do I get customer service to understand . How do I get a supervisor to help?  
what do I do about irate guest?  
yes I can call police but they can only make report. And won’t stop it as really  calling me a liar and saying he will stay at my house really isn’t breaking law.  

[Debra300 · Accepted solution]

@Elizabeth2240.

I re-read your post a few times, and must admit that I have difficulty following what you are trying to explain.  I just visited your listings, and observed the following.

1. You don't have a maximum length of stay that's less than 28 days.  I was able to enter dates for several months, and could have been instantly booked.  You need to update the Trip length up the Pricing and availability tab of your listings' dashboards.
2. You offer a weekly discount of 10% on one listing.  As @Huma0 noted, the discount is applied on the total amount of the reservation at the time of booking, and not on an incremental basis.  
3. You could have canceled the reservation on your own, and then called Airbnb CS to explain and get any penalties removed.
4. Fyi, payments and payouts for long-term stays are processed every 30 days, and not 28 days.  The first payout will be the first 30 nights, plus any one time fees, such as for cleaning or pets.  On day 31, the payout will be for the next 30 nights or remainder of the stay, whichever is less.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

That's strange. Maybe I was looking at a different listing, as I only clicked on one of them. But I was not able to try and book a long term stay. Even though the calendar was showing availability, whenever I entered a check in date, it would then only give me the option to book a maximum of 20 days. I didn't check to see if there was a weekly discount though as I was looking for a monthly one. 

@Elizabeth2240 if you use instant booking, you can cancel those types of bookings three times a year penalty free without having to involve Airbnb CS. You just need to select 'I'm uncomfortable with the guest'. Of course, the booking in question may have been a request booking because you said you 'relented', but I don't know if that simply means you increased your maximum stay and the guests were able to instant book or if you accepted a request from them.

[Elizabeth2240]

@Debra300 

it is very hard to explain.   
If have to write a book.  
i don’t have long term stays.   I allowed or relented and decided to give it a try.   
i didn’t know there was a 1500 discount.   Maybe I tried to put in 15%.  
it wasn’t instant book.   
when they calculated , they calculated a $3,000 discount.  That put me in negative so I told guest.  He came unglued, irate! I told him the next day .. 3 weeks before he was to arrive! 
airB&B said I had a $1,000  penalty to cancel as well as other things. 

airb &b states in their policy that a month is 28 days.  Each 28 days is a month.  
so he booked Sept 4- Oct 7.  33 nights which equals 1 month discount t( keeping in mind zi didn’t know about discount, it didn’t show up on my end on app . It showed up 0% discount 1 month) 

I would have  honored it but they gave a 2 month discount  of $3,000! 
2 months kicks in at 56 days . 

so guest was belligerent , angry and insisted on 2 month discount.  He was ugly!!!    AirB&B told him that I was wrong and would get penalties.  
they told me to ask him to cancel.  

finalky a customer service “ saw the error”  They cancelled on both ends without penalty. 

customer is still mad, leaving ugly messages. ( blocked and reported him) he is calling me at 12:00 am on a different phone .   

it’s confusing!  I hope I explained it. 

[Huma0]

@Elizabeth2240 

It's not possible to put in a $1,500 long term discount. The long term discount is always a percentage, as I mentioned above. So, you can't go in trying to put 15% and end up with £1,500. You only get to select a percentage, not a monetary amount. Therefore, the guest did not get a 'two-month discount" of $3,000. That is just not how the system works.

I've been hosting long term stays for years and have never experienced this. Nor have I heard any other host mention a similar situation. The only vaguely similar things is when the host didn't realise they had multiple different discounts applied at once which added up to some sort of absurd discount.

It sounds like it must have been a technical error of some sort from Airbnb's side and I am glad they eventually agreed to fix the situation. I've never heard of this glitch before, but new glitches happen all the time and they don't always apply to every booking, and the customer service reps don't always seem to be aware of them, so it's certainly possible. 

Good that you blocked and reported the guest. If all has been clearly explained to him, he has no right to harass you. However, it sounds like the situation was confusing for you given the contradictory information you were given, and confusing for him given that he also received contradictory information, so perhaps he believes you are just making it all up. Still, remember you do not ever need to accept abuse and harassment from a guest.

[Elizabeth2240]

Huma0  

I didn’t put a1500. Discount . But that is what AirB&B is showing. 
i don’t understand how it happened.  They can’t explain it either!!! 

[Elizabeth2240]

 

[Debra300]

@Elizabeth2240,

Please take some time to read the linked pages.  Airbnb states that stay which are 28 nights or more will be included in monthly stays, but the long-term payout policy defines the payout schedule.  You should review the length of stay and discount information for your listings, and make any necessary adjustments, because they are currently set up for instant book for all durations.

I am glad that you were able to finally find a CS rep who recognized the problem.  If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend that you bookmark the Airbnb Help Center for quick access to official policies, because often the reps aren't well versed on them, and you may need to guide them to making/taking the correct action.

[Elizabeth2240]

@Debra300 

the problem is that they do not follow their policies!!! 

i am now at a point where my home is threatened and it is well past their ability to handle it.   The customer service does not understand and they have made it to where I am threatened.  Yes, I can call police but they can’t do much for phone hassling.  .   It should never get to this point.   I have been nothing but polite to guest.   AirB&B should have cancelled as soon S he called me a liar and telling me he will stay in my house no matter what. 

i have read the policies and they say different things and don’t follow it. 🥲

[Elizabeth2240]

I already did that! Thanks! 

i shouldn’t have to explain their policies to them.  Many don’t speak native English and don’t seem to understand.  They give wrong info to guests. That is what made my guest so angry.   They told me different and told guest different.   I realize that’s “ the nature of beast”  in today’s society. 
once it went to escalation, guest should be told that.    I do believe all of this could have been ok , if guest wasn’t told wrong info.   Guest believed he could stay in the house at that price.  He believed AirB&B would back him.  He believed I was wrong he then began not to trust me, began to call me a liar .  ( he called me and texted me on four different numbers) . 

[Elizabeth2240]

Hi , thank you!  

i think since my maximum days are 28 , even though you can get prices you can’t book.   You have to ask us.  

no one has been able to book without checking past 28 days.    
I guess I’ll be asking customer service again! Yikes!