I did NOT send a special offer

[Stacy141]

After looking through my reservations for the ski season, I noticed one particular guest was receiving a much better deal than any of our other guests. The booking request was for 7 nights over the Christmas Holiday. I remember this booking clearly, particularly because I was on vacation, and I was hanging out in my hotel room. I received the booking request and also a message from the guest on the mobile app. I replied to the guest, then pre approved his request. When looking at the "guest paid" details, it lists $1,988.00 next to  "accommodation." I soon realized this didn't add up, because our rate has always been set at $400.00 per night on the calendar. Smart pricing was/is turned off, there was no special discount offered, and we did not have a weekly discount set.

I noticed when I clicked on the price breakdown, it said "special offer" under the total stay price. I did NOT send a special offer to this guest, I have sent special offers before, but that was well over a year ago. The agent said her supervisor was looking at a screenshot that showed a special offer had been sent for $1,988.00. I told her there was absolutely no way I could have accidentally clicked special offer, typed $1,988.00, then hit send. And there is no way anyone could have known my account login information, and no one has had access to my computer. Today I looked at the calendar to be sure the nightly rate is set at $400.00, which it is. Then I noticed an Airbnb rate recommendation of $280.00 per night. Even if I had elected to set it at that recommended rate (which I did not), it wouldn't send that amount as a special offer, would it?

The agent said that unless the guest agrees to a cancellation, my account will be penalized, and we just reached superhost status. 7 nights @ $400.00 per night is $2,800.00, which is a huge difference from $1,988.00, especially when we need to pay for somewhere to stay ourselves. I don't see any way around this but to cancel. Obviously I should have paid better attention to what the payout would be, but I just figured he was requesting to stay five nights, because I have always been able to trust that the pricing on the calendar is correct. So it's my fault for not paying attention, but our experience with this platform has always worked seamlessly, I was on autopilot.

[Colleen253]

@Stacy141 Know that if you cancel, the dates will be blocked with no chance of booking them at the price you want. 

You say you got a booking request from this guest, then pre approved it. You can only do that (and send a special offer) with an Inquiry. If it’s an actual Request, then you accept or decline, and cannot send a special offer. 

No idea what’s going on, but this platform is most certainly bug ridden. I’ve experienced it myself multiple times, so I check all settings daily and scrutinize bookings very carefully. There have been what seems like a larger than usual number of complaints of pricing weirdness recently. 

[Stacy141]

@Colleen253 -Thank you for reminding me that if I cancel the dates they will be blocked. I’ve never had to cancel on a guest before.

I looked in the app and yes, the guest did send an inquiry. Here's exactly what happened:

"inquiry sent- 6 guests, Dec 18 - Dec 25."

Guest: 

"Hi, my family and I are hoping to come to the resort to go skiing before Christmas for the week and are interested in booking your place Dec 18-25. What is your check out time that we would need to leave by on Christmas day if were were to book those dates?"

Stacy: 

"Hi (guest). If you were to stay on Christmas you'd be able to checkout at 4PM....I'll pre-approve your request in case you decide to book!"

Stacy"

Pre-approval sent - 6 guests, Dec 18 - Dec 25

Request accepted - 6 guests, Dec 18 - Dec 25

Guest

"Thanks, that sounds great. Looking forward to staying there!"

There’s a definite glitch. A week ago I went into my calendar to increase Friday and Saturday nights to $500, and Sunday to $450. I went into the pricing settings to be sure that smart pricing was off, and it was.

A past guest messaged me this morning to ask about my rates. She said she wanted to book, but wasn't sure if she could afford it now, because it's more than she paid last year. She said the rate was $67 more per night than she paid last year. Actually, the dates she asked about were supposed to be the same price as they were last year, so I decided I'd better log on to airbnb as a guest and see what rates are showing up.

I selected dates for a mid-week reservation, a weekend stay, and then an entire week. All of the nightly rates were different. In many cases, the nightly rate increased, in some cases it stayed the same (but never dropping below my base rate.) So I went back into my hosting account to check if smart pricing was turned on or off. Guess what? It was off, as always.

If this is happening now, then I’m sure that the “special offer” booking was a glitch, because if this is happening now…

[Brian2036]

@Stacy141 

That truly sucks.

 It does look like they used the $280 “suggested average price” but I don’t see how you could have accidentally set that price and then unset it.

That wouldn’t show up as a special offer anyway.

If someone does send a special offer isn’t there some kind of documentation of offer made/acceptance verified?

Anyway, thanks for the warning. I guess we’re all going to have to be more careful when accepting bookings.

[Stacy141]

@Brian2036 If I remember correctly, I believe it would show in the record somewhere that an offer was made and/or acceptance verified.

[Antoinette151]

It would be interesting to see how this is handled! Please keep us all posted , and I really hope it gets resolved soon!

[Stacy141]

Thanks! @Antoinette15