Recourse for hosts declining or raising rates

[Ben3547]

Trying to book a home in Charlottesville, VA in September.

Submitted a reservation request last night and this morning it was declined by the host because they're looking for a long term rental in September even though there is nothing in the description.  We wanted to stay 8 nights, so its not like we were only staying the weekend.

Then today I decided to contact another host before booking because their cancellation policy was a little more strict and wanted to make sure they wouldn't decline as well.  This host then responds that they'd welcome us, but they had the pricing listed incorrectly and now its 40+% more for the week.  

Do I have any recourse for this?  Really turns me off from ever using Airbnb again.

[Emilia42]

@Nanxing0 All I am saying is that when a guest instant books it is confirmed. Sure, things can go wrong and a host can cancel but then a large percentage of the time the host is stuck with the cancelation penalties. Like @Ben3547, I have been a guest who has spent a big amount of time researching listings only to request to book and the host says something like "Oh, sorry, I'm actually not renting that weekend" or "No thanks, I'm going to hold out for a guest who wants to stay longer." That's being too selective and I don't think it's fair. If these hosts were serious about hosting then their calendar would be blocked and a minimum stay would be set. As a host who uses instant book, I have to consider that every reservation that comes my way is confirmed. That's why my booking requirements have to be set in place, my calendar has to be up to date, and minimum night stays that I want have to be correct.

@Nanxing0 I am not saying that all hosts who chose not to use instant book are operating this way. As you have said, you have turned it off because of local requirements and you are obviously a great, highly rated host. But as @Ben3547 mentions, from a guest perspective, it is frustrating when your booking is declined because of the host's faults and it is definitely turning guests away from Airbnb (especially when it happens more than once.)

[Nanxing0]

@Emilia42 I fully understand the frustration when there's erratic behavior from the host as I have experienced that as well. However I have to say that's the nature of Airbnb. We have lots of hosts here that are operating on a high standard but there are also some hosts not. To me Airbnb is similar to Ebay where you can get fake products from some fraud sellers while other sellers are as professional as big chains. This is why we have the review system.

As for keeping the calendar/price up to date, I agree with your point but it's somehow complicated. I can show you a couple of examples here. A lot of listings are seasonal, for example those beach houses. I also have such listings in University City where we get a hug number of reservations during the commencement time (May-June). Hosts usually raise the price during those seasons but we have to do it manually. Before the pandemic, guests usually book the reservations about ONE YEAR ahead of time because otherwise they might not be able to find anywhere to stay for the commencement of their loved ones. So we have had a few reservations booked before we raised the price. For me, I honor those reservations, but I know some hosts don't and I respect their choice as well. Another example: last time when I was booking for a beach house in FL the manager told me they forgot to increase the price for the hot season and asked me if we can adjust it. They even involved Airbnb in this case although when the Airbnb customer service talked to us they said it's absolutely our right to keep the price since it's already confirmed, but asked us if we could do them a favor. Later the manager gave me the excuse that they have contract with the owner and the price I booked with was lower than their contract price, meaning if they honored it they had to pay to the owner out of their own pocket to make up the contract price. I did some research for nearby properties and they actually told the truth that the market price was much higher than what we booked for, so we agreed to increase the price partially but not fully to what they asked for. One thing I couldn't believe is that the manager is from a professional Real Estate broker company and she's a licensed agent.

[Ben3547]

Thanks for all the replies.  I understand that it could be an honest mistake, but it wasn’t like this place was cheap, it was nearly $3k when I wasn’t going book it.

I also get that we can just go elsewhere as that’s what we did and we booked outside of Airbnb because I’ve not had this problem with other platforms.

If I do use Airbnb again in the future I’ll look for instant book options but in Charlottesville there isn’t a huge market for what we were looking for.