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.

[Debra300]

@Ben3547,

Please understand that many hosts have not been actively renting their properties during the past few months, and probably didn't realize that they needed to update their listings to reflect any changes that have been implemented.

[Ann72]

@Ben3547  I don't think the host who tried to bait-and-switch you was merely COVID-forgetful.  I think he or she was just greedy and dishonest.

You might be able to report the host to Airbnb, though I'm not 100% sure how to do that.  What the host did was definitely skating on thin ice.

Terms of Service specific to Hosts:

7.1.2 You are solely responsible for setting a price (including any Taxes if applicable, or charges such as cleaning fees) for your Listing (“Listing Fee”). Once a Guest requests a booking of your Listing, you may not request that the Guest pays a higher price than in the booking request.

You didn't request a booking, so the host was operating in a gray area, but still - not cool at all.

Your other recourse is to book a place where the transaction is straightforward and you're not jerked around.  Don't give up - there are lots of good hosts out there.

[Sarah977]

@Ben3547  It's certainly unprofessional for a host to not keep their pricing up to date, and if you had already paid to stay and the host then tried to ask for more money, that is not allowed. But while what the host did was bad form, and maddening to a guest, at least it was done before you had booked, so you had the opportunity to say no way.

As Ann said, thankfully the majority of hosts don't do things like this. Make sure you read the reviews and pick a place with a history of good ones. It's generally newer hosts who do things like this- they often don't realize that there are pricing settings which are applying discounts, which they have to turn off if they don't want such discounts applied. So the intent is not always one of greed, nor because of inattention to keeping the calendar and pricing updated, but sometimes simply ignorance and inexperience.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

When I first listed one of my rooms on Airbnb, it gave me a price suggestion, which sounded reasonable, so I activate the listing and went to bed.

I woke up to be inundated with requests as, overnight, Airbnb's 'smart pricing' had slashed the nightly rate in half! I had to respond to all these guests explaining that the pricing was incorrect and I couldn't accept their bookings at those rates. Luckily, most of these were enquiries or requests. 

However, the system had mysteriously also activated Instant Booking, which I know for a fact I did not select (I saw that option and thought, no thanks) so I had one IB. It was only for one person for one night, so I thought it better to honour it. At least I would get my first review.

I'm not saying that this is the case with the hosts mentioned above but yes, you are right, sometimes inexperienced hosts don't understand how smart pricing works and how you need to set a minimum rate you are truly happy with if you are going to use it at all.

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 You need to set up a minimum price on the smart pricing... The algorithm of the smart pricing is pretty stupid --- it keeps decreasing price if demand is low, but doesn't increase too much when demand is high. I have set up minimum $65 and maximum $150 for a spcific listing, but the smart pricing never goes beyond $90 no matter how high the demand is. And it keeps suggesting me to lower the minimum setting although I'm getting almost 100% occupancy. And during summer time when there's commencement in the Universities, I had to manually change the price to $150 for the high demand.

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0, yes agreed. That's why I said you need to set a minimum you are happy with if you are going to use Smart Pricing. However, when I started, I had no idea Airbnb would tell me I would get on average £X and then immediately slash the prices way below that. Lesson learnt.

I have the same experience as you. I have never seen it set the price anywhere close to the maximum, but it is frequently on or close to the minimum and rarely goes up. Price suggestions are always to lower the rate. I ignore all of these and manually change the prices for high season dates. It never takes into account things like public holidays, for example.

The problem is that new hosts can get caught out by all this stuff and not realise that the prices are set too low until they get a booking at those prices and baulk at how little they will get for their trouble.

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 Exactly. That's why I respect the decision of the hosts if the price don't satisfy their expectation, although I personally would honor whatever price shown in the page as I feel I'm pretty familiar with the system.

At the end of the day the market is going to tell you if your price is set too high or too low. And we all have to learn from the idea of "premium pricing", that a too low price setting will likely attract more problematic guests.

Also the smart pricing system is confusing some guests as well. I keep getting questions from potential guests asking me why the price is not the same as advertised. That's mainly caused by the fact that when you search for a listing, it only shows you the price of the next available night while the smart pricing makes the price of each night different. Not to mention that lots of hosts (including myself) reduce the price of vacant nights when it gets close. I'm seriously considering ditching the smart pricing but feel that manually changing price might be a lot of work...

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0 

I thought the price that Airbnb advertised was the base rate. So, for my listing, say my minimum rate is £45 per night for one person, it's going to show that price until the guest puts in the specific dates and number of people. Even though that's the price for ONE, not TWO people, at the same time, it will show that the listing is for two people, with the price for one, so that's confusing.

Some guests do question this and then I have to explain to them. They don't always believe me. There is a simple way to fix that problem and that is for Airbnb to advertise the listing as 'from £45'. That's pretty standard in the hospitality industry. Airlines and hotels advertise prices, including special offers, as 'from £X' and consumers generally understand that the price will vary depending on dates and, sometimes, number of people.

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

In my observation, the displayed rate has always been in synch with the number of guests entered in the search filter. I just did three searches for my area, and entered four, three and two guests in the search criteria.  Each result for my listing displayed the applicable rate that I charge for each number of guests.

What I have seen from guests is that they make a reservation for one person, because they didn't change the number in the search filter, but tell me that they are traveling with XX.  This may occur less frequently, because it looks like the Airbnb homepage and search banner have been updated, and number of guests is listed as a primary filter.  On the previous search area, people had to click the more search items link to see the number of guest filter.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

You may be right. I am not sure as, since I switched to long-term hosting, I only really get solo travellers. However, a girl who recently enquired for one person, then told me her boyfriend would be staying over some of the time. I told her that there was normally an extra fee for a second person but I would waive it providing his visits were only occasional.

She didn't understand this and insisted the price was for two people. I explained that she had only entered one person and therefore was seeing the price for one. No, she said, in her search, the room came up with the price per night and specified 'two people'. The two people is the maximum occupancy for the room, but the way it was presented (at least from her point of views) was that the price was for two people.

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

Is this the same person who couldn't/wouldn't tell you how frequently the boyfriend would be staying over?  BTW, I just did a search for London, and tuned in on Stockwell/Little Portugal area, and your listing correctly displays different rates for searches for 1 person and 2 people.

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

Yes, that's the same girl. 

Thanks for checking on my listing. Good to hear the prices are displaying correctly!

I know that this girl only searched for one person (her enquiry was for one) but, because the listing specified two people (the maximum occupancy), she thought it should be the same price for one or two regardless. I wasn't actually trying to charge her for more than one person, but she thought that her boyfriend should be able to stay as often as he liked (without any prior notice) because the price was for TWO anyway.

The problem is that I don't think the maximum occupancy is specified as that. It simply says the listing is for two people, so often guests assume that is a fixed price.

This girl was tricky though so I certainly don't mind losing out on her booking. The back and forth over pricing was one red flag, but the fact that she was offended when I said I needed to know how often her boyfriend was going to stay was an even bigger one.

[Emilia42]

@Ben3547 

Many hosts will disagree but this is one of the reasons why I search for instant book listings with seasoned hosts. Host #1 could have made their minimum night stay 14+ nights in September which would have prevented you from wasting your time searching/reading and making a request. Host #2 could have honored your request because those were the advertised rates at the time. I agree, it is hard when a guest does their research, puts in a request, waits, and sometimes waits some more, and then has to go back to the drawing board. Try searching listings that are set up with instant book.

[Nanxing0]

If the reservation has not been made and you are not happy with the price increase then go find another host who makes you satisfied. This is the market. There are many hosts on Airbnb you can shop around with. It solely depends on what the market is like and what you want. Hosts are normal people, not like Walmart that honors the price even if it's tagged wrong, and offers hassle-free returns. Oh by the way last time I went to Home Depot and found an item listed for $0.01 and when I was checking out the cashier refused to sell that item to me because it came out as $0.01 on the screen. 

I disagree with @Emilia42. First for the instant booking, I have turned it off due to the local restrictions on short term rental and that's what Airbnb customer service suggested me to do when I talked to them. I believe many hosts have done this due to the pandemic and that's also suggested by the Airbnb customer service. Ethically if I was the host #2 I would honor the price listed on the website, but that's not a legal obligation. Last time I booked a vacation house in FL and then I asked to use the pool and the manager told me there's an additional $30 for the pool heating fee, which was not mentioned anywhere in the description. I ended up cancelling that reservation but when I consulted other hosts in the area, they told me it's a norm to charge the pool heating fee in the area.