Booked a stay and within a couple hours the host requested a price increase

[Jeff648]

I booked 3 nights in San Diego, and was thrilled to have found a great location.

Within only a matter of hours, the host sent me a message requesting I pay  a whopping additional $700. Essentially he more than doubled the price and wants me to accept the new rate.

This is my first time using AirBnB and I am kind of alarmed that this would happen or be common practice.

I have an option to accept or decline the new offer, but I can not afford his new price and need the room for those dates.

If I decline or ignore his offer of the changed rate, will I end up losing my reservation?

[Emiel1]

@Jeff648 

This is not common practice and you can contact Aibnb about it.

If you do not accept or decline, the booking will remain as it is.

The host can cancel the reservation (but will face penalties from Airbnb)0

Sent the host a message that the confirmed reservation as  been made is binding  and point the host to:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1505/can-i-change-the-price-of-a-pending-or-confirmed-reservatio...

If the host is insisting on the price change or cancels the reservation, contact Airbnb and complain:

Contact Airbnb - Community Guide [Updated]

Best regards,

Emiel

[Emilia42]

@Jeff648,  I would decline and let the host know that you are willing to pay the confirmed price when you booked and that you would like to stay. If the host is not satisfied with this, he/she can cancel your reservation and you will start looking for other places. Make the host cancel. They will be penalized, if they do.

[Sarah977]

@Jeff648   This is quite unacceptable on the part of the host and Emiel and Emilia have given you good advice. And I would report this host to Airbnb- this kind of thing gives Airbnb and hosts in general a bad name, even though experienced hosts would never do this. Sometimes newer hosts or property managers with tons of listings forget to keep their calendar prices up to date, then someone books for a holiday weekend or other busy time and they realize they haven't had a chance to change the pricing. 

And if the host cancels this reservation from their end, one of the penalties for them will be that their calendar will be blocked and they won't be able to rent those dates to anyone else, so they lose big time. But some newer hosts don't realize this.