@David7573 Hosts list their properties for rates which they feel they need to charge to make their business worthwhile. That price may vary according to demand ( busy holiday times, major events in their location) when they can command a higher price. They may lower the price for slow times or to try to fill empty dates. Listings are also priced according to what a comparable place in their area goes for.
In other words, hosts don't just pull a price out of their hats- it is based on the same business principles that other businesses are. And hosts want to have guests book, so they aren't going to have a price that's unreasonable.
There are many hidden costs to running a short term rental which guests never consider. New sheets and towels have to be purchased on a regular basis, guests run up outrageous utility bills by turning the heat up and leaving the windows open, or going out all day leaving all the lights on and the heat or AC turned way up. Guests damage or break things that are considered normal wear and tear but have to be repaired or replaced. Cleaning supplies and implements must be bought. All these things have to factored into the listing price.
A guest's budget isn't any of a host's affair, anymore than the host's finances are any of a guest's business.
If I can't afford the fancy brand name expensive jeans, I buy what I can afford, not try to bargain with the sales clerk. If I can't afford to fly first class, I have to book economy, not try to get the airline to give me first class seat for the price of economy.
Not only do most hosts find it insulting when a guest tries to bargain, because they are essentially saying "I don't think it's worth that", even though they have never stepped foot in it, it comes across as a sense of entitlement-"I should be able to have the place that most appeals to me at what I can afford".
And the experience of many, if not most hosts who have reported on this indicates that guests who ask for discounts carry that sense of entitlement into their actual stay-"Why should I have to wash my dirty dishes (take out the garbage, clean the greasy stove top, etc), when I paid a cleaning fee?"
There are certainly discount requests which don't come from either devaluing a host's listing nor a sense of entitlement- many guests may come from cultures where not trying to get the "best price" for just about anything is considered foolish. My experience with that is in those places, prices are usually higher than what the seller expects to get, because they assume that everyone will bargain. So some guests may be quite unaware that in other cultures discount requests are not something everyone expects.
