Host increases price after reservation confirmation

Kaylee6
Level 2
Dallas, TX

Host increases price after reservation confirmation

This is only my second time using Airbnb, so I consider myself a fairly new user. First experience was awesome, this one is making me leery of the whole website.  I made a reservation request for a 28 day stay. The host- who is a superhost and has great reviews- was easy to communicate with prior to the booking, and even sent me a pre approval. My husband and I wanted to be sure of our plans, so we waited a couple of days before submitting a request. We were happy when she confirmed the reservation, but confused when minutes later she sent an alteration request to increase the price by more than $1,000. She sent this request with no message or explanation. When I asked her why the alteration, she responded by saying it was an Airbnb glitch and the pricing was wrong during the summer months. Now if an issue with pricing had been brought up prior to her confirming the reservation I may have been open to discussion, but locking us into the reservation and minutes later increasing the price seems very unethical.  I declined the alteration request and politely suggested she cancel if this was a problem. She responded that she was 'waiting to hear back from Airbnb' on the issue, and I would need to cancel if the pricing was a problem. Obviously I can not cancel as it is booked as a long term stay. I have contacted Airbnb multiple times and have an open case, but am not able to get my case manager to respond. Am I missing something here? This whole thing seems like it should be grounds for Airbnb to cancel the reservation and remove this host, or at very least take away her superhost status. Feeling very frustrated and mislead..any tips on how to proceed?

26 Replies 26

@Kaylee6 - in defense of this host - computer programs are not failsafe and problems do occassionally occur.  She is worried as much as you are about this mistake because it affects her too.  If she cancels, she loses her Superhost status, gets fined, her calendar will be blocked so she is unable to take any other bookings for that time, and will be marked down for search results.  She can be booted from the platform for things like this.  

In your defense, you are not liable to accept the increase.  If it isn't actually a computer issue, the host failed to keep her calendar up to date and she is beholden to you for the price she accepted.  Since she had multiple days to review her calendar for any problems, you do not need to accept this increase for her failure. 

You have an open case and you, the host, and the case worker will come to some sort of conclusion. Since it is months away, there is time to get this sorted.  From a practical perspective, start looking for your second favorite hosting location in case this host does cancel.  If Airbnb rules against her - which is quite likely - she may choose to forfeit everything and bail.  You also will have to consider that you are renting from someone who doesn't feel like they were treated fairly, so I wouldn't expect anything extra without being charged for it.  

Thank you for the response and both points of view. At this point, I feel a cancellation would be best. Hoping I can get Airbnb to facilitate. 

Dee33
Level 10
Reston, VA

Don't cancel your reservation, whatever you do, because your account will be penalized. Let the host take the financial hit and/or get Airbnb to cancel the entire thing without penalty to you.

 

It's not good that they are taking so long to get back to you. You should call them directly and ask for a different case manager.

Thank you for the response. I will not cancel whatever I do. My case manager just sent me a message saying the host is not responding and if they have not heard from her by tomorrow they will set a 24 hour deadline. Is this a reasonable timeline? Seems fishy that the host won’t respond. 

@Kaylee6 - it is fishy, absolutely and I suspect since she's not responding that it was her mistake.  Unfortunately, this happens because people think hosting is "easy" when, in fact, it is hard work and requires someone to be thoughtful and focused.  It's a horrible situation that you're in and hopefully Airbnb takes care of you.  

 

It's been more than 24 hours.  How was this resolved? 

Update: Airbnb did respond last night with cancelling the reservation and issuing a full refund. Definitely the best outcome in this case. Hopefully this was a one time bad experience and we can find a good property going forward. Thank you for the advice/feedback!

@Kaylee6 - Glad to hear it.  Have you checked to see if the month you wanted to book was blocked ?  I'd love to know if she got penalized for this.  

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Hello @Kaylee6

 

Airbnb should also be giving you a 10% credit in addition to your refund to help you find somewhere else - do make sure they give you this for the inconvenience caused.

 

If this was a host error, the dates should now be blocked on their calendar.

@Dee33 - Guests who cancel do not have their accounts penalized.  They will be financially penalized by loss of fees and, potentially, the cancellation policy in place.  In this case, the guest would be out the entire 28 days.   Only hosts who use IB would even know that this guest cancelled at all.  

Mari-And-Di0
Level 3
Miami Beach, FL

If it was a computer glitch, then Airbnb should state that to reassure the guest

If it was not a glitch but an oversite, then the host should have noticed it before the booking was confirmed. The price is clearly visible to hosts during the vetting process.

I can not fathom why Airbnb is taking so long to resolve this issue. I am very sympathetic to hosts and more now than ever. However, $1,000 difference in price is significant. Hosts see the price before accepting/declining. If there was an oversight on host part she/he would have noticed before accepting the reservation request and could have used that time to explain the error on her part in updating the listings calender and pricing.

Airbnb has always resolved my issues relatively quickly so I am confused about the delay in resolving this issue

Chris779
Level 2
West Mifflin, PA

I am a first-time Airbnb user (or perhaps not even that since I haven't stayed anywhere yet) but my girlfriend and I wanted to start a tradition by planning our upcoming new year in advance, so we found a place yesterday for December 2018 - January 2019. We booked, paid through PayPal and received our reservation confirmation and billing receipt with reservation code. We were very excited about lining things up early and getting a small apartment for what we felt was a decent price for two nights - about $300. Then about 30 minutes after receiving the confirmation that everything was all set, we get a change request from the host asking for an additional $691.80, bringing the total for our two night stay up from their base of ~$92/night + fees to ~$435/night...In addition to this request, she sent no message to us, no explanation, no defense, etc., so I did some forum searching and found this thread and a few others, but I just had to ask what others thought. Not wanting to be penalized for cancelling because she has a strict policy of only a 50% refund if I did cancel and certainly not able to afford $1,000 for two nights in the mountains, I declined the host's request. That was two days ago. So far still no personal communication from the host. 

 

Realistically, I'm not terribly worried about it. If she lets it slide, cool. If she doesn't and cancels then that's fine too, but I just don't understand why someone wouldn't at least try and communicate especially when my intro message was fairly open and everything? And I'm also concerned that this seems to be a common issue for Airbnb guests/hosts. Definitely makes me wary of my first experience.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Did you book with a long established host with mainly five star reviews?

 

If so, this is suprising behaviour. Your host is behaving appallingly. Sounds like they left their calendar open and forgot to adjust their pricing.

 

As it says earlier in this thread. You won't have to cancel. This is down to the host and they need to cancel. 

 

Just call Airbnb and explain what has happened. They will refund you and give you a 10% credit in addition to find somewhere else.

 

The majority of hosts are professionals with lovely properties. For your next booking look for a long established Superhost with great reviews.

 

 

 

Yes, her place had strong reviews and everything and she seemed fairly well established. Why doesn't Airbnb let the hosts extend/project their calendar as far as they feel is reasonable and if a guest would like a stay beyond that window then they can contact the host directly or something. It seems like this is a surprisingly common issue (after looking into it) that inconveniences the host, the guests, and Airbnb. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

@Chris779 Airbnb does exactly this you can open your calendar for three, six months or a year. But not post a year so perhaps there is atechnical fault with Airbnb.