Hosts raised the prices over 100% after sending him a reservation request

[Francisc0]

Hi guys,

my name is Francis and I wanted to ask for advice.

We have tried to book a room for a week and the reservation price was 840 euros. After we have requested the reservation, the host replied and said that the price would be Euro 1500 instead, because it is high season.

What can I do in this case ? Why is a certain price shown when we are doing a research and try to book, but then it goes high.
Is this normal ?

Thanks for your guidance,

Fran

[Momi0]

@Cathy212   You can cancel up to 3xs a year as an ABB guests, with no penalty to you, receive everything back and the service fee IF you call Airbnb and explain why you are cancelling.   (If you don't call first, and you cancel, you will only receive back what the host refund policy is and your service fee).  

What this host is doing is so unacceptable on so many levels.  They should have blocked their calendar during this noted renovation time to properly prepare their place for the correct listing, pricing and information for their guests.  As I said in my earlier messsage to you today, please call Airbnb immediately. This must be dealt with asap.  After reading their reply, its imperative that you call AIrbnb.  In your confirmed booking email that you received from Airbnb, there is a customer service number.  Use that.  Wishing you all the best, and if you ever find yourself in Honolulu, look me up, you can join me for one of my famous Momi's Marvelous Mango Margaritas.  (and breakfast too).  😉

[Will94]

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[Marit-Anne0]

@Cathy212

That is way out of line.  Contact airbnb and have them cancel for you for a full refund.

[Momi0]

@Cathy212 It most certainly is. Best thing to do is call Airbnb immediately. You can find their number in your area by clicking on the link provided under my name in this post. Also, ask them to help you find another host, one who cares to follow ABB terms and conditions. They can send you links of listings to your email based on what you need.  Let us know how it works out for you.  But probably best not to stay with that host. Yikes! And shame on them.  

[Edwin57]

That show you the Host has no word for the guest I said this befor guest and host must work together to make a better place you know what I mean Host put your self right you know what I mean it took the guest time to book the place then you do this wrong of you yes I said it you know what I mean 

[Will94]

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[Jane518]

Hello everyone! 

My name is Jane. Same thing happen to me yesterday and in need of advice. I booked a house for a weekend through instant booking and got a confirmation email shortly after. An hour later, the host emails me and says the pricing was an error and would change the price and i could either accept the new price or cancel the reservation. (The price jump is 400%.. 400%! Not a typo  she was asking me to pay for the weekend...) 

i called airbnb customer service and told them about this matter and they said they would contact the host for me to keep the org pricing. 

Im not confident that the host will allow me to stay there after all this with the org pricing but it was her error on her pricing, why do i have to pay the price and end up being cancelled?

is there a way that i can still keep my reservation for the same orginal price?  

[David126]

@Jane518

Do not cancel, if the Host does not cancel then the original price stands.

[Helen3]

 Hello @Jane0

As you are already in touch with Airbnb customer services, it's probably best to talk to them about this.

The host cannot make you pay more, but they may choose to cancel the booking rather than let you have it at the price you booked it under, if they mispriced it.

[Will94]

Exactly.

[Evelyn125]

A similar thing has happened to me with a reservation in Prague. The host contacted me after reservation that the price needs to be doubled because it's high season. While I understand that prices go up in high season and the rate he is asking is actually reasonable, it's not the rate that was advertised and that I agreed to and that I have a receipt for.  Trying to report to Airbnb is a nightmare. Although this seems to be a typical problem for them, the "contact us" choices on their website just keep taking me to the host's information. I don't want to talk to the host without contacting Airbnb customer service first.  I shouldn't have to remind the host of the Airbnb terms of agreement! That's their job.  Any advice for how to contact the company about this?  Obviously from this thread, I'm not the first person to have this problem.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Evelyn125

I suggest you refuse to pay and refuse to cancel.  Airbnb has little to say/do in this matter as the contract is between you and the host and airbnb reminds hosts that it is the host's responsibility to keep their prices up to date. The host should accept your booking or cancel and face the host cancellation penalties that follow. 

The big question is, would you like to keep this booking or would you like to cancel for a full refund. If you want to cancel, you would have to contact airbnb and explain the situation so that you can cancel for a full refund.  There should be a phone number on your booking confirmation. If not, use the search funtion above for "contacting airbnb".

[Raymond159]

Had the exact same thing happened to me. After requesting, had the request declined and the host doubled the price. Admitted that the listing was new, and he forgot to raise the prices during those “busy” dates. Honestly wouldn’t have bothered spending all the time looking if I had known.

Very similar behaviour in Munich where we had 7, yes you read it right, 7 rejections for accommodation during Oktoberfest!

This is after successfully booking 22 other locations across the world.

Airbnb offered a $25 voucher for the Munich fiasco (we ended up booking a Hotel in the end). Nothing for the blatant host gouging in Providence. 

I get that it sucks to make a mistake, but it’s not fair to the customers who browse the site expecting the prices to be accurate. I even contacted the host and very politely (at Airbnb suggestion) asked if they would honour the price (it was only three nights) and they said no. Absolutely no other help from Airbnb on this occasion.

Oh and the price jumped from $884 to $1694 so we’re not talking chump change here either!

Basically from what I can tell is that Airbnb encourages hosts to dynamically price and completely allows hosts to reject the request and up the price. It’s illegal behaviour in Australia (misleading and deceptive conduct) but I gather the law of the host (possibly?) applies, rather than the guest booking.

[Anthony720]

Would it do any good to write to the host again? I doubt it ... but I'd love to hear the answer to this. I doubut it because I don't think the host saw the initial note ... the host didn't answer a single query we had posted. I asked several questions ... all ignored ... and the reply sure smelled, sounded, looked like a form letter through and through.

So, the host likely doesn't see the inquiry ... only gets a form notice from AirBNB. Am I right?

[Sarah977]

@Anthony720  Hosts get notification alerts that they have messages from guests waiting in their Inbox. Those messages could be Inquiries, Booking requests, or just further communication from a guest who's already booked. The host then goes to their Inbox to read the message. So either your host wasn't receiving the alerts for some reason (this can be an Airbnb glitch, it's happened to me) or the host simply doesn't pay attention to guest messages. I would suspect the latter in this case, as he seems capable of sending you form replies, without bothering himself to actually reply to your questions.