Price Increase after I book?

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Kelly170
Level 2
Middle River, MD

Price Increase after I book?

I made my 5th reservation today on the site.

 

However about 2 hours after I get an increase booking price thing from the host. I declined because she was $150+ more for 3 nights and claimed airbnb had the wrong price for her summer rates.

 

When I declined she asked me to cancel my reservation and wished me the best in finding a new place. I  beyond mad right now. What is my recourse? If I cancel I will be charged a fee through no fault of my own and my money is tied up 3-5 days for this nonsense. 

1 Best Answer

@Kelly170  Like @Wendy-and-Frank0 said, do not cancel.  This host is trying to strong-arm you.  You won't receive your Airbnb service fees back if you cancel.  I would again tell the host that you will NOT cancel and since SHE wants to cancel the booking, SHE needs to do it from her end.  OR she can, obviously, keep the booking as-is. 

 

Personally, I would just wait out the host and make her cave first, but if you just want to be done with the situation, you can Contact Airbnb and they will review your messages and mostly likely cancel on the host's behalf and you will get a full refund.  But at the same time, the host likely won't be penalized either and, in this case, I would want the host to feel the burn of her mistake. (But that's just me)

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60 Replies 60
Dana257
Level 2
Franklin, TN

I can top it. I made a reservation with LANA in Buckhead GA to stay one night in her 1 bd apartment. Well she aparently is not very bright because a week later she realized it was super bowl weekend and tried to raise my price $500. I am not going for superbowl, I was going for th foo fighters on that saturday feb 2 . They allowed her to cancel us and put her on "restriction" which  means nothing really. There should be a rule about it such as "if you are too dumb to realize when super bowl is you lose"..I won't use air bnb again.

Paola856
Level 1
Cape Town, South Africa

Hi everyone.

 I made a booking 2months ago and now a week before our holiday the host tells me his rates were too low and airbnb confirms that the rates we paid two months ago were too low,according to the host.

 

They wants us to pay an additional r2000. The help centre isnt very helpful and wants me to negotiate with the host.im furious.what to do?

Eric1202
Level 1
Canberra, Australia

This is not the way I see it.  As I have seen situations where customer was not allowed to cancel a booking.  So why on earth should you who has committed to a booking be left empty handed.  I think this is rubbish and the host should not be allowed to cancel just because they want to increase the price... NOT FAIR.... will never book airbnb ever again if my situation goes the landlords way!!!!!  such BS

Totally! you should read the BS I just went through. Criminal.

 

Guruprasad0
Level 1
Bergen, Norway

Hi

I booked one apartment in LAS FLORITAS 104 for Dec 26 - 31, 2019. during booking showing very low prize.

next day I received below message.

hello unfortunately I am sorry to inform you that due to a technical error on the portal the price is not correct .. the difference to be paid amounts to 130 euro .. I hope to be able to accommodate you.

I am not agreed with new prize. so I cancel my booking. it is technical mistake from airbnb. I want full refund of my booking. I am not happy with service with Airbnb.

 

br.

Guruprasad Chavan

 

Thanh47
Level 1
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I have the same issue, the host increased the price immediately after booking made. I declined and they forced me to cancel or accept the alteration. I said I would not do that because it was not my fault. They said if I didn’t cancel or accept the alteration, upon checking in they’d collect an extra fee. So stupid they are! How come they can do it. I really want to report to Airbnb but I don’t know it will help or not

Matt3159
Level 1
Glasgow, United Kingdom

This seems to be a reoccurring theme with Airbnb hosts. My second in a week that has confirmed the booking and then asked for more money. I have reported them to Airbnb, but I'm not confident they take this seriously. Airbnb still facilitate the hosts advertising on their sites.

 

Feedback from Airbnb; "only use super host's". 

Sergey134
Level 2
BI, Germany

I have  just booked a place today, for  a very long stay, 3 days before the trip, at a quite a discount due to pandemic i presume.  Host has immediately after confirming asked Airbnb support to inquire whether I would agree to pay 100% of the price extra on the top of the initial deal (why not 300% ).   Surprise surprise. I said no.  But I am afraid they will eventually cancel and until they do not I am bound to it and wont be able to look for other places, but when they do cancel, i will be overpaying for hotels or taking any option out there that will be still available.

But after having read this thread i realized that  firstly I am in my right not to accept any requests to charge me more money. and secondly, that the host may not be able to rent the place during those weeks of my reservation  due to Airbnb policy if the host cancels. So unless they do something stupid like not providing me access to the premises during the check in, I should be good and they are better off honoring the initial deal. Am I understanding it correctly?

There are actually places where  i can rent  something  similar but smaller although in the same location and for the similar price. But the situation may change by the time they cancel and i  ay find myself  sitting on my bags with a dying battery on my phone trying to find another place in the last minute. That's the scenario  i want to avoid.

S136
Level 2
Walnut Creek, CA

This just happened to me.  I reserved a weekend, it was accepted. Then I go to look over my booking and month later the price was jacked up $150.  It would cost me far more to cancel and I am so so mad.  I contacted Airbnb by phone and told them.  They said I was in no way required to accept the increase.  However they cannot guarantee that the "host" wont cancel my reservation.  I told them that I am being held hostage because to rebook at this late date will cost me hundreds more, and to cancel a trip where I booked a four day weekend of diving will cost me over a thousand.  

 

I will pay the $150 if I have to.  But I wont be using airbnb again if it comes to that. 

I'm done with Airbnb after this trip.  I hear VRBO is much better with guest support.  

Listen to this, I had a booking for two years. Booked pre Covid to Costa Rica, Tamarindo.  Costa Rica re opened but flights were a nightmare and    the reservation was for 13 plus people, so decided to push it to Dec. 27th 2021 to January 4th. Casa Ix Chel.  All was good.  13 people booked flights.  I reach out to Coastal Property, who was managing the property while it was on Air BnB and    asked about bed sizes in the cabanas. They reach out and     say, sorry, you no longer get one of the cabanas because the owners decided to live in it.  

Clearly, this is not what we agreed to and    I need the space.  We go back and    for for a couple of days and    come to find out the place has been sold and    bought. The new owners say, sorry, we are not going to honor the reservation.  Mind you this is last week and    trying to rehome 13 plus people in Costa Rica at Christmas is near impossible and    now so expensive.  So I am freaking out.  Air BnB say sorry, we can't do much, but they, the new home owners, are giving you your refund.   We can can give you a $200 coupon.  Wow!  Thanks.  So I book a new place that is now $4000 over what we planed to spend and    on top of that the new owners come back and     say, we feel bad.  We will rebook you your dates.  AND    THEY DOUBLED MY RATE!  How is this crap legal!!!!  If I had canceled, I would have been out $3500 that I deposited.  We have used Abnb since 2013 and    this is the crap we get.  There should be a penalty for screwing people this badly.  How in the hell do they get away with canceling and      then try to recharge me more?!?!!!!  Can anyone help me with this crap?  Yes, small claims court and     media, so sad I will have to go there.  Thank goodness I was able to rebook.  Truly, airbnb or the people who canceled us should pay my difference.  Such crap.

oh the house is now called the Tamarindo Grand Villa.  Really nice people who can uphold a commitment.

Sorry, CAN'T not can.  

@Marcos-And-Victoria0  Sorry this happened to you. One thing to know is that there are many reports of listings by big property management companies doing such things and inconveniencing  guests in other ways. You are generally much better off booking with a private, hands-on host who looks after their own place, or has a local co-host, as those listings have a personal stake in being respectful of guests and earning good reviews.

 

I don't quite understand, though- you booked 2 years ago, then moved the dates, 13 people booked flights, without you touching base with the host since making the date alteration to make sure all was okay for your reservation? 

 

Airbnb listings are non-transferable- so when there is a change of host, it's a brand new listing- like any business, the new owner has no obigation to run things like their predessesor did, nor to charge the same prices. So it's the original host you booked with who handled this very unprofessionally, i.e. the management company, not the new owners. If the pproperty was for sale, they shouldn't have been taking bookings far in advance, and you should have been notified of the situation.

 

And a host can't just transfer pending reservations to the new owners- that would be disrespectful to guests, who presumably booked based in part on the past ratings and reviews. A new host may not keep his properties clean, or well-maintained, or deal nicely with guests, so guests need to be given the choice whether they want the booking cancelled and be refunded, or take a chance on a new owner with no reviews. 

 

We go when our kids can go, so it's Christmas that we booked first and      we kept those dates.  The house is large and    we have 13 going.

 

The whole thing is disrespectful.  Sorry, it's through Air Bnb and    they are my only link to this.  When people by rental properties they up hold the reservations.  

 

Air BNB has not helped me one bit with this.  And    to decide to cancel and    then offer it back to me at double the price.  Who the hell does that. Shameful.