Price increase after booking

[Marcella78]

Hey guys! I already read a bit about this, but wanted to ask you what would be best to do concerning my booking. 

Yesterday, 8pm I booked an apartment around New Years in Rio for 6 nights. 
Price: €1250,- 

My booking HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED YET. 

Straight after the booking I got the automated email from Airbnb with:

Your request was sent This is not a confirmed booking - at least not yet. You’ll get a response within 24 hours.

I paid with Paypal but the payment is 'in process'. It’s in process as you won't be charged until your booking is confirmed.

At 11 pm the host answered with the following: 
'Hi Marcella, sorry those prices are for current date, I have not set for new years yet, they increase a lot to 12000 reais'.

This means he's increasing the price from €1250,- to €2750,- (More than double!).

He didn’t cancel or decline the request, he just sent me the message above.

 
My question is, what would you guys suggest me to do?
- Answer him and tell him he's violation Airbnb's Terms of Service and refer him to "7.1.2 You are solely responsible for setting a price (including any Taxes if applicable) for your Listing (“Listing Fee”). Once a Guest requests a booking of your Listing, you may not request that the Guest pays a higher price than in the booking request." and tell him if he cancels he won't be able to host other guests on this dates due to Airbnb's policies. 

- Go to Airbnb directly and have them handle the issue. 

Or am I just unluckly and won't be able to do anything as it's not been confirmed yet.

He's a super host and has 234 reviews so he's can't be super bad host, right? 

I would like to stay at his place as it looks great. I don't want to pay more than double his price though.. 

Hope anyone can help out with best advise on what to do here 🙂 Thanks guys, and have a lovely day! 

[Mike340]

A host has the choice to decide how far ahead they will open their calendar - eg - 6 months ahead,12 months ahead.

Obviously once a host does this then the host "should" make sure prices are set for those dates 

What tends to happen on occasion is that a host sets that forward calendar period but forgets what it is  (something easily done to be honest) 

As such the host doesnt realise that..for example..Christmas/New Year is now say appearing in their forward 6 month calendar ..and that host isnt at present thinking about Christmas in June ..it does still seem some event some way ahead...

The host isnt probably expecting a request for a booking so far ahead either I guess. 

In this case I would say that your host prices are at present low season for Rio and that his Christmas prices that he has mentioned are what he would normally request for High holiday season ..hence the diea of a doubling in price ....

The host here I dont think is attempting to overcharge but merely hasnt forward looked as far ahead as you have ..

Whilst you may technically be right ...I personally would see it as possibly a genuine error rather than someone trying to get the better of you,  and see if you can see if you and the host can organise an offer for you 

In other words in the spirit of good host/guest relations  I am not sure whether trying to catch a Superhost off guard in what may have been a genuine mistake is the best way ahead 

Your choice 

[Marcella78]

I wanted to work ahead of time as we had some last minute problems with the same date a few years back.. New Years is every year on the same date, so it's not something what you don't know in advance right.. 

I don't wan to do him harm in any way, but it is his fault. If I make a mistake with my business I can't do this kind off things either, you know what I mean. It will be me, as business owner taking this as 'lesson learned'. 

I will text him and see what he has to say.. Thanks for your reply though!

[Mike340]

As I say..the choise is yours on how you want to deal with it ....and how you see the situation 

[Marcella78]

I replied super friendly but he was a **bleep** after that, so unprofessional. Shame on him. The dates are now blocked in his calender, and we will go for a fair person to deal with. 

[Letti0]

He can decline to book you and take the hit on his decline rate. I would report this host though using the flag option. If he did not keep his pricing up to date that is not your fault and he should honor the rates you requested to book at.

[Cormac0]

@Marcella

Pay what your Host requests,

it's New Years in Rio after all is said and done,

if you don’t book there will be a que of other Guests to take your place unless you’re the type of person that takes pleasure in denying both Host and other Guest the privilege of staying at this location.

[Rebecca160]

I am with Mike on this one. 

The host either did not realize guests could now book through the New Year; thought he had it set for a three month book out; set prices on his phone app and they did not show on the computer app( common computer glitch); or some other Airbnb error. 

I would just just book somewhere else and leave this one.