Reservation request refused, then price doubles????

[Anonymous]

Hi guys ...

Last night, I tried to reserve an appartment.  This morning, I received an email from the host, saying that if I changed to a Saturday arrival (I had requested Friday), then all was good.  We made this change and the booking was refused!  I have just received a message from the host inviting me to re-book for the Saturday changeover and all would be OK.  I then noticed that the price had gone up by nearly €30 per night!!  Needless to say, I won't be continuing ....

Is this allowed within Airbnb??  Is it normal practice??

[Christine1]

@Anonymous,

Maybe friday was busy and not available but Saturday was available?

Perhaps the host thought you would realise that the Saturday costs more than the Friday?

perhaps the host forgot to highlight this and just relied on your realising it from the calendar?

perhaps they didn't think much about it, when an alteration goes through the software automatically recalculate the tariff based on the calendar..... it's complicated sometimes.

What if you were to write back to the host and say something like

.... thanks for making the suggestion and you don't mind changing the day, but you are only agreeing to the change on the assumption that the tariff would be the same, and if so, you are happy to go ahead, : )

But if not   : ( etc etc...?

I hope this is helpful to you, 

We would be interested in knowing how things end up as we can all learn from your experience.

Sincere Regards, Christine.

[Anonymous]

Hi Christine ...

It wasn't quite like that .... He declined the original booking request, and suggested that I change to Saturday, he them messaged me asking me to re-book.  It was then that I noticed the price had gone up from €35 to €68 per night.

I messaged him asking why the price had nearly doubled ... guess what?  No reply!!

[Christine1]

@Anonymous, 

Thanks for getting back with extra info, as a host i can think of a few reasons that may have motivated them to make these changes, but none of them are ideal as they mean that the hosts settings are not in alignment with their wishes, and you have been caught in the middle. 

Occasionally a host finds themselves in an awkward situation and declining has an adverse affect on their ability to accept further bookings which match their preferences. They will then encourage the guest to withdraw the request.

It sounds like you are in that position. Slightly unpleasant and not a lot you can do. Fortunately early in the interaction and no money lost by either party.

Time to move on and keep an eye on the committment rate of your hosts as you do your property searches.

Thanks for taking a chance on booking with Airbnb.

Best regards, Christine.

[Anonymous]

Christine .... All sorted, at the right price too!