Wrong price in search results

[Meredith57]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my question. This is my second month as an Airbnb host.

If I submit a general search for Santa Rosa Beach, my house shows up in the thumbnails of available homes, and shows the correct price of $131 per night. However, if I add dates as a filter (I used August 21 - August 28 & September 1 - September 8 as separate searches), the thumbnail in the search results shows "from $152 per night".

I do not use smart pricing, nor does my price fluctuate. It is always $131 per night. I contacted Airbnb customer service and the representative submitted an IT ticket, and said he would let me know what he found out. I really appreciated how fast he was to reply, however, I am confused by his answer.

He responded as follows:

"Hi Meredith,

This is again XXX from Airbnb. Our tech team just got back to me and advise that the price of your listing showing in the search page is the average price per night which means this includes cleaning fee, service fee and taxes if any. I hope this clarify your query.

If you have further questions, feel free to reply to this message. Thank you for choosing Airbnb.

Regards,"

My response:

"Hi XXX,

Thank you so much for getting back in touch with me. Unfortunately your answer does not help clarify the issue. After I read your message, I did a search and then reviewed the first 4 listings that appeared. None of them support the answer from your tech team. All of the properties have service fees and taxes, and two of them have additional cleaning fees, yet their listing price in the search shows the lowest price per night for the property. Not an average, and not counting cleaning fees or service fees & taxes.

www.airbnb.com/rooms/10812596
www.airbnb.com/rooms/24968006
www.airbnb.com/rooms/25584334
www.airbnb.com/rooms/17569851"

Since then, they have closed the support case, but I still do not understand. To me, it seems that other listing's thumbnails in my area show the lowest price the property rents for, but I am probably confused since I am so new to Airbnb. I added "no price hikes: always $131 per night" to my title, but if a potential guest places a maximum of $150 per night as a filter, my listing will not show up in the results they are able to view. Can anyone help me to understand why my listing shows up as $152 per night when the price is always $131?

With hope & appreciation,

Meredith

[Emiel1]

Hello @Meredith0,

I  performed a  search too:

Without dates it shows up with USD 131,-

With dates entered it comes up with another price (Which is fluctuating,depending on the dates)

But is allways the nightly price + the Occupancy taxes and fees per night (so NOT the cleaning fee or Airbnb service fees). It is NOT an average, it's just THAT price.

So i did the same for the first link (nr 10812596), and yes, price changes in the same way when entering dates !

So it seems to me the answer Airbnb gives you is correct.

Best regards,Emiel

[Meredith57]

Emiel, 

Thank you so much for your response. The second link "paradise beach cottage" comes up as $91 per night in the search results with the dates August 21- August 28, and if you click on it for those dates, it is still $91 per night and it lists the service fees & occupancy tax as additional costs. 

What is so confusing for me is that if you use other filters such as number of guests, home type, price, instant book, or number of bedrooms, search results will show the correct price of $131. It is only when dates are selected that the price shows as $152. If it were about including the occupancy tax or fees, then why does the price of $152 per night only show up when using the date filter?

I am just worried that I will lose potential guests who use date filters.

[Meredith57]

Also, if I add all the costs (7 nights, cleaning fee, service fee & occupancy tax) then divide by 7, it comes to $181.43 per night. If I leave the cleaning fee out and just add 7 nights, service fee & occupancy tax then divide by 7 it comes to $160 per night. 

[Meredith57]

I am sorry. You said, nightly price + occupancy fee. If I add those together and divide by 7 it comes to $141.58. From my listing page, I changed check-in & check out dates to every week in September, and then one each week for October, November & December. The service fee and occupancy tax are always constant. Since my price is always $131 per night, and the additional costs are always the same, I just don't understand where they got the number $152.

But I am not even sure why it is showing as $152 only when using the dates filter.

[Matthew285]

Meredith,

The reason the cleaning fee is only figured in when you include travel dates is that it is impossible for anyone to calculate the nightly rate including the cleaning fee unless you know how long the stay is.

Your minimum stay is 5 nights. If a person books a 5 night stay, it would be:

5 x $131 = $655 + $150 cleaning fee = $805 which is $161 per night.

If the person booked 10 nights, it would be

10 x $131 = $1310 + $150 cleaning fee = $1,460 which is $146 per night.

It is impossible to show the nightly rate unless you know the travel dates.

And that's why the higher rate only shows when you use the dates filter.

[Meredith57]

Thank you Matthew!! You are right the nightly rate for 7 nights plus the cleaning fee divided by 7 is $152!! So they just do not count the occupancy tax and Airbnb service fee in the calculation. Thank you so much for helping me to understand. You are the BEST!