low demand promotion

Bill1006
Level 3
Lanai City, HI

low demand promotion

Just today, I  received a 9 night booking for July and the guest's nightly rate somehow is less than 50% of what we have listed. After some digging I discovered part of that is "LTS promotion" since I just included a weekly discount. What puzzles me is something called "low demand promotion" which is 50% off the nightly. I do NOT have smart pricing turned on. Anyone know what the heck that is? Also wondering if I can cancel without penalties to me. With these discounts, our costs are not even close to getting covered. I'm certain if I can figure how to turn that off, we'll get bookings during that time frame that are more reasonable. I did sign up for hosting C-19 first responders giving them a 50% discount, but this person definitely is not a first responder. Maybe they are getting in on this discount somehow? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Mahalo!

16 Replies 16
Ian-And-Anne-Marie0
Level 10
Kendal, United Kingdom

@Bill1006 

I'd love to hear the explanation to that one! Have you completely and utterly handed over your listing to Airbnb for them to do with what they please?

Bill1006
Level 3
Lanai City, HI

I talked to a rep this morning who told me it did appear there may have been a glitch in their system that gave this guest the 50% first responder discount. The guest was contacted but refused to cancel or accept a compromise I had offered. At this point, I don't want this guest and want to free up for more reasonable booking.  Rep called me back and told me I had to wait a week before the check-in (July 3) and depending on the virus situation at the time, I MIGHT be able to cancel w/o penalties. This is unacceptable and I told them so. Since this was an issue with AirBnB "system" and guest will not cooperate, I should be able to cancel w/o penalties (I have superhost status). Was told they need to escalate and will get back to me in 3 - 4 days. Unless the guest cancels, which I've suggested he does, I have since opted out of the first responder program to avoid this potential issue with other bookings and am wondering if anyone else has had this problem and how / if it got resolved.

@Bill1006 

 

No!! Thats not any sort of solution for you. They should sort this out immediately, not in 3-4 days and definitely not hoping for a last minute saviour by way of Corvid-19 virus restrictions.

 

The guest needs to be told "Sorry, we made a mistake, we have refunded your account, you need to rebook".

Did you suggest that since it’s Airbnb’s mistake that they pony up the other 50% ?

Bill1006
Level 3
Lanai City, HI

It has been 3 days and "support" has not been helpful. Have been told they cannot  confirm it was a glitch or error on their side. They also cannot explain to me where to see, or even how to set up a "promotion" in case I had done it accidentally. After much digging, I  figured out how to set up custom promotions on my calendar. Now that I know how, I see there is no way that's what I did - it is very obvious on the calendar when one is set up, plus there are several not so obvious steps to go through. Anyway, they have been no help even in telling me if I can cancel the guest w/o penalties. With more digging, I did find out you can cancel w/o penalties on an Instant booking, and  have since done so. Now the guest continues to be verbally abusive and threatening. Pretty distressful, but at least I learned a few things - how to set up a custom promotion, how to cancel a reservation w/o penalty, and "support" is poorly named. Thanks for listening, hopefully this helps someone out there!

Mikki0
Level 10
Long Beach, CA

This happened to me. I give a "last minute discount" of 4% for people who book 0-2 days in advance. I got a booking that gave the room at a 25% discount. I called customer service. I also screen shot the promotion, the payout, and a calculator, in case they couldn't figure out the percentages. Major glitch for sure. The odd(er) thing was the missing service fees. These things always seem to happen when they do any sort of redesign of the system. 

 

Been on hold for 20 minutes while they try to figure it out. 

 

EDIT: So it seems that I had the Covid-19 First responders discount turned on. While I don't mind taking a hit for people who need a place to stay while fighting on the front lines, this guest was a nurse who was taking a vacation day. As that seems like an abuse of the system, and my hospitality, I turned that feature off. 

 

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I initially really liked the idea of the first responder program but what a shame some people are gaming the system. I think this is what happened in my case. The "guest" continued to harass me accusing me of bait and switch. Have been with AirBnB for almost 3 years with no issues so this really rattled me and was very disappointed with support. I don't have much confidence in applying any sort of discount now. I wonder if there are any good stories out there about this first responder program.

Sandra1768
Level 2
Ventura, CA

After having AIRBNB decide to offer 100% of deposit refunds due to the COVID-19 virus without my permission and at a devastating loss to me, I have just had guests book for 10 days at under $500 with this "low demand promotion".  I cannot reach a rep and cannot negotiate with the now booked guests. I RELY on this income, it is my only STVR and I also did not have the smart pricing on. 

Bill1006
Level 3
Lanai City, HI

I hope it goes well for you, support was totally useless to me. The guest I had was completely uncooperative after explaining several times he got an unfair price through some glitch. He may even have figured out some way to game the system, I don't know. Anyway, I discovered that If they booked through instant booking, you CAN decline and cancel it without any penalty. When you cancel, choose the option "I'm not comfortable with this guest".  After weeks of back and forth, I finally tried that and it was resolved within minutes. You are allowed a certain number of cancellations without penalty. I had never cancelled in the past.  They'll probably get a full refund but at least it opens up your place for a booking at a fair rate.

Not knowing, and never told, how this "low demand promotion" got set up, I've opted out of the first responder program and also removed weekly and monthly discounts, just in case those triggered something. With travel restrictions to Hawaii, and short term rentals not allowed on Maui, we're at a point where we need to offer our place up to locals for month to month rental but I'm apprehensive to set up anything out of the ordinary. Would be nice to at least cover some of our monthly expenses somehow.

Annita15
Level 1
Villa Rica, GA

Take immediately booking off your listing, let everyone inquire a stay so you have more insight before you say yes. I know that sucks but better than Airbnb taking over without any help if you need them.

Tricia2686
Level 2
New York, United States

Hey, 

 

Can anyone tell me if this was resolved and if so how? 

Tonight I received a 7 day booking where Airbnb put in a low demand promotion so each night is only $14.!!!!  Together with the additional cost of cleaning supplies and the cleaning company charges due to COVID I will end up needing to pay forward money to have this person stay there. I immediately called airbnb to seek assistance and was told someone would get back to me, but they could not guarantee anyone gets back to me before the person is supposed to check in. 

 

If this wasn't something I agreed to, the promotion, shouldn't airbnb front the cost or at least waive the fees they are charging?? 

 

HELP!!

 

Any advice is appreciated. 

Support strung me out for weeks and eventually was useless. The booking with the surprise discount had been made through instant booking. I discovered that I could cancel the booking with no penalties and guest got full refund. It also opened up my calendar for bookings at my regular pricing. I turned off all discounts and unenrolled from the Covid first responder program to avoid weird discounts in the future. Go to the reservation, choose Change or Cancel, then choose Cancel. Choose the option "I am uncomfortable with the reservation ... " Say something about Covid as need be and just follow the rest. After hours on the phone, back and forth messages over 2 weeks time, this worked for me and resolved the issue within minutes. I've not had any more surprise "low demand Promotions" since. Of course, since we are still pretty much shut down here in Hawaii, I've not had any bookings since March. Not a pretty picture out here. 

 

OH, and they never did explain to me what a "low demand promotion" is and how it got applied. I conversed with 5 different support people. One told me it appeared to be a glitch on their end, but the others basically blamed me for doing something. I didn't even know how to create a special promotion. Now I do. It takes several steps and is pretty obvious when you do. This "low demand promotion" was something else altogether.

How were you able to cancel without penalty? Same thing happened to me for a 31 night reservation.@bill1006

The problem booking I had was made with instant booking. If yours also was, please refer to previous message for how I cancelled with no penalties. If yours was NOT an instant booking, I don't know what you can do but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try the same thing.