Smart Pricing Bug - erratic algorithm

[Marzena4]

This morning I got a shock. I have been using smart pricing for a couple of months. Minimum and maximum prices reasonably set. For a few days I haven't received any bookings for my main listing (the oldest, the most popular). Today I discovered how bugged the algorithm of smart prices is. The screenshots attached to picture the whole situation.

The algorithm, for no particular reason me think, set the prices of that main listing to the maximum. Also, the listing that has never been booked (whole apartment) is affected. My secondary listing (listed only weekends, up to 20 bookings so far) is NOT affected by the bug.

What is more, the suggested prices for that main listing are simply idiotic for my place. Also represented in the screenshots.

Anyone noticed something similar?

@Airbnb2 coders: Have mercy on us hosts. We have enough work but to check each day if essential options are working correctly.

And now from the settings in the admin panel:

And the unaffected listing:

[Kate267]

I am having the same trouble. My Nov/Dec open days randomly jumped to my max setting. I turned smart pricing on then off, played with the dollar amounts and everytime, Nov/Dec jumped back to max price setting. HELP!

[Brian1549]

I had a crazy thing happen a few days ago and had to cancel  a reservation which I really did not want to do since i am a super host and did  not want to get dinged because of the cancelled reservation.  mY place goes for 150-300$ a night.  So how a guest was able to book the whole month of November for $5 a night.  I have no idea how that happened but I was not about to rent the unit a take that significant discount.  Is there a way I would request to have that Cancelation penalty waved.  

[Marzena4]

What is essential, @Brian1549 , while using smart pricing is to set both the minimum and maximum rate. Never ever use this algorithm without setting those. 

Just earlier today I got an inquiry for my whole place (up to 8 people, two rooms) from a booker attempting to book for just two people. Two people need a whole apartment in the centre of Cracow? It's obviously someone looking for an opportunity - you can now pair it with all those stories the hosts here are familiar with - binge parties, more guests than booked etc.

[Grace165]

Same issue for me also.  I had a booking 2 days ago at the correct price so I think it's a very recent thing (for me) and hopefully hasn't inpacted bookings too much.

Have turned smart pricing off for the time being.

[Carla288]

They have just introduced the custom dates/discount feature, I'm betting by doing that they have created a glitch in the code for smart pricing.

[Ricki1]

Me too...as of yesterday many of my future dates that are available reverted to max price WITH smart pricing enabled...I just edited them now and removed smart pricing from the dates affected

[Kelly149]

I don’t do smart pricing (since it doesn’t know the difference btwn a weekend & a weekday!!)

But yesterday all dates were suggesting nightly rates of 10,000. If only!!!!

[Heather229]

I'm having similar issue but unless i manually change each date, i'm getting the price reduced to their suggested minimum and it would need to be a shed to justify that price.  Their suggested max was a mansion price too.  I turned smart pricing off and everything then went to the minimum, turned it back on and dates 1 month away randomly went to the minimum.  Glad it's not just operator trouble but it does impact on potential earnings.  Has anyone from Abnb responded?

[Marzena4]

@Heather229 Since that bug, I've been watching my calendar more carefully and it seems that for me the problem is gone. I don't know if you know but we (hosts) may be offered different settings of the admin panel at a time - depending on our geo-location or even other factors. So problems like this one might go in waves.

[Duane4]

Yes I get suggestions to lower my price by $30 sometimes. I never do because as you say I'm not renting out a shed and there are some shed for rent here.

[Regina38]

I called Airbnb fo the 3rd time in 2 days because I got a request where the people had a child-looked like a teenager in photo I think and their request said 3 people but did not charge the extra person. She looked and said turn off instant book do not use it. Now  know why. thank you. Still no reason for a free person. And don't get me started on the infants are free(2 year old is not an infant and i am not a holiday Inn with hundreds of rooms to ive something away.) If airbnb thins children shoud be free they should pay the host for them. 

[Ben221]

I've been using smart pricing most of the year.  There's nothing terribly smart about it.  I don't think it's adjusted the room rate to get me anywhere close to the maximum, regardless of season or demand.

For example, the smart pricing for my room in Bondi Beach from Jan 1 - Jan 4 was $63 AUD per night.  That's PEAK season.  I checked other bookings and nothing was going for anything close to that.

I explained this to the guest, but of course they declined the option to increase the charges to $100 per night (understandably).  But why should I lose out on the opportunity to make money because Smart Pricing can't be trusted?  So, now I've cancelled the booking, but Airbnb has decided to block those dates, and I can't rent it out anyway.  On top of that, I lose any super host potential for however long.

This has really irritated me. I'm not looking to extort people, but I'm also not running a hostel or charity.  Do they even know what the rent in Bondi is like?  Plug that into your algorithim, people.

[Duane4]

They won't admit that the tool is broken big time.

[Lizzie · Accepted solution]

Hello @Marzena4, @Ben221, @Regina38, @Heather229, @Kelly149, @Kate267, @Grace165, @Carla288, @Ricki1, 

Thanks so much for highlighting the difficulty you were experiencing last week. I did pass your feedback over to the Smart Pricing Team, and so I wanted to update you on this:

"We had an issue on October 3rd that affected price tips and Smart Pricing for 19 hours. It only affected a small number of bookings, and our team worked to quickly fix the problem. Smart Pricing and price tips were back to normal on October 4. In addition, our team has put checks in place to prevent this and similar issues from happening again."

I hope this information is reassuring to you, please do keep me updated though on how it is working for you. 

Thanks everyone,
Lizzie