10 percent (non-refundable) discount added without my consent!

[Vanessa1275]

I received a confirmed booking with an additional 10% discount for guests choosing to do non-refundable even though Airbnb did not ask for my consent to add this to my listing. This is on top of the discount I had already included. It is a lost of close to $100 that I am having to incur, which is impossible to do during these already difficult times. I have tried contacting them through phone and there is no way to reach a human being. I am only sent to a contacts page where I  opened a chat that a robot also responded to, still not being able to resolve this issue!

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Vanessa1275 I trust you have corrected your listing back to not include this option now? Reports in this community do suggest that some features are switched on (and off) randomly by Airbnb although some will no doubt claim they do it on purpose.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

You no doubt Mike, must claim that its a continual 'accident' that these things keep on happening do you?

Like the accidental deduction of cancellation fees for future cancellations from current payments and the overbooking of set buffer days - just to mention another couple?

@Vanessa1275 

The worse part of your 'accident' is that there is no such thing as 'non-refundable'. Whilst the "attest" Covid cancellation policy is active - which will be for quite a while - you will not avoid that refund to guests happening. And that even including with the contract being made fully aware of the risks of a cancellation  due to Covid.

Airbnb adding a discount to your set fees does make it a lot easier for Airbnb to make the booking, take the guests money IMMEDIATELY, claim their fees and make you finance it. (Oh look - you already did... Your $100 secured them a booking and put c$500 in their account). It also makes it far easier for Airbnb to provide travel vouchers to the guest too if they do want to cancel as they did take the option of 'non-refundable' (note the word 'want' and not 'need' - want has a similar meaning to "attest" here).

Possibly the best way to approach this is to insist with CS that you have been victimised by the Airbnb system by the unauthorised discount and you either want that money re-imbursing to your booking or you want a penalty free cancellation. Nothing less. Don't waste your time on the phone, use the traveller chat facility so that there's a record of your demands.

It's not a good thing to say, but you've just joined the ranks of hosts who have been mugged by Airbnb.

[Vanessa1275]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Mike-And-Jane0 Thank you for your reply, this is very frustrating that Airbnb calls us hosts "partners" but instead are taking advantage of us and as you said "mugging" us to make their reservations.

Can you clarify what CS is? To reach out to. 

I will add another post to try and come together to write a letter to Airbnb complaining of these awful business practices. Would be great to get written records of all these "accidents" and report them.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Vanessa1275 

CS is Customer Services.

The easy way to access Customer Services is via your dashboard using the 'chat' facility. If you go to the booking you want to discuss, in the top right of the page on a desktop machine there is a chat or 'traveller chat' option. It might just be referred to as 'contact'.

Write out your issue as a file separately, then paste the text into the chat window. A 'bot will reply and direct you to a Customer Services representative who won't do anything other than refer your question on to a more experienced CS rep who might then be able to help. Your saved file will be needed again to re-paste the same message to them too. After your initial contact with Rep#1 it may be a few days before Rep#2 contacts you.

If you need to get the booking cancelled, make sure that your calendar is cleared to accept bookings.

[Vanessa1275]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 Thank you for clarifying. I did reach out since yesterday and did not receive any help. Reached out again today and was told this:

 Guess I now have to wait a few days to get in touch with someone who can actually help. I do not want to cancel the reservation because I would be penalized with a fee or the automatic review. Very disappointing service I am experiencing. Sorry to hear you have had to go through this as well!

I opened a new post "To Hosts who have experienced "accidental" setting changes by Airbnb without consent" if you wish to share your host mugging experience. Thank you for your help and advice!

[Ricardo85]

@Vanessa1275 

What steps you took to disable the 10% discount?

Ricardo

[Vanessa1275]

@Ricardo85 You need to change it in your cancellation policy. In my case i had it originally set to flexible but Airbnb changed it to Flexible or Non-refundable without my consent.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Vanessa1275 

You already stated the correct things. Their platform issues are not your responsibility and you're absolutely correct, it is for them to sort out with the guest without any penalties or charges to you.

It's interesting that in these times of limited Customer Support and Airbnb requesting that guests and hosts be patient, how they can ramp up complaints such as this of their own making resulting in a worse service.

They could ease their own backlog by not creating the circumstances which increases it.

I might add... you do have the guests contact details now. Contact them and tell them that there is a problem with the booking which is not your fault and that the booking system is adding discounts where it shouldn't be. Provide as much detail as necessary and tell the guest that they might need to cancel unless Airbnb sort it out. Make sure this is on your message stream. Indicate that you are awaiting a reply from Airbnb Customer Services but you are just keeping them informed...

This way you are not going to be made a scapegoat for Airbnb's actions.

When you get a resolution, insist Airbnb pay the guest compensation for their troubles in suffering the platform tech issues.

[Sammy35]

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@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 wrote:

@Vanessa1275 

You already stated the correct things. Their platform issues are not your responsibility and you're absolutely correct, it is for them to sort out with the guest without any penalties or charges to you.

It's interesting that in these times of limited Customer Support and Airbnb requesting that guests and hosts be patient, how they can ramp up complaints such as this of their own making resulting in a worse service.

They could ease their own backlog by not creating the circumstances which increases it.

I might add... you do have the guests contact details now. Contact them and tell them that there is a problem with the booking which is not your fault and that the booking system is adding discounts where it shouldn't be. Provide as much detail as necessary and tell the guest that they might need to cancel unless Airbnb sort it out. Make sure this is on your message stream. Indicate that you are awaiting a reply from Airbnb Customer Services but you are just keeping them informed...

This way you are not going to be made a scapegoat for Airbnb's actions.

When you get a resolution, insist Airbnb pay the guest compensation for their troubles in suffering the platform tech issues.

---

210% STG!!!!!  

[Sammy35]

can you open the resolution took specific to rez
START WITH ASKING abb
THEN EXPLAIN VERY GINGERLY and ASK FOR THE NON APPROVED discount from the guest (very very carefully )

[Sammy35]

also, there are clever ways of getting hosts to withdrawl...message me if you wish to chat offline via PM/DM

[Sammy35]

i actually take 10 minutes to check all my listing setting EVERY SINGLE DAY.  it super annoying but saves me more time in the long run

[Vanessa1275]

UPDATE: After going back and forth with Airbnb, chat window after chat and zero phone calls they never admitted that they changed my setting and cancelled the reservation with penalty to me. They didn't even bother to call me or let me know what the penalty would be, and if I wished to proceed. Instead now they blocked my calendar for the 15 days, all for a mistake they did on their end. I have never cancelled on any guests, and during these incredibly difficult times for us hosts after enduring countless cancellations with no penalties to guest and only to us hosts, they couldn't even bother to communicate transparently. 

[Vibi-N-Homes0]

I’m going through the same thing right now. They applied a discount without my consent and admitted to it. Any solution to this? I thought that as host we were in control of pricing and in turn Airbnb got their % for us using the platform. I can’t afford the discount.