Airbnb NOT being honest with what guests are actually being charged.

Erica132
Level 2
Austin, TX

Airbnb NOT being honest with what guests are actually being charged.

Here is my situation.... 

 

 

 

My current guest needs to change his reservation dates. This is a simple task, right? Send over a reservation change request, the price changes a bit, no hassle.

 

The past few days my guest has been requesting price amounts and inquiring about the change fees. To my knowledge (what airbnb chooses to show me.) I'm seeing my guest being charged $790.00 with a service fee (for the airbnb platform) of $23.70. Totaling a payout for myself of $766.30. When in reality my guest has paid $923.83 (Which I was unaware of). To my knowledge I'm charging an additional $204 for a date change for my guest. So when my guest is inquiring what the correct price should be and asking, "if the additional fee is $239.05 on top of the $923.83." I ensured them that it would only be the additional 2 night stay on top of the $790.00 that was charged to them.

 

My guests are left completely confused and myself explaining that there is no way they should be paying over $994.00 with the charges of the additional nights.

 

Now that being said, I called Airbnb. To my surprise Airbnb in reality is not taking $23.70 as a service fee, but $157.53 (with state taxes) Which is fine. I am completely aware that Airbnb must make a profit. I have absolutely no problem with a company making a profit. Although, it is not clear why Airbnb feels the need to leave the host blind to these fees. In reality it makes the host look bad in the eyes of their unhappy guests. Unknowingly giving incorrect statements of pricing.

 

It is now clear, in the past when guests inquire about the fees, why they are upset and confused. Airbnb should not pull a curtain over the hosts eyes and show the hosts false service charges. For what? The guests come to the hosts for questions regarding their stay, NOT Airbnb, only through Airbnb.

 

This is very unsettling. Not a reassuring feeling that Airbnb is an honest company to use for hosts. Why not just show the actual pricing that is being charged to the guest so that we can be aware when a question arises regarding extra nights or discounts. 

15 Replies 15

@Mette5  Tech glitches definitely happen on pricing. A guest of mine was once charged double my room rate, plus the attendant fees. She and I both caught the error as soon as the booking confirmation went through. She messaged me saying maybe she had read my pricing wrong, and she couldn't afford it if that was true, but I said, no, it was an Airbnb error I had just seen and had already called them about it. This was years ago, when they actually had a decent customer service dept, and the rep said it was a tech glitch, and many guests had been charged double the nightly rate that day. My guest also called them and she got refunded the difference.