BILLING error (Requested reservation changes)

[Simon209]

Why is AirBnB attempting to force Hosts to accept less money following Guest reservation “Requested changes”? My current situation involves a Guest increasing the amount of people who’ll stay at my condo. The Guest was expecting to pay more (as per my listing, an extra charge of 20$/person/night for each guest after 4 is applicable), yet AirBnB OFFERED A PRICE REDUCTION and claimed to the Guest that I owed her a refund because of said change.

I spoke to a handful of AirBnB “dedicated case manager” and “floor supervisor” over the past month and each, after confirming that my listing was correctly set up and reading thru the message thread, deemed that a glitch was responsible for the issue. Additionally they:
(1) expressed shock and disbelief that this kind of system malfunctioning was possible;
(2) confirmed that my understanding of the billable fees/charges were correct;
(3) claimed that the anomaly would be rectified (ie: manually adjusted) to make sure I received the additional money that I was owed.

But now, nearly a month after initially reporting the issue, I receive an AirBnB “Payout of $ sent” email for the booking's inferior amount (ie: no manually adjustments were made).

Notes:
* two different Guests have requested changes to the amount of people staying at my property (in 2019), and irregularities exist in both cases. Has anyone else noticed similar issues on their listings?
* one of the AirBnB reps I spoke with initially blamed Smart Pricing (ie: price fluctuations) until he realized that I did not subscribe to Smart Pricing and that the booked price could not be modified by the Host.

I’ve used AirBnB for a few years, and have enjoyed doing so, but have noticed other irregularities related to my AirBnB bookings (in addition to the one mentioned above) which is causing me concern. Advice and/or suggestions would be appreciated

[Nina75]

there is a very simple solution to this ... but you will have to go a little think creatively.

[Simon209]

Hello @Nina75 !   I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate.  I've wasted a LOT of time with AirBnB telephone representatives and appreciate any advise/help you can give

[Oad0]

Airbnb support is a waste of time. It is good for nothing!!! I would say, the root cause is “bad guests”. Those bad use all the loopholes in Airbnb to cheat hosts. Good, honest guests will never do those things. Just be extra careful when screening out your guests. That is the success factor. Not letting bad guest into your home in the first place  

[Simon209]

What is baffling is that this kind of "mistake" can happen in the first place. I was led to believe that AirBnB's core strength was in simplifying payment processing once Hosts/Guests were linked, yet they seem to be dropping the ball in that department.

And "yes" @Oad0: I agree that AirBnB support is a total waste of time., and that not letting the bad guests into your home is ideal.

[Nina75]

On small amounts of money involve AirBNB AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.  If someone brings a dog, im not going to involve AirBnb in that negotiation. AirBnb is a 3rd party platform. Be creative man. Ill leave it at that.

[Simon209]

Fair enough.

Is there a way to see the exact breakdown of the nightly fee (including applicable rebates,  etc) that AirBnB collects for us?  It seems that they sometimes mess it up, but their is no way to easily tell (AirBnB telephone reps seem to be rather useless).

[Nina75]

Good support is spotty unless cancelling a booking... they are real good at cancelling bookings for minor reasons.

Rebates are usually hidden.... I had a guest cancel once and she didn't tell me that she had a coupon and she tried to get the Coupon refunded as well, very very slick. She ended up only getting half her booking back (minus the coupon). We spend like 3 hrs on the phone with Airbnb.

They do mess it up sometimes, but as long as they are close, its ok. I'm not going to cry over spilled milk as long as it is close i'm fine.

[Alice595]

@Nina75 and @Simon209  Be cautious when you deal with guest directly in terms of extra charge.  For some fussy guests, definitely you want to think it over even if it is $20. The guest could use this to tell Airbnb that you violate Terms of Agreement.

I would suggest to use Send Money and Request Money button in such a case.

[Nina75]

I have 9 properties on AirBnb and approaching to 3000 reservations. I got this!! 

[Simon209]

@Alice595 and @Nina75 : what complicates being able to resolve this issue directly with the client is that AirBnB told her that she was owed 30$ (when in reality she should owe me an extra 100$). I've never been one to renegotiate pricing, and I certainly hate the prospect of a client thinking that I'm gauging

[Jeff158]

@Simon209  never let the guest send change requests.

If you send the request you can check and make sure the price is correct before it goes to the guest.

[Simon209]

@Jeff158 & @JJ48 : is their a setting that prevents guests from sending a change request?  Both my recent guest bookings involved a change request, and AirBnB's system somehow errored on both counts. The first did a change request minutes after making the initial booking (he had accidentally put one occupant, and subsequently changed it to the three) while the second guest, being the subject of this post, did the change request weeks after making the initial booking.

[JJ48]

There's no way to prevent them sending a change request but you don't have to accept the change.  You could just decline the change and then send them a change request from you.  You could send them a note explaining there's a glitch and that's why you're doing it this way. 

[Simon209]

@JJ48: thank you for the clarification.