My listing in a search is much higher than price I set

Beth44
Level 10
Flagstaff, AZ

My listing in a search is much higher than price I set

My listing recently has appeared with a much higher price than I actually set (which I feel would discourage potential guests from choosing to explore my listing ). This price problem occurs in the search properties for .....location. I am waiting for an answer from Airbnb (10 Days). Is this happening to anyone else?

59 Replies 59

Hi Beth

I am new to Airbnb and this happened to me too. From fiddling around with their site we discovered you can stop that feature because, like you, we were afraid it would make people move on to another house.  (I am waiting to hear back from my secretary who actually did it to see what she did). What I do remember is we had to go into our calender and manually put the price in for every day, we raised the price for holidays. I will be back in touch soon!

Robyn

 

Robyn   I did go into my calendar to double-check, however, the price listed has never been as high as what appears in the area search. (I even tried to reason that perhaps the cleaning fee was added in and it still does not add up). 

My name is Gretchen and my listing is jumping up to a random price as well. If you find out how to make this stop, I'd love to know! Thank you!

I tried this too... turned off Smart Pricing, And set my base price, but it still shows up $20 more than my actual listing.

Only when you click on the listing, do you see the real price. 

I have called airbnb and got really frustrated, i have inquired about this several times, and they come back with rediculous answers!

No one has given my a solution yet.

Have you figured it out?

Thank you

Jeanine,  I guess everyone has the same problem and Air B & B is choosing not to address it.  Here is the response I received from them this morning on the issue.  (I copied the response and posted for you to see what they sent me).

 

I have investigated the situation, did several different searches, reported to another department to be sure that there was nothing wrong with the system, also asked for different opinions about this matter and I have discovered why your listing shows up with a different price on the guest searches.
The price of your listing will always appear with different prices depending on the type of search that the guests do, and the system automatically adds the fees that you have set on your listing details. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do manually to change the system, but I will report this matter to the department that takes care of our platform. We are always trying to improve the platform and make the work of our users easy.

Thank you very much for getting in touch with us and have a great weekend!

Kind regards,

what a load of crap. i have searched for airbnb's and found thre different prices on three different devices.  You all are right, it has dicscouraged me from reserving properties from airbnb. Either they fix this issue or I will not be using this service anymore. 

 

no one wants to be taken for a ride.

 

Sally671
Level 4
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom

I discovered that actually the more often you look for something the higher the price appears. This happens on other sites like airlines. Airbnb is being paid more money than they admit and they have therefore taken a higher percentage from me than they are supposed to. I believe that is called fraud.

I am having the same issue....my rate is BRL 150 per night...for 5 nights should be BRL 750 but my guest is being asked to pay BRL 1,300 ???????  my calendar is set at BRL 150 per night, smart pricing is off, but each time I go back to the reservation it keeps increasing in price??? I used Airbnb last year without a single issue, but this random changing of prices is not good business.....Question, has anyone resloved it by using the special offer option??? as in I offer the price I want to receive??? many thanks

 

Hello guys,

I had the same problem too, my fixed price was 65, but then on my listing it was always changing, one time it was 70, then 85.

So I tried to figure it out and I noticed that the more guests I included (when I simulated a reservation for my place), the higher was the price. For instance, if I inserted just 1 person, it would be 65, but if I inserted 2 people, it would raise to 70. And if I put 5 people (maximum of my place), it would raise to 85! So I noticed that everytime I added a person, it would add 5euros to the fixed price. And I remembered that that was my extra host fee (in my listing definitions). An additional 5 euros  for over 1 person.

Then I decided to change  my definitions, and instead of over 1 person, I put 5 people (the maximum of my place). I then made the test and simulated a reservation for my place once more, and the price at last kept the same, no matter how many people I inserted (of course only up to 5 people). 

So see if that is also your case, and instead of putting over 1 person, change it to the number of people that your place hosts and then simulate a reservation and watch if it stays the same, or if it still keeps on changing. 
I hope I could help 🙂 

hey thankyou for this info.You clearly solved my problem! 

Jeeds0
Level 2
Bundaberg, Australia

Is this an issue of how the 'guest' sees it because Airbnb adds fees to what they pay? I like to go sometimes and search my listings as though I'm a guest and see how the price is affected.
Chad7
Level 4
Palm Springs, CA

I have already discussed this with AirBnB just the other day.  Unfortunately, there really is not an answer availalbe in the technology of their website.  Here are the facts (as I understand and which has been confirmed by AirBnB):

 

1.  The price listed in your profile page is the "base price" you set on your listing page (see "pricing" when you call up your listing to edit)

2.  If you raise or lower the price for a specific even or period of time within your calendar over a specific weekend or for a range of dates (special holidays, high or low season for example), your profile page will still show your base price but when a guest actually looks to book those dates, your specific pricing will show.  

3.  You can change your base price to reflect a personal change (for example, I wanted to lower my summer rates to $80/night instead of my usual $125), but that is sort of a double-edge sword for the host.  Yes, my profile then reflected my room rate at $80, but it also changed all my rates (including the high season) to that price.  I have guests already booking for the fall and for our high-season.  As a host, this does not set a good guest experience trying to explain why your $80 is now upwards of twice that price. 

4.  "Smart pricing" does not address this issue.  You will still have your base price show AND the program will automatically reprice your daily room charge.   Just like "instant booking", I do not personally subscribe to anything that a website controls over me.

 

When you think about your own expeeriences, this is not really too different from many booking or hotel sites out there.  The one difference is most other sites say something like "Rates starting at $80" or  "From $80", and when you try to book that low rate, it may only apply for one low demand date and you then are surprise that room has ballooned to $150 per night.  Bait and switch is not a good practice.  I know for me, I'd rather be surprised by a much lower rate than see my low rate I was inticed to look at is nowhere to be found.  That lodging just lost me as a potential guest.

 

So......here was what I ended up doing......  

 

I decided to keep my base price at the rate I use most of the time.  Unless drastically higher, I don't worry about my higher rate I might use IN MY ONLINE PRICING CALENDAR for special events or holidays.  For the time being (i.e., low demand season), I have an intro to my profile listing that says something like "Special Summer Rates End XXXXX" .   All my pricing changes I handle myself by going into the calendar and specifing any changes (plus or minus) from my base.  

 

Until the programmers enhance capability to address yours and my concern, this is the only solution I could think of based on how I wanted my guests to be treated when they looked at or booked my property.

 

Hope this helps.  

 

Happoy hosting!  Chad

 

This is NOT the case. I had some one rent my house for 1 month at $100 a night, I thought. They told me they paid $140 per night and proved it. Guess what I got paid? $100 per night MINUS Airbnb.com fees.

Thanks for the work you did to try and figure it out.

They also don't pass on your cleaning fee to you.

 

Hello Hilary, I see this post is a bit old but I am intersted to know wheather this problem gets fixed someday. I don't only get a lower price than the guest pays but also lower than my base price. This is frustrating and I don't get an answer eather. If you have had a solution please write to me. 

Best regards,

Edia