Watch out for how discounts accumulate

[Antonino91]

Hi all, 

I had a very bad experience with Airbnb combining long term and special offer discounts in a way that it is not supposed to. 

I will use round numbers to exemplify: 

My place is 100, and I offer a 10% weekly discount. So far so good. I decide to offer a promotion, 20% discount. 
Thus, for 7 days, the guest should pay 7 x 80 = 560, and on this value the weekly discount of 56 should apply, total 504.
Or, the other way around, he should pay 700, discounted by 10% is 630, on which a 20% discount applies, another 126, so total is 504. 

What Airbnb did, and supposedly still does, is take 10% off 100, take 20% off 100, total rate 70x7=490. 

So, watch out, if you offer such discounts, because Airbnb will make the lowest price for the customer, beyond what you intended. 

[Huma0]

@Sammy35 

Yes, the 'special offer' discount is supposed to make the guest feel 'special' and that they are getting a great deal that they need to snap up ASAP, but when the guest books not even knowing they got a special offer, something is clearly not working!

My long-term discount is useful for the reasons explained above but, especially now as it's an easy way to ward off those extra discount hunters we are seeing so often due to COVID-19. I can simply tell them they are already getting a discount and that's the end of the story. Need to put my prices up though.

I have relied on this income to a certain extent. Not fully, but losing most of my other income as a self-employed person due to COVID-19 meant the loss of Airbnb bookings was a double blow. However, that doesn't mean I am going to roll over and let people come and stay in my house for next to nothing just because they feel 'entitled' to barter down a small business during difficult times. No way, no how.

[Huma0]

Another thing to mention that is not directly responding to the original post, but related is the glitch with amendments to long-term bookings.

So, I noticed that if you or the guest makes an alternation to the dates or number of people on a long-term reservation, the Airbnb system recalculates the price WITHOUT the long-term discount, thereby overcharging the guest.

It's easy to miss this when it's say a week or month long booking as the difference doesn't stand out so much. I realised this after a guest coming to stay for six months wanted to add two nights to her stay and then informed me that Airbnb had charged her an additional £1,500! For two nights in a room priced around £38 + fees per night.

The first couple of reps I spoke to had no idea what was going on and repeatedly told me I was overcharging the guest and needed to refund her. I explained to them I had done no such thing and that all I had done was change the check in date by two days. Finally, I spoke to a rep who told me that it was the long-term discount being taken out of the equation and that it was a technical glitch they were aware of.

Despite reporting this a number of times since then (and seeing other hosts posting here about having the same problem) Airbnb did nothing to fix this glitch for years. Why?

[Antonino91]

An update: I contacted Airbnb help, but they are unwilling to do anything about it. They say that they do not intend to refund the hosts for the losses, nor they intend to change the system for adding discounts. 

[Liam1556]

I am still battling airbnb over when a guest books for 7 days, gets a weekly discount and then cancels after 3 days and airbnb do it all at the lower discounted price.