smart pricing, listing not found, incorrect pricing

[Jae7]

Hi All,

I am new to Airbnb and would appreciate your advice on the following, please.

Recently I have turned off Smart Pricing as it was confirming reservations below the nightly minimum I had set. Since doing so I have not been able to see any of my listings appear in searches. 

Has anyone come across a similar situation?

[Donna240]

I believe smart pricing overrides your set prices. As for not finding your listing, some people have suggested that if you don't allow instant booking, your place goes to the back of the list. I'm new and just received my first excellent review...my place was nowhere to be seen, even when I used every filter to narrow the search. The search only seems to go through 17 pages.

[Jae7]

@Donna240 I have both listing's set on Instant booking. I have tried to change PC's to see if the listing will appear and have tweaked the filters in all manner of ways but am still unable to find both listings. It almost feels I have been blacklisted. @Marzena4 The price I have set in my calendar was USD58, and I received a confirmation for USD38/night. 

My apartment is a brand new 2bedroom and 2bathroom apartment in an upscale building well positioned in the city centre. The only reason I set the price as low as USD58 was to get my first few reviews. This price only allows me to make back my cost, anything lower would be a loss of effort and finance. 

[Marzena4]

You have to then contact Airbnb to cancel the reservation, explaining the case, @Jae7

[Jae7]

@Marzena4 I have but with no real joy. Please find below their response 

[Marzena4]

@Jae7 Setting the minimum and maximum prices is for Smart Pricing. If you turned it off, those values were ignored I think and the system chose the value set as default or the one that was in the calendar. What did you set over there?

And Instant Book, as @Donna240 mentioned does increase the number of bookings.

[Jae7]

@Marzena4, @Donna240 Called Support again and spoke to a Jaime a case manager. She has finally been able to give me some real support and has now cancelled the reservation in question.

I was seriously thinking for one minute to take both listings off and take my business elsewhere. Thank you, Marzena and Donna for your replies. Your advice was greatly appreciated!!

Kindest Jae

[Marzena4]

It's great to hear, @Jae7. 

Seriously? You need to be strong to host. 🙂

[Rebecca181]

@Jae7 - It is great to hear that the Case Manager handled your issue appropriately. I myself noticed the last time I called Airbnb C/S due to an unresponsive guest a real change in how I was being spoken to. The C/S rep did not seem to be 'empowered' to make any decisions regarding my plight; I did just as you did - Reminded her of Airbnb's own (supposedly reassuring and supportive) policy around this and that I had a right to cancel, as written in their own policy. She just kept saying they would try to contact the guest and that I could cancel but a Case Manager would have to review things to decide if I would be 'penalized'. What was even more disturbing is I was calling the 'Super Host' line - A direct line for Super Hosts, which I thought meant we would get more experienced and empowered C/S to handle our issues or concerns. I was fine waiting a day or two for them to try and contact the guest - But I did what you did - Asked the "what if I cancelled" question, and got the same (nearly) exact answer as you. Which makes me think that these are new 'front line' and very inexperienced employees who are possibly reading off of a script. Really frustrating, especially when this is who is answering the phone on the Super Host line.

My sense is that Airbnb is growing at such a rapid pace that they are hiring people in C/S as fast as they can and allowing them to do elementary things but anything that takes knowledge and experience has to be 'kicked up' to a Case Manager. It did not use to be this way - I just noticed this a few weeks ago during the call I mentioned. New hosts like you especially need an experienced C/S to guide them through the ins and outs, including helping you to avoid penalties that you do not deserve. However, you will find a wealth of experience in this community and it is always a good place to come to - You can get many of your questions answered here.

I can tell from how you handled this C/S person that you are just the sort of host that Airbnb needs and I encourage you to not leave the platform. I am on a few platforms but 97% of my business is from Airbnb and I will likely take my listing off other platforms because I prefer Airbnb guests and even Airbnb C/S to any other listing sites out there. 

So keep us posted and let us know how it goes!

[Jae7]

@Rebecca181Thank you for your feedback and reassurances 🙂

[Marit-Anne0]

@Jae7 @Rebecca181

This case really underlines that we should avoid bookings at short notice. We need time to handle those incidents when we are uncomfortable with guests.