Pricing

[Mark4442]

Hi All,

I'm new to this community & this is my 1st post. My question is about pricing.

We have a property management company that has our house listed on their website at $275 a night, cleaning fee $275 and booking fee $82.50. VRBO has the same prices on their website plus a $226 service fee, which is fine. On the other hand, ABNB website has increased our pricing to $321 a night, cleaning fee $306 and service fee $270.  I understand there needs to be a service fee but increasing the nightly rate and cleaning fee makes my listing way less competitive. Not to mention that I don't receive that price increase.

The property management company says it has to do with ABNB software and hasn't been able to correct the problem, which doesn't make any sense to me.

How do I get the ABNB site to not increase my nightly rate and cleaning fee?

Is there something in the settings that can be changed to take care of this?

I'd love to hear from anyone that can advise me on this matter.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mark4442 there is something strange here as 'software connected' hosts which you presumably are should be on the 'host pays the service fee' plan. Who is telling Airbnb what to charge?

[Mark4442]

@Mike-And-Jane0 thank you very much for your response. I'm so new at this, I'm not really sure what's going on. But based on what you said I see that Airbnb does charge "software connected hosts" a fee of 14-16% or more. So it appears that our management company's software or Airbnb's software adjusts the price of the rental and cleaning fee which are then inflated to net us the $275 a night. However Airbnb is also charging the guest a service fee on top of that as well. This doesn't seem right as it looks like for "software connected hosts" it is a host only fee.

From the help center of Airbnb  "There are 2 different fee structures for stays: a split-fee and a Host-only fee". Any idea on who I can contact to find out why Airbnb would be collecting twice off of my rental?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mark4442 Airbnb customer support will likely just increase your blood pressure and take ages to find a solution. Before subjecting yourself to them you can do a few investigations :

1) Go into your account and see which fee structure you are on

2) Simulate a booking by pretending to be a guest and see what service fees are being charged

If test 1 says there is a service fee paid by guests then you need to ask your management company not to up the rates.

If test 1 says its a host only fee and test 2 shows a guest service fee then you need to contact Airbnb as it is their issue.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mark4442 I should have added that Airbnb doesn't have software to increase a properties nightly rate to account for the host only fee so it is highly unlikely to be an issue at their end.

[Mark4442]

@Mike-And-Jane0I know this may sound silly but I have never logged into my account and don't even know how. I have been using a management company and they do everything with their software (there are multiple reasons we use a management company). The reason I started digging into this was the price difference on nightly rates and cleaning fees.

I now want to be a bit more involved as I see there are issues. Do you know if there is a way I can log in and make my own changes (pictures, description, etc) or is the management company the only one able to do that?

I did simulate a booking and there is a service fee of about 14% that the guest pays and a fee of about 14% that the host pays but is past onto the guest through higher nightly rates and cleaning fees. I'm trying my best not to subject myself to Airbnb support but it looks like I might have to.

Thank you again for your time and help!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mark4442 really don't waste your time with Airbnb support as they will not answer your question as you do not have an Airbnb account (or at least you don't on your profile). As such you will fail security!

The problem you have is that the management company effectively control your  listing and without them allowing you access you will never get to the bottom of this. 

I am afraid the management company has all the control here. If they have a separate account for your listing then you could ask them to make you a co-host on the account but I don't think this will give you the level of access to your account that you need. 

Sorry but the only solution seems to be to ask the management company to do the tests I outlined before and then either fix it or contact Airbnb themselves......

[Mark4442]

@Mike-And-Jane0Okay, thank you for your help. I will see about the co-host idea but other than that it looks like a black hole... All the best to you!

[Helen744]

@Mark4442 Mark you say 'we' . I would suggest that you release your management company from the responsibility and take on the hosting yourselves or find someone else to assist. H