Guest was Extended 35% Nightly 'Custom Discount' that Host did not initiate/offer

[Christine3254]

I  have NEVER set custom pricing (I would have to learn how!) and yet one of my guests was given six out of ten nights at a 35% discount below my lowest nightly price (I did not authorize or initiate) Can't seem to get a straight answer from airbnb help center. They first told me it was because of my 10% weekly discount--which it is not.  They then said it might be a bug and later said it was not. They apologized and said guests had already left and that the guests had been extended a custom price (insinuating that I extended it)

They wanted me to ask guests to pay the difference. Not fair to the guest! Both guest and host acted in good faith. Seems to me air bnb owes the difference to host. (me)

Very frustrating to be denied full payment out of the blue. A sucker punch.

[Emiel1]

@Christine3254 

Pricing issues are often related to wrong settings made by the host.

There are many options which could have caused this problem. (different types of discounts, fixed week or month prices, promotions, incomplete special offers, etc)

At the moment your listing does not show availabilty for stays longer then 6 days, so i can not check the discounts.

[Christine3254]

Thank you for your reply. YEs, I have shortened my stays to one week.

Thing is I never have changed any settings, made no special offers (being a relative newbie, I haven't explored that)

How do you 'check the discounts?' (being I have never made one)

[Helen744]

@Christine3254  Hi, I dont know if you are a newish host but I think new hosts often sign up early on by agreeing to something to trade a 20 percent discount for higher spots in the postings and if you add a 15 percent discount for weekly stays or nightly stays which you may have set then 'viola'. Just a guess. There is always a reason.Go incognito and check your own listing  H.

[Helen744]

Christine , did you not check the amount to be paid before the guest left? That amount is the amount that will be sent and cannot be changed after guests leave .Was there extra guests ?the discount is applied at time of booking and is easy to see and has to be negotiated with the guest if they have failed to add extra guests or want an extra night.Try and get to the bottom of it for your own peace of mind because something has changed . Do not accept Airbnb  pricing suggestions and always have an amount listed per night below which you will not go and then if someone accidentally posts a discount then this should save your bacon. H

[Christine3254]

YEs--I found the discrepancy before the guest left and began my questioning then. No extra guest. The son (who made the reservation) DID ask to extend his parent's stay--leaving me out of that request. The son told me he made the request and I clicked on accept when air bnb sent me notification of said request.

I did not realize until after the booking was made that I could check the 'breakdown'. DIdn't occur to me that my minimum nightly price would be overridden somehow.

And yes--I have a minimum amount per night set. The  amount charged for those six nights was 35% below that minimum.

And no, I never agreed to any 20% discount for higher spot in posting (another thing I never heard of, lol)

Yes, I'm a newbie. Less than six months. Mom and pop one bedroom in home rental. Income to help our retirement. 

[Helen744]

another thing that may have occurred and canny guests often jump on this is the date the original booking was made. If you have checked the calendar by hand and set a three month window then as the new month appears sometimes the prices will revert to an original discount price and these are then snapped up by the wary. H

[Helen744 · Accepted solution]

@Christine 3254 there are a whole lot of things going on here Christine, most discounts are applied weekly or monthly. Initially hosts do offer a 20 per cent discount as newbies but check that is current. the guest stayed six days , so check your calendar for the amounts per day on your calendar . Then go into pricing and availibility and check your lowest price and organize a price per weekday and price per weekend. If Airbnb are offering a discount so that you initially are getting some bookings then temporarily remove the weekly and monthly discount. It sounds like multiple discounts were operating and  that you are not familar with the operating system. most of us have experienced this . Also the request to extend the booking should have come to you first and possibly something in that pricing was amiss. Did the request not go through the dashboard .? Communication with the guest needs to improve and being aware of pricing at all times. We all have to spend some time each day both before and after guests attending to the dashboard and communicating with guests . Keep an eye on finances so that a problem can be corrected  more quickly. H

[Christine3254]

Good advice. I definitely will be more careful going forward. I'm six months into renting so doubt it had anything to do with being new--at least not that anyone has communicated.

The discount was seven dollars a night below even air bnb's lowball price--22 dollars a night below my preset minimum. Perplexing at best.

You are right---I have not researched all the discount possibilities as I did not plan on offering any. As a one bedroom inexpensive nightly offering already the cheapest in the area AND as retired folks who have been receiving more requests for booking than perhaps we would like--I have little motivation to do so.

I marvel at all the folks who have multiple big properties and let them out for hundreds a night. Maybe if I were 40 years younger, lol. As is this is a flexible way to work part time and receive some financial help to add to our now fixed income.

I just wish I knew how this happened so I can prevent it from happening again. Not even air bnb helpers seem to know.