Host doubled price day of check in

[Terra198]

Id love some advice on this. My host doubled the price for the air bnb going from $2900 to $5500 for 4 nights. He did this on the day of check in. Me and a group of 10 girls were on our way to Montreal for Osheaga and had our airbnb booked months ago. The host was well aware of how many people, we had messaged him inquiring about the 10 people and everything seemed to be going perfect. He made a group chat on WhatsApp with all of us the day before check in. It was very known how many people were coming. The morning we were leaving, he sent a message saying that we had only booked the house for one person… and wanted us to rebook with the price doubled. We weren’t able to afford this drastic price increase and not sure what to do since it was day of, we would only get 50% back if we cancelled and tried to find another place. On top of this everything was fully booked because of the music festival. The host was explaining that we had only booked for one person, we explained that was an accident selecting one. We went back on the app and reselected 10 people and it was the same price so I’m not sure where he got the doubled price from. We checked again an hour later and he had increased the price to $7000. He took hours to reply about the price, we tried to negotiate, and he left us hanging until over an hour after our supposed check in. He never gave us a code to get in, then said that there were 6 men staying at the house as well and he could give all 10 of us one room for $5500. This is clearly a safety issue for us to be staying with strangers, especially 6 men. We ended up having to cancel and got less than 50% back because it was after check in time. Airbnb supervisors were not helpful at all with what is clearly a scam. He also still has the Airbnb open for booking for $7000. I’m not sure how this was allowed and Airbnb wasn’t able to help us at all. Like nothing whatsoever. I’m sorry that this is quite long but we don’t know what to do and now we gave this host almost $2000 and got nothing in return. He knew everything and took advantage of us needing a place to stay. I’m glad we didn’t go and went to a motel instead (our only option). I don’t know that I will be using Airbnb ever again due to the scamming nature of the hosts and lack of help from Airbnb for the guests. Please help if you have any advice on how to handle this situation. Thank you 

[Helen3]

To be honest I'm rather confused by your post @Terra198 

1. It doesn't matter how many you discussed the booking was for what matters is how many you booked for. Why would you only book for one person when you had ten guests staying (having said that I would have queried as a host why you booked a larger property for one person. 

2 airbnb makes it clear you should keep all communications on the platform so not sure why you agreed to a group chat on what's app? 

3. If the host told you on Airbnb he wanted you to share a whole listing with six strange men you would have got a full refund. What did Airbnb say when you raised this with them?

the host if what you say is true behaved badly - but you created the initial problem by booking for only one person when you had ten staying . 

what reviews and ratings did this host have? 

presumably you left an honest review to warn your fellow guests ? 

[Terra198]

I’m sorry that you were confused by my post! There was a lot going on and the booking for one person was complete accident which we are accountable for. He wouldn’t give us a full refund because he didn’t reply to us about the situation until well after the check in. After check in, he’s not required by Airbnb rules to pay us back. I am indeed telling the full truth. I have no reason to lie about this. I’m looking for advice on ways to resolve this. The host requested that we are in a group on WhatsApp with all the guests so he can confirm that everyone has read the rules. This is what is confusing to me. He made the groupchat with 10 girls to confirm this the day before check in, then the very next morning switched everything. I understand we made a mistake joining WhatsApp, but that is just further proof that he knew exactly what was happening(10 girls, not one) and never questioned that it was booked for one. I believe he may have noticed earlier and didn’t say anything so he could do this exact thing. Thank you so much for replying to my comment, just seeing if there’s anything we can do as we’re out almost $2000, plus we have to pay for a motel.

[Terra198]

sorry, just to be clear. We have lots of messages from months ago when we booked it. We talked to him directly on the app about how many guests and he approved it. When it came to the actual booking it was human error. I don’t think we should be paying $2000 for nothing in return for this. Thank you. 🙂

[Terra198]

I’m trying to make sure I reply to all the points you made! They are valid. We were in contact with other Airbnb people after he tried to double the price, and they weren’t helpful at all! It took around an hour to get back to us after each message, causing us to still be dealing with this up until after our check in time. The host also didn’t say anything about the 6 men until check in time as well.

[Helen3]

Sorry I've been an Airbnb host and cohost for ten years and understand their regulations well. @Terra198 

you are completely incorrect on this . If you booked a self contained listing - the hosts cannot ask you to share this with six strange men.

You would have been entitled to a full refund.

Presumably you have this conversation on Airbnb so Airbnb can see this .

go back to them to reiterate this proof.

[Enri1804]

It’s hard to judge not having seen the listing or your communication with that host, or that hosts profile. I did look at your profile and can see that maybe this was your first booking as a guest?  But it also shows you have been using Airbnb for 7 years? When did this happen? How far in advance did you book and did the host have a strict cancellation policy? Was it instant booked?

I do understand human error, mistakes happen on both sides but I have to say, Airbnb Guests get a lot of leeway with human error most of the time. 80 percent of my Guest messages and bookings have shown me that Guests don’t read the listing - or rules - which is required.

From your POV, if your initial message in Airbnb said 10 people with you, than the host should have replied there asap - to try to get the reservation straight with the appropriate number of guests and $. If the host is the one who told you to use WhatsApp than they may be a bad host.

But both sides have to be responsible. Let me ask your opinion: If you had (in you initial message to the host) said “I’m booking for Friday August 2 through Sunday August 4 (and the reservation shows 8/2-8/4) is the Host required to correct the Guest so they don’t show up on Friday (the dates are for a Saturday through Monday)? What if the host didn’t read it? This did happen to me years ago, and I replied a few days later when I noticed their mistake, with the question/correction and the guest didn’t reply for another week and was all upset.

I can show you thousands of words I message Guests. I personally cannot make them read. I have a listing that charges for each person over 2 and it’s written out, but constantly have to recap, remind, over communicate via Airbnb messages to be sure it’s understood. And Guests bring in unregistered extra unpaid guests multiple times per year that I have to deal with. So there is no general scamming nature of hosts as you wrote. For myself and many others, this is my home. There are too many scams going on in the world but if you read, they can easily happen via phone calls, test, social media, etc. Hasn’t it been like 5-10 years since Airbnb advised us all to only communicate through its messaging because they can see it.

If everything you say is true and this host is a scammer, I’d say the only reason you didn’t get a full refund is because you agreed to communicate off of Airbnb.

Can you write an honest review of this hosts listing? Can you share their listing link?

Good hosts don’t want bad hosts out there making us look bad.

[Frances3408]

@Terra198 . Ok, it sounds unfair that you lost your payment but from Airbnb's processes, messaging and talking about numbers and an actual booked number of guests showing on your receipt are two very different things. A link to the listing would help. 

Selecting a price does not in itself guarantee a booking until its confirmed by the host and some hosts use smart pricing which can change in minutes with high demand. Once you cancelled all bets were off.

My advice moving forward with a group this size is to choose a whole of house listing, so when its booked, its no longer available and as long as you double check everything is correct in terms of numbers staying, any permitted pets, the house rules, extra fees, cancellation policy etc then its normally good. In other words, please read the listing from start to finish very carefully before proceeding as each host can run their listing very differently. 

If you cancelled after the stay commenced then you should be able to write a review. At the very least you can warn other guests of your experience. 

Good luck Terra. You sound like the lovely Canadians I met years ago and would love to revisit one day.

[Neha186]

That sounds incredibly frustrating — I’m so sorry this happened, especially on a special trip.

A confirmed booking’s price should never be changed last minute, and adding unrelated guests is a clear safety concern.

Save all screenshots, messages, and the listing details, then contact Airbnb through the Resolution Center and request a full refund citing “price change after booking” and “safety issue.” Also report the listing and, if Airbnb isn’t responsive, speak with your bank/card provider about disputing the charge.

Keep all future trip communication on Airbnb’s platform so it’s fully documented.

[Lorina14]

@Terra198 

I’m so sorry this happened to you. The reason this happened is because any alteration including: adding a day or subtracting a day, adding another guest or anything that would change a reservation will recalculate the original booking price to the pricing that is listed at the time of the alteration.

I had this happen on a booking when the guest added another guest as their partner decided to join them (we don’t charge for extra guests) and my payout changed significantly which confused me as we didn’t add a day. While speaking to Airbnb customer service they confirmed that the system recalculates the entire pricing on dynamic pricing even if you didn’t add a day or subtract a day. I worked with them to honor the original price it was booked at and notified the guest of why that happened and what I did. Being that the host was on dynamic pricing and there was a music festival, as one gets closer to the date the prices will increase and this is why this happened. It is not an excuse for what happened and potentially at first the host may or may not have been aware but when they noticed a larger payout they decided to potentially claim ignorance and hope you didn’t notice as the payout was much larger. 

It is not ethical to have ignored your request for why the payout was larger when they “knew” the reservation was for 10 people and they told you to communicate on WhatsApp to verify all people read the house rules. If this is documented on Airbnb messages (that they knew of the original 10 people being booked and that they asked to communicate off the platform) you are entitled for them to have honored the price and the host would get in trouble as they took you “off platform” which is against the Airbnb terms and conditions. I would ask to get the situation escalated to a manager and consider contacting Airbnb on their social media accounts asking for resolution on this being that you were upfront from the beginning and this was your first experience using Airbnb which was a horrible experience that you did not expect from using this platform. 

Additionally if you were told at the last minute you had to share the listing with 6 strange men when the listing you booked was for the entire space, then that is false advertising and you should have been refunded by Airbnb as the host was deceptive in advertising their space. Does it clearly say you have the space all to yourself? Is this a listing that has a separate entry with shared spaces (backyard, living room, etc.)? Or is it a house that is renting separate locked bedrooms independently?

I’ll flag the community managers to see if they can pass your situation to the right team to help you (they are not directly customer support but can flag a message to the right team).

 @Bhumika @Rebecca @Quincy @Elisa @Alex  could you help out Terra with her situation please?