Cancelling a booking due to smart pricing error - advice needed

[Tracey76]

What happened when you cancelled? Did they block your property from being booked? I am suffering same fate. A guest blocked all of Jan 2023 at a significantly lower rate ($70/night),  lower than my minimum and lower than what smart pricing should be. Airbnb won't help and it is their program fault. They told me I should cancel, but have agreed if I do I will be penalized, property blocked from other bookings for Jan and go on my record. Meanwhile they say they are looking into it, clearly I am not the only one who has had people book at rates lower than my minimum nightly rate plus smart pricing did not work - did when I tested it setting my rate? Merry Christmas.

[Jenny]

Hi @Tracey76 

You replied to quite an old discussion, so I've started a new one for you, so that our hosts can come along and give you their advice.

Jenny

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tracey76 you don't appear to have a listing at all. Have you removed it or has Airbnb gone one step further and removed it?

[Tracey76]

I  have a listing in Phoenix. Not sure what's up with it. Changes are not updating so I can screenshot the pricing issues and show them how it was performing. Hmmm

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tracey76 sorry - Ive found it now.

According to the listing all dates are blocked for 2023 and 2024. I assume you have done this while the issue is looked into.

My advice is to go into the listing and click on the pricing and availability tab. Then edit for the weekly or monthly pricing and see if there is a weekly or monthly price set for some or all weeks/months of the year.

[Tracey76]

My current issue is Jan 2023. Unfortunately it has been a number of days with no response from Airbnb. They originally agreed to cancel the stay and not penalize me, then another person called saying they are still investigating...that was several days ago and time is of the essence. I never changed anything but the nightly rate and set it to smart pricing. As expected on test the rate for peak was above my nightly rate, however a guest was able to book at lower than nightly rate. Support agreed that it should not have happened. Now they say I must have changed pricing in calendar, which I did not, only in the Nightly rate option. While they are 'investigating' the issue I and the guest who got an insane nightly rate are sitting in limbo...what to do? I see I am not the only person who has had this happen. Next step??

[Mark116]

@Tracey76  Did you have the minimum set or did you leave it up to the smart pricing algo?  If you set the minimum $ and it allowed a booking lower than that, then its a glitch.  If you didn't have a minimum price set, then I would say it will be lesson learned.

[Tracey76]

I had a minimum price set. She was actually able to book below the minimum, and very well below what anyone would come close to for a rate in Phoenix for Jan. I have tried to negotiate with her to even pay a little more, which is still way below nightly rate for anything in Phoenix, instead of having me cancelling her stay and she refuses to. We have both called Airbnb to resolve as it is their problem. From looking at other comments historically, this has happened to others before. When I tested with my minimum nightly price and smart pricing enabled, which is how I left it prior to opening up for Instant book. I was getting a rate over my minimum (smart pricing appeared to be properly working). However, the guest booked below my minimum. Now Airbnb is 'investigating as time goes by and no response for several days. They said if I cancel now it would penalize me and block my property from getting a fair booking (s) for Jan since they won't help fix to date.

[Tina9098]

Because I was a very new host, AirBnB let me cancel without any fees or changes to my status. They made clear this was the one and only time that would happen. I immediately turned off smart pricing - it's not so smart after all!

[Sheryl188]

I am starting my Airbnb back up - I was hosting before the pandemic, and now have a different place to list. I had trouble as well with someone grabbing a premium weekend before I had gone to calendar and adjusted availability - and I didn't have instant booking turned on.  I called Airbnb support and I also explained to guest and offered to work out an appropriate rate. I ended up cancelling - Airbnb waived any penalty because I had not ever cancelled before.

In the meantime - my current experience is that Airbnb spent their downtime figuring out ways to give them advantages at the expense of hosts. The UI and settings are more difficult to navigate - I've found places where the 'yes' and 'no' options are swapped - so we have to really pay attention to make sure our changes were not discarded by clicking the wrong option out of habit.  Smart pricing doesn't seem to recognize special events like Super Bowl ??? Ridiculous. 

I'm sure there are other options out their for hosts. I expect this relationship to be a short one at this point.