Hi Helen,
Her prices were at least half what they should have been, she said she didnt know how to change the pricing. So we agreed over messages that i would pay more money to her to make up the cost that she wanted it to be.
So i requested the booking, she approved, and i paid the full amount shown. She then told me that I could pay the rest 8 weeks prior to arriving, so i said ok, i will pay the remaining X amount. This is when she told me it would be more than that. I did the math of agreed price - the amount i had paid. Where as she did the agreed price - the amount she would recieve. So this is where the misunderstaing was. When we agreed a price i took it to mean the TOTAL price, not just the amount she would recieve, as whether the money goes to her or Airbnb isnt relevant when you are trying to compare costs.
So after some back and forth she agreed to lower her fee so that it was brought inline with what we had originally agreed (with the service fee included).
That was back in Sept 2016. Now 8 weeks ahead i have contacted her to pay the remaining amount that we had agreed but she is now asking for the agreed amount + an even larger service charge (because the initial booking amount is now larger).
Now I know I was wrong to enter this booking in the first place and certainly wont be making the mistake again of trusting a host to stick to their word again. However we could have cancelled this booking back in Sept if she had actually said truthfully she wasn't going to reduce her price. Instead of 8 weeks before my family go away.
So we would both like to cancel but I am not taking the penalty for someone who doesn't know how to set up their pricing.
I have contacted Airbnb on Twitter and tried to call them but nothing back so far.
So technically I paid £260 for a booking that she was meant to price at £650. I can't cancel as she has the strict cancellation policy on it so I will lose the airbnb fee and 50% of my booking.
Thanks David I will check my confirmation email to see if that has a different phone number on it.