Back in September, a guest booked one of my rooms for a six-month stay. A couple of days ago, she asked if she could check in two days earlier. The room was available, so I sent an alteration request changing the check in from 6th to 4th January and she accepted straight away. Simple, right?
Wrong!
Airbnb adjusted the total price and charged her nearly £1,500 more. For two nights!
Of course, I called up Customer Services and the rep told me that the average nightly price had changed and the new price had been applied to the entire stay. She asked me which was the correct average nightly price. Was there an error when the guest booked which meant she was undercharged, or is there an error now and she is being overcharged? Maybe neither price is correct and it should be somewhere in the middle.
Well, I have no way of knowing. I have Smart Pricing switched on and a weekend is usually more expensive than a week day, a date in June more expensive than one in February, there is a long-term discount, etc. etc. I have no way of knowing what the average of 175 nights was at the time of the booking three months ago.
So, a case manager was assigned, but he just emailed me saying that if I had changed the nightly price by mistake, I should change it back. Not very helpful.
Anyway, after a lot of back and forth, the guest and I decided to change the dates back to the original ones at the original price and that she would book the extra two nights separately.
But, I did call Airbnb again to find out what had happened. I spoke to a different rep. He told me that, when you change the dates on a reservation, Airbnb needs to recalculate the total amount to work out the fees. However, when the system does this, it ignores any long-term discount that was in place, which is why the nightly rate became higher.
Obviously, because this booking was for six months, the difference in price was glaringly obvious. But, if you have a weekly discount for example, or even if a guest is staying a month, you could easily miss that the guest is being overcharged. Just something I thought people should be aware of. Guests thinking that a host has potentially ripped them off is not the best start to a stay!