milepig

I fear they've jumped the shark. Booked an "instant book" tonight. Credit card immediately charged. 30 minutes later the host sends me a message "I forgot, holiday pricing is higher...I need $500 more..." I hit "decline" and call Airbnb who are no help. I email the host, twice, with no response. They have my money, the host has gone silent. Classic bait and switch.

EmailKid

OOOOH, that's tough.

Probably not safe to just show up - you may have to dispute the charge with CC.

Please update with any developments.

milepig

All very odd. Apparently "accept" means you accept the change and bills the extra amount while "decline" means you don't accept and the original booking remains in place. Of course, the host can still cancel at any point, leaving the guest high and dry. I don't relish having my holiday vacation ruined at any point, but if I cancel I'm out the 50% cancellation charge. This just sucks. I think I'm done with Airbnb.

Mauibaby2008

That sounds like a nightmare, and tbh really fishy. Airbnb is extremely helpful in these situations. I would call them. Get an official answer on that, but as a host, after the guest books you cannot demand more, unless maybe, guest is like oh we have 5 more people or something like that. Yeah that is absolutely bait and switch, if Airbnb doesn't help which I'm certain they will (curious why you say they're no help?)- if they don't help , dispute the charge. But I would no longer give that host my money

So sorry for the bad experience. When I moved to the area I'm in now I drastically underpriced my property by almost $100 a night, was selling like hot cakes, sold out of about 10 nights in the month of July only to find out "market rate" is really around $259 a night. I absolutely wish I could have gotten the full value of those nights, but obviously it is good business to just honor the already paid rates , which I am doing.

So sounds like cancellation policy is "strict". I really have an issue with that one, I choose and I think most hosts choose "moderate" which means you only forfeit 50% of the rent if you cancel 5 days or closer to the date of your reservation. Obviously this makes sense because a lot of times it would be close to impossible to get a new reservation and is unfair to the host.

The accept/decline is an updated offer to the guest which means he went into the "resolution center" to intiate a new offer. Extremely shady. Very good you chose decline. I'm curious if any of the other property reviews mention anything like this?

stimpy

I don't blame you for not wanted to stay with that host. You should opt for a resolution to try and get your money back. See https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/...olution-center

In my experience bad hosts are rare. Bad front desk agents at hotels are rare too, but they aren't quite as bad as a problem host. However a host that is really bad will have bad reviews. This is why the Airbnb review system is so important.

iahphx

Yeah, let us know how this turns out milepig. I'm going to be very surprised if airbnb doesn't give you your money back.

I still think airbnb is largely a niche product due to quality control issues. That said, I'm taking my family to the UK and have booked a couple of airbnb stays because they offer good value compared to the alternatives. B&Bs in the UK charge by the person, which quickly becomes expensive if you have 4 or 5 people, but most of the pricing on airbnb is centered on the unit. I'm sticking to listings that get at least 4 1/2 stars.

BTW, you can buy instant electronic gift cards for airbnb on ebay. Since you can often get discounted ebay gift cards (and cashback), this is a way to reduce your airbnb stays.

milepig

Update:

I sent the host 2 replies, the 1st was more "how can this happen?" and acknowledging the issue without committing one way or the other.

Following that I called Airbnb to see what my options were. They said "you need to work with the host." Lots of help there!

I thought that hitting "decline" to the rate change would cancel the reservation, but in the Airbnb world that just meant the I didn't accept the change, throwing it back to the host. The original reservation is still showing as accepted in the system at the original price.

At about that point Airbnb sent me an actual note acknowledging my phone call to them and that they we're reaching out to the host.

After receiving that I sent another message to the host to say that AirBnb would be contacting her, and to work with them to resolve the issue, and that I would not be accepting the rate change.

This morning I woke to find 2 more messages from the host. The first was saying how sorry she was, blah blah blah, and that the rates had been entered into the Airbnb system but they "lost" them. She hoped we'd still come but she really needed to hold firm on the price as this was high season, blah blah blah. THEN I get the zinger. "however, I'd love to work with you to book another week at the rate quoted that isn't high season." There we go - there's the bait and switch. One wonders how many times she's tried this trick!

The second message from her came at almost the same time and said she was trying to work with Airbnb to see how to cancel, but it was "difficult." I think she's finding that if the host cancels they get hit was a big penalty, but I'm not sure how this works with Instant Book - do they get a chance to back out without penalty?

I responded "I hope it works out with Airbnb, since we do not want to proceed with the booking."

I then replied to the Airbnb message from last night letting them know that she'd contacted me and to ask them to work with getting my money back ASAP since my CC is about to bill. (It actually is.) I'm not sure I can contest this with the bank at the moment since Airbnb could correctly respond that the host accepted and it is showing in our system as an active reservation, which it is. I could do the cancellation from my end, but this is a "lose 50%" situation.

I think the problem here is Instant Book. In a normal transaction, the host would have gotten the request and contacted me back to say "oops the price was wrong in the system, the price will be $xxx would you like to proceed?" giving me the chance to say "please decline the offer" and it would never have wound up in Airbnb as a billed booking.

At the moment the ball is back in the hands of the host and Airbnb.

In retrospect, this place was too perfect. Decent but not incredibly low price, walkable to everything, great ocean views, in every way just a little bit better than any other unit available. And, still bookable for the prime period around the holidays. In the future, I'll contact every owner via email before beginning to book anything. Lesson learned.

EmailKid

Thanks for the update ^

Glad things are moving in the right direction.

Good to see you standing your ground and cancelling the reservation. Hope it gets resolved quickly so you can look for another property.

stimpy

Airbnb actually blocks this from happening. Unless you find out the owners email via other means, or have used that property in the past, you cannot contact them through any way other than the Airbnb message interface. But yes I agree that the Instant Booking feature is your problem. I would not use it as a guest and I do not allow it as a host.

milepig

I meant using the Airbnb "contact the host" option, which I've used to ask all sorts of questions in the past. Instant book has a certain appeal, since you know right away that you're booked, except when you're not since the host decides to change the terms...

iahphx

I haven't seen "instant book" in my limited experience on airbnb but, thanks to this discussion, I know I won't be using it if it pops up!

milepig

Further update:

No reply from AirBnb but I had a message overnight from the host that after "further research" she was honoring the original rate.

In the end this was all settled amicably and to my satisfaction, and since this thread will live on in FT land, I'd like to end by saying that the host come through for us in a very positive fashion and we've been having good email exchanges now. I think this truly was a mistake that was reconciled, and not some behind the scenes scheming. Although I'm sure that happens, I in no way think this was the case here.

ltfly

I have been using Airbnb for a number of years, in different countries (Norway, Italy, Spain, France, USA, etc). To make my choice, I always make sure that the place has (preferably numerous) positive reviews, and that I am aware of any bad points. I never use instant booking, because I prefer to introduce myself and have some back-and-forth communication before I book, so that I have a feeling of who is behind the property.
I appreciate the personalised tips you receive, the locals' view and knowledge of the place, and whenever possible a little chat with the owners.

I am also an Airbnb host now, and never had any problem with guests either. I do not allow instant booking, I ask guests to fill in their profile and introduce themselves, and to read and agree to the house's rules before they book. This way, everything is clear and clean between us.

JJCG

So far I have been using Airbnb 10 times at different location around the world. Nearly all my experiences with the company has been great! One time the apartment I was to rent did not live up to my expectations, I called Airbnb and told them about my situation. In a matter of second, they've booked a room at a 4 star hotel in Dubai for me instead of the apartment. Great service! Go for it!

Antonio8069

Contacting AirBnB about a problem has become a major challenge. A few years ago, I called them for an immediate resolution of a problem. Now (as the above suggests) you need to go through their WEB site and deal with the resolution center. I tried, for example, to find their e-mail address on line. What I discovered was this "how to" guide on how to contact them for customer support - which suggests AirBnb goes out of its way to discourage customers from contacting them:

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-ema...-emailing-them