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Uggghhh it is so frustrating. I really feel your pain. I thought I wasn’t going to ever get anywhere since I called and both reps said the same thing and it seemed I had been “branded” with having received a “curtosy” for a pricing issue and that they were just considering it my fault and were going to refuse to look any further into it as a technical issue. But somehow I miraculously reached someone else by responding to an Airbnb email and she called and the tech person that she spoke to said something completely different and is actually trying to help me fix it. I had completely given up hope and ended up refunding the guest with my own money who booked at the wrong price the Airbnb fees that aren’t refunded during a cancellation. Today the very kind customer service rep I spoke to gave the guest a travel voucher AND refunded me the fees. It is a COMPLETE 180 from the response I got yesterday which was basically “no matter how much you beg and try to explain that this was a glitch in our system and wasn’t your fault, we have decided it is your fault and there is nothing we are going to do for you.”
Keep trying! Respond to the emails you receive and try to see if you can reach someone else and ask them to escalate it to the tech team over and over.
Long story short… I have been experiencing a pricing glitch since I turned on Weekend Rate last September. When I set a custom price for a date, it gets overwritten at random intervals by my Weekend Rate. I have one big event in October each year (Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta) where I can get 3x my normal rate. So what ends up happening is that I set the rate at 3x normal, and then several weeks or months later I get a booking for those dates at my normal weekend rate.
I have had this happen 8 times so far. Each time I have called customer service they have been very helpful and have helped the guest to cancel the reservation at no penalty to either of us and to find the guest a new reservation. But this time they acted like all of these times had been MY fault, that I was just calling in and expecting them to cancel for me penalty free for a booking that I had received at a price I didn’t like. I asked them to look back through my previous calls and see what had happened, but they said that this “curtosy” cancellation had been extended to me many times before and they would not do it again. They sent it to tech support and said they could not see any issue and therefore would not help me. I asked them to reconsider based on the fact that every other previous support person had acknowledged this as a glitch, not as something I was doing wrong, and tried calling tech support again to see if I could reach a different person who would help me. They just said the same thing, that I had received a curtosy cancel already and although they appreciate I am a superhost will do nothing to help me.
So luckily the guest who had booked at the lower rate was willing to help me by cancelling the reservation herself, and I paypal’d her the amount of the Airbnb booking fees so she was not penalized. Much better for me to take a $36 hit than to lose $600+ on the booking!
Finally magically somehow I managed to reach a competent, compassionate person by chance of responding to an Airbnb email. She called and told me that she spoke to someone in tech support and that they said that when I set a weekend price it should not be overwriting my custom price, so I need to plan accordingly (she was confused about my issue and thought I was upset about my weekend price NOT overwriting my custom price). I said YES, exactly, that is the point I am trying to make. I asked if she could help me with this current reservation and she apparently sent it to Airbnb “Premium” support who were EXTREMELY helpful and kind, gave the guest a voucher and refunded the fees I paypal’d.
I don’t know how much the voucher was for that they sent the guest!
EEK!! When no one was helping me, it was the “premium” customer support team I was interactin with. Actually at the time I wasn’t sure if it was a different dept. or they just changed their name to that. But I see according to you…it is a different dept.
So when you told them that the seven prior reps. all recognized this as a system glitch…did the new reps. try to say that all seven of the other reps. just had no idea what they were doing, and try to act like you were lucky that they goofed up?? Sheesh!!
Can you give more context about the issue in question? Airbnb’s willingness to help with issues depends greatly on the specific issue.
Never mind, I see that this is described in detail in the post beginning with
BTW, it’s spelled courtesy, not curtosy. My browser (Chromium) underlines (what ti thinks are) misspelled words with a red line. Doesn’t yours?
And it’s disturbing but unsurprising that (a) Airbnb can’t fix its bugs and then (b) blames problems caused by those bugs on customers. But my experience has been in line with this, and I don’t use any of the Airbnb custom features because there’s just too much potential for bug-related disaster. I try to keep everything as simple as possible. In particular, I keep the price the same at all times.
And, everyone. It’s a “bug”, not a “glitch”. Can we call a spade a spade, please, not a lawn ornament? Thank you.
Wow. In that case, I’d have a hard time not saying something snarky. I mean “definitely” and “defiantly” aren’t even that similar. I wonder where that person was located.
"It’s been just over a day since we reviewed your case. If your case is resolved, no further action is needed from you.
If you still need assistance, please reply to this email within the next 24 hours. Otherwise, you’ll need to open a new case in our Help Center to reach a member of our team.
I find it annoying that the versions of this message I have received have been completely context free. There’s no indication of what the issue is. Suppose you have multiple issues going on? Or am I missing something?
I think it is a generic message that they send out within so many days of opening a case. Not sure. Or maybe it is their way of saying that they won’t be spending any more time on the issue.
I replied back telling them it wasn’t resolved. What I don’t understand is why nobody (since October) has said “hey…we will create a new listing for you and transfer over all your info, photos, and reviews.” - Not one rep. has offered to do that.
I was the one who brought up creating another listing. I was told that sounded like a good idea. But I have to wonder if they might lock me out or something if they discover they are for the same place.
I don’t think creating another listing is such a good idea. In software, working around bugs never leads to anything good. It’s the virtual equivalent of letting the cockroaches own your home. That bug (or bugs) needs (or need) to be squashed good. You can’t be sure that whatever it is won’t surface again. Unfortunately the bug squashing is in the hands of Airbnb.
I realise that any workaround sounds appealing when you’re losing bookings. Sorry.
I wonder if it would help if you put that rate in your listing description somewhere. “Balloon Fest week is $300 per night for 2 people” or whatever. Maybe someone would read it, LOL.
