I'm not sure if this a common occurrence, but I booked an accommodation last night and not long ago received a message from the host stating that due to a software error the price was wrong, and therefore I need to pay more (a bit more than one night's price).
Have you encountered this before? It feels quite scammy to me.
They almost surely have the ability to cancel it on their end if they really need to. I'd hold your ground.
This
Just cancel.. if they want to be a douche, go somewhere else. With all the fees added on nowadays, it might be cheaper to get a hotel!
I don't know why people turned against hotels. Sure having a whole home to yourself is nice, especially a nice home. But even nicer is not having to clean your own room.
airbnb these days the pricing is I would only consider it if it was a unique experience eg tree house, or with an insane view etc
Looks like a nice place. Perfect view to watch the Chinese navy sail in …… :)
Airbnb's are good options if you're travelling for awhile and need to do laundry or are sick of eating out every night. It's not just about daily housekeeping.
Not saying I like Airbnb or how expensive they've gotten but can't deny they still do have some advantages over hotels.
Hotel rooms have stoves and fridges and usually a premium laundry service.
@AustriaBargain: That sounds more like a serviced apartment? Hotel rooms with stoves are usually a much higher premium than an equivalent Airbnb. And hotel laundry is priced per item and that gets really costly very quickly.
@yessum: I usually book the cheaper hotels, like around $100 a night, and they always have a stove and a fridge. And though I've never used it I've seen valet service offered for washing clothes.
@CheapskateQueen: What kind of hotel room doesn't have a stove and a fridge? Hotels you've been at, do they not have irons for ironing your shirt either? Maybe we are just staying at different classes of hotel, if you're at hotels where people steal the iron and ruin the stove so they don't bother putting them in.
@AustriaBargain: Are you talking about motels? They usually have a stove. Haven't seen a stove in a hotel unless it was a large multi bedroom with a proper kitchen.
@AustriaBargain: Hotels do not have stoves, maybe a bar fridge, Motels may have a stove and fridge. The categories are completely different. Serviced apartments, long and short stay, will have a kitchen, of sorts, and perhaps a laundry.
@Tag2305: lol yes maybe this person has never actually been in "hotel"
hotels, motels, and serviced apartments are all different concepts
travelling with toddlers, we don't really find hotels convenient. rooms are way too small and not every town we go to has serviced apartments.
Wife and I stayed at an AirBnB in Wanaka NZ (crummy tourist town set amidst glorious scenery). Two nights, $570AUD - and the smallish apartment in the garage under the house had no air con, nor even a fan. Caveat Emptor. (No smart-ass comments, thanks.)
Yeah them asking you to cancel is definitely dodgy. Let them deal with it through AirBNB and cancel. Don't do it for them.
It's similar as well to Uber drivers who leave you hanging and then expect you to cancel. Nup they just want the fees.
Yeah I even had an Uber driver call me saying ‘the system didn’t work’ and couldn’t find my pickup address. I said if I cancel I’ll be charged a fee and he said no I’ll refund that. So I cancelled and he refunded but then it was surging… don’t trust them anymore sleezy bastards
let them cancel it
Sounds scammy af.
If you are worried, just book something else and cancel that one.
:D
Don’t cancel. It’s 100% them trying to score more out of you.
Hello X,
Thank you for your message. Please contact airbnb regarding any technical issues.
Regards,
Your future guest
Tell the host that you do not sleep there and just have a few hundred "mules" swapping dodgy packages.
Is it something like $19.99 you paid that should have been $199.99 ?
Nah the place was cheaper than nearby ones but only by about $100 or so in total (for a week)… so it's not even that cheap tbh
Host is a d*ck for asking for more money.
They would've been much better off playing the sympathy card - "due to unforeseen circumstances my place is unavailable. I'd appreciate it if you can cancel the the booking, so I'm not penalized by airbnb".
Anyhow, its up to you whether you're going to cancel or wait for the host to cancel. It's unlikely you'll be staying at the place anyway.
I'd probably cancel, because waiting for the host to cancel creates bad karma.
its likely they have just signed up for a 3rd party service to manage their pricing across a few platforms.
They likely hadn't priced their property right to account for fees etc.
they are asking you to cancel so it doesnt affect the hosts metrics.
you have the right to hold onto the booking. otherwise just let them cancel it and it will hurt their account with Airbnb.
And always communicate through airbnb, so there is a history of your conversations as evidence.
If there is an actual issue then let the host cancel.
I believe that cancellations get tracked on the site and affect their status.
And whatever you do, don't send any money or make any deals outside of Airbnb because the host already sounds shady
"Software error" either means they've had someone pay more for a booking on another platform, they simply typed the wrong number or they just do this all the time to milk money out of people (i.e. a lazy tax).
Let them sort it out with Airbnb.
Not your problem as others stated. Contact AirBNB or tell your host to cancel/deal with AirBNB.
Fricken airbnb. Get one recently had to pay $60 cleaning fee but were required to clean all dishes and put away. And take out the rubbish bins. Joke!
Let the owner have the chance to honour the contractual agreement or be clear that if you can't have it at that price you will simply go somewhere else. Queue something else that has full refund on cancel up to when you turn up and then play chicken with the host. Let them cancel you as you're more likely to get a 100% refund than if you cancel yourself.
As an airbnb owner I can share some insight… If the owner cancels, Airbnb blocks out those dates and he can't rebook them out. They might have realised they didn't put up the price for a peak period and want to try recoup their error or airbnb didn't auto up the price because there was no demand. I have never had a techincal issue with pricing only people trying to scam me. Like making an inquiry for a 4 person family (which I approved) and then booking for 1 person (we charge for guest 3 and 4). The cleaning fees are a way to make it cheaper for longer stays. Its the same cleaning for 1 day as it is for 3 days, so if I build the cleaning cost into the nightly cost it will be expensive for multiday stays or I lose out for 1 day stays. As for people complaining about Airbnb getting expensive, market dictates price. The monetry worth of something is dicated by how much people are willing to pay, especially non essential items. If people are booking with Airbnb, I would imagine the rates are competive with hotels or people are too lazy to shop around (and then shouldn't complain). That said, I rarely book with Airbnb…
i'd cancel - if this is a sign of what they're like, who knows what will happen next
Caravan park cabins are a good option. Kitchen, table, verandah, laundry, access to playground possibly pool, bbq sometimes close to the beach.
And after contacting Airbnb they said ?
If you don’t cancel they may say you left the place messy and charge your card extra anyway, and your rating would go down.
Contact Airbnb and see what they say.