Comments on: Host Cancelled Booking then Offered it for Double the Price https://www.airbnbhell.com/host-cancelled-booking-then-offered-it-for-double-the-price/ Uncensored Airbnb Stories from Hosts & Guests Thu, 05 Sep 2019 23:05:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Brian https://www.airbnbhell.com/host-cancelled-booking-then-offered-it-for-double-the-price/comment-page-1/#comment-29300 Thu, 05 Sep 2019 23:05:33 +0000 https://www.airbnbhell.com/host-cancelled-booking-then-offered-it-back-to-me-for-double-the-price/#comment-29300 I’ll tell you what I think happened.

The host made a mistake when he set up his listing which was to allow bookings too far in the future. If he knew his market and his platform, he would have changed the booking window for his listing to only “3 months into the future” or “6 months into the future” instead of “all future dates”. That way, he or the automated tools he uses could gauge the market prices and adjust accordingly.

At some point he probably realized his blunder and made the change, but he still had a bunch of reservations that were booked by “savvy” guests so far out that Airbnb’s market adjustments don’t even get applied. The host is now seeing those reservations on his radar and realizing he can get twice as much money for the same product.

The host is feeling screwed by Airbnb because he used their Smart Pricing tools which they recommend because they are supposed to adjust to the market rate, but they didn’t because the tools don’t look more than 1 year into the future. He probably called Airbnb to complain and they said they did everything they could to just to get him off the phone and never actually did anything after that. But they’re making him honor the far-below-market pricing that they screwed up on.

So now, he’s cancelling the reservations that were booked at low prices and allowing the dates to get re-booked at the market rate. He likely got suspended from Airbnb for too many cancellations, but at this point he doesn’t care because the rewards far outweigh the costs (the penalty from Airbnb is $100 per cancellation). He can always switch over to another short-term-rental platform such as VRBO, booking.com, etc. until his suspension is over.

You, of course, are feeling screwed by the host because you booked a place at a price that was probably too-good-to-be-true at the time of booking and now it’s cancelled.

So to answer the question about it being legal and acceptable. It’s definitely not fair for the host to break his commitment to guests, but it’s not illegal. However, it’s definitely not acceptable to Airbnb and that’s why his account is suspended.

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