3 ms·

I just started hosting with AirBNB and experienced a bug with the platform. It offered the wrong price ($100 instead of $278) and the guest accepted before I c

I just started hosting with AirBNB and experienced a bug with the platform. It offered the wrong price ($100 instead of $278) and the guest accepted before I could intervene because the platform defaulted to AutoAccept. When I reported the problem, the support rep claimed it happened that way because I had "Smart Pricing" on. It was set ON by default. But AirBNB's own documentation says the Custom Price I set for the dates in question (Xmas week) override all other pricing. Even if "Smart Pricing" had applied, it shouldn't have offered the lowest price for the highest demand week of the year, because AirBNB's own calendar shows the demand peaking high for the week, not low. Now I've been 3 days trying to get a response from tech support. They deny responsibility, and promise to escalate it to a supervisor, then close the case without responding to my detailed evidence. What can I do? Does anyone know how to escalate to an AirBNB IT person? I would have thought AirBNB would like to know its platform has a serious bug.

fakedang 6y ago
Why don't you just cancel the reservation? I've had a bunch of places cancel up on me like that.
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  I suppose I have to do that, thanks. I was trying to actually solve the problem by identifying the bug and having it rectified. But I'm in the wrong industry for that now, aren't I? D'oh!
  - wombatmobile 6y ago
    I couldn't help myself because I'm sure it's a bug and I can't stand to let a bug go so I persisted with technical support. One guy got it and traced through what happened. He's escalated it to the subject specialist. It's an important bug. The "Smart Pricing" is broken, or at least in 3 cases of mine it was, and the documentation in the guides for Hosts is discordant. Airbnb S-1 Page 191 > Serving Our Stakeholders > Pricing. While hosts set their own prices, we provide hosts with Smart Pricing tools that suggest prices for their listings based on changes in demand for similar listings. Our Smart Pricing recommendations are based on the type and location of a listing, the season, expected demand, and other factors. In addition, we provide data insights that include how host occupancy rates compare to other listings on our platform.
    - fakedang 6y ago
      Wow, you're quite the sceptic lol. Good work there.
      - wombatmobile 6y ago
        Well, there's no scepticism required. The Airbnb documentation for hosts explains how the pricing works, and it didn't work that way. It certainly didn't work like "Smart Pricing". Xmas/NYE is the middle of summer in Australia. My pad is right next to the beach in a nice part of South East Queensland, and everything like it is already booked out for Xmas. If you have access to my account data, which the support team does, Airbnb FAQ Articles #503 and #1168 are all that's required to establish that the pricing made in the offer to my guest is the result of a bug, which I have characterised in writing. But how to establish that with Airbnb and get a resolution? I've been trying for 4 days.. When I read the S-1 with the beautiful sentimental story of the evolution of Airbnb, I couldn't help but post here. Not because I'm pissed, but because I believe in the story promoted by Paul Graham about these people. It would be great if they could retain some of their essence by responding to this incident instead of blocking it with bureaucracy. They do have good customer support people, and evidently they have retained their culture, but it doesn't facilitate responding to bug reports from hosts in a timely manner. As the support guy told me, without reports, they'd never know about pricing bugs. Surely this is an important one, given that "Smart Pricing" is a feature in the S-1, and hosts are considered important stakeholders in the prospectus. I've got to wait until the subject specialist verifies the bug and reports it to engineering. If engineering verifies the bug and reports back to the subject specialist, who might then report back to the support guy, who might then consult with his supervisor about whether they can compensate me or my guest somehow, this could all work out fine. So long as that happens before 21 December, no problem. Otherwise, I better cancel the booking before then and find a new guest, and hope the woman who thought she got a bargain can find somewhere else to stay for Xmas. Or just disregard my feelings for this guest and be more detached about hosting. And other people's bugs.
        fakedang 6y ago
        Cool. You might want to let her know first before canceling, since I think she's on the shorter end of the stick here. After all, you'll get someone easily, going by the occupancy rates near yours.

fakedang 6y ago

Why don't you just cancel the reservation? I've had a bunch of places cancel up on me like that.

wombatmobile 6y ago
I suppose I have to do that, thanks. I was trying to actually solve the problem by identifying the bug and having it rectified. But I'm in the wrong industry for that now, aren't I? D'oh!
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  I couldn't help myself because I'm sure it's a bug and I can't stand to let a bug go so I persisted with technical support. One guy got it and traced through what happened. He's escalated it to the subject specialist. It's an important bug. The "Smart Pricing" is broken, or at least in 3 cases of mine it was, and the documentation in the guides for Hosts is discordant. Airbnb S-1 Page 191 > Serving Our Stakeholders > Pricing. While hosts set their own prices, we provide hosts with Smart Pricing tools that suggest prices for their listings based on changes in demand for similar listings. Our Smart Pricing recommendations are based on the type and location of a listing, the season, expected demand, and other factors. In addition, we provide data insights that include how host occupancy rates compare to other listings on our platform.
  - fakedang 6y ago
    Wow, you're quite the sceptic lol. Good work there.
    - wombatmobile 6y ago
      Well, there's no scepticism required. The Airbnb documentation for hosts explains how the pricing works, and it didn't work that way. It certainly didn't work like "Smart Pricing". Xmas/NYE is the middle of summer in Australia. My pad is right next to the beach in a nice part of South East Queensland, and everything like it is already booked out for Xmas. If you have access to my account data, which the support team does, Airbnb FAQ Articles #503 and #1168 are all that's required to establish that the pricing made in the offer to my guest is the result of a bug, which I have characterised in writing. But how to establish that with Airbnb and get a resolution? I've been trying for 4 days.. When I read the S-1 with the beautiful sentimental story of the evolution of Airbnb, I couldn't help but post here. Not because I'm pissed, but because I believe in the story promoted by Paul Graham about these people. It would be great if they could retain some of their essence by responding to this incident instead of blocking it with bureaucracy. They do have good customer support people, and evidently they have retained their culture, but it doesn't facilitate responding to bug reports from hosts in a timely manner. As the support guy told me, without reports, they'd never know about pricing bugs. Surely this is an important one, given that "Smart Pricing" is a feature in the S-1, and hosts are considered important stakeholders in the prospectus. I've got to wait until the subject specialist verifies the bug and reports it to engineering. If engineering verifies the bug and reports back to the subject specialist, who might then report back to the support guy, who might then consult with his supervisor about whether they can compensate me or my guest somehow, this could all work out fine. So long as that happens before 21 December, no problem. Otherwise, I better cancel the booking before then and find a new guest, and hope the woman who thought she got a bargain can find somewhere else to stay for Xmas. Or just disregard my feelings for this guest and be more detached about hosting. And other people's bugs.
      - fakedang 6y ago
        Cool. You might want to let her know first before canceling, since I think she's on the shorter end of the stick here. After all, you'll get someone easily, going by the occupancy rates near yours.