“Smart Pricing” is a Zombie Algorithm from Hell

Posted on November 1, 2018

As new Airbnb hosts, we set our base price at $50 a night – low for our area – and chose “smart pricing” and “instant booking” so that the algorithm would make our listing more visible in searches. We got lots of bookings right away and quickly became “superhosts.”

However, Airbnb’s “smart pricing” tool never respected our minimum, listing the guest suite for as low as $35. We called Airbnb for help. The Airbnb representative suggested switching off “smart pricing” and manually resetting our prices at $50 on weekdays, $65 on weekends. That was on September 30th.

That night at midnight, every open date on our calendar reverted to a sub-minimum price. Every time we’ve tried to fix it since then, the algorithm overrides our prices while we’re asleep. We have worked with five customer service representatives and counting by chat and by phone so far, and no one can fix it. Each has insisted on manually resetting our prices for us, or having us do so, with the same result.

For 30 days now, the correct prices have disappeared again each morning and our listing has been advertised at far below what it’s worth – an exhausting, stressful waste of time. None of these customer service representatives has been able to explain why “smart pricing” keeps posting our place at sub-minimum rates, rather than our desired $50 or more. They all promised to try to find answers, but no one seems to have access to anyone with the authority to resolve it.

We now have a guest coming at a rate of $35. We are asking Airbnb to either cancel this reservation with a full refund to the guest, or pay us the difference. One said she would try to get Airbnb to pay us the $15. We appreciate that. It’s not much, but it’s the principle at stake. When we’re cleaning the toilet between each guest, we do want that money.

I’ve told them by phone and text messages (all saved, along with images of the bad prices on our calendar) that we’ll be demanding the difference from Airbnb for any future reservations made at below-minimum prices. One representative also asked if we would switch off “instant booking” to avoid getting more reservations at sub-minimum rates, but I pointed out that our listing is already harder to find with the “smart pricing” button switched off, so removing both that and “instant booking” could send our listing in some sort of oblivion, and Airbnb could then simply forget about resolving our problem.

She did relay that a software developer insisted this isn’t a bug. The developer apparently wrote that once ‘smart pricing’ is applied, those prices will remain after “smart pricing” is switched off, for every date initially affected by the pricing tool, until those dates are history. Apparently, each time we try to make a pricing change, this outcome is extended in time, into the future.

They also acknowledged, finally, that this should be bumped up to a “senior” developer. For more than a month now, customer reps have asked for our patience while Airbnb’s software denies us the right to either set our own prices, or use a dynamic pricing tool that doesn’t go below our minimum price. This is a major bug that contradicts what Airbnb promises its hosts. We are running out of patience. “Smart pricing” truly is the zombie algorithm from hell.

Losing $1000/day after Airbnb Cancelled our Reservations

Posted on October 31, 2018

Woke up with our 14 units on Airbnb completely cancelled and our reservations cancelled. Guests were angry at us. Turns out one of the previous guests had put a hidden camera into our smoke detector to spy on future guests. I filed a police report and we’re “currently working with Airbnb” to resolve the situation. They refuse to tell us how to get our account reactivated and are telling me to dismantle the smoke detector and somehow figure out myself who did it. As we do a lease-sublease model, we pay about $30,000 in rent per month. Now that everything is vacant, I estimate we are losing about $1000/day. Please stop supporting Airbnb and use other platforms. It’s not safe and people should just talk and vet the owners/tenants directly and save on the ridiculous booking fee.

Banned from Airbnb, All Reservations Cancelled

Posted on October 30, 2018

I have been a host in Miami for four years, and a Superhost for the last two. I had four properties: one I lived in, one my mother lived in, a little cabin, and a house only for guests. We started small just in our homes but when we noticed there were so many guests asking to stay and we were fully booked all the time, my mom and I rented out two properties just to do Airbnb has a side business. We were always full and had all five-stars reviews. We started getting many regulars too.

We had just rented a second house only for Airbnb since it was going so well. That’s five properties total in Airbnb under my name, bank account and social security. I paid the taxes for it every year and was happy to do it too. Please read this and avoid it happening to you.

We don’t live in the house we rent on Airbnb. We had to set up a security camera (after many bad experiences in Miami) in the main living room entrance to check the maximum capacity of each bedroom or the entire house… isn’t violated. The house has three bedrooms, two living room areas, two bathrooms, a kitchen/dining room, a front porch and a big backyard.

A few days ago somebody complained about the security camera in the main living room entrance, and I received an email from an Airbnb (6:00 AM on October 23rd) case manager asking me if I had informed them in the listing that the camera was there, where it was, and if there were any other cameras in the house. In this email, she also informed me that I had 48 hours to explain this situation and answered all her questions and if not I would be suspended from the site forever. In those 48 hours my account would have Limited Access. The email was harsh, kind of like a thread almost. I felt uneasy.

So you can understand the details: when I rent the house as private bedrooms, people are only allowed to sleep in their assigned bedrooms, but when I rent the house to a big party of people as an entire property, I had added a sofa bed in the second living room to accommodate an extra two bodies. The house could now accommodate eight with the sofa bed, instead of six. There are many pictures in the listing showing where the sofa bed is located, of both living room areas, of the bedrooms, etc.

I emailed the case manager the same day, the 23rd around noon, letting her know that the camera was in the living room area, entrance part of the house, and that I had indeed informed them of this in the listing. I thought the situation was resolved. I called multiple times since the day to ask what limited access meant. What should I do and was I still receiving reservations for that night? Nobody was able to tell me over the phone. I received no reservations that night and I had one empty bedroom that would normally be booked at the last minute… I was worried.

At this point I am assuming that if you are put in limited access, that means no reservations. I tried to request money from a guest that came with a dog without telling me and wasn’t able to do that either; I charge $10 for pets for a cleaning fee. That night I was very worried and wrote to Airbnb a second time. There was no answer that whole day. I intended to go to the house the next day and take some pictures and videos to send to Airbnb to show them the house and where the camera was, since I had 48 hours.

I couldn’t go that same day, so I was heading to the house the next morning. At this point it had been about 24 hours, since I received the email the previous morning, but it was too late. On the way to the house I noticed I was no longer able to access my Airbnb account at all. At the moment I noticed, I called again having almost a panic attack. Nobody could tell me anything; they couldn’t even see my account anymore, they keep telling me to email them, which I had, like four times at this point. I received no answer from her.

It was about noon. 30 hours had passed at this point from her original email, and there was no answer. My check-out time was approaching on October 24th and I couldn’t contact any of my guests. I was freaking out because I could not chat with any of my current reservations. I had all the rooms full except for one. Again, many of them were checking out and many more were coming that same day, with many other guests coming Friday and Saturday.

I was banned at some point in the early morning of Thursday, October 25th. Finally around 1:30 PM on the 25th I got an email; I knew it was bad. The email said:

“It’s true that the surveillance device is disclosed on the house rules, but the camera is located in the living room and as it is stated on the description of the listing, the living room turns into a private space when you offered it to fit up to two more people. We call this a “zero tolerance area”, therefore this decision. Pursuant to this removal, all of your pending and/or accepted reservations will be immediately canceled.”

It was a nightmare. Airbnb had received the answer they requested by email, the device was disclosed, but they acted upon a question they never asked, and unanswered by me: is somebody sleeping where the camera is? The answer is no. It would have been so easy to ask me straight up, but they never did. They only asked if I had informed guests about it in the listing. I had.

I was banned after four years and all my upcoming reservations were canceled based on this customer service rep:s understanding that the camera is located in my second living room where I have a sofa bed. The house has in fact as I explained in the beginning two living room areas. If they would have taken a moment to ask me or to even look at the pictures of the house where you can clearly see both living room spaces, this would have not happened. Or if they would have waited the 48 hours they told me I had, and would have received my videos and more pictures of the house specifically showing the camera location in more detail maybe they would have understood, but I was given no time and no chance.

October, November, December, January, February, and March… I probably had about 40 or more reservations. They cancelled them all in a jiffy, and it was the understanding of the guests that it was me who cancelled. I was contacted over the phone by maybe three or four of them complaining aggressively to me and asking me the reason I cancelled on them. I was sad, stressed over all the money – about 15k lost in future reservations – and now also scared because I have made some enemies… that are coming to the city and know my address, some of them very upset at me.

To try to explain here the emotional, and financial stress I have gone through in the past days, and also my mom, no matter what words I used, would be an understatement. Only the people that have been here before would know. My story isn’t new; Airbnb has been doing this to hosts all around the world since 2013. I have read most of the stories by now. I wish I had known this before and would have left Airbnb a long time ago. They don’t care about me, they don’t care about my Superhost status, and they don’t care for the guests since obviously they cancel 40+ reservations before even asking me a second question to be sure of anything.

That’s my story. If you are approached by any case manager at the Trust and Safety Department of Airbnb… brace yourself, answer quickly, answer everything, even what they didn’t ask you, be thorough, be detailed, send pictures and videos, don’t call, because they can only be reached by email. Don’t be surprised if your account is canceled forever without even reading anything you sent to them. I am currently uploading all my properties to HomeAway, Tripadvisor, Homestay, Booking.com and few others. Any tips or help are more than welcome since right now I have about 12 rooms, most of them empty. Thank you for reading and leave Airbnb while you still can.

Hosts Be Warned About Airbnb When Guests Cause Damage

Posted on October 24, 2018

A warning for all owners who may rent out vacation homes through Airbnb. We own a couple of villas on the island of Aruba. For almost ten years we have rented out to vacationers and 99% of the rentals have been great: satisfied and happy vacationers.

In August this year, our luck changed. We rented to a Dutch family who totally disrespected our house. The reservation was made through Airbnb, who stated that they had verified the renter. All seemed well. The first day they moved in the complaints started, from stupid comments like “we don’t like the taste of the water in the swimming pool” to “we don’t think cooking with gas is safe.” Then they broke a toilet. This was followed by drapes being pulled down. “The fridge makes a noise and we can’t sleep.”

Each and every time we were advised of any issue we had our property manager involved and he visited the house within an hour. On several occasions, he had to tell the renter to stop having their kids jumping on the furniture and dropping food on the expensive furniture. In addition, they did not know how to light the BBQ and demanded the property manager go and light it.

The renter was moving to the island to take a position with a bank. They had already rented a long-term house and it seems the house became available sooner than they planned. We were sympathetic and refunded some money to them as a goodwill gesture. We found out that they did not pay the rent… it was their employer, yet they pocketed the money.

They walked out early and left the house in a disgusting condition: unflushed feces in toilets, open food on counters, wet towels on beds and furnishings, broken artifacts and glass ornaments, caked on filth and food on the outside patio. I could go on, but I think this describes it somewhat.

After they left, neither our administration manager nor the property manager could believe the mess the house was left in. For example, in July we had the furniture professionally recovered at a cost of thousands. The kids jumped all over it and ground in food, spilled greasy food on it, and pushed dirty muddy footprints into it. We photographed and video recorded all this along with reports from both the property manager and admin lady and forwarded everything to Airbnb. They recorded everything.

Then the bizarre happened. The wife made a complaint to Airbnb who issued her a refund. Subsequently, Airbnb agreed with us and decided to partially cover the costs for cleaning and repairs. The amount they agreed on they did not send us as they had refunded money to the renter. They did not contact us before refunding money to the renter.

Airbnb admitted that someone in the organization made a mistake. We have been calling 2-3 times a week and so far have been unable to get any resolution. We will probably be forced to go through a legal route at this point. In reviewing other owners’ entries in an Airbnb blog, it seems we are not alone in having this experience.

Owners are warned: don’t expect Airbnb to be on your side if things go wrong. We also found out after the renter left that illegal drugs were used in their house during their stay. We have a witness. Airbnb admits that this alone contravenes their policy. That should be enough to bring this to a conclusion, but it hasn’t.

Airbnb Guest Booked Property to Commit Suicide

Posted on October 22, 2018

Setting: a major city in France. On Monday a prospective guest – let’s call him Laurence – requested to book a room in my apartment where I also living for one week starting on Tuesday. He had a blank profile – no photo – but wrote a brief message saying he was a young man coming to the city for a job interview and wanted to look around. I accepted the booking.

On Tuesday, there was no communication from Laurence. I took the initiative and contacted the mobile number given asking for his arrival time. There was an exchange of messages. I repeated several times that I would not leave the key with my neighbour. Because the guest would be arriving while I was at work, he would have to arrive after I’ve finished work, around 9:30. My policy is always to be in when people arrive, I’m not giving a stranger keys to my home when I’m not there.

The young man arrived. His name wasn’t Laurence – let’s call him Gilbert. I showed Gilbert around the flat. He settled into the room, had a shower, and went to bed. On Wednesday I was out early, returned for lunchtime, and saw Gilbert briefly. I left the apartment mid-afternoon, and returned around 8:30. I wasn’t sure if Gilbert was in his room or not.

On Thursday I left early and was out all day, returning home around 7:15. There was no sign of Gilbert having been in or out the apartment. On Friday I left early, returned at lunchtime, and noticed the shutters to the guest room which faces the street are still closed. I knocked on the door to the guest room several times. After getting no response I entered to find a very dead Gilbert curled up under the duvet. His suitcase was opened but not unpacked. There was a bag next to it with quantities of medications, and blister packs opened. I didn’t look too closely because I didn’t want to touch anything. There were several empty beer bottles.

The remainder of Friday afternoon was spent dealing with the police. Eventually the body was removed and I spent that evening deep cleaning the flat. I’ve had to throw out the mattress (looked like blood had been vomited) as well as the bed linen. On Friday night, his parents called me, saying they had not heard anything from Gilbert since Wednesday, asking if he was alright.

“The police will call you Madam.”

“What do you mean the police will call me? I don’t understand…”

“The police will call you Madam.” That’s all I can say. I put the phone down and switched it off.

On Saturday, his parents flew into the city. The mother called me in tears. I agreed to meet and let them in the flat to see the room where their son died. On Sunday, I was back at the police station repeating myself: “When did I last see Gilbert? Did I hear anyone else come in or out the apartment on Wednesday night? Did he allow anyone into the apartment? Did I observe anything about his mood?” Anyway, I’m not suspected of anything, but this is still nerve racking and extremely unpleasant.

Until the autopsy is carried out on Monday, the cause of death can’t be determined. I guess he either chose my place to commit suicide, had some undiagnosed medical condition, or died accidentally. I’m continuing to host on Airbnb and I’ve changed the settings, so everyone has to request to book. I’ve made the house rules even more explicit and will copy and send to prospective guests who must read through and confirm them before I’ll accept the booking.

I’ve reiterated I have zero tolerance for alcohol/drug intoxication as well as stating I must be told about any underlying medical conditions such as diabetes or epilepsy which might cause an emergency. Guests should also give me emergency contact details. I’ve said that I will meet guests in the street outside the apartment and if their photo ID doesn’t match the name of the person who made the booking they won’t be allowed in the building, let alone given the keys to the apartment. You have to protect yourself in this day and age.

Our Private Home Rented Without Our Knowledge

Posted on October 21, 2018

We were in the process of arranging to rent a portion only – no pets allowed – of our holiday house on Airbnb with the owner-operator, who had access to the house. We had not completed the necessary renovations, most importantly a locking door to separate our private area from the rental area. We left New Zealand with the plan on pause until our return. To our horror, when we returned, we learned that our entire home had been rented out repeatedly starting just after we left. Numerous adults, children and pets were in our home, free to go through all of our personal belongings. The house was infested with fleas, and hundreds of dollars of new linens and the TV decoder were missing. The manager denied everything, but did compensate us for the missing items and flea treatments. So… all this person had to do was tick a box on Airbnb saying they had permission to rent. This is outrageous. Airbnb’s reply? “Really sorry, but not our problem.” How can this be legal?

No Review is Safe from Removal on Airbnb

Posted on October 11, 2018

I have to share two host stories. One relates to systemic fake reviews. I recently had the most horrible guests at my house. They were incredibly messy, rude and blackmailed me to have free pool heating during their entire stay free of charge with the threat of a bad review (pool heating is about $200 per day).

Once I reviewed them, I simply stated that they were very messy and overall very difficult to deal with as I had heard that Airbnb tends to delete bad reviews based on “policy violation” and therefore didn’t want to get too factual to avoid any frivolous claim retracting my honest review (note that this was my first ever “bad” review and frankly it wasn’t even that bad).

Airbnb said that, based on a summary investigation (note: I even sent pictures of various damaged objects as well as messages from my neighbors stating how impolite and ‘obnoxious’ those guests were – I wasn’t even asking for any dollar compensation), they determined it was “fair” to delete those reviews. They stated as follows:

“We adhere to the community’s goal of friendship and trust which in total built Airbnb.”

Note that these guests were exactly the opposite. As a result, anyone can dispute any review and get it removed saying it’s not ‘friendly’ and it’s really hard to trust anyone’s reviews.

The second story happened in my New York apartment. A crazy guest claimed (after using my apartment two weeks) that my neighbors threatened to get her arrested as Airbnb is “illegal” in New York. While she had no factual evidence whatsoever and she spent her time in my apartment, she was given a full refund after the stay (at my expense since Airbnb took out the full $4,000 from my next guest’s stay without letting me know).

What this means is that, contrary to popular belief, Airbnb takes the strong stand that they are illegal in NYC and will refund anyone who makes up any similar story without evidence. So, if you are dishonest, go for it.

I hate Airbnb… even though I liked the money I made

Posted on October 9, 2018

First of all, Airbnb annoyed me from the very beginning. Even though I understand that their business model requires compliance with certain processes, I just despise how they make try to get you to run your business in the way they want (having your posting be an automatic booking; too many cancellations – like three – come with penalties, potentially even a $100 penalty). They also frame everything as if it is in the best interest of the guest when really it is the way they want to make more money.

It’s not that I can pin this on Airbnb but I did have issues with a guest. I had the mother of an 18-year-old guy book a room at my place. There were multiple people staying at the place. The 18-year-old stole some car keys and took the car of one of my tenants. It was an enormous headache. After a couple days the tenant got his car back (it was a mess inside) and the 18-year-old kid was arrested and got lucky with a “joy riding” higher degree misdemeanor. His mother was kind and paid money to help with some of the costs (detailing the car, additional cleaning, etc.) but I wish I didn’t have to deal with it at all.

All that being said, the company in general just drives me nuts. I have feelings of hatred that I am trying to slowly alleviate (I’m not typically a hater). I’m going to stick with traditional landlording (if that’s a word) and avoid Airbnb as much as possible.

Complaint Regarding Airbnb Host in Istanbul

Posted on October 3, 2018

We only wanted a one-day stay with this host in a clean and at least half decent room. The photos were decent and the information stated it was on the entrance floor. However, on arrival the young boy at the entrance took us to a room deep under a staircase, not the entrance level. It was dark, humid and smelt damp and wet, a room which was located between the electricity cable cupboards. Inside it was filthy and the furnishing was completely different from what he had in the photos. The reality was the furnishing was old and dirty (see photos).

We contacted the host immediately but he refused to help us. He told us to cancel if we wanted; there was nothing he could do. I told him it was frightening walking down dark staircases, as that is not what we were expecting. He said, “You are scared – no one else is, deal with it.”

I also told him the room had no real window and he continually disagreed and shouted there was a window. The “window” was a small storage window (see photos).

I have used Airbnb multiple times before and I know the many host policies, specifically: listing photos fairly represent the condition and layout of the space. I have not seen such drastic differences between the photos and the actual room: such filth and no hygiene. I also had to deal with a rude host. We had to stay in the room because we had no choice. If I knew about the situation, I wouldn’t have paid 315 TL for a rubbish room under a staircase. I want others to know about my experience and not to trust this host and his fake photos.

Airbnb changes calendars’ set prices regularly

Posted on October 3, 2018

Hosts, If you haven’t noticed Airbnb will change your set prices so they can sell the room. It seems there is an algorithm that lets them override your set price so the room will be booked. I offered a holiday weekend at a high price. Frankly, I didn’t care if it rented or not, so I set it high. The rates were fixed, not variable, and about $20 more than my usual rate. The room was rented for $10 per night less than my “set” price. This times four nights =$40. I doubt the company kept this money but rather they made an override so the room would be rented. I have initiated a service ticket for this. I was looking back at my bookings and noticed actually a number of nights that were let for odd numbers that ended in cents and were not the set prices of the calendar. If they are going to do this we should be notified. Otherwise it is at worst fraudulent.