As a first-time host I put my property on Airbnb and innocently followed the recommended rates to charge. I got a booking to discover the payment was one third of what I was expecting. Actually, it was even worse as I hadn’t noticed it was quoting me in dollars, not pounds, which I’m sure is a tactic of theirs to make it look like you’re getting more money.
Anyway it turned out the guest got a 70% discount which, by the time I pay my taxes, I’m basically out of pocket. Especially if they make a claim, which sounds like these professional Airbnb guests easily do. I wrote to Airbnb asking if they could help me amend my booking so I didn’t have such a big discount. I also wrote to the guest saying I’d made a mistake; neither could help, so I had to cancel the booking.
Airbnb then fined me £50 for canceling even though it was within 12 hours of making the booking and two weeks away from the guest arriving. I tried to amend my post but they had blocked off the month I cancelled. I asked them to remove my posting but then I got another booking, which I had to cancel. They then sent me an email saying as I had cancelled two bookings, I’m blacklisted. They don’t make it easy for hosts. I shall use someone else.