Airbnb Host Tells Guest They Have To Raise The Price On The Home They Booked 8 Months In Advance After Learning Of An Event On That Date
What the host is doing isn't fair, and it doesn't seem like it's allowed either.
fizkes | Shutterstock With the rise of companies like Airbnb and Vrbo, hotels are no longer your only option when you’re on vacation. For some travelers, scoring an entire house is preferable to hotels that do not grant you the same privacy or home amenities as a vacation rental.
However, just like with any part of traveling, unexpected things can happen that make staying at these rental properties more difficult. One woman who planned ahead for her trip learned the hard way that Airbnb wasn't the best choice for her budget.
One Airbnb guest got a big surprise when the host contacted her to tell her they would have to raise the price she was paying by double.
TikTok content creator and business owner Morgan Norris shared her experience dealing with an Airbnb host in a video that she classified as a “rant.”
“There is no reason why an Airbnb host should personally call me and say, ‘Hey, I see the day that you booked something, um, we have a big event coming up that weekend,’” she said, recalling her experience.
An interesting twist was that Norris was fully aware of the event well ahead of time. That’s why she made the booking in the first place.
“And I was like, ‘Yeah, you do. I knew that you did. I literally had the inside information on when this date was for said event because I work with the company,’” she continued.
“Keep in mind, I have already booked the reservation eight months in advance,” she explained. “I’ve paid for the entire thing in full. And what do they do?”
“He’s like, ‘Hey, sorry, um, I cannot rent it to you for the price that we agreed to priorly through Airbnb. Um, I know I could get triple the amount, um, so I’m gonna double it. Are you willing to pay that?’” she recounted.
The guest was unsure if raising the price after booking and paying was even permissible via Airbnb’s rules.
“And I was like, ‘Is this allowed?’ Like, I genuinely need somebody from Airbnb,” she stated.
She wondered, “Can a host all of a sudden try to cancel or modify your reservation for the price that you have listed?”
To make things even worse, it sounded like the Airbnb host had personally contacted her instead of communicating with Norris through the app.
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“And, like, he did this, not through the Airbnb app. You know what I’m saying? Like, they called me personally,” she said.
Unfortunately for Norris, she didn’t feel like she had much leverage in the situation.
“I don’t think you should be allowed, but I feel like I’m gonna have to pay the price anyways because there’s, like, nothing else available for the amount of people that I’m gonna have with me,” she lamented.
“I literally hate people that price gouge,” she said. “This is ridiculous.”
Unfortunately for the guest, it seems like she’s in a bit of a gray area.
From hearing Norris’ story, it’s easy to feel that she has been wronged and Airbnb needs to make things right. However, it may not be that simple.
Airbnb has an “Off-Platform Policy” that states that “all guest communications prior to booking must be on Airbnb.” While this makes it sound like the kind of communication this host engaged in is not allowed, it may be. After all, it occurred after the booking was made.
While the contact between the host and Norris may technically be allowed, one thing that is apparently not is requesting a guest pay more for a rental than what was originally agreed upon.
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“If a Host tried to charge you for something that violates our policies or wasn’t stated in the listing, the price breakdown, or their message thread, please be sure to dispute the charge in the Resolution Center,” Airbnb stated in its Help Center.
So, changing the price of the rental to charge double is definitely unacceptable and should be reported to Airbnb. How quickly they’ll act on that information is unknown, of course.
If Norris is really desperate for the rental, she may decide to just give in and pay the extra money. Honestly, after all that’s happened, could you blame her?
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.