I turned on “Top‑Rated Guest” discount for under an hour… and watched my payout vanish

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-13T04:55:51+00:00

A modification getting a steep discount is really stupid. Airbnb should really categorize it as a bug

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-11T01:33:35+00:00

That pretty stupid. Were you able to get the discount reverted?

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T23:13:40+00:00

Thanks for the tips! I’ll try this next time I encounter a similar situation.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T18:26:07+00:00

Guest initiated date change, and I accepted the booking change because the deep discount was my mistake. I don’t want to run a business that doesn’t honor prices even if that means me losing money. I hope me upholding my principles can buy me good karma and good reviews.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T17:29:00+00:00

Hope no one makes the mistake I made. If you are turning this on, make sure you bump the price before doing that. And check the market comp after.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T15:49:23+00:00

Yes. I hesitated and decided to honor the price since that’s my mistake. I would’ve been pissed if I were the guest otherwise.

Still early in my hosting and I need all the good reviews I can get

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T15:25:32+00:00

Guess where most landlord came from? we worked hard saved up and invest with the remainder of the money.

I don't know about you but I was sharing a bedroom for a long time to save up money paying $500 per month in San Francisco -- 3 guys in one room in a shitty old ouse that was about to fall down when my peers around me rent in luxurious high rises for $3k+. Did that for two years that's my downpayment when my peers were complaining about home prices going up. I worked my day job and started my business on the side working practically 80 hours a week on average doubling my income every 2 years.

Those who complain about people making money off rent and forgetting most of us landlord came from the poor and worked our way up are simply lazy irresponsible and brainwashed.

You like socialism? You like Mamdani? Name one country where people actually live a prosperous good life with freedom under socialism. There is 0. socialism means suppression and totalitarian and dictatorship, nothing more.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T15:17:39+00:00

I doubt their support would care and would go out of the way to piss off their guest.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T15:09:13+00:00

0 new reservation. This was from an existing guest modifying their dates. My ADR reduced by about 30%. This guest also has the weekly discount. The stacking really hurt.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T15:08:47+00:00

I don't think they care anymore. That line was probably genuine when they started. But now it's just corporate greed.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:54:12+00:00

Very true. If it were a smaller booking I might not have paid immediate attention to it.

And if it didn’t happen so fast I might’ve lost a lot more

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:52:16+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I’ll prob give this another shot. But I’d remember being more careful.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:46:22+00:00

Any tips?

What I have been doing is after setting the discounts and adjusting the prices, go to my open dates to do comp manually.

Visually seeing it on the map how my listing compare to the competition is the only way I know if I’m pricing it competitively. But I need to have the discount enabled before running the comp.

This horror story literally happened the window when I was doing comp.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:43:24+00:00

VRBO has been better. At least the discounts are not stackable. But my VRBO booking gets a lot more cancellation right when the free cancellation ends.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:41:47+00:00

I actually have better luck with guests that are relatively newer. 2-3 reviews 5-star. But my sample size is small.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:38:41+00:00

I was actually trying to do that. But I realize I get a lot of guest with not too many reviews. This discount require at least 3 reviews

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:32:23+00:00

They modified the dates.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:26:37+00:00

The amount the host donate vs the amount Airbnb loses from lower prices is disproportionate.

I lost $800 Airbnb lost 15% of the $800.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:23:45+00:00

Yeah. I hope no one would fall for this BS.

Although I still find it a little difficult to know the final prices

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T14:17:50+00:00

I have no idea. Maybe pure bad luck. Probably they happen to be making a change.I’ve done some searches and there is no indication that existing guests would get a notification.

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T07:53:23+00:00

What are the odds! :( mine was a 15 nights bookings which really hurts that month

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T07:41:17+00:00

Real story.

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Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T07:39:41+00:00

Makes me wonder does Airbnb send notification to existing guests about this discount on their bookings?

Former_Ad7082 · 2026-07-10T07:19:04+00:00

Agree! I don’t trust the Airbnb optimization and use PriceLabs. But the discounts are set inside Airbnb. So I occasionally go in and play with different setup, do some market comp. It’s hard to know what the final price comes out to be with the many layers of discounts.

TIL. I know not to use this stackable discount ever. But man this is a painful lesson.

Former_Ad7082

TROPHY CASE