A Rate Plan Mapped to the Wrong Offer: Five-Step Diagnosis

The guest sees one price and you receive another. Work backwards from the offer that was booked, and the mismatch narrows fast.

Last updated: October 24, 2026

When the price a guest paid and the price you expected disagree, work backwards from the booked offer rather than forwards from your rate screen. Four layers explain most mismatches: the rate plan attached to that offer, the currency, the tax basis and the occupancy basis. Fix the plan, not the single booking, then prove the fix with a test booking.

Key Takeaways

• The booked offer is the only reliable starting point. It's the one version of the price that a guest actually accepted.
• Compare like with like. Gross against gross, per night against per night, tax in against tax in.
• Most mismatches are a plan attached to the wrong offer. Not a broken connection, not a rounding error.
• Fix at the plan level. A correction applied to one booking disappears on the next update; a corrected plan doesn't.
• Keep a one-line log per case. The repeat is what costs money, and the log is what stops it.

Start from the offer the guest booked

Pull the confirmation before you open your own rate screen. It carries everything you need: the nightly rate, the total, the currency, the tax line, the plan name, the number of guests and the cancellation terms.

Write those six values down in a row. They become the reference against which everything else is compared, and having them in writing stops the conversation from drifting into what the rate "should" have been.

Then decide which number you're actually testing. A guest-facing total and a payout figure are different quantities, and comparing one to the other produces a mismatch that isn't real. If the guest paid 480 for three nights, the number to test is 160 a night before or after tax, depending on how that channel presents it. Get the basis wrong at this step and every later step inherits the error.

The last thing at this stage is a screenshot. Take one of the confirmation, with the date visible. It costs nothing, and it settles the version question if a channel's page changes while you're investigating.

Check the rate plan link

A rate plan is a bundle of rules attached to a unit on a channel: the price basis, the occupancy it assumes, the minimum stay, what's included and what the cancellation terms are. An offer on the channel points at one of those plans. When the pointer is wrong, the price is wrong in a way that looks random until you see the pattern.

Three patterns are worth recognising. The first is the right base rate with the wrong occupancy — a plan that prices for two guests gets attached to an offer that allows four, and the extra-guest charge vanishes or doubles. The second is the wrong inclusion: a plan that includes breakfast or a cleaning fee sits under an offer that doesn't mention it, so the guest's total and your expectation part company by exactly that amount. The third is the wrong plan family: a non-refundable plan under a flexible offer, which shows up as a discount nobody authorised.

Read the plan name on the booking, then read the plan name in your own setup for that unit and that channel. If the two don't match, stop here. The remaining steps won't tell you anything new.

localsbnb.com keeps Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda and Trip.com in one calendar, with each channel's source rate and source status showing beside the dates. That's the view where a plan pointing at the wrong offer usually becomes visible: one channel's source rate sits away from the other three on dates where nothing else changed.

Check the currency and the tax basis

Currency produces more false alarms than real errors. There are three places it can sit: the currency the plan is built in, the currency the channel displays, and the currency your payout arrives in. A guest who paid in one and a host who reads in another will see two numbers that differ by an exchange rate rather than by a mistake.

Test it in one move. Convert the guest's total at the rate on the booking date, and compare that to the plan's own currency figure. If the gap is a few tenths of a percent, it's conversion. If it's a clean round number, it's something else — a fee, a tax, or the wrong plan entirely.

The tax basis is the layer hosts skip, and it's the one that moves the number most. Some channels quote rates with tax included and remit it themselves. Others add tax at checkout. If your plan was built to include tax and the channel adds it on top, the guest sees a number that's higher than your plan by the tax rate. You'll spend an evening looking for a pricing bug that doesn't exist.

Check the setting per channel rather than assuming it's uniform. Two channels can treat the same plan differently, which is why a mismatch that appears on one channel and not another is often a tax basis question rather than a mapping question.

Fix it, then verify with a test booking

Fix the plan, not the booking. Correcting a single reservation is sometimes necessary for the guest's sake, but it changes nothing about tomorrow: the next update pushes the same wrong plan again, and the same mismatch reappears on a booking you won't be watching.

So change the link, the occupancy basis, the tax setting or the currency — whichever layer the diagnosis pointed at — and then prove it. Pick a date six weeks out, close it in your own system, and make a test booking on that channel for two guests and the rate you expect. Compare three numbers: what the test booking shows the guest, what your calendar records as the source rate, and what the plan says it should be.

If all three agree, you've fixed it. If two agree and one doesn't, you've learned which layer is still wrong, which is more than you knew before.

Do this outside your peak dates. A test booking on a Friday in high season becomes a real problem if the cancellation terms won't let you release it.

What to write down

One line per case, in a file you'll actually reopen: date, channel, unit, plan name found, plan name expected, the difference in money, what you changed, and who changed it.

That last column matters more than it looks. Most mapping errors are introduced by an edit made for a good reason — a promotion, a new inclusion, a seasonal plan — and the person who made it usually knows something the log doesn't. Writing their name next to the change turns a search into a question.

Review the file once a quarter. If the same layer appears three times, the problem isn't the mapping, it's the process that edits plans without a second pair of eyes. That's a different fix, and a cheaper one.

FAQ

Why does the price differ on only some dates?

A date-specific override, a minimum-stay rule or a discount window that applies to one plan but not another. Check whether the dates that disagree share an occupancy level, a stay length or a booking window, because a pattern across dates usually points at the plan rather than the connection.

Should I compare against the guest's total or my payout?

Neither, on its own. Compare the guest's total against your plan's total for the same stay, then compare your payout against the same plan after the channel's own deductions. Two separate comparisons, each like for like, and the layer that fails tells you where to look.

How often should the mapping be re-checked?

After every edit to a plan, every new channel and every change to a tax or currency setting. Outside those events, once a quarter is enough for most hosts, plus a spot check after any booking that arrives at a price you can't immediately explain.

No diagnosis removes the possibility of a gap; it only tells you where the gap came from. That's the point of the sequence. And if the four layers are the part you'd rather not open every week, localsbnb.com shows each channel's source rate and status next to the dates, so a channel that drifts stands out before a guest finds it.

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This article is general guidance for hosts and isn't legal, tax or insurance advice. How a channel presents rates, applies tax and converts currency sits in its own terms and can change. Confirm the current terms of each channel you sell on, and the tax treatment that applies to you, before you change a live rate.