Best way to handle requests from people who don't read

@LegendsCreek that’s rather rude. Just because @Magwitch has a different opinion to yours doesn’t mean she is a troll.

She is a long standing member of the forum who provides valuable input.

I too have a more flexible attitude than yours, because I recognise Airbnb is not the easiest system to find your way around and newbie guests and more established ones, don’t always read. So not reading my listing is not a reason to turn a guest down, however discount seekers tend to get an outright rejection.

Yes of course you are entitled to decline guests you don’t feel comfortable with, but other hosts here are also entitled to have different opinions on how to handle things without being call a troll.

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Take into account that to some people / cultures it comes natural to ask for discounts. As @jaquo said, people are also “educated” to ask for discounts and to always look for the cheapest price.

On the other hand, I agree, it is really frustrating to see that the money, time and effort you put into your business isn’t valued as such by others.

Another frustration is people totally not reading and even asking questions that are clearly answered in your listing. My first reaction is of the slightly passive aggressive type to say “As you can read in our listing…” :grin::sweat_smile: :imp: but I always compose myself right in time :innocent: and just answer the question in a nice way.

I think this is the way to go: Try and stay nice to people asking discounts and asking questions. Don’t try to judge them right away. Engage in a friendly conversation, to explain them there is no discount and to ask them to read your entire listing. Depending on how the conversation continues, feel totally free to accept or decline. The one guest we accepted in spite of our gut feeling saying “NO”, was the only bad guest we have had so far.

One interesting tactic, suggested on this forum, that rewards people reading listings and makes these people happy with a small discount, would be to include some kind of promotional code at the bottom of your listing. If people have read everything they can message you with the code and you could offer a 3 - 5% discount. This of course after first raising your prices with this 3 - 5% :wink:. I haven’t used this tactic myself since there’s not much reading in our listing, but find it an interesting option for listings with a lot of text.

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To be fair, he’s responding to some of Mag’s responses that were removed.

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I think Legends explained that it’s already in his listing that discount seekers will be declined, but this person persisted even after being declined. Surely this spells trouble.

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Although I decline to permit discount seekers to stay even at full price, in @LegendsCreek initial post it’s not clear whether the request for a discount will be declined or the discount seeker will not be permitted to book even at full price. I don’t know if his listing makes this more clear.

I should not speak for Legends, but I think he meant that anyone who asked for a discount would be instantly declined.

Ah even only I had ESP, I would have known that :slight_smile:

Honestly i dont think that asking of discount is something outrageous and impolite. I get some laughs when a person offers me fraction of what i am asking like this lady from North CArolina who offered me for 4/2 pool house 1400$ a month, but then aggain may be its even possible to rent the housee like this for the money where she lives.

In most of the world people negotiate ALL THE TIME. And first price is always much higher that the real price. Try being a white person and get normal price from start. I went from 25$ to 3$ within seconds. and not once.

In my pool house every single corporation that rented with me negotiated. The Californian guys extended their lease every month since March now into July and they negotiate with me every single month for 200$ less. I dont give up since i already gave them 200$ from the beginning. Only once for the past 2 years one company paid the full price but then they were pretty fussy about little things, so i wished they negotiated too and would be happy with their price.

I had people staying in private rooms in my house who negotiated too and now for example one guy is staying for 5 months now and he is the best.

And the fact that they ddid not read the rules: for me its a surprise when they do read rules.

So, my naswer to your question whta the best way to handle such guests is to negotiate if you can go down on a price, then tell them rules again , and approve them. But then it would be me:):slight_smile:

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Yana, where do you list to attract those business rentals?

Its not that i list somewhere special, its how i list.
I kind of saw a pattern with my first corporate guys that rented my house through Airbnb. They rented for a week and then stayed for 4 months! They paid me top dollar even with small negotiating. Workers that are temporary relocated are the best as we all determined. Many of them are looking for longer term . But without all the complications of 3 months rent required and at least 6 months lease. Many of them dont know the exact time frame they will be staying. Airbnb or Craigs list or VRBO is the perfect source for these guests. They dont even look anywhere else.

First thing i saw how easy it is to rent to them. They mostly dont damage anything, dont party, always at work. The best part is that they hardly ever complain about little things. Too busy i guess for that.

To get people like this i made my minimum stay 7 days in both properties. I noticed that they usually want to try for a week and see how they like it and then go from there.
Inquiries too far into the future from vacationers i deny waiting for my business travelers, and since June of last year i am booked back to back for a month or more stays. The only break i had in March for few days when i did rent to a family for a week, only the same day getting another inquiry ready to pay from a company for 3 months including that week. I would accept vacationers but only if there is a window and they are booking almost the last minute.

Otherwise i have no intention to rent to anyone other than workers in a future.

With private rooms i put weekly price and also 7 days minimum. Most guests i get from craigs list:70% craigs list, 30% airbnb. I dont even advertise anywhere else, only the pool house also on VRBO. I get many inquires and bookings from VRBO from workers who need to stay in a group and looking for a larger house .

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Argh, right now I’m fuming about a guest who didn’t read and/or believed the rules don’t apply to her. This is our rule (yes, it’s one of our few rules, not a suggestion) stating that we need to know when guests will arrive:

What time will you arrive at our house?
As we greet every guest personally, we need to know your arrival time so we can be here to meet you.
Please tell us your arrival time (within a two-hour window) by the prior day or when you make your reservation if you reserve on the day your stay begins. If your arrival time changes, please let us know as soon as you know.
If you are arriving by airplane, please give us the name of your airline and your flight number so that we can check your flight status.
We are flexible about the check in/check out times if there is no conflict between arriving and departing guests.

Today’s guest keeps telling us that she will arrive “in the afternoon” and reiterates this when we ask for a more specific time. It’s not 4:49 P.M. and we have no idea when she will arrive. For all of you who will recommend self check in; I can’t do that. Our dogs bark non-stop when people are on our property until we let them know that the guests are approved.

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Very frustrating! I really sympathize.

My check-in, a week from today, responded to my week before email aghast. She pulled out her tickets to see the exact time she would be arriving, only to discover that her flights in the PM, not AM. If she can’t change the tickets, she looses a day in Boston [hanging with her kid] AND will arrive way past our check-in window.

In this case, I know exactly when she will arrive, and I can assure you that I will be sound asleep. Thank goodness I don’t have a canine welcoming committee so that this is possible.

:poop: :poop: :poop: HAPPENS ! I don’t really have a solution, but you could always have some small sweet revenge by having her wait at the door for 20 - 30 minutes… When she calls you because no one opens the door “Oh, I’m sorry dear, I was waiting for you ALL afternoon, but I really needed to go to the supermarket. I will be there in half a hour. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

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Try asking the guest at the get-go:

What is your estimated time of arrival (ETA) at our house? It is imperative that we have this information because we greet every guest personally and it is not possible to self-check-in because our dogs must be “introduced” to you so they do not bark.

If you will inform us of your ETA (within a 2-hr. window), one of us will sure to be here to greet you. Otherwise, we may be out and about on errands and you will have to wait until we return.

Then you are putting the onus on them to give you an ETA of within 2 hrs. or suffer the consequences. Personally, I would not volunteer that you are so flexible about the check in/check out times. Haven’t the guests already committed to the stay at that point? They have either seen it in your listing that you are flexible or if you are reiterating it, they will consider it as a free ticket to a really relaxed schedule and be non-committal.

You may be giving them mixed messages.

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How is what you are telling me that I should write different from our house rule?

Well, it cuts out some of the verbiage and options which are in your current response which may lead to guests ignoring it but hey, I can tell you are not receptive to suggestions from me, so just ignore it. It was just what I would do to see whether I would get a better response from guests about their arrival time.

I’m flexible that way.

Infuriating. Ellen has so few rules, and the one that she really cares about is arrival time. Surely the guest can see that arrival time notification is non negotiable if she wishes to stay with Ellen! So the guest is not being courteous and I would mark her down for same.

@konacoconutz

Okay, but why wait until “feedback” time. I was trying to help achieve the goal…to get the guest to cooperate and cough-up an approximate time of arrival rather than just silence…and show up whenever.

It seems to me that if what I was doing wasn’t working, I would at least try some other suggested solution. But, oh well.

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I didn’t say that I wasn’t receptive to suggestions from you. I didn’t see how your verbiage was different from mine. You’ve explained that it has less verbiage. We used to have less verbiage, but the rule was continually ignored so we’ve tried to strengthen and explain. It doesn’t seem to matter; many guests just don’t like to set an arrival time. I asked this guest repeatedly to give me a more precise estimate than afternoon to no avail. She ended up arriving in the early evening.

I have tried everything; making the rule more explicit, explaining the reason for the rule, having Airbnb send an email to every guest who books with us, repeatedly emailing to ask when guests would arrive. Nothing works if the guests don’t want to schedule their time. The last person who wouldn’t tell me when they would arrive other than “early afternoon” ended up arriving at 5:30. He got distracted at a virtual reality video game parlor. He didn’t have his correct phone number or email address on his profile so he didn’t get our phone calls or emails. We called Airbnb and they were unable to get in touch with him. It truly is not anything we are doing wrong.