Also - I do not want "help"with pricing!! I know what I can and do charge, and why. My rates are very different from others’ because I offer much different value. What a cottage in town can rent for is very different from my Frank Lloyd Wright School designed home, on 180 wilderness acres with a huge view of wilderness. The guest wing of the house is bigger than some City apartments. Our being here constantly has great benefits for guests, who can get requests granted immediately and personally, including our concierge services. There is no comparison. And, I charge the same rate all year, every day. Hassle free calendar/listing!
2 Likes
Thank you@Muddy I’ve adopted a version of this! Whew!
I also charge the same rate every day of the year, with no weekly discounts. Never even had a guest ask for a discount, even the ones who book for two weeks. I’m not the least bit interested in spending time messing around with pricing, according to season, demand, or local events.
And Airbnb’s “price tips” have suggested I charge $19/night ! That would barely cover my expenses and is less than a shared hostel room goes for in my town. I charge about $34/night (depending on current exchange rates- I list in Mexican pesos) and a couple of guests have told me “You could charge more for this, you know”.
Airbnb, of course, couldn’t care less if I only made $2/night in profit, as long as I had 100% occupancy so they could make more in service fees.
4 Likes
Exactly! @muddy - I don’t do discounts or any altered pricing. I’m actually making about $2 a night, with the colossal overhead here. My cost/benefit analysis is astonishing. If I did not enjoy hosting I’d stop.
2 Likes
Had a phone call from my so called account manager from VRBO.
She asked me to reduce my pricing so my listing on their site was cheaper than ABB. I said you reduce your commission so I make the same money…dead silence…then I asked why I should be the one to lose money to boost your site bookings? More silence…Really makes you feel like nothing more than a cash cow to be milked!
6 Likes
Wow. What an unbelievable and clueless thing for VRBO to do. You’re supposed to agree to lose money in order to make their site more profitable for nothing in return? Out of the goodness of your heart? 
2 Likes
My heart ain’t that good and very blunt reply made her very aware of how I felt
I also said, be a better site, look after your hosts, make them feel valued and appreciated and with happier hosts you will get more bookings
Make the the lose money…. Really stupid policy
3 Likes
Muddy, you’re in Salulita?! Wish I’d have known that when I was there last year…
This is a great thread, albeit maddening! Hopefully we’ll find a work around.
Yes, Sayulita. I wish you’d known that, too. Would have loved to meet up.
1 Like
And the news about this has taken a dark turn:
We all srsly need to read this.
The Hill’s stories are often dry, but also more or less balanced:
Thehill dot com/homenews/house/5856952-house-gop-airbnb-chinese-ai/
You might want to have a friend book a night and test this before communicating with guests about ai.
There is such hostility and fear about it, the topic may just drive off guests altogether.
Esp. When the China connection becomes more widely known.
Aaand… Just to irritate the host even more, earlier this week, I turned off the “use AI and help improve it…” setting under “privacy” settings.
And today, I found that it had been turned back on without my knowledge.
Grrr.
Interesting article @Lilly, thanks. Guess we’ll have to see how it shakes down.
I would imagine most guests would be irritated at getting AI responses as much as hosts are.
I don’t have any upcoming bookings- had one 5 nighter for June, but he just cancelled. (That’s another thing- I wonder how many more bookings than usual are getting cancelled since Airbnb decided it was a brilliant idea for guests not to have to put any money down to book). And I don’t anticipate more bookings until Oct. as this is my down season and I block off July and August for my own yearly trip to Canada.
So by the time my tourist season bookings start rolling in, maybe this AI thing will have changed.
2 Likes
What,?? No money down to book?? When? How did you learn that, @muddy?
" Reserve Now, Pay Later
You may reserve a listing without paying anything at the time of booking and pay the full amount of your reservation at a later time prior to check-in, as long as your trip is eligible and Reserve Now, Pay Later is available on the checkout page. Reserve Now, Pay Later is available only for listings with certain cancellation policies."
What’s really cute is that this is only available to guests for listings with flexible and moderate cancellation policies. So while Airbnb encourages hosts to have more flexible policies, they are now subjecting those same hosts to more likely cancellations. So it is going to drive hosts like me, who have a moderate policy, to more strict policies if we start getting more cancellations.
2 Likes
This is what comes up on Google when I typed in “How does Airbnb’s Reserve Now Pay Later affect hosts?”
” Increased Cancellation Rates: Giving guests the ability to book spontaneously with zero upfront cost has contributed to an increase in platform cancellation rates.
Host Policy Overrides: Because guests must pay before their free cancellation window ends, hosts have time to secure new bookings if a reservation drops. However, this means hosts have to constantly re-list and manage dates when last-minute cancellations occur."
My moderate policy affords guests free cancellation up to 5 days before check-in, but I rarely get cancellations and 5 days isn’t enough time for me to secure a replacement booking.
If guests now have no money at all on the line up until 5 days before check-in, this is going to result in lots more cancellations. I’m p*ssed.
3 Likes
Augh.
I’m in the US, and the app still requires payment upon booking, refundable if cancelled consistent with my cancellation policy. (flexible).
How did you determine that? Tried to book your own property incognito?
No, @muddy, while logged in as a host, I went to the “Resource Center” and put in the search shown in the first image. I clicked the first link, and the second image opened regarding stays of up to 28 days
There are many cases where Airbnb articles are out of date.
I don’t think that’s an accurate way to find out if someone could book your place without paying anything upfront.
Maybe get a friend with an Airbnb account try to book your place for say, 3 days, for a date a few weeks into the future, and see if they are shown an option to Reserve Now Pay Later.
Or try to book a place in your area with a moderate or flexible policy and see if you are shown that option.
No need to follow the process through to the end and actually send a request - payment options should come up before that point, I would imagine. (I have never booked as a guest, so I’m not exactly sure at what point in the booking process guests are offered payment options)
1 Like