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These are my rules, and the new pet fee setting interferes with it by only allowing a flat fee, which if you don’t select, will say +pets stay for free":
2 ** PETS: $20 pet fee x night - 1 pet allowed (will consider 2 small dogs.) Invoice to be paid prior to
check-in. Guests staying longer than 5 nights, pay a $100 fee for the whole stay. Only well behaved,
housebroken dogs are welcome. Pets cannot be left alone on the premises. Proof of vaccinations, zero
tolerance on fleas, mites or other pests. Dog parents are expected to clean-up pet debris and hair;
charges up to $500 will apply if the post stay clean-up results in excessive sanitation and hair/debris
removal. If you invite your doggie into bed, please arrange to bring your own bed linens—no judgement,
my dog sleeps with me too so I have to use crappy sheets.
It is just SO ODD. Are they TRYING to make hosts angry and drive them toward direct booking and other OTAs?
. How hard is it to think that some hosts want a “Pet Fee Per Stay” and others “Pet Fee Per Night”?
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I think we’ll see a lot of well-deserved backlash to Air over this in particular.
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ALL THAT ASIDE, how hard is it to add a Pets Allowed Button for Quick Filtering? It would be so much easier and better for everyone.
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I honestly expect that this was not intentional. Air can be shockingly inept and disconnected from what is in their best interest.
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Thank goodness that we mostly don’t have to care. But, we get too many “can we bring our dog”. So needless. A waste of time for the guest and host, with no upside at all.
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It must not be very hard since they always had one until this new policy was put in place.
My guess is that they are moving it from amenities to a different place so a guest can put in the number or pets they are bringing. Just like number of bedrooms and bathrooms isn’t under amenities, number of pets won’t be under amenities. And although I put my $15 pet fee under pricing, it doesn’t appear on my listing yet, or at least not on what I can see. I can’t book my own place so maybe I don’t see it the way a guest would.
At least one person has reported to me that they don’t even have the option to add the new pet fee yet. So the roll out isn’t complete.
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I can confirm this. For the fun of it, I set “allowed pets”, but did not have a “pet fee option” after - even when I opened a new browser to see if it was a cache issue.
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Depending on Search Area, Guests have a Instant Filter Button for “INDOOR FIREPLACE”, among other amenity choices. Somehow that is prioritized over Allows Pets? Jeez.
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I probably would not care AT ALL, except that so many guests are confused and inquiring. And, yes, I disabled “pets allowed” after the test
No it’s not prioritized. It’s a function of the fact that indoor fireplace policy and options haven’t changed. It’s been there and so has the “pets allowed” filter. When they start the indoor fireplace fees and you can choose how many indoor fires you want to pay for that filter will probably disappear while they work on setting it up.
I state all over the place and correctly checked off “NO PETS” But if Air changes it to any pet allowed with a stated fee, ,my fee will be at least 175$ if not more. hummmpppfff
Ps that video reminds me of what happened to me only I was holding Bella and she lunged and I landed on top of a toadstool like immoveable metal seat and almost broke my ribs in order to stop her…
Thats what I have done, cash or Venmo. I got tired of checking to see if the guests paid through the res center.
I have toggled off the pets allowed for now, I am not onboard for a pet charge per stay vs per pet per night. I may limit my stays to 3 nights and set the fee for one pet based on that, two nighters would be paying more. I prefer short stays so it may work out.
I can’t agree with you more. As a person also in the restaurant business, this feels like it’s getting worse and worse. I think we’ll hit a tipping point here in the coming years and it will get better for hosts/business owners.
ANYONE can bring a pet ANYWHERE if they say it’s an ESA animal. It’s absurd. On the bright side, the proliferation of pets being allowed more and more places sets up the likelihood that something unfortunate/bad/stupid will happen. Once it does, things will change (for the better).
The situation with emotional support animals seems to be be part of the trend toward selfishness and “rights of individuals” over the community that we see everywhere.
I know individuals whose lives have been saved by “support” animals. But individuals have ruined things for the majority
Just put your policy in the House Rules and ignore the one time pricing setting for pets. That’s what I do. Business as usual for me in that regard but now people can’t search for pet friendly as a policy, they have to include a pet(s) in their guest count and then will only be shown listings that allow pets. If they are an ESA (real or not) they will see nothing about animals or pets and can’t search for it. They also don’t have to include it so ate allowed to book anywhere…so have it in your House Rules to at least cover your butt when AirBnB screws you through the guest…
Holy cow!!! Really??? Is that why I had a guest just change their booking request from 2 adults to 2 adults and 2 pets….? I guess we will see when I ask how they prefer to pay their pet fees…
This is stupid if AirBnB to STATE. Lots of hosts have nightly pet fees in their house rules and always have. Making us take a one tone fee or nothing does explain why many would just stop offering. I am not looking forward to the first time I have to deal with this asinine policy of Airbnb’s making!
We’re ripe for a good dog-borne disease outbreak. What will do it is dogs spreading germs on carpets spreading a virus that doesn’t affect adults, but is really bad for infants and toddlers.
Thank you @RiverRock for bringing this up! After reading all the discussion, I repeated some of the info, already in my House Rules, in my scheduled message to guests after booking:
"Thanks for booking! Looking forward to having you. We will send check-in information two days prior to your reservation. Let us know if you have any questions before then.
“Please note that Airbnb has recently made it more difficult to understand pet limitations, so we’re sending this automatically to everyone who books: Pets are on a case-by-case basis only. If you wish to bring a pet, message us right away to let us know the details so that we can discuss any issues. In any case, the maximum combined pet mass is 36 kg (80 lbs). Maximum number of pets: 2.”
I’m glad you brought this up. I don’t really want to charge for pets, but I guess I will just throw a $1 fee in to avoid folks willy-nilly deciding to bring their pets when they might not have even thought to earlier. Thanks for bringing it up.
I can confirm the same. In October a guest was told by Jamal at Air that her pet should be considered an ESA. Jamal at Air also wrote that accounts with Air that didn’t allow ESA animals would be placed " on watch". Now reading all of Jamal’s orders I’m pretty sure he’s just an arrogant contractor trying to sound tough but I am now rewriting my house rules that absolutely no pets unless you ask permission/consideration in an inquiry.
Is anyone else noticing a very stern guest-centrist move by the customer service contractor and Air?
Are you kidding? They’ve been guest-centric for years and only gettting more so. Jamal? The name of an Airbnb CS rep is immaterial. Most of them seem to be made-up names (a host once mentioned she was being dealt with badly by a rep called “Twinkle K” ), and they are obviously unaccountable for whatever decisions they make or bad or incorrect info or advice they give out. For instance, there is zero reporting process for lodging a complaint against a rude or incompetent rep.
Especially considering that it seems so many young people got themselves a puppy to relieve the boredom of lockdowns, as if it were just a new video game, instead of a 10-17 year commitment that requires training.
Those folks are the type who will be working online all day, never bothering to take the dog for a walk, using “pee pads” or thinking that a little wee on the carpet is no big deal.
I read a post by a guest like this. He was up in arms about getting booted from an Airbnb because their 3 month old puppy was destroying the place, said they had taken the dog for “training” for a month before they travelled, at the age of 2 months , which is like saying you taught your 4 month old baby something. He seriously couldn’t understand why his puppy peeing and defecating on the carpets was a valid reason to be told to leave, because they were “cleaning” it up.
), and they are obviously unaccountable for whatever decisions they make or bad or incorrect info or advice they give out. For instance, there is zero reporting process for lodging a complaint against a rude or incompetent rep.
, which is like saying you taught your 4 month old baby something. He seriously couldn’t understand why his puppy peeing and defecating on the carpets was a valid reason to be told to leave, because they were “cleaning” it up.