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BACKGROUND: I decided to sell my property, which is the reason I will be shutting down.
EXPERIENCE: Unlike much of what is discussed on this forum, I’ve found the AirBNB process and corporation to be VERY good to me.
Customer support has been responsive; Even today when I called to cancel two guests for next month, all I needed to do was provide proof of a sales contract. They cancelled them without penalty and without issue.
I’ve never had issue with payment (via PayPal)
They’ve extended my travel vouchers a couple of times (still unused).
As a corporation, they have made tough decisions (that I support) that make a difference and that MATTER to people who need it most.
I was given an opportunity to participate in their IPO offering.
My only negative experiences (with AirBNB)
The time I received a stock legal letter about discrimination (a very happy guest became vindictive when he received a mediocre review); AirBNB could do a better job of investigation before issuing warnings.
Support for AirBNB Plus has been much more restrictive and difficult to manage than a standard listing. This PLUS product is all but dead and I’d be navigating off it, if I were to continue to host.
AIRHOST FORUM:
This Forum has been invaluable to me. I’ve learned so much that made me a better host. My ratings would not be where they were without many of you and the insight that you provide to all.
The responses to my first post, were initially hard to accept, and I, too, got defensive. I thought I had done everything right in a review, but I soon realized that I had a lot to learn. Accepting the criticism was the challenge, but in hindsight, it was all true → “Just the facts, not the emotion”.
My only suggestion is that if you stay in touch with any favorite guests or expect to ever list another property, you scour your prior reservation correspondence to grab phone numbers, emails, etc. You might also copy some of your positive reviews as testimonials to your hosting reputation in the event that you open a different property. When we closed for COVID we actually contacted about a dozen favorite repeat guests to tell them about our plans. I have thought about how I would miss this forum in the event that we stopped hosting. Right now we are only paused through July.
I think a lot will depend on what you hope or expect to do in the future, i.e. is there a chance than you will want to hosy again in the future?
I am selling my B&B in the UK, in order to buy a property in Portugal, where I am currently resident and renting. Until it is sold, we don’t know what we will be in a position to buy here.
As it stands, Gov’t Covid regs are not allowing B&Bs to operate. If this changes, I will snooze my listings, so that I can keep my reviews, ratings and hopefully, SH status, just in case I decide to continue hosting here.
HH_AZ No advice about closing down, but we would like to say >Good luck and great health to you and your family in the future! Maybe you will someday come and stay with one or more of us hosts. Be sure to book direct!
No, but I just tried and you’re right, I can still get to my old listing using the direct link “airbnb.com/rooms/XXXXXXX”, but only when I’m logged-in to Airbnb. It loads REALLY slowly, but it does load. So, I guess I can still get to it and save it off. Thanks!
BTW, it shows a nightly price below my minimum rate, too. LOL!
The future is open. If i wind up building my next home, I will most likely have a guest house type space. I don’t see it happening for at least a couple of years, as I await the Real Estate market to calm down.
Question: I plan to keep my AirBNB account open; do the hosting reviews stay with me? Or do they disappear with the listing termination?
They stay with your account. Mine are still there. I also had a guest that had host reviews on her profile but no listings and found that she had previously been a host.
If you use Firefox, there is a function in the file menu that says “Save this page.” What that does is copy everything that’s needed to make the page function offline in a folder on your computer, with the exception of videos. You won’t need an internet connection to open the page (which will have a suffix of html) open in your browser (use File > Open to get it to open). I’m disappointed that I didn’t think to do that with my listing before I shut down. I believe links will not connect. Since I haven’t done it, I’m not sure if your picture slide show will work, and I’d open all the hidden stuff before you do it, but it’s pretty good at saving a page.
I’m actually involved in a class action lawsuit against them because they cost me $1,400 because I guess said there was water spots on my faucet. And because of covid she got all her money back. I’ve been doing this for 3 years and never had one bad review. This woman came and me the mess at the house and then took pictures in order to get out of paying for the month that she had prepaid for
How do water spots on a faucet connect to getting a refund because of Covid?