I have a client who loves the resort I rent out, at least I hope it is the resort and not just my per night pricing LoL. I have booked them twice through Airbnb with great success. I just received another request to book for a week in 2020, but it was via the communication mechanism within Airbnb and not a new booking request. Any suggestions on how to handle this? As I see it there are a few options. 1- Ask them to create a new booking entry from my posting, 2- Send them an offer for the requested time, and 3- Book the time and have them pay me directly. If there are other options, I am open for comment. Thanks.
I’d avoid option #3. If you book them outside of the Airbnb platform you lose whatever protections that it provides.
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I think number three is the best option. Direct bookings are the way to go, if you can, and really Airbnb’s protection is pretty limited.
JF
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I would email them or call direct, outside the Air system and book direct. Do not discount, the discount is they save the fees. 3rd time guests, you know these people no need for Air to continue getting a cut. Air was paid for the introduction.
RR
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I would go with option 3 @harry50hn and have them pay a deposit to hold the space and then the balance XXX weeks/months in advance.
They have already booked with you twice so any risk will be minimal.
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Be careful. Airbnb does monitor messages and once warned me about communicating outside of AIrbnb when a prior guest asked me about this in an AIrbnb thread. It is technically against AIrbnb policy. However, at some point these repeat guests often become real friends. It seems that we should be able to do whatever we like with friends.
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you have their phone numbers. Talk to them on the phone or text. ABB doesn’t have access to your phone!
Which is what exactly? So go for number three. These are not Airbnb customers, they are the host’s customers. It’s not because Airbnb provide a great service that these guests have been back once and want to do so again - it’s because the host has impressed them with his/her service.
Airbnb is like a dating service - it’s there to introduce people. It’s not supposed to go on the honeymoon too.
I don’t quite understand why the guests didn’t contact the host directly though. @harry50HN did you ask them why they didn’t? That would be my immediate concern.
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The second booking and this time never should have involved Airbnb. Airbnb brought you the customer and you each paid a fee.
After the first booking, they should have been in your database and have your business card and already have been having communications about future bookings.
How in the world was the second booking and this communications ever through the airbnb system anyway?
So many opinions and all are good ones, we do not do direct bookings simply for the logistics, bookkeeping and legality of drawing up a separate contracts. The guest could be asking because your dates are not open on your calendar, which you can manually open if you wish the guest to book for next year, be sure and increase your rate appropriately.
Give them a TIGHT deadline to pay in full, if they miss it, go back to the platform.
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I thank everyone who has responded, I just needed your viewpoints as guidance in case I missed something. The only catch that I can see is being reprimanded by Airbnb and having them restrict my postings.
As a follow-up, the requested time is for 2020 and the time is open so making a res via Airbnb is possible, just wasn’t done that way. Yes I have all their information and they have mine so booking directly is a possibility. Right now there are some technicals that need to be resolved before I book but I think it can be done.
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If they’ve booked once on AirBnB and I like them and they say they might be back I tell them to book directly. I have some business cards made up. For a start they don’t get to leave a review. I figure I’ve paid AirBnB’s fee for the first booking so we are square. In fact my current guests are like this. They are a father/son working 4 weeks in the area but just M-Thu. They contacted me via AIr and asked if there was a way to book directly. I told them no there wasn’t but if they did the first booking through Air after that they can book directly. It’s a slow time of year for me so I was keen to get their booking but if it was summer I’d have just said book them all through Air. Possibly just as well as I was so busy watching the finale of GoT on Monday (here) I didn’t have time to make the beds before they arrived and then the rainwater tank ran out just before they were about to have their nice hot showers after a day working outside in the cold. At least I didn’t have the reviews to angst about.
Option #3 for sure. I do it all the time. I do not discount rates as someone stated above, because they don’t pay the Air fees. This has worked really well for me. I would say about 20% of my bookings now are returning guests. As an in-home host I love this because they know my home, my dogs, their space etc. Win win for everyone.
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