Do you consider yourself to be employed by Airbnb?

61

Actually you aren’t employed by them @PassTheProperty; you are contracted by hosts to provide a service.

If you were employed by them, they would be paying your employer tax, national insurance, pension contributions etc.

Very interested to hear that you can guarantee income from your hosts. Can you tell us how that works?

3 Likes
62

No, i advertise on multiple platforms, not only ABB. They are more like a business partner

1 Like
63

What a shame that air doesn’t just ask us mere mortal hosts

1 Like
64

@Helsi You are correct, I meant employed in the loosest sense, but as you say it is contracting.
Our guaranteed rental income model works by creating a strategy (along with the owners of course) to keep the listing full for as long as possible, by renting it out to the right people at the right times of the week / month.
We have found that large / regular rental voids are what turn landlords off from managing AIrbnb themselves so if we can solve that problem for them, all the better

2 Likes
65

Thanks for coming back.

So did I understand you correctly in terms of the guaranteed rental income do you base this on XXX number of days per month at XXX rate and pay this regardless of whether the listing achieves this?

1 Like
66

@Helsi Yes that is it exactly. Obviously we can sometimes take a hit with this but as we have worked with the client to decide on the right amount, it typically leaves all parties involved happy

67

Agreed. If a guest gets a doctors note that he can’t travel because he has a cold, that guest can get out of paying anything at all for the booking however last-minute the cancelation occurs. It isn’t nice to hosts and is overly nice to travelers. A traveler stands to lose disposable income, while a hosts stands to lose his ass-ets. To all the travelers who get the sniffles and use that to get out of paying for a rental: Take some dayquil, put your big boy pants, and get on the plane. If you can’t do that, offer the host payment for any nights they are unable to re-rent the space.

69

“If an employer trains and directs work, including hours of work, what tools or equipment to be used, specific tasks to be performed and how the work is to be done, the worker is likely an employee.”

Airbnb tells me when to reply to inquiries and requests, penalizes me for not doing so on time, penalizes me for wanting to do things my way (e.g. declining guest who wants a single night stay on a popular 3-day weekend), and overrides my house rules whenever they feel like it. It is clear who is in control here. Now, when do I get my benefits?

1 Like
70

It’s not clear to me. With Airbnb I have more control over my schedule/earnings than I ever had in my other dozen or so jobs spanning 40 years. It’s as if people think they have a Constitutional right to put their property on the Airbnb platform. Someone told me yesterday “my house, my rules.” Airbnb is saying “my platform, my rules.”

4 Likes
71

It would be fair if Airbnb made their rules clear. They allow hosts to have their own house rules then don’t enforce them. It has been an issue on at least 30 occasions in the few years I’ve used Airbnb. I had a guest smoke in an apartment. My travelers know that no smoking of anything is allowed on the property because of health reasons of others who live there. I couldn’t be in the place because smoke causes migraines. It took me 3 days to get a cleaner to come and deodorize and wash everything fabric including the curtains (some of which then ripped because they weren’t meant to be washed). That laundry took so long, I lost another night of rent. I followed the rules. I reported the issue within hours of the guest checking out. The Airbnb rep said she made a note of it and understood that I didn’t want to charge the guest yet because I was not sure of the final cost. It took me a month to get a written bill “on letterhead” from the specialized cleaner and to find receipts for the curtains as well as a quote for hemming new curtains. Airbnb said it was too late, but they said that after stringing me along with several emails back and forth. I lost 4 nights of rent, paid an extra $150 in cleaning/deodorizing replacing the curtains which were customized for the apartment will cost hundreds. Airbnb gave me $0 and said the $30 cleaning fee was enough to cover “all the extra cleaning”. On top of that, they wasted my time. I get that Airbnb doesn’t want to turn off their travelers, but why would Airbnb want the trouble-makers anyway? That is where they sell hosts out, and they do it repeatedly. I have had similar scenarios about every 20th booking. A 5% let-down rate, is not so good. When the time spent substantiating claims is considered in addition to the monetary loss of denied claims, it makes much more sense for me to rent my places as long-term rentals. I now only use Airbnb for last-minute bookings when I need a few days filled in between long-term renters. Life is so much better now.

2 Likes
72

Good to hear…

73

I pay them, so umm, no

1 Like
74

No, I do not work for Airbnb. Airbnb is simply another commissioned salesperson that I use to fill gaps in my calendar. I pay them 3% for bookings. Sadly my guests that book via Airbnb pay significantly more, as I inflate my rates so that my net is the same as a direct booking, so they are paying more for the base rate plus Airbnb’s booking fee. But literally no one, NO ONE, books a second time through Airbnb. When guests arrive, I give them my business card with my web site and email, and I explain to them that I also use Airbnb for first-time reservations in a particular city, because I appreciate the reviews and I don’t want to search for the owner/manager for a direct booking. Then I tell them, “Assuming that you trust me by the end of your stay, I encourage you to contact me directly as I can save you significant money”. We frequently convert guests to direct bookings on subsequent visits.

So no, we are not employees of Airbnb, nor do we rely upon them for bookings. Airbnb is simply a vehicle to fill last-minute vacancies and to convert first-time guests into subsequent direct bookings.

Cheers!

2 Likes
75

I never thought I was but how they act it looks like we work for them.
And yes, it does make me vulnerable to deal with them. Too much involvement on their part. For now I am switched to other platforms where I get my short term guests but still my main goal is to get longer term guest.
At this point I dont want to rely on Air on having my business run properly, the way I want it.
I dont mind complying with rules , but not with ridiculous rules like refunding guests for past stays, and not one day but the whole stay like a week. Or this absolutely ridiculous extenuating circumstances the last minute . Or how guests learned that they can play the system and get they refunds based on a fact that there is a different bedcover on a picture .

76

I’ve a guest this week stayed through airbnb last year, told her to book direct if returning and she booked through Tripadvisor, Thought it was direct, bless her cotton socks.
In a way every guest is my employer but certainly not airbnb

2 Likes
77

The “Plus” program now requires that the home is exclusively on the Air platform. And the hosts are complying. smh