A current short term guest wants to extend for three days. They messaged on the phone and said, “hi I’d like to see if we can extend a 3 more days?. We can do it through the site, or through Venmo. We know VRBO takes 8%.”
Would you do it?
Depends on the guest, previous communication etc.
if I was an on site host yes . Probably not if I was remote and couldn’t check the state of the property.
2 Likes
Yes i would do it
RR
2 Likes
I would do it. I’m assuming if I didn’t mind them staying for another 3 days, I’d feel good about using Venmo. Just make sure that none of it gets mentioned on the site messages.
1 Like
I would do it if I felt confident that they were a good guest who was not causing any damage. If, for example, they had plenty of prior good reviews. I take direct bookings but only from people I know from prior stays.
I had a guest message me recently and say she and her dog had stayed with me previously. The stay was about 3 years ago and I had no memory of her stay although all her reviews are good. Because she stayed before she was able to message me her phone number. She also said in the message that she could pay via other methods. So the message came through without any redacted parts but it was flagged by Airbnb as a possible scam and prompted me to report them.
I booked her via Airbnb and everything went well. So after the stay I told her if she ever passes through again that she can message me directly. I explicitly told her that if she mentions booking off platform in the Airbnb message thread that her account is flagged.
I can imagine a situation where if you had a problem with a guest and complained about it the fact that you booked them off platform would preclude you getting assistance from them. So I wouldn’t want to do it with a guest that I wasn’t confident about.
4 Likes
Yes, I would. I’m wondering though, why you asked. Wouldn’t you do it?
I had someone extend by 1 day last week. No sweat, if they do it early enough I do it through Airbnb but if already here I ask them to do a bank transfer (almost made it through 2021 without using cash once until a faulty ticket machine in hospital parking forced me to use my emergency $50 note on Xmas Eve). Same as if they have a friend staying but only for one night.
1 Like
Had a team of engineers staying last week.
Direct booked this week.
I pay no fees…. They get a discount with no fees.
1 Like
I’ve never done it before for short term. I think that maybe it can get you kicked off a platform. so I asked.
Airbnb doesn’t own the relationship between you and a guest once a booking has come to an end. I exchange email addresses with most of my guests before they leave and tell them if they ever want to come back, they can just get in touch with me directly.
As a home share host I can tell in pretty short order if a guest is a nice, normal person I don’t have to worry about (like they’re going to “report” me), and have let them stay a few days longer if I had availability, or even refunded them if they had to leave early and I was okay with that, all for cash off-platform, because it was so much more straightforward and less time-consuming than having to dick around on the platform.
If you have every reason to trust a guest, no worries. If you feel uncomfortable with it for some reason, go through the platform, but you don’t need to worry about getting booted off unless it’s someone you think might try to get you in trouble by telling Airbnb that you insisted they give you cash.
2 Likes
I have a homeshare and I trust my gut with these requests. If I have established trust I do it provided there is no mention of it in an Airbnb thread. If I am uncertain I ask them to extend through Airbnb. I have had Airbnb pick up on similar request within the Airbnb thread. I’ve always done it with cash or the rare check that I can trust. I just got Venmo and love this option.
Like others have said. If they’ve been good guests then yes.
I don’t use VRBO but taking payments away from Airbnb is fine once they’ve created the initial introduction. Remember that online platforms are simply advertising your rental and processing your guests’ payments. For this, they take a commission.
This means that the guest doesn’t ‘belong’ to the platform - their job is to introduce you to each other. Once that’s done, if the guest wants to extend their stay, stay again next year (or next month or next week) or pay for their friend or relative to stay with you… all these are fine. They are not VRBO people or Airbnb people they are your customers. 
2 Likes
We do not book outside the platform. I’m extremely grateful for Airbnb providing my livelihood and insurance, support and being there when I need them. No one is worth jeopardizing that relationship.
1 Like
I’m looking to book a place in the town I grew up in. So, I asked about bringing my cat and too many requirements.
The thing I was offended by is this person has a total of 4 reviews and in their responses to me, they list all kinds of ways to get in touch including encrypted phone number to try to get you to book off Air.
I have to say I was put off by this and wouldn’t stay there. Send them a little note telling them to be careful, they could be kicked off Air for their blatant tactics.
I don’t have a problem with hosts booking off Air if the guest has stayed before, but this host was like a hustler and he knew nothing about me.
I’ve stayed in lots of Airs and this was a first.
1 Like