Once again, a keen reminder that you are a badass. >stay on her good side, stay on her good side<
Love it! 
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What type of location are you at? The policy that works really depends on the market. I’m sure we would all love loose policies if demand was strong last minute… (airport, interstate, national park, stadium etc)
I wouldn’t. I would never take last minute bookings, it’s not the way I want to host. I have 2 day advance notice set and that’s how I like it.
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That was my point. When people are saying what policy works for them it’s always helpful to tell readers what kind of rental they have. I don’t think there is a single Airbnb policy that we would all love because we are all different people with different listings.
I’m a half mile off the interstate in El Paso TX. It’s literally hours between major cities out here. So this is a major stopping point for people driving cross country. I prefer short stays and right now I have a two night limit. Quite a few people on their drive have to wait and see how far they think they can get each day so the book that mornign or the day before. I also have a handful of regular visitors who know to text me if my calendar doesn’t show me as available and they book direct.
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@KKC But why elect to go Flex or Moderate in the first place? What does that do for you? I get it that you get the place rebooked and it all evens out in the end, etc. But is there some personal advantage where it somehow makes your life easier? Or is it more profitable and you simply get more bookings, perhaps?
The issue I would have isn’t that the canceled booking was recovered (money). It’s throwing out all the work tied to the steps that take place the very moment that a booking is confirmed:
- Scheduling the turnover crew (this is massive)
- If it is a 2-listing turn in a market you have multiple listings; double scheduling that crew or finding a back up so that both turns are completed on that particular day
- Scheduling the pool/spa team (they come twice a week, only between guests)
- Slotting monthly maintenance like the pest guy, HVAC team, landscapers, etc.
- Sending the personalized welcome message
- Ensuring guest/pet counts are correct and paid for
- Further interaction when the guest asks questions prior to canceling
- And finally, the interaction when the guest ultimately cancels
All of that work above is part of the deal and cannot be free. I get it, if the person cancels they received “nothing.” However, that doesn’t mean the host isn’t working. And the person that later books the house behind them (and I agree, it happens 100% of the time) is another iteration of most of the items I listed above. And if a 3-day booking cancels, that can turn into one, two, or even three total distinct bookings. What if you can’t schedule that now with your teams if it’s late in the game? All the scheduling needs to happen all over again.
I guess it just comes down to how much you value your time. Working on the listings, scheduling, maintenance, interacting with the staff and guests; I try to keep that to ~10 hours a week (I have a full time job elsewhere). But as soon as I’m starting to overly deal with cancelations/rebooking/scheduling, there’s no way I’d keep it together. Having a STRICT cancelation policy gives you that piece of mind that 99% of the bookings made will go through as they are planed, once confirmed. It’s the only way it could work for me.
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But in my case it is not competitive so I would not get advance bookings to begin with.
There are thousands of STR in my area. Most are hotels or with STR property management companies. None that I’ve found have strict cancellation policies.
Almost all have prorated refunds if cancelled 30-15 days prior to reservation start.
Strict is too strict to be competitive. Moderate is a little too liberal but no worries. During peak season, I rebook cancellations quickly.
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I know you asked this of KKC, but I’ll tell you why I use moderate. (You seem to think everyone hosts like you do, with multiple listings and cleaners, pool guys, maintenance crews and landscapers, and complicated scheduling, which isn’t the case. In fact, it seems like the majority of hosts on this forum have pretty simple listings- one place, or just a few, some are on-site hosts, and many do their own cleaning.)
In my case, I just have a private room/bath home share listing, and chose moderate because that’s the policy I would be happy with as a guest and find reasonable.
Also, the location of my listing and why and how guests get here means that cancelling doesn’t happen almost ever.
Nor do I care that much about a cancellation. I’ve never aimed for full occupancy, I have another job. I’m far more interested in getting great, hassle-free guests than packing the calendar.
I would never use flexible, though. If I had prepared for a guest, only to have them flake out last minute, I’d be really annoyed.
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You are working too hard. Summer of 2022 I will have a turnover crew every Friday…period.
I’m in a condo so pool, lawn, bug treatment all are done but on the predetermined schedule. I let guests know ahead of time to expect late pool opening on Mon & Friday. Weather permitting lawn maintenance is on Wed. Bug treatment on the 18th but could be Friday before or Monday after off the 28th is on the weekend.
The personalized communication is a pre-written message that I may or may not customize. Depends on what is needed.
There are so few available service providers in my area you must work with their schedules- none of this when I need you scheduling. It’s all about when they are available.
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And you’re constantly yammering at anyone that wants to run their business differently than you run yours. Or life differently than yours.
We all do things our own way. Constant insistence that someone else’s way is the only correct way very quickly becomes tiresome.
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And for most of us, that way works just fine, or we wouldn’t be operating as we do.
Johnny doesn’t seem to be able to understand that not everyone is the same type of host, with the same type of listings and the same type of clientele.
He seems to think we all have multiple listings, with a staff of workers and complex scheduling, and that we all have a panic attack if we aren’t booked 365 days a year or if we get a less than solid 5* review.
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Well, I’m having trouble enough trying to pay one mortgage.
It seems that the AirBnBoomers with multiple properties are the ones that are really panicking, though.
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I know. Hosting seems to be some constantly stressful experience for them. I wonder why they do it. There’s other ways to make money that they might actually enjoy. 
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I’m not…. No mortgages on 4 properties. The real estate market here has gone completely berserk. I have been through 3 financial cycles and once the interest rates start to bubble on these million dollar mortgages, it will be a blood bath.
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There’s no reason why hosting multiple properties has to be stressful- I imagine you enjoy it.
I just don’t get it when hosts seem to have over-extended themselves so that they aren’t really enjoying it at all, it’s more like they boxed themselves into something and don’t really stand back and think about whether they should do something else, or pare down their portfolio.
It’s like when Covid reared its ugly head, so lots of hosts started leaving a day or two between bookings to clean, whereas before they’d been stressing themselves out doing back to back bookings and taking last minute reservations.
After being on the new program for awhile, I read a lot of comments saying, hey, this is actually much better, I’m going to stick to this. A few less booked days per month, but way less frantic stress.
Yet it never seemed to occur to them before, even though they were stressed out and barely had a moment to themselves, that they could do it differently and still be successful hosts.
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Your points are very well made. Many here don’t have so much to juggle.
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We used to be Strict and really felt that it was “right for us”. Then, we changed to firm. Shortly after, we tried Moderate to see IF IT WOULD INCREASE our OCCUPANCY.
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Did it? I really can’t say. We grew from 55% to 86% but also took a wide mix of bookings with Air, Direct, and even one on VRBO and BDC. At 80%, I’m very pleased. Having some time here and there between bookings is useful to us.
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Interestingly, we got a Surprise Last Minute Same Day Booking via BDC for 3 nights. We had fully expected a nice gap until our next booking and were about to head out to a friends house. That was the FASTEST DARN TURNOVER EVER. Thank goodness Amy was with me.
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I don’t want anyone staying in one of my listings if they don’t really want to be there.
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I miss it. For a multitude of reasons I moved two of my STRs to LTR. One will go back to STR summer 2023. I have less work to do right now and a regular income so it’s a fair trade off.
Of course there is going to be a little more stress because of the increased work but overall not bad.
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True words ……………………….
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Just had similar conversation with a friend. ST Rentable homes & condos sell fast. The number of STRs seems to be increasing dramatically. Last summer’s demand was huge. Prices went up. September 15 came and STR came to a screeching slowdown. Nightly rates fell.
At some point supply, demand, & nightly price will balance.
As of right now, it is doubtful anyone purchasing at these quickly rising prices can make money. The summer rent can certainly offset some expenses & possibly pay the mortgage but the people who expect STR to be a money maker will be disappointed.
Ditto, almost. Everything in Spain bought and paid for, LTRs in the UK have very small mortgages that historically have been cheaper to service than redeem.
For some, it already was. I remember the howling and wailing from those who’d bought into the rental arbitrage system, and those who were paying multiple mortgages, way back in March last year.
It seems that most commentators are forecasting rises in mortgage rates for many countries this coming year, for those trading on the margins with their STRs things could become a bit sticky if we see restrictions reimposed due to Covid variants.
JF