I have always pushed for my children to buy a house and had a significant amount of money put aside for the deposit and stamp duty. To get my money, they had to match it… otherwise the threat was that their mother would have great delight in spending it.
Number 2 daughter spent $324k on a home here in Grafton 3 years ago. Recent valuation $600.
Number 1 daughter bought last year in a tiny beach side village. She spent $420. Last Christmas someone offered her $500 and a knock on the door this week was an offer of $600.
They both say the offers are nice, but where do they go? At the moment, if you don’t own…. You are now facing an impossible task.
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When I started hosting in 2014 I had the original Airbnb model: renting out the guest room in my home. I was also boarding dogs in my home, working full time as a high school teacher, working one summer session teaching at the community college, taking 10 days to go score AP exams in another city. On top of that, I have a robust social life and like to travel.
So reason 1: I needed a lot of flexibility on the part of anyone using my services so I have to be willing to give it.
I now have a separate entrance and no shared spaces. That changed the calculation some but the bottom line is that my model works perfectly for me. But I don’t expect that most hosts can do what I do. You can see my listing here:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2835502
Reason 2. My work is never wasted. Before the pandemic I immediately turned over the room so I had it ready for the next check in. The work is exactly the same whether I get another quick booking or not. Now I let the room air out for several hours and it’s a lot harder to do back to back bookings which I did a lot of in 2019. As far as the other work related to communication with the booking and canceling, I just see that as part of the job. It’s basically sales work. Sometimes you get the sale, sometimes you don’t. Think about someone working the returns desk at Costco. That must be quite unfufilling. LOL.
When I closed for the pandemic I did maintenance and remodeling. Often as not, a cancellation brings a sigh of relief. I do not need to book every single day and wouldn’t want to during this pandemic. As you discussed on a different thread, deep discounting a few days in the middle of the week…is it really worth it? What about the “wasted” work explaining to the woman who wanted a discount? How are you going to get paid for that? (Answer below)
It’s built into the nightly price, it’s not free. My business is built on bookings, not cancellations. For every cancellation, I get 20 trouble free bookings. It more than evens out if my rental is priced correctly. I don’t give a discount to all the easy guests.
You seem like you are a little over leveraged. This isn’t a criticism, it’s just a statement based on what you’ve posted. So you have a completely different calculation to make than I do. My home is paid for and nothing is purchased on credit. Nothing is arbitraged. When the pandemic hit and others were panicked, I was fine.
Reason #3. My goal is to treat others the way I want to be treated. I cannot separate my ethical framework from my livelihood. Maybe it’s because I was a public school teacher. Maybe it’s because I was raised in the Christian faith. Maybe it’s because I’m more of a communitarian/socialist than a libertarian/capitalist.
I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that can be adequately explained to others. If you know, you know. It’s like that saying I used to see on shirts at the Harley store that basically say to non-Harley people: “It’s a Harley thing, you wouldn’t understand.”
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My friends in New Zealand bought around the time of the GFC of 2008. They guess that their $250k home would go for 3x that now. They’ve also been unemployed/underemployed a lot during the last couple of years. I suggested they sell and move to Mexico.
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Pre pandemic I was flex, IB and took single night bookings, which kind of went together for my demographic and locale. I didn’t even have to think about communicating with my guests, which is worth something in saved time and effort. They booked and either showed up or didn’t. I was a hotel, basically.
In response to the current enviro, I’ve switched to inquiry and 3 night minimum with two-day air out in between, which as I’ve posted previously was an adjustment for me! While I appreciate inquiries, and have been pleasantly surprised by how many guests include a response to my “pro-vax” language, it’s more of an effort to communicate back and forth.
And the weird thing is, some inquirers have obviously thought they could negotiate or ignore the rules: “I’ll be arriving at noon.” “I’m bringing my dachshund.” Etc. Never had that issue with my IB “hotel” guests.
I’ve kept the flex. 1. I’m still competing with the local Comfort Inns. 2. I don’t want stressed out guests. They know they can cancel if someone tests positive or their event is cancelled. It seems the decent thing to do, and has resulted in re-bookings at a later date. (See, KKC, I do have a heart!) 3. I’m at a premium vis-a-vis comparable Airbnbs in my area. Flex is valuable to some guests and they will pay for it.
I agree flex makes no sense for a resort area with longer bookings, where the host risks losing a bucketful of $$ if not rebooked.
I can’t wait until we’re functional travelers again, getting annual covid shots just like flu shots. I’ll go back to IB. May keep the minimum, tho. My monthly gross with the minimum and blocked turnover day is close to what I earned previously. Hang in there.
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This makes complete sense what I suspected. Maybe this will change over time. Or maybe you make your listing super premium and can somehow overcome the cancelation policy and get bookings anyway? I’m always overoptimistic. 
Right! And I definitely understand that. The (attempted) structure of my post was to ask several questions and then share with the forum what I’m doing and how Flex/Moderate could not work for me. I really appreciate you recognizing that.
That’s quite a feat that you have your listing(s) sharing multiple platforms. VERY impressive! When I first got into this game years ago, I tried to be on Air and VRBO for a single listing. After a year, I quickly dropped VRBO in an attempt to keep things simpler. I admire your ability to handle the multiple platform concept.
This is one of the more spectacular points I’ve seen since coming on this forum.
Indeed. . . We have hosted folks that wanted to cancel and we refused. It’s a very precarious place to be and we absolutely hate having to be there. But I guess we deal with it because we don’t want to allow the cancelation and put ourselves at risk of not booking the home (money).
A recent example was a college aged gal and her new BF wanting to cancel because they saw a recent weather report calling for cloud cover in the desert. This would distract their stargazing so they thought they were entitled to free cancelation. (Seriously?) They had booked NON-REFUNDABLE (saving 10%) too and the request was 5 days prior. We dug in our heels and said no. They went dark from that point forward. We ended up hosting them to the best of our ability and all went as good as it could go. They didn’t review us. We left a 13.99th day review discussing their attempted cancelation due to cloud cover and lousy communication once we told them no. They never contacted us again.
But this is such a great point. It’s emotional. But the right business decision is to hold guests to the policy you have in place. Then deliver as flawless of an experience as you can and get through it.
And in a lot of cases, when a guest asks to cancel and tries to get a refund and we refuse, they just end up canceling anyway. We then rebook (usually at a discount) and make more money overall.
In our experience, having the guest try to cancel and go through with the rez is very rare.
STR income also far outpaces LTR income. And it’s def more stress, but better in other ways? Both of the LTRs that we converted into STR years ago were battered by the LT tenants. So the home itself likes STR better. But, of course, it’s more work (and stress!) to have to iterate an STR with the turnover/interaction, etc.
@KKC I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. From your great examples (Costco) to quotes/feelings (Harley). It’s all very good stuff.
I really enjoyed seeing your listing too! 4.98 @ 635 reviews is insane to me. Probably means somewhere close to 1K reservations depending on your review rate? At 4.98, that’s what, maybe five 4-star reviews total? Wonder who those jerks were! 
This is success at an extreme level and you deserve all the praise in your reviews.
I like the way you nixed the closet to make the room larger. I’ve never seen that gold Superhost key/plaque before. Be loud, be proud. 10% to local charities is beyond generous and very admirable. And you list the charities to boot. Extremely cool.
I have no reservations about the fact that there are 100 different types of hosts out in the world doing “their thing.” Dozens of different host types on this forum alone. I really appreciate your perspective and position with the whole thing 
As in money? No. All of my properties were bought/renovated in cash. We actually have 4 more that are coming on in the next several months. But then we’ll be done for a little while.
Overleveraged as in time? Not really. I meant what I said that it’s about ~10 hours per week for all the listings combined. And my wife is doing most of that work. I own/operate 3 restaurants: richardwalkers.com, come check me out if you’re in San Diego some time!
My wife and I will road trip out to the listings once a week for various reasons and that takes a lot of time! But we’re together and building something “together” so it doesn’t have to feel like “work.” She and I both stress like crazy that EVERY SINGLE REVIEW must be 5-stars (her even a SMIDGE more than me). But that’s our own problem. The end goal is to have 10-12 STRs be the primary income source and possibly do something else with the restaurants (which are too high risk/work for the money they make).
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I never had a doubt.
@dpfromva Enjoyed this summary a lot.
I hadn’t even considered COVID at all with how it relates to bookings/STRs in any meaningful way. But I can see how it would affect your cancelation policy decisions.
Post COVID, we had exactly 2 bookings try and play the COVID card to cancel non-refundable bookings (and succeed). But that’s less than 1/2 of 1% of all bookings. Hyper-rare. And we haven’t had a COVID attempted cancelation in maybe 6 months now. I’m not saying it’s over by any means. But as it relates to our business in the markets we participate, it’s all but completely dead (knock on wood!).
Good luck with going back to IB. The improved visibility on search and (hopefully) increased bookings will be like wind in your sails.
Food for thought: you may can go to moderate. In peak season my area all the local hotels, cheap to luxury, cancellation policies changed to require advance notice—2 days to 2 weeks (oceanfront/high demand).
Revisit the cancellation policies in your area. They may have changed.
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I use the moderate policy because I feel that it’s equitable. I think 5 days notice is fair (and if less than 5 days I get half and they get half). Life and especially travel is uncertain. Perhaps I tend to provide for travelers that are similar to myself (perhaps we all do). I have even threatened to require my guests to have a dog with them.
After nearly 300 guests I can count the number of cancelations on one hand (not including the covid mass exodus of course) so it’s not encouraging people to cancel. And I’ve been able to re-book the bulk of the canceled days and always at a higher price so I have only profited from cancelations. I don’t believe in price diving, I raise my prices as a date grows nearer instead of lowering them. I have a great place and last minute travelers will pay a premium for a great place at the last minute. I know this because I do as well (and it has proven true with my listings as well).
I do put a lot into each guest, including personalized communication and amenities, customized activity lists and walking maps, etc. So I will always keep the first night’s fee of a canceled reservation because I have already done a lot of work for the guest in addition to having to re-figure the calendar and my own plans. If nothing else, I will take that night as a paid day off which is a rare occurence (but still a deserved benefit) for a small business owner.
Beyond the first night I have refunded a portion of what was re-booked or promised a later stay but have also just kept the cancelation fee (which is a fair 50%) for a couple of them who did not ask for an exception. I myself would not (and have not) ask for an exception to a cancelation fee so I respect those guests the most but have worked with those who wanted an exception (except for one guy who was a jerk, lol).
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As I said, I have no idea, only based on your comments, especially in regard to the Big Bear property where the power went out. Quotes like this:
I will let you know if/when we decide to make these massive investments. A part that’s lost in all of this is the colossal investment we’ve already made to make the property what it already is. There’s capital in a deep savings account to take on these projects, but I’d really like to avoid it at least for now.
It’s really none of my business. All I was trying to say is that if I have no debt then investing money in my Airbnb is a much easier decision. Refunding and leaving days open are also easy decisions.
I have one one star which was given by accident. One 3 star which was deserved and earned. It was also back when guests came into my part of the house and I was working full time. I tried to have my cake and eat it too and it bit me in the behind. 7 four star reviews. One from an Italian couple who 100% responsible for their dissatisfaction. They thought they got an entire apartment with full kitchen and dining facilities for $40 a night. These things happen. 4 of those 4* were in 2014-2016 and only 3 since I remodeled the home in winter of 2016-17 to add a bathroom and separate entrance. What I learned from that is that it’s much harder to run a 5 star place if you are sharing space than if you aren’t. The $16k I invested to make the reno was worth every penny.
I attribute part of my success to knowing what I want and how to get it, or as I word it here sometimes: pick a lane and stay in it. Too many hosts try to be everything to everyone. Because I host at my personal home I want it to reflect my personal values and when I get kindred spirits as guests it just makes it that much more edifying.
It doesn’t seem that difficult.
I have to partially credit the forum. I found it during my first year and lurked awhile before joining and posting. I avoided a great many problems and raised my standards quickly after reading the pros and cons here of various policies. I switched to duvet cover and got a kettle and who knows how much grief that’s saved me?
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I think we may have met… Do you have horses in Temecula?
RR
Must be another awesome person 
If you go to our restaurant’s website, I’m guy on the right in the 3rd picture. We’re on the local news quite a bit but that doesn’t have much reach outside of SD County.
Yes I remember this story doing the rounds years ago. i’ve never forgotten it. I live in the tropics and it’s standard practice here for us to put our prawn(shrimp) shells (or any seafood castoffs) into the freezer and then put them into the bin on the day it goes out. You don’t mess with rotting seafood!
Seriously?
Think of the wonderful fish stock you could make with all those flavourful wee castaways!
JF
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That’s why I increase the price for the night before and the night after every booking by $100 (for a base of $54-$80 for one person). I also increase my prices daily for the next 5 days. So anyone who books on the same day as a checkout and that day is paying at least $175 more for that night (still same base of $54-$80 for one person) and the next 4 days are also 60, 50, 40 & 30 more, respectively with the following 5 days being 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 more respectively, simply because they are within 10 days of another booking but not within 5 days of check-in. Sometimes if I have bookings close together they stack up even more. And crazily (based on what I personally would pay to stay somewhere, but I am a tightwad fir myself) people book a single night or weekend that ends up being over $2-300/night with their pets, kids, and or friends.
Oh don’t get me wrong - we were happy about it - that was well over $300 we didn’t expect. And a nice reminder to ALWAYs do our turnover early “just in case”. We’ve been booked at nearly 90% for a month
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true, but i’m talking about the majority of people. Esp at christmastime no one is bothering to make stock.