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Using smart rates is an experiment for me this summer. I’ve always done as you described, and been happy enough with it. However, my sons and their same age peers kept telling me that i was severely under-priced, and as my sons are the ones doing most of the traveling in our family currently, I listened to them on that.
At first, I was shocked at how high the smart pricing put some dates-- easily 3 x what I usually priced it at. I was sure that nobody would book. What actually happened was that I started getting more 7- 12 day bookings and fewer one nights. And my overall booking rates are higher than ever. i do have one odd stretch of 12 days in July that has not booked, but May, June and August are absolutely fully booked, as is half of Sept.
It still counts as an experiment, but an odd experiment without any control data to help evaluate it. I don’t know how my income would look if I were setting prices myself as I have in years past, because the travel patterns are all so different post-pandemic, at least in our area.
I don’t have to rely on my rental property income to survive, but given that our property taxes went up 35% over last year and my husband was forced into an early retirement due to physical disability, it does make sense for me to run my business in a thoughtful way, not just as a hobby.
I really appreciate your attitude, although, like you, I don’t fault other hosts for not refunding if they don’t have to. Goodwill with a guest who needs to cancel, who is quite polite and reasonable about it, and who might book again in the future, or recommend you to friends or family, also has value, even though it might not be monetary, or not immediately so.
I voluntarily refunded a guest once, without even giving her the opportunity to possibly ask for it, even though her booking was already in progress and I had no hope of rebooking. She had made a five day booking, but after 2 days said she hadn’t realized how hot and humid it was this time of year where I live, and she was really suffering from it (while my guest space has a good ceiling fan which keeps the room pleasant, it’s a 20 minute walk to town and the beach from my place).
She just told me she was going to move on to Mexico City where she already had a booking for after my place, and found they had availability if she wanted to come a couple days early. She assured me it had nothing to do with me or my place, and she was a very nice person, a homeshare host like me herself, we’d even gone out walking around town and to dinner her first night here. But I rarely get a booking anyway that time of year, because of the climate, so her booking hadn’t prevented anyone else from booking, it was not money I was depending on , as I would in high season, so it was really no skin off my nose, and it felt like the right thing to do.
I took advice offered above and waited until the replacement stay was completed satisfactorily and payout was in my account before refunding the money. I ended up giving her the lesser amount ($1000) because it seems to fit the principal best – she did me the courtesy of communicating well and canceling the booking on airbnb site, and I went a bit above and beyond by rebooking and doing some extra work (not a huge amount honestly) to rebook. I then gave her the income from the days that I was able to recoup. Airbnb site made it very easy. click of 3 buttons and one brief message to her explaining the refund amount. She messaged today very appreciative, said she was surprised to get anything back at all, and said that if she and her son are able to make the trip next year, she hopes she can stay with us. As far as the money – it will be deducted from my upcoming stays, so no movement of funds from my bank. Just have to keep in mind that funds from future stays will be diverted by Airbnb. So a good result all around.
Because it was all so smoothly done on the platform, I’m hoping that taxes will be easy and straightforward too.
Thank you all for helping me think it through. One change I did make to my welcome message after a guest books – I point out that I do have a strict cancellation policy and suggest that they consider trip insurance. We’ll have to see if that makes any difference to bookings in the future. With that statement in place, I think I feel significantly less inclined to do refunds in the future.
