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And yes yes ever wise [HostAirbnbVRBO], I will send the letter this week to
No harm in doing that I assume. I assume that wouldn’t put my airbnb account at risk or anything like that (which would be life changing in a terrible way).
On the off chance this works out, I should pay you commission. Without you I would not have known about that approach or many of the other things you taught me.
Airbnb is a good partner… except when they are not. You can’t 100% rely on them or them following their own published policy. The last time they didn’t follow their own published policy with me, it was a vastly larger issue than just money. But they are still far better than any other alternative (at least for me).
You might choose to make substantive objections, rather than relying only on sarcasm.
Do you have a point to cogently make? Make it.
Stop crying and whining.
If Airbnb, all in all, is good enough for you, then it’s that. We get it.
You’re the whiner who complains about every little thing.
@HostAirbnbVRBO Perhaps you might simply ask other hosts if they would like advice on how to pursue something legally before launching into endlessly long posts covering every possible nuance and approach you can think of in excruciating detail.
HostAirbnbVRBO,
I’m not being sarcastic. I mean it.
Airbnb has generally been a fantastic company to host for.
But in some cases, they mess up.
The largest problem I ran into (a substantive objection) is documented here…
99% of the time, they are wonderful. But the 1% often stands out. I could make a list of several things they’ve done that were unprofessional and problematic, but that would also risk doing exactly what you’re saying and would be me complaining about every little thing.
By the way, you are absolutely wonderful HostAirbnbVRBO!
I hear your criticism of me. And that doesn’t for a moment think of you as anything less than fantastic. I am extremely grateful that you shared the wisdom that you did about the puzzle that I’m looking at now.
By the way, I consider this issue (losing an 8 week reservation without compensation) to be a fairly minor thing. Totally an acceptable loss.
When they were repeatedly flatly refusing to remove my daughters gender and age from a public review, that was not a minor issue for me.
Anyhow, once again, endless thanks to you!
-Host host
I LOVED the detailed advice that HostAirbnbVRBO gave!!!
I also fully loved the great advice that you gave me when airbnb flatly refused to removed my daughters age and gender from a review.
You are both incredibly helpful and I am grateful.
HostAirbnbVRBO just criticized me a bit. I’m fine with that. Not a problem for me. I’m still super grateful to him.
It was hard to tell if you were being serious or sarcastic. At first I thought serious, but when HostAirbnbVRBO took it as sarcasm, I read it differently.
No worries muddy. It’s all good. 
By the way, if end up getting the 8 week or 4 week payout (as well as being able to rent the room in question again), I’ll throw a party. If I got that money, it would be 100% gravy. I don’t think the odds are high, but it’ll be fun to give it a shot.
Hopefully you get some replacement bookings. I don’t know if you normally take long term bookings or not but among other reasons not to, the risk of a guest getting 2 months of rent refunded seems another good reason to avoid them.
I like getting your advice no matter what.
But…
I like long term. I’ll take the risk. And I already have two little bookings that are starting to fill in the large hole.
I lowered my price by 8% to hurry that along and it worked.
The thing I don’t like about short term bookings is the gaps in between. And I don’t want to earn money by resetting a room (or paying another person to do that). It’s also just so much more work and more communication. I used to do vastly more short term. These days I try for long term in every way possible and I’m loving it! I’ll take the risk of a long cancelation here and there. Especially given that I have a firm cancelation policy.
In some ways, it’s less money. But in some ways, it’s more money.
And it’s VASTY less work, which is kind of what I care about most.
I also have a few rooms in the same house, and longer term often seems better for forming an actual fun little community for a while.
An airbnb support person (as yet unnamed) promised to work on this issue tomorrow. I am oh so curious what they will end up saying.
Place your bets, place your bets!
My minimum is 3 days, my max 2 weeks. Even though I leave a day prep time between bookings, I do find it tedious to have to clean between consecutive 3 day bookings. I don’t know how hosts who do their own cleaning and take one-nighters don’t burn out. I like the 10 day-two week guests best, which used to be the norm for me, I almost never got less than one week guests, but this season I’m getting a lot of 3 nighters.
Perhaps you would ask others here if we want to hear about your upholstery business or your daughters before taking every post as a cue to reflect on it in the context of your life.
OR, we can each write in response as we wish and the other can choose to ignore/not read the posts that bore us.
The poster asked:
When the poster went on about its ‘detail’ I suspected sarcasm because it was such a general overview.
After years of not doing this, I ended up pushing the longest stays I possibly could, because that is what’s most convenient for me. And that’s been working out for me. Some stays are now well over a month. And yes, there was one bad guest that stayed for “too long”. So there is a possible downside. but worth it for me.
I had written a very clear explanation to airbnb and shown my calculations. And said that if they got different numbers, that I requested that they show me the policies and the math for their alternate number.
Airbnb just called me, apologized for the mistake, and informed me that they will be paying me for 30 days of the reservation. I haven’t seen the money yet, but I have good faith that I will.
The person who fixed the payout for me was the same person who made the initial mistake (incorrectly giving the guest a full refund).
And there is nothing to stop me from getting new bookings for the room, as my calendar was cleared right away.
If Airbnb hadn’t messed up, I definitely would not have pushed for an entire month payout. In other words, I’m sure that this is coming out of airbnb, and not the guest, so I’m happy to accept the monies.
I’ll relax a bit more once the $ actually shows up, but from my experience, airbnb is 100% solid at paying money they say that they will pay.
I’m very grateful for the fantastic advice I was given here. Especially from HostAirbnbVRBO.
Part of what I’ve learned from this is that I don’t want to be on the other side, where I need to cancel a long airbnb reservation where that might bite me.
I wonder if the CS reps who refund guests against the cancellation policy and then Airbnb admits they shouldn’t have done that, and pays you out of their coffers, get sacked.
I also wonder if Airbnb reverses the refund to the guest, so they aren’t actually paying you out of their coffers. I know when guests are given refunds, they don’t usually get them right away. I think Airbnb says within 15 days.
I don’t accept long term bookings (more than 28 days) because that would put the guest in the ‘Tenan’ category…
But if I do get longer bookings, I require that the guest carry their own travel insurance.
Airbnb discussed offering travel insurance at one point, but there are several companies out there that offer affordable, cancel for any reason policies.
I used one for my trip to Bali last year and it was about $250. for my month long trip.
Just a thought…
That’s quite super interesting about travel insurance. Thanks!
Many people don’t become airbnb hosts, because they worry about the risk of letting random people into their homes. But I find that by doing airbnb and welcoming semi-random people into my home, that I’m more secure. It’s socially fun as well as quite financially beneficial.
This puts in in a way that’s overly simplified, but… I’m more going for not worrying about what bad thing might happen so much. And trying some potentially risky things out, and see how it feels. If I get bit, then I adjust what I’m doing to reduce the chances of getting bit in the same way next time.