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I have not done it YET with Airbnb. I have done it with DogVacay and Rover at the client’s request. That’s when I learned that I couldn’t just charge them a dollar a night and there is a minimum of $10.
I WOULD do it with a great 5 star producing Airbnb guest though.
How would you do it on airbnb though?, would ask a guest to cancel (if instant booked) and then you would agree with them directly to pay you or would you only do this for previous guests?
I would ONLY do it with prior Guests who left 5s across the board and were people I wanted to be sure would return (as well as had enough of a positive communication relationship with during that time) that I felt they would appreciate it and love to do it.
Even then I would NOT cancel ANY booking to do it. It would have to be a discussion with the guest to initiate it that way with an inquiry so I could then send a special offer to once they paid me the difference. I would feel the need to collect that difference BEFORE sending the special offer though just in case they tried to screw me.
In the case where I did it for the dog owners I did not and have not collected the full difference up front but half. We are talking several hundred dollars and I also seem to be a much better (and I love it more) pet care provider than lodging host and felt comfortable with them and LOVE their dog. If anything were to happen to them I would take the dog as my own. And the owner won’t board him with anyone else (scheduled her vacations around my schedule). I had over 100 reviews on the sogncare website and have 29 or less reviews on each of my listings for Airbnb. I’ve been training and caring for dogs for 39 years and only hosting/landlording in my home for 16 years.
I would not want to cancel any booking on my behalf either, however if it’s an Instant book, you could ask the guest to cancel, after having agreed an arrangement within the 48hr booking window, so they won’t have to suffer any losses and neither would us as hosts.
We do very well with Booking. It is overtaking Airbnb for us. Wish to add Expedia as well. Worth it? My only compliant is that one is not able to go in depth with descriptions, etc. Not that anyone reads it.