I was civil. Honestly the only way I could have averted the problem would have been to rescue her in my car. That is well above and beyond the duties of a budget host. Then I would have got a good review by suffering and being totally false, and she would have got a 1 star review and a thumbs down, hardly satisfactory. If she can’t read an address take one bus or Uber on her own she shouldn’t be on the platform. She’s supposed to be at University for goodness sake.
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Add this to your math:
- Investor hosts pool 20 or more properties to attain (via hundreds/thousands of reviews) a stupendous search results advantage
- They thus do enough volume to absorb a LOT of expenses
- They frequently:
- Have fake reviews to gain competitive advantage
- Take out fraudulent VA loans
- Take out fraudulent “second home” loans
- Pay off mortgage loans in cash ( > this leads us to the question of HOW, which likely is money laundering)
- Commit tax fraud stating that the investment is their primary residence
I know I’m leaving out a few of the games they play. All easy-peasy given the way Air zealously guards relevant data, refusing to share with enforcement agencies, so scammers can do whatever they want.
EDIT: Not sure if this perfectly applies to the U.K., but definitely, U.S., Russia, Central America and counting …
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I never get them. The only thing I can think of is that I’m booked so much of the time that the system doesn’t think I need to lower prices? Or because I have smart pricing turned on?
Because you have smart pricing turned on I think. If I turn it on I end up getting even lower prices.
As previously discussed on this forum (but maybe you missed it), I set a minimum price. In January I raised it from an average of 39-42 USD to minimum $50. Smart pricing never prices below my minimum and occasionally adds a dollar or two where I would not have. I estimate that I’ve made an additional $60 over the past 3 months having smart pricing on with no reduction in bookings. March was my best month ever despite my blocking off a week while I was out of town.
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As I’ve said many time before too, I’ve never had bookings for less than the minimum I set but have had bookings with a nightly rate far more than I’d dare to charge. Quite a few hosts have said here that SP charges prices that are lower than their minumum so I’ve got to believe it however it’s weird that it works really well so some and not for others.
Like everything else about the platform.
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I think cities are different. If I put my minimum price on smart price it just stays there, although very occasionally there’s a peak demand. Maybe time for me to experiment again.
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I don’t think the location has anything to do with it. It’s only a computer program with a few holidays such as New Year or Easter programmed in. It has to be global, after all. It depends how much you ‘educate’ the system depending on your own local events and holidays.
It’s given me some fantastic bookings at prices I’d not be brave enough to ask - maybe that is related to neighbourhood pricing? I don’t know, but I doubt that it’s very sophisticated.
C[quote=“justMandi, post:7, topic:31494”]
Maybe offer to pick them up if you have a car?
[/quote]
The one time I picked guests up for free at the airport (2 hr round trip plus parking plus wait), they gave me 3 stars for value. Guess they didn’t like my car, instead of paying 70 euros for a taxi.
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Airbnb proposes to people who have empty weeks, to lower their price in order to get a booking. If you are fully booked 3-6 months in advance they will obviously not send you recommendations to lower your price.
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What hotel guest would expect the hotel to send out a driver to the bus station because the guest was arriving after closing hours of the front desk?
Some on this forum have suggested we Airbnb hosts should be beholden to hotel standards.
What hotel would care if guest stranded at bus station ?
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@KKC I think it is because you are booked so much. I have smart pricing on too but still get the emails.
When I first started hosting on Airbnb 3 years ago I did Smart Pricing and it would often go below my minimum. I turned it off when I got my first booking at below my minimum (which at the time was like $17 with a $5 cleaning fee). I just turned it back on this year (because I monitor the near term prices nightly when I increase them for same day etc.) and have now experienced as @KKC where I often get an extra $1 or $2 and have not gotten below my minimum anymore (which is now $36 with a $20 cleaning fee).
That’s pretty much what mine does. But the fact is I always get my minimum now so when I get anything more it’s a bonus. I do recommend trying it again. I have.
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I agree. I haven’t read an explanation on this thread why the guests were allowed to cancel and the host did not get paid. Cancelling after check-in should result in the host getting paid for the first night (and the second night if they were booked for more than one night).
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Actually it is quite a sophisticated algorithm and takes into account demand as well. It’s a financial benefit to Airbnb and is not a difficult thing to program in.
I have seen spikes for times when the bands at a concert were announced for venues over an hour away because there isn’t a lot of availability left nearby because it got booked immediately.
Sorry but it isn’t. There’s no way that a basic program such as SP can know about peak periods for local events globally. If it could, we’d be paying much larger commission fees to Airbnb. I love using SP but it needs to be ‘educated’ and thus tailored to every hosts particular area using local knowledge. It’s not difficult or in the least but time consuming.
So not ‘pressured’ then, just regular marketing?
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This could be it. I have a full week open in May after a guest cancelled a 5-day reservation and I got an e-mail “tip” 3 days ago saying I could increase my bookings in May by 15% if I lower my minimum price by 41% (from $120/night to $71/night).
That’s a crazy low price for an entire home with 4-bedrooms and full kitchen and up to 8 people, especially when the cheapest hotels within 5 miles are over $100 for a room with one king or queen bed during the same dates.
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Being a software engineer for 30 years, I can guarantee that it’s more complicated than anyone would guess. However, on the surface, I agree. It seems to be simply monitoring the number of available listings in an area and setting a price as a reaction to current availability.
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