How to reply with a decline to someone who asks for a discount?

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(I’m adding some random ramblings to this ancient and lengthy thread.)

The consensus on this site seems to be, as the conversation on this thread demonstrates, that guests who ask for discounts are bad news.

I’ve certainly been heavily influenced by this, and I can only, off the top of my head, think of one case when I gave a discount, to a New Yorker. After making a special offer to him, I had second thoughts (he came across as rather weird in chat), and tried to get him to cancel, but he wouldn’t. (There’s a thread about that here.) He didn’t cause any problems, but he was rather unfriendly, gave me 4 stars, and in the feedback form mentioned that I should have reduced my prices because I didn’t have an attached bathroom. So this single example, at least, bore out the stereotype.

A few days ago, I heard from an Indian who said he was interested in a two week stay, but said he wanted to book outside Airbnb to save on the booking costs (there’s also India’s GST tax). He wrote a relatively articulate comment (a lot of Indians have trouble stringing together a grammatical English sentence), so against my better judgement, I agreed. He then decided he wanted to see my place in advance to see if it met with his standards, and also made an offer which gave himself a 25% discount on my rates, which at this point no longer reflected the Airbnb fees + the Indian GST tax. At that point, I decided enough was enough, and stopped responding. And for concreteness, the price is proposed to pay was around USD 22 per day, everything included.

Unfortunately bookings are really slow right now, and have been for some time (maybe the local market is becoming saturated, maybe it’s something else), so accepting this offer didn’t seem that unreasonable. But I thought that having a stranger stay for two weeks, who made up rules to suit himself, might be more stress than I wanted to take. Again, I was heavily influenced by forum discussions like the ones on this thread. It’s probably worth noting that haggling is part of Indian culture, so my guest probably thought this was all quite reasonable, and maybe he was right. I don’t think haggling is particularly part of Western culture, though I could be wrong.

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Let’s face it: for a traveller/guest Airbnb is expensive for longer stays. Airbnb adds on a hefty cut and if there are taxes added on …

However, coordinating taking things off the platform carries the risk of having your account closed and they won’t bat an eye for you. What I do is say something about: let’s do a trial for a couple of nights, then you can always extend. Once you have a first reservation, you can work out any additional details. If you go off platform, your guest will already have secured a significant discount, reducing more is up to your situation.
I am very easy going and in my case it usually always worked out just fine, but longer guests become more part of the household in a shared space and you might not really want that.

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We are also another house in the SF Bay. Silicon Valley area. In a high net worth city that is never not in demand, especially in the summer.

Two months ago I received a request from a middle aged woman from Texas with a family who was interested in spending 3 weeks in the city. Our usual limit was 2 weeks but I made an exception because she didn’t seem like a squatter or anything.

Then the demands started to pile up. She wanted a discount. She insulted us by letting us know that she was directly comparing us to another high net worth city next door, and that the house was a new build with larger square footage and a cheaper nightly rate.

I suggested she stay there. As our house is amazing but is not going to get newer or larger any time soon, hah!

To my disappointment, she booked anyway. Although her booking is for a lot of money, we could just have easily filled that with low maintainence shorter bookings, which is what I prefer.

She and her family have checked in yesterday. They demanded a printer when there wasn’t one. She demanded extra outdoor seating when the photo in the listing showed exactly what was there. Side note: there are about 12 additional seating options available immediately inside. If you need more seating outside, might I suggest bringing a seat from inside. Wild thought.

She insisted there were too many leaves on the ground (we have five large oak trees on our property, quite gorgeous, but yes, they drop leaves -_- ) and when I told her that our gardener was just unable to come that day due to an eye infection and exam, that he would come tomorrow, she continued to bring up the leaves, with no regard for our gardener’s emergency. A trait I particularly hate, as I DESPISE people who treat help like “the help.”

When I suggested that perhaps I could assist her in finding accomodations elsewhere, more in line with what she originally wanted, there was an audible pause on her end. I have no problem cancelling a reservation and refunding in full, especially when I know our home would get re-booked in a minute.

Unfortunately, for now, the entire Silicon Valley is in high time and we are stuck with her. I’ve had to order her an additional deep cleaning from our housekeepers. And I’ve been begging Airbnb to keep looking for somewhere else she can go…

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What a nightmare! You might want to inform Airbnb with a written message to keep a “paper trail” in the case that she writes an unfair review. Geesh – some people.

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Echoing what sandy2 said, there was an audible gasp on my end when I read there was an audible gasp on her end. LOL. You must get all this in writing. Otherwise she might stay a few days, then take you up on your offer to rehome and get a full refund.

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This was my most recent favorite request for a discount (over the week of the 4th of July, no less) – from a host in Brooklyn: “We’ll be visiting our son at CU Boulder on these dates. Is your lovely place available, and if so, what rate could you offer?” I replied with my favorite discount response, “Thank you for your reservation inquiry. Boulder has many lovely Airbnb’s that will better suit your budget. I wish you safe travels.”

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Love it! Cut 'em off at the pass, I always say … :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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The one you get if you book through Airbnb!

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I’m ready to write HER a review right now. We just called an extra garbage service for her because in her very first night of staying at the house, she filled up the trash in the house and used up all of the hand towels in the kitchen. Imagine having to wash, your hand towel in order to use it again. The horror. :roll_eyes:

The funny part is that she said she usually rents the same home for the past two years, but that home, the owner has decided they would like to use for their personal use that month. Righttttt… more like, the owner probably had enough of her. Ugh… SOS!

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So far we have refused any additional discount and are holding strong. The extra items she has requested, I have taken up as ultimately, improving the house. I guess the house could use a printer? :joy:

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Every concession you make will be encouragement for her to ask for another. Also, expect a bad review regardless of what you do. I hope the money is worth it.

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What? A printer to use without limit, with ink cartridges and everything? No, thanks. Refer her to a printshop instead of being her printshop. She sounds like a totally awful guest, expect more trouble.

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I can tell you with absolutely certainty that it was not worth it :sweat:. I will be on the phone with Airbnb every day until we can find somewhere else to relocate her.

If she continues, we will cancel her booking. We have made that clear. I’m never not shocked that there are people that behave like this. It is always shocking to me. We have our bathrooms lights on sensor. It can be easily turned off with a flick of the off switch. I’m embarrassed her husband couldn’t assist her either. Fecklessness is an awful character trait.

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Served with a heaping helping of entitlement and it’s unbearable. Best of luck. Do keep us updated.

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Or even better asked for 25% of their wages back because “your work was not up to the standard as advertised”.

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The one I get is “what is your best rate”. It takes me a while to realise there isn’t a problem with the listing displaying the price correctly but that they want a discount. They just don’t want to sound cheap by outright asking for one. Which I always decline.

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It’s not the feckless but the fecking idiots I despise. Too much feck, not too little.

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What got me was, “What rate can you offer?” – like I’m in the business of offering rates other than what I’ve posted. And, she’s a host! I never ask for discounts from Airbnb hosts. To add a positive note, I am booked at an Airbnb in Marseille, France for the month of October and I have the most wonderful host. She is bending over backwards to make me feel welcome and offering me any help I might need (I will be on a mission to find a small apartment to buy in her neighborhood). I have a feeling we will become friends. Being an Airbnb host and/or guest means you have to be flexible, and extra points if you are gracious – on either side of the deal. I won’t care if she doesn’t have matching towels or if the water pressure is low; she’s already won me over with her effort to give me the best experience she can.

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I had an artist friend stay in an AirBnB in LA and she has become lifelong friends with those people who were also artists. She showed me some “reviews” of her work by them and I said “they’re from LA, they’re blowing smoke up your ass”.

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I offer discounts for students, long term stays and last minute bookings.

I find that brings a lot of goodwill from the guest because they appreciate it a lot. You would like some savings too, if you were a guest.

I offer a small discount and sometimes that itself is taken so gratefully. So on a $100/night stay, I would make it $93-95/night if it’s a 3-5 night stay. It reduces my earnings by $15-20 but I earn $275 which may have gone to some other lower charging host so I use that trick.

For students I offer a $3-5 discount in nightly rate because they are always scrunched for money.

I’ve been doing this for 6 years now and we’re solidly booked all days. I feel the miniscule discount I offer and the message it gives allows me to attract more guests.

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