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This is odd, and this is the first time I ever got anything like that…I just had an inquiry from a woman in Russia who was going to book her stay from Dec. 18 - Jan. 11. She told me she was unable to pay the cost for her dated and wanted to drop it down by about $500. She tells me she cannot afford the rate given. There is no way I would be able to keep my head above water on her price given.
I replied in a polite way that she has to pay the given rate, shorten her stay or find another listing within her price range. She said she loves my photos and my home looks beautiful, but the cost is too high. Well as far as I can see, it is lower than other hosts in my area.Furthermore I never heard of “haggling” on AirBnB.
Has anybody else had an inquiry where the potential guest wanted to negotiate the price? The price this person gave was significantly lower than my normal rate. I also find it unfair to the guests who paid the given rate.
I will also add this person has 4 reviews and they seemed good
Yes, unfortunately as we have seen through many talks on this forum that so many hosts are uncomfortable leaving negative reviews that they just don’t. Many find something good to say and leave it at that. I totally disagree with it because as you see it really doesn’t help other hosts out and if we all do it, we keep staying stuck not being able to trust reviews.
One thing you can ALWAYS trust however, are your conversations pre approval to booking a guest. Someone trying to negotiate your already good rate down is s huge red flag. You said all the right things and made perfect sense. Why is it your problem that she hasn’t got enough money? You’re right, it isn’t! She can find somewhere cheaper within her budget, or as you said, shorten her stay to match her budget. As it is, I imagine you provide an option that is much less expensive than ever existed before, as hotels are likely more expensive, and as she said, a nice place too.
i never accept a bargain hunter. Not only are they trying to cheat you out of your rates before they arrive, my experience is that they are not even appreciative of this on arrival and are many more times demanding than the usual guest with expectations well beyond what they should be. It is unfortunately a thankless thing to take a discounted booking. I find myself irritated just dealing with this type of person in the messages, and as you know, that’s not a great start to things.
Well done working this out. Unfortunately more hagglers will come along. I guess they occasionally get a new listing to go along with it, because inexperienced hosts might think that’s expected. I have a standard line for them, and it’s pretty similar to what you said to your Russian lady.
Yeah, just dump the request. As GoodbyeSandy says, it means they don’t respect you and will probably be really demanding - and then leave a crap review.
We’re fairly new to this, and it’s only happened once. A young woman with a brand new account, and no reviews or verifications loved our place - all the great reviews and the nice photos. She wanted the place for a month, but couldn’t afford our price (which is already about half what you’d pay at a Days Inn, and our product is much better). I was leery of the request because she was moving to Toronto, raising the possibility that I’d have trouble getting rid of her. Things were looking slow (late October), so I countered with a suggestion that if I dropped the food service (a generous continental breakfast), maybe I could do something about the price. Hours went by with no response, so I cancelled the request & sent a polite explanatory note saying I’d changed my mind. She replied quickly with a somewhat snippy response and concluded with the line, “Have a nice life.” I didn’t bother replying that as a retiree I’d already had one, but that final phrase told me I was well shot of her. The incident has made me firm up my attitude to discount requests, i.e., thanks but no thanks.
Yes I’ve had this - they contact through the inquiry function and try to get a discount. I always refer them back to my calendar for prices for each night. You don’t want these types of guests.
to keep that from happening you can put something in your listing like"my prices are firm , please do not request a discount",that will stop the cheapskates. I wasted a lot of time with inquiries from people who wanted to stay for a couple of months and wanted “a bid”, when I reduced it a 100 it STILL wasnt enough. I make less on long stays because I make more on short stays with my cleaning fees. In my listing in BOLD letters I state; We do not permit stays longer than 28 days; please do NOT email me with requests! That stopped those nonsense inquiries dead in their tracks.
Yes, as a result I modified my listing, not allowing price negotiations, I also enforced a maximum stay of 28 days as well. I currently have a Chinese family who are staying for almost 2 months, (i talked about this on another topic in this forum) and I find that long term stays backfire, and I actually LOST money. They spend a majority of their time indoors and cook extensively, and run appliances all day…my electric bill showed it! Thankfully they’re out of here in a few weeks! I’m never allowing that again!
Oh god no. I do not allowed w long term stays. My max is 14 days. If I were ever saddled with a nightmare guest (so far so good, as I am pretty good at sniffing out the bad apples) I would not be able to wait them out for weeks. No amount of money is worth that. As others have pointed out, there will always be other guests.
That’s quite interesting MoinTO, because I have had the same thing happen to me, at least three times for turning down requests. Someone once said to me ‘have a nice life, bitch’, because I didn’t accept them repeatedly begging to stay in my home with their ‘well behaved little doggie’ (yeah right, been there, done that!), and other similar responses to politely declining to accept hagglers Etc. It must be a thing among pleasant young people these days
Long terms always negotiate with me. When I see long term I know it’s not going to go past inquiry. I have a lot of those from Trip advisor. One guy wanted to stay the busiest months until end of March for 600$ a month . Ehen I explained to him that I am planing to make at least 2500$ a month for the room he thought I was joking.
I think long termers are thinking of Airbnb not as hotel like day by day but as a regular months by month landlord/ tenant situation.
The guy I described even explained to me how wonderful it is for me to have one permanent guest that I don’t need to change bed and clean like I do after short term stays.
I told him that for me it’s actually the opposite as he will start cooking and using my laundry and hang out in a house on weekends while short term tourists are always out and don’t cook.
I can’t believe that someone imagined they could book your room for that much for a month. More like a week (if he’s lucky!).
The kind of negotiators I particularly despise are the ones Kirsty Jane refers to, the ones that contact you about your room just by messaging you and mentioning your room, and pretend to have no idea how much it costs. They try to ask you what the price is (and of course you refer them to the listing to see), but they persist, asking, is that the total cost? Are there taxes? Making it clear they are finding it a bit too pricy, but they don’t really want to say they want. Discount, just hint at it. Very irritating. How many of those I have had I couldn’t even say. Dozens. I simply say I can’t see what your total is as Airbnb charges me fees on my end, and you fees on your end. We see different prices. They almost always lay off and go away at that point when they haven’t succeeded in manipulating me into offering a discount. If they do come round to requesting, and it has happened, and I accept, I generally regret it. They are as annoying in real life as they are in the messages. Since when did Airbnb become eBay? Hang on, you don’t even behave like that on eBay. It’s just as annoying for sellers there.
Indeed! Anyone who likes your place enough to book will pay the rate. If the first contact they make is to get a special price cut just for them, do not let them book.
Be polite. " I am sorry, for economic reasons I require the rate posted on my listing. Due to demand, my room books well at present. Please search Air BnB for things in your price range."
If they haggle like that, when they get in your home what will they haggle over, and THEN they will have a RIGHT, to review you!
You must screen carefully who you let in, because once inside your property they can do lots of mental and physical damage, and they can Review you in anyway they like!
That is why I don’t do long term stays. Right now 3 days is maximum without prior experience with the guest. My Chinese family came with their daughter a college girl at UofM, and her parents were on a visit.
Chinese straight from China do not like American foods, so they bring their own and cook all meals, and they are extensive! Noisy, smelly and not enough care was taken with my expensive kitchen fittings.
Knowing it was only a three night stay saved my sanity. I just smiled a lot and gave them everything they wanted with a smile. When they left they did not review me, though the parents had their daughter write a long thank you note and a genuine Chinese gift was left for me with the note. So they were pleased as can be. I was not! But my job is to please. The 3 night limit saved me!
Sadly, the kitchen use by my Chinese and Indian guests is so extensive and long running, that I really fear when they book. I have tried to note in my “description” that “Light Cooking” only is allowed. “Meaning, breakfast, snacks, reheating take out, light lunches” I hope this will deter booking from Chinese and Indians who want a full kitchen experience where all meals will be made in house.
Kasage!! Now I remember you! You were the one with the Chinese cooking guests and the parents who stayed home all day! Where are you located? You sure get some winning requests!!!
I think we should all make a virtual TOAST when those long-term, cooking, parent guests finally EXIT!!! I bet you are counting the minutes down to check out time… , as I would be!
Poor poor Kasage. I hope relief comes soon! What a crappy beginning for you. I keep seeing new Airbnb listings with guests taking advantage of the new hosts that don’t know what is normal to expect. It’s a terrible trend. I hope this forum helps get the information out what is happening and new hosts can come here to find out BEFORE they start instead of in a bad situation like most.
Yes they leave in a few weeks, and seeing how quickly this last month went by, these next few weeks will too.
In a way it is a shame as these are the first guests I’ve had that I’m so anxious for them to leave, and the first ones im not giving a good review about. Not only about their lingering and cooking in the house, but about their cleanliness. But I will be somewhat nice and leave anything real negative in the private feedback!
Actually… don’t be afraid to tell it like it is in a review Kasage. There’s nothing to be gained by keeping it “nice.” You don’t want other hosts getting stuck with this guy and his parents. Their impact on your place was hard, and their impact on you as a new host, even harder… Tell it like it is. Don’t sugar coat this. Leave your review at the last minute so the guest can’t hit you back. We have discovered it is midnight on the last day of the review period in the guest’s time zone. So find out what that is exactly by calling up Air. You may have to wake up in the middle of the night to do it. But think of the nightmare you’ll be saving new other hosts!
