@Xena I think in some cases, hosts have become ‘poor’ due to higher than expected costs of property tax, insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc. so the home they may have had for decades is now hard to keep without additional income which if a senior, isn’t easy to get as working may not be an option.
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I agree. I’ve only owned my home for 9 years, and all of these things have caught up with me (especially since I’m in a field with stagnant wages and highly seasonal employment). There is some truth to the narrative that AirBnB helps homeowners who are struggling to keep up with a rising cost of living. I don’t think anyone is claiming we’re the working poor however.
I do have to wonder about some hosts though, from stressing about when they are getting paid to basically payday loans based on bookings. Some hosts seem to me to be barely hanging on.
Counting my blessings:)
RR
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I have been quite alarmed in the past by the many hosts who are absolutely dependent on Airbnb income. There are so many threats that can shut you down from website problems, to bedbugs, to a tree falling on your house, to a vindictive guest, to your insurance cancelling your homeowners policy, to the city shutting you down to… And for so many of us Airbnb is truly the only way to get bookings.
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Fully concur. For ex. I am on 6 or 7 platforms now and Air for all its flaws is the only one that delivers a steady flow of guests, some of whom are tolerable to excellent.
So … I work reasonably hard to diversify within the STR marketplace, but we all have to diversify out of STRs completely (if we are depending on this income stream) to be really on solid economic ground.
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“by diversify out of STR” do you mean other kinds of work or other ways to monetize your home ownership?
The former. Does that make sense to you?
Oh yes. Sadly there are a number of hosts who can’t do that. Problems like age discrimination, heath problems, etc. I had a Lyft driver that shouldn’t have been one. I hated to give her a poor review because it appeared she needed the money but there you go.
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Insider, thank you so very much for dedicating your time to answer all our questions! You can see that we are very excited to have you here.
I have one question:
Occasionally, I have guests who violate our house rules, and most often, it is the rule against extra guests.
I do have the policy listed in my house rules that all the extra guests and visitors are subject to $10/per guest/per night charge for any guest/visitor after 2 guests.
We have outside CCTV cameras installed and disclosed in the listing. Still people ignore that rules and often bring more that claimed and then deny the fact even after they are told that it is recorded on camera.
1 question: today I have a guest who claims 2 adults and 2 kids, yet brought 2 adults, 5 kids, and 1 infant.
Airbnb rep told me that if I cancelled their reservation, it would have to be an alteration, and therefore, I would have to refund unused nights. Is this valid? Do I have to issue a refund even if cancellation happened due to guests’ violation and not my wrongdoing?
Thank you again!
Clarification: the agent told me that she would not be able to do CBG since the reservation is already in progress. Because the reservation is already in progress, it would have to be an alteration of dates. Because it is an alteration, the original amount will be updated to the actual dates the guests stayed.
Couple things, yes you must attempt an alteration because you, as the host, are choosing to cancel the reservation regardless of reason. Unless you have a strict cancellation policy, you’ll be giving up nights and even if you do have a strict in place you still may have to lose some money from this reservation. Please make sure that your additional guest fee is listed in your pricing and not just your house rules section as well. I have hosts call in all the time demanding payment for this same situation but they don’t have it listed in their fees so I can’t enforce payment. WIth that being said, there is not a single time Air can force payment on a guest for ANY reason other than physical property damage which would be transferred up to Trust and Safety and they’ll force payment off security deposit “agreement” (as long as the payment method/cc goes through). Also keep in mind that any child under two years of age does not count as a guest and can not be charged. I’d recommend directly communicating with the guest, doing an alteration to adjust the correct number of people, and if all else fails, I’d open a Resolution Center claim after the reservation ends (but before your next guest checks-in) and request money from guest. After 72 hours, click the involve Airbnb button and a good case manager will reach out to guest, get ignored, then just give you additional payout for the amount requested as long as you had it listed in your fees and not just house rules.
correct, even though your house rules are close to airtight, you’re calling in to support, you’re wanting to cancel due to breaking house rules, therefore that agent won’t push a CBG. I, and many other agents, would do a CBG with Host calling in, but only under very very unique situations and with quite a bit of documentation for something other than a minor house rule violation (in the agent’s eyes).
I just hit the 14 day mark from the first email for a particular guest. I forgot to click on the “Write a Review” link until 50 minutes past the 14 day mark, but I was still able to submit a review. The review took about 30 minutes to show up on the guest’s page. So perhaps there is a slight grace period and it isn’t exactly 14 days from the email time. Seems like your review took about an hour to post as well, so maybe we actually have 14 days + 1 hour to write a review. Either way, sounds like it’s a safe bet to write reviews right before the 14 day mark if it’s really important to not miss the deadline.
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Thank you so much for this information!
Yes, extra guest charge is in the listing, not just in House Rules, and we do have strict cancellation policy. Does it still mean that in case of alteration, I will have to refund unused nights?
An infant can be charged for. If you state that they are charged for in your house rules.
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Are you somewhere that just had the switch to Daylight’s Savings?
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I am… Hmmm
20202020
RR
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I was thinking that might be why @GardenFairy got the extra hour to do her review. Spring forward!
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100 % not true and against Terms of Service. Infants (children under 2 years old) aren’t counted as guests when you’re booking a reservation and don’t incur any extra costs. Some hosts count children as guests, which can add an additional guest fee to the reservation. 0-2 years of age is considered an Infant per policy and can not be charged. Over two years old can count as an additional guest and be charged accordingly. Some hosts do put it in their house rules and get away with charging for infants but once a single guest complains about it, the host will get an educational email from Air stating they can not charge for anyone under 2 and must update their listing. Just because it is in a house rule doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ok in some cases. There are hosts that also try charging cash fees upon check-in for cleaning, their own deposit, etc and that is also not allowed.
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I’m a bit confused between infants under 2 not counting as guests - is this in terms of numbers allowed or numbers charged for?
Does this mean that according to Terms of Service a couple with one year old triplets could book a place that sleeps 2 - I get that they wouldn’t pay any extra, but they could book it anyway even though it would probably be totally unsuitable?