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So I posted recently about my first 92 day booking for a travel nurse who works over an hour away. Well, 12 days in he has informed me that he found a place that is closer and will be leaving after 26 days instead. Bun airbnb’s mandated long term cancellation policy the first month cannot be refunded and there is a 30 day notice required. So I should be paid out for 42 days.
The guest had said he read Airbnb’s policy and was fine with it when he informed me. I told the guest about being charged through the 8th and that it would likely be charged the day before he actually checked out and he was fine with it. I told him I would also refund pet fees for when the dogs are not actually at the house and would try to refund any nights that get rebooked through the 42 days he has to pay for. He was very happy with that.
Airbnb contacted me to change the checkout date and then only pay me an additional $18.38 for the extra 12 days. I have a feeling that they are trying to only charge the guest for the 26 days he is staying and get the rest refunded but doing so would remove his 20% discount and this would cost more than 30 days ($18.38 more) and not count this as a cancellation at all.
Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone ever experienced any long term cancellations and can give me your experience.
Yes, I’m curious about this too. I’ve been looking into getting into the traveling nurse/doctor market and have even gone so far as to list one of my AirBnBs on furnishedfinders. Only one inquiry so far, and it wouldn’t have worked because I would have have to cancel AirBnB guests.
@Militaryhorsegal, I had a similar situation two years ago. A travel nurse booked for 13 weeks and decided to go elsewhere partway through her stay. I can’t remember all the particulars (or I’ve unconsciously blocked them out), but I do remember that I got paid per the long term cancellation policy. Call Airbnb and ask them to honor their policy.
@Keugenia and @KKC, Furnished Finders is working out well for me, but it may have to do with my location in terms of proximity to the medical facilities that are badly managed and therefore have a lot of travelers. I’m also close to a prestigious college that has a top notch medical program, as well as a campus that some medical school in St. Kitts sends lots of students to for a 4 month rotation.
@KKC, as far as the ins and outs, my travelers don’t tend to have set schedules. Though the shift they work tends to be the same, the days they work change from week to week. Surprisingly, they don’t cook as much as I thought they would, at least so far. My rooms are outfitted with a refrigerator with separate freezer that is somewhere between a small full size and a dorm size, a microwave and a coffee maker. They have access to my kitchen, but rarely do any of them use it. Instead, they seem to quickly form bonds with their coworkers and apparently eat out often.
I’ve got a new one that came from FF coming on the 13th. I’ll let you know how he works out.
I also employ a regular long term lease with travelers and students.
So now they are wanting to alter the booking to the 42 days (since the guest agreed to pay that much) but pay me the last 12 days at the 25 day mark the day before he checks out. I guess I’ll see it when I believe it and then will have to request a cancel by admin when he leaves. This makes it hard for anyone to book for those 12 days though so I am not wanting to go that route if not necessary. Why do Airbnb case managers so often not follow their own policies???
I had 2 alternating dentists here most of last fall and it was a dream situation. But I have my settings at low max days most of the time so they won’t find me on airbnb. Also my place isn’t good if they do night shift. I can keep it quiet at night but not all through the day. I need to find a dog lover who is attracted to the idea of the dogs here.
However if I can’t do dogs and air in the future for some reason then medical traveler at the nearby growing medical center would be great.
Because I can’t limit the folks who book the max days. I can do that on a site just for travel professionals. Like the military guy I had here for 17 days with the dog that chewed things. Ot the guys on 3day pre deployment passes who are here all day sleeping off the drink all night the night before.
Your first payment from the guest should’ve been for the initial 30 day stay (not the 26 you are stating). Long term guest pay every 30 days from the date of check in and it doesn’t go by calendar month. So if he checked in on the 8th day of October you would have recvd payment for 30 days on the 9th of October. If you accepted this request to alter or modify the reservation then you have circumvented the cancellation policy. The discounted rate still applies if an alteration is made to the reservation and is not allowed to be changed (even though the discount does not actually apply).
I agree. It does seem like Airbnb is trying to make it an approved alteration instead of a cancellation.
I didn’t realize that approving an alteration request for an earlier checkout date would automatically ensure that any previously-applied discount would still apply even though the reservation is no longer eligible. I wonder if a cancellation would actually do it correctly.
Once a rate has been applied to a reservation there is no changing it back to a previous rate (non-discounted rate.) When you recv a request to alter a long term stay (30 days or more) you can decline and then resend a special offer to the guest. Such as ok to shorten the stay w/o add’l penalty except the rate would be $XXX. The guest can either confirm or deny the request and the original reservation would stand until one or the other confirms a request. If you recv a call from ABB directly regarding this situation just have your facts in hand. i.e. I had a guest who booked for 90 days…approved by me… at the end of his 24 days he wanted to shorten his stay because he found a place that was cheaper and closer to his work and wanted to vacate his room on the 35th day of his stay. Which in total (according to cxl policy he would’ve already paid for his 2nd 30 day payment, which is non-refundable) I declined the alteration request and sent thru a special offer, which was he could leave on the 35th day but pay for 1/2 of his 2nd month installment. He didn’t want to do this so he said he would stay until end of his 2nd month. I approved this change…then one week later he contacted ABB again to alter his request. I then informed ABB that he was trying to circumvent around the cxl policy of 30 days for long term stay. I again offer a special offer which he declined. He stayed his original 2 months we agreed upon, the last 30 days were rebooked and I was happy. The guest not so much, but once you understand how Long Term bookings, cancellations and rates apply you can use them to your advantage.
@Militaryhorsegal No, the airbnb unit that we currently have we used to rent to travel nurses. We have several long term rentals, decided to furnish one. Rented to one travel nurse and then they just kept on coming. The last one suggested we put it on Airbnb, which we had thought about doing anyway, and the rest is history.
I am not sure about your response because I did receive the first payment for he first 30 days. 26 days is all he is going to stay. I am well aware that long term payments are every 30 days not by the calendar month. He checked in on the 27th of August and I received the payout for the first 30 days in the 28th, as expected. The 8th of October is he day he gave me notice. So according to the long term cancellation policy he should still pay for the nights if Oct23-Nov08, even though he leaves on the 23rd.
I have not yet accepted Airbnb’s request to just alter the reservation instead of cancelling it. I may end up having to accept their change to November 8 and then canceling on the 23rd once he leaves. This is even trickier though because I won’t have yet received any additional payment so I am trying to confirm (I don’t trust their confirmation even if they do) that I will still get the $614.69.
Apparently they are trying to do it this way because the guest is not able to pay the difference now, they said. So now there is an issue if a guest who potentially won’t pay anymore. And they said if he doesn’t pay on checkout then I won’t get paid…
I am inclined (due to Airbnb’s behavior of intentionally trying to not use their own mandated long term cancellation policy) to not approve the date change and force him to cancel when he leaves so their policy will kick in by the system and then IF/when I get a larger payout than we agreed to (because the system will see the check out day and supposed to charge/payout for 30 days from then) I will refund it IAW my word. This does not work though if guest doesn’t pay again…it also doesn’t free up Oct23-Nov08 until October 23, but then again, so does their workaround suggestion…
that was super informative. Thank you!