Hmmm, I’m putting my house on the market and I suspect it will take awhile to sell. I can get some money out of it by doing STR while I wait. When it sells, I can offer the bookings to the buyer or just cancel them if not wanted. Since I am not in the STR business permanently there is no negative effect on me – and I’ve maximized my income.
I personally would not feel good about doing this as a seller, I would feel obligated to disclose that the property is on the market and reservations may be cancelled on short notice if the property is sold.
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Perhaps just open the calendar 30 days at a time, that way you can have your cake and eat it too.
RR
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One of my listings is like this. We rented our entire home out in 2017 when we went to London (it paid our family’s airfare). We listed it when we went to Miami in February (no takers, it was 15 degrees here then, LOL). We only list it if we’re going to be away for a week or more at a time. That’s possibly what’s going on with those other unavailable listings.
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I actually booked a place via Airbnb in Palm Springs way in advance for a trip in 2017. A few months went by and I went to look something up and my reservation was there but the listing was gone! I did some googling and found out the property was for sale. The reservation was still honored and the place is still a STR today and they retained the same onsite manager. They did raise the rates a ton since our stay.
It seems as if this is all conjecture on your part, honestly. You have no idea what their situation is, or if those listings will be cancelled if they do sell, or if they get a booking what they are in fact, informing the guests…To speak of their “good conscience” is a little presumptious of you at this point.
Now, if your family had booked a stay and they had their vacation cancelled and you had suffered any negative consequence, you would have a right to surmise upon their ethics. At this point, it really is none of your business (and this isn’t stated in a flippant "none of your business! " off handed snarky quip. It literally is none of your business. 
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You make some good points @Iclemiss. The home is now up for a long tern rental also. So it is for sale, for rent as a long tern rental, and has Airbnb availability for a year. I think it is safe to say those Airbnb reservations will be cancelled, especially if it’s rented long term. That’s why I am surprised it is available longer than 30 days out as a STR. So I do stand by my original thoughts that they did not set up the new Airbnb with the intention of keeping the reservations, only if it does not rent or sell. The Airbnb listing says “new” in the top corner of the cover photo so I know that part is correct. It is an Instant Book property do if they are telling the guests, it is after they book.
Yes saying they should not in good conscience do that is taking their ethics into account which is judgy. I should have said I could not do that in good conscience. I would not open up a new Airbnb listing the same time as trying to sell or rent long term, open it up for a years availibility, and not worry about the effect of multiple reservations potentially getting cancelled. I would just feel bad taking these reservations while showing the place to long tern tenants, knowing I really would rather rent long term and plan on canceling the Airbnb guests once I get a renter.
I did have a reservation cancelled once, it was actually my first Airbnb booking. I booked months in advance and was cancelled at the last minute with no message from the host explaining why. It was stressful starting over trying to find somewhere to stay, and I had to choose from what was left at a much higher price. It really turned me off of Airbnb, and I made sure moving forward not to book someone who had No reviews or who had a cancellation. So that host did give Airbnb a bad name for me, a customer, as I grouped the whole business in with that bad experience.
This listing I posted about in my neighborhood is not an established STR in a vacation area where they decided to sell or long term rent while they were already hosting. They did all three at the same time. A new owner may keep STR but honestly there are very few of those here. And their prices are twice the rate of mine and has more square footage, so when I say competition, I mean it loosely.
I find this interesting and have not seen this particular scenario discussed on this forum. Everyone here has a passion for hosting, and I don’t think anyone on this forum would post a home for sale,rent, or STR at the EXACT same time. If the listing owner asked for advice on this forum and said they wanted to open an Airbnb while trying to sell or rent, I believe we would have asked the area and STR market, then suggested they open up availability 30 days at a time.
I know it’s not my listing or business per se. I just think this forum is discussion of things we see out there in Airbnb land. I have seen people post listings where the owner of a neighborhood makes crazy replies on their reviews. That’s not our business but it is a forum where we discuss things so not inappropriate to post either.
But you still don’t know exactly what they will do. Perhaps this will happen: they’ll get an AirBnB booking for January. But then they get a long-term rental that wants to start January 1st. They might tell the long-term renter they can’t have it until after the January AirBnB rental, or they might contact the AirBnB guest, and offer to pay them something plus a full refund to find another place to stay.
Your goal was to start a conversation, and you have. But you still are assuming that their ethics are shoddy, simply because they are “open to all offers” at the same time.
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True. But I can book an Airbnb stay at this home for next August. So the long term implications are odd. I’m all for keeping all offers on the table while at the same time treating people the same way I want to be treated, including future guests. So I personally would not have a house open for a long term rental and have Airbnb open that far in the future. A home for sale, I am seeing all sides as many are established STR.
We rented a place in Palm Springs on Airbnb way in advance of a stay in March of 2017. I reserved early because we had the elderly dog and we really wanted something mid-century modern, etc., etc. Some time went by and I was looking at my booking and noticed the listing was no longer there. I did some investigation since I had the address and saw the place was for sale. By this time, with strict cancellation, I couldn’t cancel (nor did I really want to), and the previous owner assured me my reservation would be honored. I worried myself sick about the whole thing, but everything was perfect! The place was amazing and the new owners had retained the previous property manager who made our stay 5 star! I know it could have gone terribly, but this was our experience. Since then I’ve noticed that the new owners are charging a lot more and seem to be marketing to a more upscale crowd. Glad we got to stay at a reasonable price.
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Once again, you are reaching conclusions without any facts. You can’t speak to what they are thinking or feeling or even doing at this point. You have several bits of tenous information that you are wanting to put together in your mind, but you are not seeing the whole picture.
That is like me seeing a man walking down the street, knife hanging out of his pocket. He gives me a dirty look as he passes. I see that he is following a woman. I notice his step quicken as if to catch up to her. I notice him call out to her kind of brusquely with a sexist comment. I am watching intently to make sure the girl isnt in any kind of danger but he hasn’t done anything to warrant me going up to them and punching him in the nose yet.
He finally catches up with her and I see them talking animatedly but not in a negative way. They seem like friends but I’m not sure. She laughs. Then he laughs. They both seem like old friends but it unnerves me that I dont know what is being said so I dont know for sure. The man takes out his knife…and an apple. He cuts some for her and himself
They turn the corner and are soon out of my sight. Now I could follow them and gather a crowd and tell the crowd that he looks like a rapist with no moral compass. From your perspective, it would have for a minute. But I needed more information before I spoke out about this persons perceived wrongdoing.
If I were premature in making a fuss or branding someone with a bad reputation where I didn’t have all the facts, I look like the busybody who wants " those damn kids off my lawn".
My point is you have some of the facts but not enough to weigh in on their particular brand of ethics. Unless you are thinking about booking their listing for yourself where you could query them about their exact motive, intention and possible end result, then it’s just idle gossip.
If this were raised as a specific situation where someone had lost out and were negatively impacted by these peoples actions, then great. We could problem solve collectively to help someone in a bind. But there are too many unknown variables or “what-ifs” in this case to discuss it cohesively.
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