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We have someone that wants to book a week in early November. They have asked if they could divide up their payments and not have to pay all of it now. I don’t require full payment at booking on my other booking platforms, so this request does not bother me. And before you all scream “It’s a scam - if they can’t afford it all they shouldn’t book!” - the total rental rate (sans AirBnB fee) is $3000 US for two people.
I already told them I was not sure of a way to do this over Air. But I have an idea and want to run it by all of you to help me think through this and whether it’s “legal” or not per the TOS. Let’s say I agree to three payments:
I send them a message over Air stating my payment schedule. And that if they do not pay per the schedule, I will consider it to be a cancellation (we are on the strict policy)
Once they agree, I send them a special offer for the deposit and note on it that it is a deposit only (if there is a deposit space)
Once they pay it, they are booked.
I then have them sign a contract outlining the payment plan and the consequences of not paying and that the following “request for payments” through Air are actually rental payments.
When the second payment is due, I send a “request for payment” (or whatever it is called). If they do not pay it, they are cancelled. I won’t actually cancel on them. They will have to cancel on me, and they will only get 50% of their deposit back (we are on “strict”)
When the final payment is due, I send another “request for payment”. If it is not paid, they are cancelled.
I realize I might not have my Air calendar cleared if they don’t cancel, but I get most of my bookings over VRBO/Homeaway, and I don’t automatically sync calendars for just this kind of reason.
Thoughts? Hazards? I really wish I could just book them directly - we have a legitimate business here (registered with the government and with its own bank account and everything is above board), so I’m not worried about being scammed or anything else.
Why on earth would you do that (not that it would be enforceable) when Airbnb already offer guests who are booking a long time in advance the option to do a part payment on booking and then the balance I think a month in advance?
Have them book the first two days, then in a couple months request a reservation change to add 2 more days, then in another couple months request a reservation change to add 3 more days – to cover the entire period and pay piecemeal? That way if they decide they really can’t come up with the bucks, or they don’t pay, they only get the days they paid for. You could use special offer to refund the duplicate cleaning fees? Except this won’t work if you do IB, unless you choreographed blocking/unblocking/reservation making timing with them.
@dpfromva -
I don’t have any cleaning fees or deposits. But you have a good idea. I can charge them for a day or two, manually block off the other dates, then open them to make a reservation change.
But they will most likely pay over $200 more in AirBnB fees if it is done what way, since there is the sliding scale - 13-14% for a day or two, but only 5-6% for a week.
@anon67190644- are you positive that is true? That the incremental days booked will be at a lower percentage and they will pay the same in the end? I would not want to assure them they will pay the same and then be wrong.
@PitonView. I have done lots of changed reservations and have never heard from a guest that the fee was increased dramatically. But you are right, I don’t know for sure how AirBNB calculates. I do believe that a changed reservation doesn’t incur a GREATER percentage fee.
These are the nuances that I wish were more transparent.
@anon67190644 -
The problem is that the small booking of a day or two will be at 13-15%, and the total booking for 7 days at once will be at about 5-6%. So to get to the 5-6% when you start from the 13-15%, the fee on the next days may have to go to zero (or even refund some amount) to get down to the 5-6% of the total.
I’ll bet their algorithm has the incremental nights at the same high percentage rate. Otherwise, there might be lots of guests trying to do this, and I’ll bet AirBnB makes a lot of money off of making people pay 100% up front and sitting on their money. Money makes money!
Well, we know they make money floating money. That isn’t a surprise. The question is, do they lower the rate for extensions of an original reservation.
And, do they refund money if a longer reservation is shortened, and the guest keeps the original fee percentage?
To be honest, this feels like a game that shouldn’t happen on AirBNB. Too many factors that you can not control, but you are right, the TOS says if they contacted you via AirBNB it shouldn’t move to another platform.
I’m just going to tell them the only way to do what they want through AirBnB is to book a short stay and extend it, and they will most likely pay more in service fees than booking the entire stay at once. And then just mention that AirBnB is not as flexible on payment plans as other sites and leave it at that. We are branded and I use our name liberally; they have options, they can choose a path forward.
I don’t think you need to point out the service fees; you’re not responsible for those (and do any of us know exactly how to calculate them even if we wanted to tell guests the amount?), and really you are accommodating them by making the extra effort to block dates and then extend their reservation.Maybe just say, here is a simple way we can space out your payments using the Airbnb booking platform.
