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I’m hoping to put my house on the market and move closer to where I grew up. Don’t think I’ll be doing Airbnb.
Loved it in Arizona, met all my guests and it was great, busy as I wanted to be.
Started here in the middle of pandemic. Had entry arranged to not have contact. Not fun for me, just a cleaner.
Yes, big difference to Inquiries. Why not require advance notice of 1 day, though? That setting means guests can still book up to midnight of the day before check-in, and it’ll eliminate people booking or trying to, same day. Would it really affect your bookings that much to not allow people to book same day, whether before 11am or not?
I just had to call Airbnb a couple days ago to ask them to withdraw a request so it didn’t sit there blocking my calendar. The guest had indicated that they couldn’t comply with a requirement I have, but when I asked them to please withdraw their request, they didn’t and didn’t respond. No way I wanted it blocking my calendar any longer or having to take a decline hit.
Why do you think Airbnb will “tie up a property if I Decline a request”?
I used to take same day bookings when I had a place in Vail, it was totally different than Denver, I 70 could be closed or they just wanted to stay an extra night. I just significantly raised the rates on those nights before I made it available. I did this because one time we were driving cross country and needed a place for 3 to stay but didn’t want to share a hotel room. So I think of guests like me. However I would not do this in Denver unless you raised the rates significantly. I rented out my parents place in Littleton for them for a while, I would never consider same day rentals without a high rate or convenience to a highway.
he answered that here
I know it used to be that if someone declined with “not available,” they block the dates.
@Skerbob in one way of thinking about it, Airbnb isn’t blocking your calendar…they are blocking their calendar. It’s their platform, their rules and as far as they are concerned, the guest is their client, not the hosts. They don’t care if Joe the terrible guest books with you or someone else, they just want the booking. If a guest goes to the effort to find a property that appears to be available and is declined, it’s not good for Airbnb. Listing on more than one platform like VRBO and your own website should help you fill those empty dates.
When you say you’re going to leave at the end of the year, keep in mind that Airbnb doesn’t care, you’ll just be replaced with another of the glut of hosts.
Boy, do I feel uncared for now. Thanks for cheering me up. :0) Actually I don’t care if they care. I’m just like them. I’ll just make my decisions based upon what’s good for me. I have additional reasons for leaving short term that have to with lifestyle. I was just curious about the pattern I noticed.
I’m not trying to change the Airbnb world. Thanks for your input.
Sorry. Tough love. Unlike you, a lot of hosts come here seemingly truly hurt that the “relationship” that they are in with Airbnb is not what they thought it was. You seem to have not fallen in love with them. Unlike many companies, Airbnb goes all in on the “woo-woo juju” rhetoric. And a lot of hosts buy into it. But Airbnb, like a two-timing lover, doesn’t care.
We often advise people to only depend on airbnb for two things: Bring you guests and collect and deliver payment. If they do that but the guests are just not what you need then it’s best to get your own guests.
A long time ago, we had a U.S. host report on this forum who figured out that locals were booking their Airbnb JUST to do laundry all day. It was cheaper than paying for machines at the laundromat.
I think they ended up raising their rates to address it.