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OK…17 nights is a long stay. Are they getting a discount on 17 nights already? And then the 2 additional free nights on top it? So are they staying 19 nights and only paying for 17?
Do you typically always block off a night in between reservations? If so, and you typically don’t receive a 17 night stay, then it may be worth the discount. If you can easily grab a 20 night stay (due to high demand in your area) then I’m sure you will figure it out…
I am coming late to this party but I am wondering how you got stuck with the reservations from the previous owner of the property? If a property got sold, how on earth do their reservations get transferred along with it? And it was really up to the previous owner to inform the guests that new rules may and probably will apply to their reservation. Whose account is this under? Yours or the previous owner? Is he still getting payment on this or you?
If you are just honoring someone’s previous reservation and you don’t get paid?? Please, don’t tell me that is the case. Sorry I am not following this situation very well.
These people have received TWO free days all these years. If you host them again, raise the price and don’t let that happen obviously. Be firm.
I would not be getting up that early to help any guest I was not getting paid to handle.
Traveling 12 hours is NO big deal. Talk to me about traveling from Hawaii to anywhere international. It’s always a minimum of 24.
Zandra, they haven’t been taking advantage, they had a agreement with the former owner about an early checkin and a late checkout for a 17-night stay. An agreement is an agreement, it is not taking advantage.
And I belief it to be normal to honor agreements on existing reservations, or the option to cancel without any cost.
If a new owner wouldn’t honor my agreements on an existing reservation I would never ever return to that place. And I would also think that when you take over a business (probably a heavy investment) you would welcome all repeat guests with open arms and not scare them away before even getting to know them.
What is better than repeating guests?
I am not familiar with the laws in Buenos Aires, but in the U.S. the law varies per state. Some new buyers are required to honor the reservations when the house transfers. Sometimes it may be for so many months, etc. Even if the buyer has no desire to keep the house as a vacation rental, they still must honor the reservations.
One main issue is if the new owners don’t have short term rental insurance and a guest hurts themselves and sues.
Can we see it as a business instead of a property in this case? Any business with existing clientele (and in this case existing reservations) is worth lots more than a business without clientele. Who the payments go to is included in the contract (selling the business). All of this influences the purchase price and shouldn’t be questioned by anyone else than the people who made the contract and did this to the best of their abilities.
Wether PennyM made a good deal and/or wether the existing clientele is worth the purchase price, only time will tell.
Kona - I also based my above reply assuming that the guests signed a contract and didn’t book through Air or some other middleman.
Yes, one could question the practicalities of selling an existing business that is listed on AirBnB. I guess that reviews are also based on the actual host, so if the host changes the reviews don’t really apply any more.
Who is getting paid for this reservation…Penny or the previous owner? If Penny were buying a business it would be one thing. If she were buying a personal residence it’s quite another.
The new owner can set it up however they want.
She said things were lax before. She might want to honor what was done before this time only.
Remember that movie Same Time Next Year? Well it doesn’t always work out that way. Places get sold, new owners and management come in. You can’t always count on things never changing forever.
A business is not the same as a personal Airbnb in your home. A business would be a B&B or a hotel or such.
If Penny just bought someone’s home, she has no obligation to continue the Airbnb business at all if she doesn’t want to!
This isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last time, that I disagree with most people on the forum about what is reasonable.
I was under the impression that Penny was renting out a whole house and had a signed rental agreement outside of Airbnb. Not really sure??
But in my state, when you sell a home with existing reservations, the new owner is obligated (maybe for 6 months or so) - to honor those reservations. The new owner cannot just cancel on guests who have purchased flights, etc.
I would say if the transaction was done through Air, and no contract signed…then Air rules reign and OP could cancel and suffer the Air penalties.
It better be Penny who is getting paid! - lol. I hope so.
It all depends on local law and wording in the contract. If the contract stipulates that the owner can cancel for any reason whatsoever…and this does not violate local law - then Penny can cancel.
This discussion is from Homeaway, where they are discussing VRBO rentals. They are saying you are under no obligation to rent to anyone after the sale. If you have long term tenants, yes, you have to honor their lease until it’s complete. But short term? You decide? Most think NO.
https://community.homeaway.com/thread/5401
If I sold my house it would not include the Airbnb reservations. It’s not a BUSINESS as some people here (who happen to be renters themselves and not homeowners) seem to think. It’s a HOME. Again. NOT A BUSINESS. A HOME.
If I were selling, I’d inform those who had reservations they were going to be cancelled and that they needed to find other accommodations. How can it be rented anyway, under the existing “Kona’s Beach Rental” and offer everything I offer my guests? Say Cabin bought it. She may not want to give them cooking privileges or snorkel gear. It’s not going to be the same owner or account.
I agree with you…
Or indeed honour agreements made by the previous owner. In any case there is no right or wrong here, but in the same vein as all of the people insisting that this is a repeat guest who deserves special consideration I can happily say that none of that would hold water with me. My home, my rules and I would not honour what a previous person agreed to unless it suited me.
Happy to repeat I have read what @PennyM has said and I repeat; I wouldn’t want a guest getting a free night every year just because that’s what the previous owner decided to do. And if the guest doesn’t like it… then so be it. No doubt my experience is coloured by living in London but guests are not that hard to come by.
And my question still is…. If I bought my house from someone who had a different Airbnb name and account from me, how could I honor it? It’s not my customer. How can I offer what the previous person did? And WHY would I have people in my house who are paying someone else and not me? Pardon my outrage, but that’s nuts. It’s nuts.
I think Penny needs to come back and clarify about the terms of the sale of her house. How did old reservations become her problem and responsibility?
She was not a party to the agreement made by the previous owner. The only exception is a long term renter’s lease. All of these things are listed in the terms of the sale. It’s not nebulous.
All these posts about what you should do and what laws apply and what’s crazy seem to have missed this part of the post.
I called air a few months ago with a ‘what if’ scenario to find out what my options were if we decided to sell our home. I asked if the existing reservations could be transferred to the new owner and was told that this IS NOT POSSIBLE, it would be up to me to cancel all reservations before the sale was completed. I don’t know if this is to do with local laws - I am in NZ, the rep I spoke to was from the Malaysia call centre and the case manager it got escalated to called me from the states.
So aside from any moral obligations, and based on what I was told, it sounds like Penny has every right to cancel these pre-existing guests if she chooses to. Assuming they booked through Airbnb
It is VERY common in Barcelona that the new owner must take existing reservations with the sale of a property that is listed as a vacation rental. One property we were looking at was booked 6 months out and we would have had to honor all the bookings per the sales contract.
@konacoconutz I think what you are missing is that a lot of places like BA and Barcelona mainly use Property Managment companies, not ABB/VRBO or other ‘DIY’ platforms, bc most of these properties are second properties bought by people living outside the country.
We are in the process of buying a house in the desert of California, and a few of the houses came with reservations via property management companies that we would have been obligated to honor as well. The reservations were all booked via a property management company and written into the sales contract. Once again in a community that is mainly second homes owned by lots of people outside California.
@KKC made an excellent point, she would like to continue renting to these guests, and IMHO fighting them on this would definitely threaten that relationship, especially in an oversaturated market like BA
True … I can see honoring the reservations of a PM… in an existing vacation home…but what of the private Air account of the seller? I just don’t see how it would work even if you wanted to do it. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cancel the reservations and rebook them with the buyer, assuming the buyer wanted them?
Keeping in mind I’m referring to private homes, not those run by PM but listed on Airbnb. I’m not clear on what Penny has.