Special offer vs. Change of stay

From what I’m gathering Penny bought a flat in BA that was mainly used by the sellers as a vacation home and run by a property management company. Since Penny is located in BA she is now listing herself on ABB and not dealing with the PM anymore.

I 100000% agree if the reservations were ABB the buyer/seller would need to do a swap and not use the others account, but in this particular case they were booked via a PM.

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True we are going off topic a bit, but this is a very interesting question that I’ve never heard discussed before.

Is Penny a PM? It would seem to make a difference.

I also agree with K9Karma.

Nope. Just someone like me with multiple properties

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Very smart of PennyM to appreciate repeating guests !

These guests should be rebooked with Penny’s Airbnb and her rules next time. If she wants to give them two free days so be it. They are also going to be paying higher service fees at that time more than likely.

But we still don’t know if they are Penny’s guests or the previous owner’s guests.

This is not an argument about whether repeat guests shouldn’t be valued or appreciated and wanted back. Of course that is the case.

But if they are paying someone else and not Penny right now, then whose guests ARE THEY?

I’m guessing Penny was wise enough to arrange everything well, at the time of purchasing the business / property. Since she wants to continue in the same line of business it would be fairly stupid to cancel these guests.

This is a silly diversion. They are her guests booked with the management company before she bought this investment property.

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@konacoconutz they are guests that were booked with the previous owner that @PennyM inherited when she bought the condo.

My guess is her sales contract included honoring exsisting reservations.

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Oh yes I’m sure she did, property purchase is obviously a big deal so you’d make sure to know about these things.
What I meant is, maybe now she’s realised these guests are essentially getting 2 free nights, and seeing how it can potentially impact on other bookings, if she WANTED at any point to cancel, she probably could.

Whether she does or not is obviously her business and her decision

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I don’t think it’s silly. It’s not clear. That’s why I asked. The confusion caused Penny to make a double booking. Is she using a PM and Airbnb or what?

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@konacoconutz Penny is using ABB, but had bookings she is honoring from the previous owner who was using a PM.

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She stated that she hadn’t noticed the early check in and late checkout when she set up her AirBNB calendar for this property. She made an error and didn’t block the days so that she ended up with a double booking.

So, she still has a PM for existing reservations, and if I recall correctly from another thread, is trying to decide if she will continue to use the PM for onsite work while she takes over the reservation process using AirBNB or try to find a new one.

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We are all assuming that the 7am guests were part of her sale and she is getting compensated for it, but it’s not really clear if that is the case. Only she can tell us. If she is getting compensated and she wants to keep these guests happy then she is getting up early to greet them. If not, she needs to get them on board for next year with her rules and wishes in place.

And maybe you are right, discussing it further is silly. Sorry now that I weighed in.
Discuss among yourselves.

@konacoconutz see above. Hope that helps!

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This is also VERY important info. If these guests come every year for 17+ days, I would also ‘eat’ the early/late check in/out and tell them when they book next year rules have changed.

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Not trying to ‘shame’ anyone! I just want to make sure all the facts are out there :wink::wink::wink:

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I wouldn’t call Kona’s valid comment a “silly” diversion. It’s a valid question that she is truly trying to understand.

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Not always. Many repeat guests will expect “special” favors. And many have had bad experiences with repeats. I know it is commonly touted that “repeats are gold” - but that isn’t always the case.

Of course if this repeat long booking is worth the 2 nights free…then of course keep it. But if there are tons of people in line who are willing to pay for those other 2 nights…time to ditch it.

A few comments from someone who has gone through this (not the double-booking, thankfully):
We purchased our place with existing reservations out six months. The villa was inside a business (had to be for foreigners to own it). We agreed to honor the reservations, and negotiated with the prior owner the fees he would be paid for the stays after the purchase. Since we intended to keep renting it out until we could live there full time, we did not want to damage the reputation of the place by cancelling guests. It was simply the right thing to do, in our mind.

I believe PennyM is doing the right thing. Honor the existing reservation, and if she does not like the free extras the returning guest is being given, then tell them that for next year. She may lose their business. She may also make more money, too.

I also don’t know why anyone would book a returning guest through AirBnB. The host pays, the guest pays - why not book directly in the future and both sides save - or split the difference and the host makes a little more and the guest saves a little?

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