Wait. So my wife and I couldn’t come and stay at your listing in Mexico? 
Maybe she’d make an exception for forum members. You guys okay with one twin bed? 
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Not through Airbnb- it’s a single bed (Altho I once had a young couple squish into the single bed for week.) But sometimes I stay in the guest room myself if I have friends or family come to visit and give them my room. And I’d consider most regular forum members as friends.
I was actually going to set it up like that when I first started hosting- that I’d list both my room, with the queen bed, and the smaller guest room and just move into whichever room wasn’t booked. But I found I really liked hosting solo travellers and realized I wouldn’t like moving rooms all the time.
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I’m in the minority here. (Got this email still even though no longer hosting, but it piqued my interest). Most hosts charge $200-300 per pet per week in my area, if allowed at all. I never charged for them and thought it was a great selling point. In over 100 stays, mostly all with dogs, I only had one issue and got new rugs out of it – the guests paid. I love the idea of a donation to a local shelter vs. a fee.
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I hate trying to collect anything from the res center, one more thing to track.
I charge a per pet per night pet fee which AirBnb does not support. When I get a reservation with a pet I message them the can pay the fee at check in. It works for me.
RR
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Yes, but real estate agents get high commissions when they do sell a place. When I sold my house in Canada, my real estate agent held an open house and the first people who came through put in an offer and bought it. She made $8000 for a few hours work. I don’t think many of us hosts make that kind of money that substantially offsets dealing with the lookie-loos asking stupid questions.
Well to each their own. But I always advise my friends and relatives to write to the host first before booking Air, just to see if the host is responsive and reasonable sounding. I think that’s pretty common advice on social media.
Bringfido.com is so fantastic for me, because I can book a hotel and know for sure my dogs are accepted and exactly what it’s going to cost me. If the hotel reneges, Bring Fido gets me my money back and helps me find another place for the night.
I’m staying next week at an AirBnB guest house for 5 nights. No microwave anywhere in the advert, not in the pictures or in amenities list. Otherwise pretty perfect for my trip–close to a park for dog walking, and a short walk to downtown.
So before booking, I wrote to the host and asked, “no microwave, is that correct?” (as well as asking about the pet policy) Host writes back and says she just got a microwave. Yay! I booked.
Had there been no microwave, or if the host had ignored me, I would have moved on for sure.
BTW I notice some hosts have automated replies to queries. That shows the host cares
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I don’t disagree with you at all that it’s a good idea to message a host before booking. It can give a sense of the host and whether they are responsive or not and gives the host a sense of the guest. I don’t do IB and expect all guests who want to book here to accompany a request with a nice message or ask questions if I haven’t addressed what they are wondering about in the ad.
I just don’t like it when guests message asking questions they could find the answer to if they read all the listing info. Your question about the microwave wasn’t too bad, and if the host had ignored you, then of course that’s a host to avoid. But I wouldn’t have asked if there was a microwave if there was none listed. It’s a one-off that the host just happened to have just bought one.
Got an Inquiry yesterday which only said “Hello”. I wrote back saying I saw he was new to Airbnb and did he have any questions, as that’s the purpose of sending an Inquiry. He never wrote back. Fine with me.
Presume they don’t want to pay airbnb the extra charge ?
That’s definitely a possibility, assuming Air charges hosts based on total receipts including pet fees. But it would be a small amount.
Another idea is that they don’t want to discourage reservations from people for whom an extra $20 would be a deal breaker.
somebody who says an extra $20 is a dealbreaker is considered a poor quality guest.
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