Tire kickers coming out of the woodwork?

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Anyone seeing an increase in bargainers/discount-seekers? This is weird bc I just got two in under an hour …

I advised as follows, but was wondering if anyone else was seeing this? Tis the season?

My response: "Hello! I am not sure what the fee payable to Airbnb is but I understand from experience that their fees do inflate the total that you see. Unfortunately, that is out of our control.

Our home is beautiful, private and our little slice of heaven. That said, we have chosen not to negotiate with the fees that have been set. We have carefully structured our fees and believe that we are already priced below the other similar listings in our neighbourhood. Thank you for your interest."

Might have taken some of that from another host? If so, thank you! :wink:

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I’m not seeing an increase - but I certainly get them from time to time. But the good news is that despite the fact that I don’t give in to their pleas for discounts, they do book nine times out of ten.

I don’t tell them that we are priced below other listings though - I say instead that we offer great value for money. If they don’t want to stay after that, then I don’t want them anyway :slight_smile:

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Perfect response! I agree with you - no bargain hunters.

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Yes, some claim they are poor students. I get them all the time. Like @jaquo I tell them that I’m great value for money and leave it at that.

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We just got one of those today. I told him I’m a student too so I understand but we still can’t give him a discount. :slight_smile:

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I get discount-seekers when the cheaper listings are taken and I’m the last one left. They complain that the AirBnB fees and the local taxes are too high, and want the “quoted” price they saw in the search before AirBnB adds the taxes and fees. I tell them I don’t have control over taxes and fees, and that they should call AirBnB directly and complain to city council about local taxes. I don’t believe AirBnB will wave their wees or that city council will give tourists a tax break, but this is my way of pointing out to guests that the host is the wrong person to talk to if the guest wants relief was taxes and fees.

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This made me LOL. I think the head honchos probably spend all day waving their wees (in a manner of speaking.) hehehehe.

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I wonder if a “life hack”is making the Facebook rounds, something like, “tips for cheap travels”.

I can see it now, “Never pay full price for a rental. Remember you are renting from the owner and they set their price. Always ask the owner if they can discount their price, especially if they’ve got several empty days they make take a lower rate Instead of not having a booking.”

BAH. HUMBUG. PHOOHEY.

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I think I’ll keep my typo. It was a Freudian slip!

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My evil twin wants to know why they want me to subsidize their education.

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I don’t know if this change is in all regions, but here in Europe they are now, immediately below the “per night” text, displaying the total cost of the booking. Immediately next to the total cost is a question mark which when you click it the breakdown (per night, cleaning fees, airbnb fees) is displayed in a pop up.

popup

It’s only appeared in the past day or so.

JF

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Here in the US I’m not seeing it, you still have to click the red “book” button to get the total cost. This would be an improvement if only the guest will click on the question mark.

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That’s interesting. You mean when someone clicks on a listing (from the search page) they don’t get the summary like this:

book
book.jpg846×584 65.2 KB

JF

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Yes you get a page that looks like that after you put in dates, and have for awhile. I misunderstood you sorry. When I search with a date I get a list of results with a question mark. I think that’s been there but maybe not. Last time I used Airbnb as a guest was August and I think it was like that then but uncertain.

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Ha ha, I’m doubting myself now as to how long they’ve shown the total cost of the booking for each individual property on the search results page. I thought it was something to do with an EU ruling over transparency of total booking cost and had only been implemented recently. Must lay off sniffing the furniture polish… :slight_smile:

JF

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I’m uncertain myself. Perhaps someone more knowledgable will chime in.

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