Hi all, I’ve already closed the loop on this but curious to hear how others would have handled it. My very best guests have made a lot of change requests this year. Note that they’ve rented from me for three years now, they are my top prospects if I ever try and sell the cabin, and last year they truly rescued my ass when I showed up for a solar emergency and ended up accidentally locking my one year old pup in the car (it took them three hours to send a locksmith but fortunately pup and I had climbed a major peak that day and were exhausted and he had water). Anyhow the guests made me dinner, treated me to a couple of whiskey shots and were overall incredibly generous to me. So this year so far, they’ve changed their reservation twice. The last request meant a refund of one night and rate adjustment. It ended up working out fine but now she’s texted me that they have work conflicts and need to cancel the last night and could they get a refund (we’re less than 7 days out at this point). I wrote back to say how they must be very busy since there have been so many changes to their reservation and I reminded her of the last change request I accepted and the refund. Then I said I hate to lose the income but they’re some of my best guests so I’ll do it if I need to. I don’t want to lose loyal guests over one night but this feels kind of ridiculous and I can’t imagine making so many changes and asking for yet another refund. Thoughts?
Maybe I’m a softy today, but I would do it—keeping in mind that Airbnb has the money, not you. I’ve been very accommodating for our most frequent guests, and it has never hurt us.
Why don’t you have T&Cs that your direct guests book under if it’s a direct booking. Then you would have a policy around this sort of issue.
If it’s through a listing company it depends on your cancellation policy.
I would say that these guests now consider themselves to be friends of yours, and are not respecting that your rental is a business. They are expecting you to deal with them as if they were family, or close friends.
I think I would have made it clear to them, in a friendly way, that while you really like them as people, and they have been fabulous guests, and very helpful to you, that the rental is a business, a part of your income you depend on, and as such, you can’t afford to have dates blocked by their bookings, only to keep changing them, as it has prevented you from being open to bookings from other potential guests.
- They’re not asking for a refund, they’re asking for an alteration that shortens their stay.
- It seems unlikely they would try it, but the timing is outside of the full-refund window that they could use to get a full refund for the entire stay.
- These are your bests guests and they are repeat guests.
- “a gazillion” = 3 (you are exaggerating for some reason, you need to understand that reason).
You are running a business with limited resources, so you will likely lose some income from the shortened stay. You have the weigh the opportunity cost of the 1 night of lost income against the possibility of permanently losing good customers. I personally would allow shortening the stay and I think this would be a no-brainer for any host that isn’t booked solid.
Don’t forget that when you shorten a stay, you should drop any discounts (e.g. weekly discount) that no longer apply.
I would certainly sacrifice a little for great repeat guests. Next time you chat in person I would suggest being frank with them. Perhaps you could have a more lenient policy for their changes so that they feel special treatment but they don’t walk all over you. Perhaps Tell them such as you can’t afford to lose more than a night or can’t refund weekend nights - whatever works for you mitigating the loss while keeping it a business arrangement. If you are seriously hoping to sell the cabin to them, you might be particularly generous. I have some direct book repeat guests and they do tend to get more casual about reservations. I’ve had one forget to even tell me he wasn’t coming for as many days as he planned.
@RebeccaF I’m a softy too! Although I won’t give anything away without pointing out to the guests that I’m giving something away. @Helsi, what’s a T&C? This might show my cluelessness. And yes I absolutely have a policy on both AirBnB and VRBO. The strictest possible on AirBnB (but not the secret one that you have to call about) and second strictest policy on VRBO. The guests are definitely not eligible for a refund, but they’re my best guests so that’s the dilemma. Excellent points, @muddy. I’m hoping that my message reminded them that I depend on the income. Also, as you pointed out, their booking blocked dates that otherwise might have been booked by someone else. @Brian_R170 they explicitly asked for a refund of the cancelled night so I’m not sure what you mean? The money hasn’t hit my account yet but it has hit AirBnBs and so it is a refund of what the guests paid at the time of booking. And I’ve already refunded them another night when their second change request went from 7 nights to 6 and also altered the rates. As far as your point #4, of course I’m exaggerating. I was trying to be funny. I don’t believe a “gazillion” is even a unit of measurement although who knows? And technically, three change requests is 3 times more than I’ve had from almost any other guest. @Christine_Shirtcliff that’s ridiculous! Ha ha. well actually I’m sure it wasn’t funny at the time. What did you do?
I also have some “best guests” who have fallen into the same category. They ask well in advance but then cancel last minute. Because of my model of mostly one night stays booked close to the date these tend to not disrupt my business model. But the friendly relationship can go sideways if they keep at it. I have one repeat guest who has had several hospitalizations in the last year and now “I’m sick again” is the excuse for 2-3 cancellations. At this point I don’t really want to continue the relationship.
Friendship and business don’t mix well if being a “friend” means a guest doesn’t understand that asking to accommodate them by accepting a loss of income, or spending time dealing with their ongoing changes in booking for free isn’t okay. True friends don’t act like that.
While I am always happy to block off my Airbnb calendar if good friends or family want to visit, as I don’t depend on the income, if they tell me when they want to visit and I say, Oh, those dates won’t work because I have bookings, they just change their travel date plans and if they can’t, they just don’t come. They understand it’s a business I run, there’s no hard feelings.
It’s not a refund as far as you are concerned because you haven’t received any money or provided any services.
I personally would accommodate them because they have always been good guests and it’s possible that there’s a work related conflict. Plus they might be the future buyers of your property should you decide to sell.
I have had a similar situation with a repeat guest and I’ve learned its better to back away from being too “friendly”. When Covid hit (because we got really busy) I had a good excuse to say “everyone back on the Airbnb platform” So now she looks at the calendar/prices like everyone else and the changes and special requests have pretty much stopped. It is a business, after all.
Thanks everyone. All very helpful perspectives on a somewhat good problem to have given all the different types of guests we can see in a season. Granted it’s a business, but I spent a lot of years chasing the business life and I have to say I’d never do Airbnb if my guests and their experiences didn’t mean so much to me. Oh and I haven’t heard back from the guest in question or gotten the change request so maybe it resolved itself!