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Interesting. So you think the phone was in the “house rules” text on airbnb listing?
I’m sure air wouldn’t allow that if they knew. But I know with a massive programming team, there are things like that which they overlook.
I have seen other lodges listing on airbnb show a frontage picture with their signage and phone. Hard to detect, but not allowed technically. Guests who want to take the effort to contact direct and book direct on an established website are cool. Yes, craigslist type scams are an issue. I miss the old days of walk ins and cash.
Ahh yeah. Thanks. This is under Instant Book Requirements listing settings. I was able to save a phone number there. This is great as we often have guests with questions that are easier to handle on phone. Let them call if they want.
Obviously you mean “prospective guests” since guests get your number after they book. I prefer that clients text me most the time (in dog boarding as well as Airbnb) so then I have a record without having to take notes. But I can definitely see why a host would want to put the number in more than one place so guests can find it easily. I include my cell number in my check in instructions and I program the guest’s number in when I set up their smart lock code.
Sorry for my poor choice of words friends. Was in a hurry on phone.
Please take my comments from the perspective of someone wanting to maximize revenue AND provide great service. They obviously can be complimentary.
I view airbnb as the Authoritarian Dictator platform with monopoly-like power with ability to banish us with no power on hosts side for a fair trial or impartial jury of our peers.
I want guests to think for themselves. But Airbnb uses controlling platform to prevent guests from having all the facts that might let a guest choose to book direct. So guest education is something I’m keen on.
I’m not saying they should. It’s not in their shareholders best interests. But this is where the good of the people collides with the good of the shareholders.
As a society, we could regulate them (all OTAs) using anti-trust laws. Set a maximum commission at 5-10% perhaps.
When you have a dominant market position and can dictate commissions with almost no alternatives to users of your marketplace, that is when anti-trust could be useful.
As individuals, we can develop alternatives and not give as much power to these platforms.
We may love airbnb and it’s warm fuzzy brand. But if they raised commissions to 50%, would hosts like to band together and strike, protest. Or just lie down and take the hit? What if airbnb and vrbo were to merge (VC wet dream).
Hotels lost this war for over a decade, but are making a comeback with direct booking programs.
STRs suffered a great loss when VRBO was sold to expedia. We can help reverse the trend. But it’s not for everyone I guess. VRBO was like the yellow pages. Pay once and get leads and you convert.
OTAs and airbnb came in and said, we are now the yellow pages, and the phone support, and venture capital said, yeah, we will pay to buy up all the ‘old school yellow page ad model sites’ and be in a position to dictate commissions and capture that revenue stream. It’s being in the position of tax man. It’s great for them. Not so great for guests and hosts to have that money sucked to the top.
There is a chapter in economics about natural monopolies. Platform monopolies like eBay, Amazon, Airbnb at some point become natural monopolies and I feel should be subject to regulation. But we have to fight for it.
The phone company and standard oil were early natural monopolies taken advantage of by monopolist capitalists. Matt Stoller is doing great work on other modern monopoly cases.
sorry, I ramble.
I think that’s what we all aim for. But I truly can’t understand your belief that Airbnb is:
I realise that you can only speak for yourself but I imagine that most hosts have never felt that way. Many of us on this forum have been using Airbnb for many years and we run our businesses, not Airbnb.
No, it doesn’t. Imagine that you had created the Airbnb brand and infrastructure. Would you be happy for people to take advantage of that free? Airbnb is a business too and not a charity. And please let us know what these facts are?
Maybe this is a separate point. Regardless of whatever our disappointments are with Airbnb it seems to me that given that the guest has found us THROUGH Airbnb that it is ‘smarmy’ behavior to get them to book off the platform.
Right or wrong, it feels different IF: 1) The guest has been an excellent repeat guest, AND 2) the guest approaches me to do this. I still don’t know what I would do, but this feels different but maybe it’s rationalization.
However we feel about Airbnb I think WE need to act with integrity, though I know that will differ on what that means. If I did take an off-platform booking in my scenario above I would want to research whether I have agreed not to do that, even if I couldn’t ‘get caught.’
It’s terrible behaviour, not simply ‘smarmy’. Airbnb allows hosts to advertise their properties, create their own listings, add their own photographs - it introduces them to guests who are looking for accommodation in their area, it has a fully operative message system so the two parties can communicate, it processes the payment, has a system whereby we can send detailed instructions to the now-booked guest and it has not charged us a penny for this service.
It simply takes a small commission.
For those who would say ‘no, it’s a large commission’ I would recommend that they get their own website, ensure that it’s high in Google, plan a proper marketing campaign, pay for advertising, pay for credit card processing and consider that small commission again.
As I have said here many times though, if a guest wants to book again, if they choose to do so directly, it’s fine by me. If they choose to go via Airbnb that’s fine with me too.
But most repeat customers don’t want to go via Airbnb. They prefer to book directly because they want to return thanks to the service and hospitality I provided.
I have several guests who come to me year after year after year. What is the cut-off point when they stop being Airbnb’s customers and start being mine? Two years? Five years? Ten? Daft, isn’t it?
‘Terrible’ vs ‘smarmy.’ I accept this as a friendly amendment. Maybe also illegal [?], without integrity, cheap, beneath us . . . the list goes on. I agree that it’s simply not right to TAKE Airbnb’s services and not pay them in exchange.
Agreed. I bet it is a violation of the TOS. I just didn’t take the time to look it up and added the ‘?’ to denote that I don’t ‘know’ it’s illegal, however much I suspect it is.
The other day we called in at a Subway to get lunch. While we were waiting a (what looked like) mother and son came in, sat at a table and she reached into her bag and brought out sandwiches and sodas.
Needless to say, the woman behind the counter immediately told the woman that she couldn’t bring her own food and drink into a restaurant (using the description loosely) and that in addition to being irresponsible, it is against the law.
I don’t know if that part was true but hosts who try to dodge Airbnb’s commission remind me of that - it’s like taking your own food and drink to a restaurant.
I call it AirBnb’s special rate: pay for eight nights, stay for seven! That 14% pays for an eighth night if you book a full week (which many of our guests do)
All of us interpret the TOS to rationalize what we think is right… first-time bookings, future bookings, covid refunds, no refunds, etc. I cite the TOS to guests when it suits me. Other times I ignore the TOS when it doesn’t suit me. Airbnb does the same thing.
As per TOS, taking direct bookings from previous guests in the future is a violation of the off platform policy.
If airbnb brought a host the guest in the first place, Airbnb thinks they have the right to earn all future commissions from that customer. Similar to how the auto or life insurance agents operate. You get commissions as long as the customer pays the company.
Right now I only use Airbnb but that’s because it suits me. I plan to diversify because of the whims of Airbnb and their EC.
It’s not just TOS for business. It’s everything, isn’t it?
As a high school teacher I used to use a similar example with “the kids.” When teens want privileges they play the “adult” card. When they want to be excused from responsibilities they play the “kid” card.
But adults do the same and they don’t have the excuse of youth. When adults want to exploit youth, particularly for work, they are are “adults.” When the want to deny a privilige then they are “protecting kids.” For example, in TX a 17 year old is an adult in the criminal justice system, can work and can get a driver’s license, probably so they can drive to work. We don’t have state income tax but if we did, I’m sure they’d be taxed. But can they vote? No.
Well, not exactly. It says hosts are not to encourage or ask a guest to do this. It says nothing about the guest approaching the host. Just saying .
I expected it to say, “Hosts must not accept bookings…”. I wonder if it is not legal to require a host not to accept business propositions from a guest?
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