I may have to give VRBO another ‘go’. We just got spam inquires and scams.
And @azreala I am conscious of the clientele I rather have, the ones mentioned above (honeymooners, etc) are really the type I like most, many young in their say 25-45. How many have, or even find it ‘natural’ to send $2500 to stay in a place 2 years from now? 50% of the time the natural question arises: “What other choices are there?”. I appreciate my scene is an unusual case. but is a show stopper for many, many potential Airbnb guests, it could possibly apply to many others ‘luxury-priced’ listings.
This aspect of their policy can use some re-consideration and imagination. Perhaps allow a partial deposit option with a booking made months in advance, besides a certain point, say 6 months or a year.
(see my pm)
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Completely agree. However, a lot of all inclusive resorts etc require full deposits, etc. The furthest out we get booked is 3 months.
Got cha. It is in keeping with the territory. VRBO however, doesn’t do it, perhaps Airbnb has a good reason from their point of view why they do, besides…
(and hi Sarah, how is that law-enforcement course you are taking coming along?) 
Sarah,
Most of my Air guests are first time users and they are ecstatic to be renting a home for their family versus renting two hotel rooms. They would never even imagine renting a room in someone’s house as it wouldn’t fit their group size. So my rental gives them a great option. My current guests are first time users from Air - and I think they may actually be my first Millenials with two young kids (versus just a Millenial couple with no kids) - versus my generation of Gen X with kids (that I loathe) - they are so polite and I wish I did know their age. They are so appreciative of everything…
An “involved” host does not need to physically be in the immediate area. Many hosts who live in the same city still have a housekeeping crew, etc. and all of those things are outsourced. They still hire plumbers, A/C workers, etc. When I search for my area the “Best Western” hotel comes up and it does piss me off. But I am not angry at the Best Western. It is because Air is allowing them to come up (40 minutes away) because I do not use instant book. This shows that Air is all about the money only. I get a lot of last minute bookings (the day before arrival) and at one point they hid my property from people like you who would have enjoyed my place. Instead they are showing a hotel 40 minutes away.
I think you may be getting a different idea of all these offsitehosts who are just buying up LTR’s. Many have owned their own family vacation rentals for decades and have always rented them out during peak season. They may have a place in Cape Cod or Jersey Shore - rent out for 12 weeks, and then their own family uses it the rest of the time. This is typical with vacation rentals.
I am just not following where you are coming from exactly with different hosting is all…
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I completely agree that places like SF, NYC, and other places with ‘housing crisis’ should and need to regulate people buying up lots of condos/houses/flats/etc, or converting existing LTR units, and renting STR versus LTR. However, as @cabinhost pointed out many people have vacation homes, want to buy vacation homes, have a house they don’t want to sell, batchelor/ette pads they want to keep when they get marries, but don’t want to LTR. ABB is a great option for this. We were able to buy a vacation home bc of ABB, and although we rent it a lot, we also use it just as much.
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I personally couldn’t handle renting out a STR from far away, and don’t get me wrong, I think Air is a good fit for people who are involved hosts. I was upset with this guy because he immediately wanted me to contact him off of Air’s platform to arrange payment and then got mad at me for calling him out on it. If you’re going to use a certain platform, you should abide by the TOS you agreed to when signing up.
I don’t offer a place in my home either, but I have discouraged my husband from turning our LTRs into STRs because of the logistics of managing several places, etc. Props to you guys that do it, I just couldn’t do it. But the hotels, the condo owners listing out whole floors as STRs on Air’s site, etc just clog it up for people offering their 1-2 vacation rentals part time or a bedroom in their home or an apartment above their garage, etc. I’m not going to flag a site because I can’t “Live Like A Local” in one of a dozen condos managed my someone living 6 states away, but I will flag a guy who asks me to book off-site and then get mad at me when I linked to TOS.
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Ok…I didn’t realize that the guy was also asking you to pay off site. If that was the case, then yes he should be flagged. I thought he was only asking for the contract to be signed. And then once received, he would accept your reservation.
Also, just in case anyone is interested…I see this question come up every so often. Why would a host need someone to sign a contract?
Some states require a rental contract to be signed in order to provide protection against squatters, and also it may be required period - and certain clauses must be included. One example - the bank should be listed where the guest’s money is being held. Or maybe by state law the host is required to refund during a mandatory evacutation…UNLESS your guest was advised to purchase trip cancellation insurance (and it was included in the contract).
In my state there is an expedited eviction process in case someone tries to squat. But in order for the courts to take this route, I needed to have followed the law and executed my contract properly.
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I do want to say, thank you guys for giving me a different perspective. Places around the country and world have different requirements, and Air is limited in this. But this guy clearly was using air for free advertising and wanted to do everything off-site. After his initial hostility with me and personal attacks on me after viewing my profile “I see that you homeschool. Every homeschooler I know is Christian and as a Christian I’m amazed at how hostile you are”, blah blah blah and saying that they never have people complain about paying off-site on VRBO, blah blah, I sent him a link to TOS and flagged him. I just shared the basics to share frustration with other hosts who actually follow Air’s guidelines and encourage new hosts to actually do their homework and be legal, etc.
If he’d actually done a little back and forth and shown any type of personalized response besides: we do all our bookings and contracts on our own, send me your email address, I wouldn’t have reacted as I did either. Even though none of the places I found were personalized or non-condo type places, at least the other hosts I contacted were more personalized and working with the system.
I’m just exhausted by all the hotels that list, and the gross places, and the not updated in 20 years vacation rentals… meanwhile we have all these discussions on quality bedding and cleanliness and 4 stars by hosts who are actually trying to provide a nice place to stay and worried about their prices and trying to compete with the places who list on a dozen websites and don’t respond timely, etc.
So thanks to @konacoconutz, @Mearns, @cabinhost, @azreala, @chicagohost, really. I think professionalism is very important, especially if you are listing places for a living and listing on Air. You guys clearly do that. And this guy just hit me the wrong way.
Understandable. He is a user of other’s efforts.
I agree with you Sarah, when you set up your listing with Airbnb it’s very clear what the rules are. If you don’t like them & won’t follow them don’t list with Airbnb and yes we need to protect the Airbnb experience by responding to these people. If they’re breaking the rules before you even arrive what happens then? Chin up Sarah.
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Interesting perspectives on degree of involvement. I rent the bedrooms in my own home, so one would think I’m involved, but in fact my current guests are so self-sufficient I haven’t seen either one of them in weeks. I hear the outside door when they come and go, but haven’t seen them.
Whether guests want hands-on hosting is an individual preference between guest and host.
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I’m very hands off when guests are here, don’t get me wrong. I love self-sufficient guests! But typically the people searching on air are looking for homes to live in (either with a host or whole place), and not in a condo with a block of other condos, with a host managing a dozen other properties all off site. If I wanted that I’d look on a different website.
How do you know? Does Air compile and publish typical profiles? My condo is one of many condos in the condo complex. I have no shortage of people who want to rent a room for a few months. No one has ever said, hey buy a house, I want my room to be in a free-standing house.
There’s a lot of diversity on Airbnb, both in the type of places offered and in the preferences of guests and hosts. I feel like you won’t be comfortable until I admit I’m doing it “wrong” by having a condo and not being buddies with my guests. Different people want different things from Air, that that kind of has to be okay since it isn’t going to change.
I think a residential condo is different than a hotel style “condo”. I was ranting based on a tourist area. Why would I go on Air for a glorified hotel room with hotel bedding and maybe a kitchenette if I was lucky when I can go on a dozen other websites for that? I look on Air because I want to deal with a real host and stay in a home (whether it’s on a condo or apartment complex or free standing) or want to go dirt cheap and stay in someone’s extra bedroom). I’m not on Air to stay in a hotel room.