How do you manage staycation bookings?

[Stephanie]

Hi everyone,

Here in England, we are seeing the lessening of lockdown measures - today’s protocol means hospitality is restarting and many Hosts are celebrating booked summer calendars. 

However, leaving the country is still on the no-go, and that’s true for many countries the world over. I, for one, am itching to take a little break within the British isles which is what is being called a “Staycation” - holidaying in your own country.

As someone who’s living on the search platform as a guest at the moment for Dorset, Devon and Wales, it would be great to see how Hosts are changing (if anything) for a summer of staycations.

What’s different about Hosting staycation guests? What other considerations do you have?

Cheers!

Stephanie

[Dawn36]

Hard agree. Also in Scotland, and a bit tired of the ignorance of 4 nation differences. 

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Charles-And-Jeanette0 , @Dawn36 and all other Scots in the thread,

I appreciate the frustration that hosting is not set to resume until April 26th. A lot of shared accommodation hosts that I reached out to are in the same boat in terms of time scale. We can use this thread as a place to share advice from those that are hosting ahead the 26th April which I hope will help when you are able to resume. 

Fingers crossed that in 2 weeks time we can all swap stories across the Anglo-Scottish border! 

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Angela84]

Hello from the Isle of Wight. I am being super cautious as I don't want to get bogged down with refunds and date changes. Date changes because I haven't planned for next year yet. I am making  three day "blocks"pre and post bookings so I can feel more relaxed while I build back up for next year. Not just for my sake but to help the Island's low covid infection rate. We want to stay open not suffer another sudden lockdown

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Angela84 ,

Yes, I think there's a few hosts that are biding their time just in case. I think your blocking suggestion is very useful to others that wish to err on the side of caution, thank you!

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Gilly7]

I run an accommodation in my garden and offer  plant based food to my guests.  The accommodation is self contained in respect of having its own entrance and en-suite  wc/shower, but will be taking food to guests to eat in the cabin or serving food in the garden until I am allowed to feed guests inside my house again. 
https://airbnb.com/h/hut-therapy

[Cathie19]

I’d be happy to eat your food anywhere @Gilly7 ....... It looks amazing! 

[Gilly7]

❤️

[Christina768]

Hi guys just wanted to say your place looks amazing. The food looks exceptional 👌I would gladly have all my meals cooked by your skilled hands. Well done lovely set up.

[Michelle1709]

Ooh tres chic....

[Peter37]

Is this really AirBnB or yet another really good fake site?

I got a message out of the blue from 'Stephanie' which took me to an account called 'Peter37', which I have never seen before, on a web site called 'community.withairbnb.com', which I've never seen before and which has no obvious connection with the familiar 'www.airbnb.com'.

I was about to delete it on the assumption that it is a phishing attack, when I searched around the real web site, www.airbnb.com and found a link to 'https://community.withairbnb.com/'. So, maybe  this is real.

My question is: at a time when we are constantly bombarded by both phishing  attacks and advice to avoid phishing attacks by following links only to recognised URLs, why does AirBnB apparently send out unsolicited emails linking to an unrecognised domain? Why isn't this community forum contained in www.airbnb.com so that we can tell it's real?

Sorry to be negative, but I was just concerned to receive apparently real AirBnB communications from what looks like a fake site!

And why are we given these stupid fake-looking names such as "Peter37"? Surely the software is sophisticated enough to let us choose a unique name that is meaningful such as "Peter-in-Rose-Hill"?

Peter (not 37, much older!)

[Judith92]

Hi there

I so agree with your comment. 

Thanks for highlighting this.

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Peter37 ,

Sorry to hear you're unhappy about receiving my message (happy to remove you from future reach outs.) I only contact those that are already registered on the Airbnb Community Center, hope that helps. We are working on the email notifications as they are a bit odd looking - you're not the first to say so thank you for your feedback.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Sarah977]

@Peter37   What you call a "stupid fake sounding name" is simply an identifier here on the forum that enables other posters to tag the person they are replying to. Which was difficult to do before when people only had their account name. You really think that the thousands of hosts and guests who use this forum need to choose their own account name? Seems like quite the non-issue to me.

[Cathie19]

Hi @Peter37 . By using the avatar linked to you, I get to tag you. That is, you get a notification via your email. Or alternatively, once you enter the Community Centre forum page, you can see all notifications once you click on your image. Simple really... but I do understand the concern regarding fake sites.

As for choosing your own name, you get to do that for your listing already. For you, “Peter-In-Rose-Hill” is significant, but as a global forum identifier, not so much! There is more than one Rose Hill / Rosehill in the world and I’m sure more than one Peter in one of them. So although I’ve been a long time away from 19, accepting @Cathie19  as my identifier is very specifically me. It also provides some level of privacy, unless someone wants to research..... 🙂

Though a way around your concerns and reducing some of the confusion would be for AIrbnb.com to raise the profile of this forum in newsletters. What’s your thoughts @Stephanie, @Quincy, @Nick  @Liv  and @Catherine-Powell ? Maybe publish its existence to new guests and hosts on joining, that there is a forum they can visit called the Community Centre (CC). That however, will not help long time hosts and guests who stumble their way to it...... But Stephanie was within her role of administration to send messages, as we did not click a waiver anywhere that says do not disturb. If we did, are we really embracing the sense of community? Food for thought........

All the best @Peter37! 

[Debra300]

@Cathie19,

Thanks for your thoughtful post.  I had to pull out my dictionary for antipodean.  So, that was a bonus.