Merge Listings and work out the double ups

[Bruce654]

Hi,

I have 3 listings. due to changes in my living arrangements I want to remove (or unlist) the listing that contains within it the other 2.

i can conitue to host in one of those rooms within the larger listing so many of the reservations for the "house" can still be hosted s they are for 1 or 2 people anyway. Ive ried to change the booking but my others dont come up as avaiable. Some will have issue with calendar confiltcts so I need to deal with them I understand. but others arent conflicting in the calendar.

Also, i now understand better the cancellation policy for the host - but the selling of the house is not within my control as i am a tenant allowing guets to stay (covered under my lease) so when I cancel; I am paying the cancellation fee (10 or 25%) but then AirBnb deems it as my fault and keeps the reservation revenue. So I am not paying a percentage I am paying the whole original amount plus the 10-25%

Thanks

Bruce

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@Bruce654 I am somewhat confused but a few points:

1) It is entirely under your control with respect to cancelling guests. You can easily only make the place available for the time you have a lease agreement with the owner

2) If you cancel then Airbnb will keep the reservation revenue as they give this back to the guest you have let down. As you are not hosting the guest you have no right to the revenue and are fined an additional percentage because you have let down the guests.

3)Reservations for the 'house' cannot be honoured if you only give them part of what they booked. It doesn't matter if it was only 1 person they still booked the whole 'house'

4) You can't remove a listing if there are bookings still outstanding. What you should do is snooze the listing so that you don't get more bookings whilst you sort out the mess you are in.

5) Apologies for the lack of sympathy but you sound like you will let down many guests and it is this behaviour that gives Airbnb a bad name.

[Bruce654]

Yep i think I agree with you. I dont want the guest to pay. so makes sense the revenue goes back to them. But can you read my reply to my post as i expanded quite a bit on the actual transaction because airbnb keep the revenue to pay to the guest but my fee is still deducted but from another reservation that i did honour

Thanks

[Bruce654]

Also, you are right about my idea of merging not being too good becase the guest still get less so I will connect with them individually i think and either make discounts or work case by case. thanks again

[Bruce654]

Also, with regards to the fee I try to see it from airbnb perspective and don't expect them to incur a cost becuase it isnt their fault either that my houise is being sold - the idea of the fee sould be more about reducing the revenue and not creating a cost and airbnb is only fees taking addtional money on top of the money that is between the guest and the host. 

Also, be aware for those hostng the cancellation fee structure is i is set to a minimum of $50 US dollars - so unless your listing more than $500 US per night it will never only be 10%. Then the fee is deducted from the next payout and not the booking payout. So cancel  a reservation for a night next month, pay the fee from  tommorrow's payout and never get the initial amount - works out like this:

In my case, I am lsiting an individual room with "Smart Pricing" so guests are paying closer to $50 AU - so this is the actual math on recent cancellations ive made

Guest A makes booking $89.10 cost to them - booking is given unique reference code - say it is 123

Airbnb takes $13.42 in fees retains $68.93 and lists this amount as

"Host Payout $68.93"

in the reservaion details for Reservation 123.

Host A has to cancel and incures a fee that "should be" around 25 % to cover cost or something and Host A has to approve the amount which is...

Cancellation Fee: $75.21

Host A thinks WTF? oh wait it says "deducted form your payout" so

$68.21-75.21=$6.28

So AirBnB fees collected will become 13.42+6.28=$19.70 whic they need to refnd the guest so all good.

100% refund policy means guest gets $89.10 so Airbnb use all of their fee collected to date (the $19.70) to payout the Guest becasue they still have the Host Payout as its befiore the guest has checked in so

$19.70+$68.93-$89.10=-$1.19

So AirBnb leave themselves short? $1.19 short? Well thats their problem they know both side of the equation so charge me $1.19 more? Anyway:

Next Day Guest from reservation 122 check in and Host A receives their payout but it is $75.21 less than what Reservation 122 listed for Host Payout.

On the Day reservation 123 was due to check in the Reservation details for Reservation 123 are adjusted with the Host Payout removed and replaced with

"Cancellation fee: $75.21"

Details for reservation 123 are updated with "This fee is deducted from your payout, and is detailed in your transaction history." which, when this is staetd in the details sectioj for Reservation 123 is slightly totally incorrect as it was deducted from another payout so airbnb have that money from Host A

So Guest A presumably makes another booking whihc airbnb gets fees. the $1.19 they lost on my transaction is very well supplimented by the $75.21 they dedusct from Reservation 122.

So Guest A breaks even. Host A Revenue is $0 and the date cant be rebooked so is always $0 but somehow AirBnB make $74.02 .This is not 10-25% of the fee but is actual money coming out of the bank - my bank

What about the scenario of having to canel the rest of my bookings - so ther isnt anythnig to deduct from so what is rthe host Payouot? I'm missing somethign that i am sure others will pin out but i think theirs real money invilcved here somewher? Lol

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Bruce654 let me simplify things

Booking 1

Guest pays 100

Host cancels booking

Airbnb refund guest 100

Airbnb fine Host  say 20 (depends when the host cancels)

Airbnb MIGHT give some of the 20 as credit to Guest to help them find a replacement place.

Booking 2

Host would get 97 but they owe the fine of 20 so they will only get 77

In Summary

Airbnb loses its fees on the cancelled booking

Host loses the booking because they cancelled it

Host loses 20 as a fine

[Bruce654]

Yes, simplifying it looks better but replace the 20 with 20% and it works the way you are saying. Im paying (from booking 2) an amount greater then 20%.  Much greater.

but hopfully you are right. In that case I will cancel more. I am not happy to cancel of course but thanks for your help,

[Bruce654]

I think I am paying the $50 US dollars as the fee. This would explain whats haoppenng. Becasue the minimum fee set out is greater than the amount of the booking.