Nothing to complain about

[Ann72]

I hate to say this, but I have literally no complaints about anything Airbnb at all.  Susan in Dublin is going to hate me for this.  (Love you, Susan!)

Got the usual assortment of cancellations.  Those I had before May 31st got full refunds; the rest got 50%.  Nobody whined, and Airbnb didn't nag me to refund the rest.  The vacated dates were all re-booked within a matter of hours, though, so I've been refunding the cancelled guests.  They seem pleased.

One would-be-returning guest asked if she could have a special flexible cancellation policy if she booked - IN JULY, THE BUSIEST MONTH OF THE YEAR - and I said no.  Someone else booked her chosen dates a few minutes later.  I will admit to a very pleasurable moment of schadenfreude there.

Three other guests took their bookings from this summer to next summer.  Didn't say a word about the higher rates for next year.  I'm awed by people who can plan that far ahead.  

What else?  The payouts have been arriving on time, if not early.  My guests have all been super polite, if not downright friendly and amusing.  One of my current guests asked on Sunday when the garbage would be picked up.  I apologized and said I would get someone in the next day.  Turns out he hadn't noticed and wasn't complaining - just wanted to know.  

Hang on, I do have one complaint!  I don't give out keys.  My doors won't accept any kind of smart lock, I hate to try to keep track of keys, and no one locks their doors in the Maine woods in the summer anyway.  But two guests in a row have asked for keys because of their "valuables."  I didn't tell them there are a few things in the house probably worth more than anything they could bring with them.  I just said they could have a key.  I hope that after a few days they'll get so relaxed they'll forget about the stupid key.

What a dull post this is.  Now I understand why newspapers never report good news.  I hope you haven't fallen asleep by this point, but that if you have, you'll have a good nap.  You've earned it.

[Ann72]

@Huma0  Overriding our cancellation policies AND delaying payments is unconscionable!  Just completely unacceptable!  I remember a post Susan from Dublin made some time ago about Airbnb's banking relationship in the UK and Ireland and how it was causing ridiculous delays.

[Huma0]

@Ann72 

I didn't see that post but yes, it wouldn't surprise me if something else was going on there.

The case I mentioned where the guest got overcharged but I couldn't seem to get the payment from Airbnb was very odd indeed. The different reps I spoke to kept contradicting each other and then doing the opposite of what we had discussed. The calculations were all wrong.

Basically, their excuse for not paying me on time or even remotely close to it was that the guest had not paid in full what was due. This was not the case. She had. Furthermore, if that was the case, why wasn't I informed about it? When I contacted Airbnb to ask why my payment was still not processing, they had made no attempt whatsoever to collect this missing payment from the guest. 

It eventually got sorted but, believe me, it required a lot of effort on my behalf to make sure not only did I get paid what I was owed but that the guest would get refunded what she was overcharged.

The whole thing was actually super simple and I still can't understand these weird mistakes from CS, no matter how understaffed they were. They agreed that my calculations were in fact correct, but then still took more money from the guest's credit card. Why?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Huma0 

I was talking today with a colleague, and was saying how I really felt for you hosts in London.

You are in the worst state with so much competition from desolate hotel groups wanting to fill rooms and discounting like hell, and when tourism into the city is stinted and if anything, people would just rather not be there than travel to there.

Many businesses there have adopted the "Work From Home" model (WFM) and because it worked, they're in no rush to insist those workers return. Consequently, even the leased homes they had have been vacated, and them moving out has created a higher supply of accommodation. With the extra competition from hotel groups, and those discounting hotels, you must be really finding things difficult,  I sincerely hope that you manage to negotiate fair rates and more needed fair cancellations where required. Being battered from both sides is not a position any host would like to find themselves in - and if support could be sent your way by some ethical application of terms - then it should be.

[Huma0]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

Thank you very much for your very sympathetic words. Yes, it's been a tough few months, but it's impossible to know if I would have gotten any bookings or not with the calendars having been blocked until a few days ago. I also don't personally know any London hosts right now (the ones I did know stopped hosting long before all this happened) so I have no idea how the rest are doing.

The one advantage is that I host long-term guests, so I'm not really competing with hotels. I did notice straight away that the long-term rental market got flooded by all those empty Airbnbs though. Normally I am inundated if I list on spareroom, with people literally begging to have my rooms, but this time there was zero interest.

The main thing though is that the reasons many people would stay in my listings were study, internships, work contracts etc. and most of these have been put on hold. So, the kind of guests that I normally host are few and far between and, with so much competition around now, most seem to be intent on bargaining down the price to next to nothing.

Let's see what happens. I am confident that in the long-term, I will be fine, if in fact I decide to continue with Airbnb as I always faired well against the competition, but in the short-term, I really don't have high expectations.

Are things a lot better where you are?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Huma0 

I forgot to mention those Internships and study rentals. They simply compound the problem, especially with the universities still offering courses but students not actually being on campus but working remotely (from home) instead!

I dare say vacation rentals could come out of this partially smelling of roses with so many wanting to escape the confines of their lockdown whilst staying in the same country, and very likely the demand will be outstripping supply for a short while. We're in the crazy situation of guests cancelling "because of Covid" and other guests booking the same or similar dates unhindered. That just shows how illegitimate those Covid cancellations are right now, and they're doing nothing to reinforce the Airbnb brand, but promote it as some desperate discount player.

A thought just occurred to me. In 2017/18 Airbnb did a TV advertising campaign. If ever there was a time to run a TV advertising campaign to support its business and hosts surely it would be now? Yet they have pledged to cut advertising. Why do that when the service fees remain the same? I doubt hotels will be cutting their marketing spend as those guest bookings are really going to be sought after. 

[Huma0]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

Yes, I was very surprised to hear that Airbnb would be cutting their marketing budget but, at the same time, using their new high interest loan to recruit new hosts. What???!!

[Alexandra316]

@Ann72Really glad to hear that you've continued to be successful throughout the pandemic. 

My experience has been pretty much the same. I lost all my reservations at the beginning: my calendar was bare from mid-March to the end of the summer, which is basically the prime money-making time in Niagara. People started to book the dates, but they were booking for longer stays: I had nothing but long stays from mid-March through May. Then the government said no short-term rentals, so I took down my shingle for a few weeks. That time allowed me to get some work done around the house that I usually can't do because of hosting. 

Things opened back up again in June, and I was pretty much instantly booked up for the summer. I have empty days on the calendar because I'm not taking back-to-back bookings, but I'm actually enjoying the slower pace and I may never "go back to normal". I'm not going to make as much this summer as I did last year, but I'm okay with it. 

No complaints here!

[Helen427]

@Emilia42 @Ann72 

@Lawrene0 

keys - Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf.. 

 There's a message in those childhood stories...

Nice to know those good ole days of trusting one's home and lives are safe without doing what most of us do.

Be mindful of what's placed online can be read by others who may not have the same respect for one's property or lives.

All the best 

[Ann72]

@Helen427  I think @Emilia42 would agree with me that it's hard to explain Maine to an outsider.  It's a place but also a time that's out of sync with other time.  There's kind of a code in the summer between the local residents and the visitors, a small part of which says "don't bite the hand that feeds you."

Do people break into other people's homes?  Yes, probably as frequently as any place else.  In fact I became an Airbnb host because of an attempted break-in at my locked and alarmed house in the middle of a January ice-storm.  Were they people seeking shelter?  No, they were tweakers who thought they were being clever by hiding their car somewhere and then getting lost in the icy woods when they ran away, making it easy for the police to find them lol. 

Don't be such a nervous Nellie - the houses are locked between guests.  

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  Just as a lot of the Superhost vouchers expire without having been used, I'd bet a lot of those travel vouchers won't get used either.

Here's my prediction:

A. Airbnb is going to be getting a lot of calls just before those vouchers expire, with irate guests claiming they can't use the voucher and therefore want it converted to a cash refund.

B. Hosts are going to see a lot of people trying to do 3rd party bookings to use up the vouchers, getting friends or family to pay them back in cash for using the voucher.

[Ute42]

.

@Sarah977 

That may well happen. Actually, it will happen exactly as You described it.

[Patricia1548]

Very cute and heartwarming 🙂 Cheers to you!