"A Meanness About Folks"

[Kelly149]

I was reading an article about the current state of students and education and this tweet reminded me of what I'm hearing from alot of you (and why I'm not looking forward to re-opening my barn).

"I feel like this pandemic has created something that’s going to take at least a year and a half (or probably more) to recover from in our schools. A meanness about folks. Exhaustion. Apathy. And it seems to be rampant."  Dwayne Reed @TeachMrReed 

full article: https://www.today.com/parents/how-help-teens-struggling-person-school-pandemic-t239720?cid=sm_npd_td...

https://twitter.com/TeachMrReed/status/1457533967469535234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed...

[Ann72]

@Kitty-and-Creek0   Exactly.  Every Airbnb is unique.  Kind of the whole point!

The wording of everything is endlessly manipulative.  Here's a new one:  click on a date on the calendar and to the right you'll see this:

Gone are the pricing "suggestions."  Now they baldly try to manipulate you into believing there is an absolute number, a single number that works across the board.  So much for uniqueness.

Even for the most impervious of us, this relentless verbiage is exhausting.

[Mark116]

@Ann72  Yes the new pricing suggestions are annoying and useless.  Mine all say something like guests will pay between $75 and $159. Um, yeah, okay thanks Airbnb, that is USELESS.  

I used to like and occasionally would accept the price tips back when you could click on the month and it would then populate each open night with Airbnb's suggested price tips and you could accept or not the tip for any given day.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Ann72 

Yes, I now see that, thank you. I cannot use anyone else's pricing, any industry suggested ones either. I set my prices as they need to be for me to cover my costs. For example, if I cannot cover the price of propane to heat my house to guests' comfort levels in winter, I will stay closed. It is simple economics. 

[Ann72]

Exactly @Kitty-and-Creek0.  I know what my costs are and no one else does.  Especially not the under-30s at Airbnb who have no idea what home ownership is like.  Yet who are entirely comfortable with this wording and believe we can’t see it for exactly what it is, absolute manipulation.

[Michelle53]

@Ann72    I've been getting a lot of newbie requests lately - just joined, zero reviews, no profile, and they say exactly that - "I'm travelling because........I'll be arriving on yyy date and leaving on zzz date...."  which one can see from the request, so it's kindof superfluous,  no time, just afternoon-ish or morning-ish.  

No "Hi, how are you? "   and, most annoying, no response to screening questions. I just declined one 5 minutes ago for non responsiveness.  My first decline in about 20 stays.  At least the other newbies communicated with me. 

[Mark116]

@Michelle53   Part of that is Airbnb's fault for not even trying to educate guests.  A couple of months ago I had a request from someone with very little on the profile, no gov ID and no reviews and the message was a little weird.  I was about 3 hours away from declining the request after I had sent a couple of follow up messages with questions when he finally answered.

People don't know they need to check Airbnb for messages and they should expect some back and forth with the host because Airbnb doesn't make this clear.  I accepted this particular group and they were fine, they didn't leave a review but otherwise were good.

[Michelle53]

@Mark116  I totally understand that people aren't educated about Airbnb, and it isn't their fault.  I try and give them enough room to respond.    In this case, I sent 3 messages.  One was 10 minutes after the request came in  at 11.24am yesterday, so we're now less than an hour from it expiring.

In the past, I used to lob a call into Airbnb CS to have them call the guest. I stopped doing that.  I've been too busy to sit on hold. 

In my decline message I mentioned something about how to respond to host questions. Maybe he will do it next time. 

[Huma0]

@Michelle53 

I sometimes message the non-responsive request bookings to let them know that hosts have a limited time to accept or decline and that I won't be able to accept unless they respond to my questions in time.

That usually does the trick. If not, then I just have to decline them. A long time ago, I would accept and hope for the best. Error. That resulted in some less than stellar guests.

[Michelle53]

@Huma0  My third message said something like that. In this case, it didn't work.  Possibly, the questions I asked in my first message were an indicator to the guest that it wasn't going to be a fit, but being a newbie, he didn't know what to do next. 

[Michelle53]

@Mark116 @Huma0   Actually, the guest finally messaged me about 2 hours after I declined him, saying he was unable to contact me while the ID verification was in process.    I don't know if that's the case, but I took him at his word, and decided to let him send another request, which I accepted. So we'll see. 

I have seen, from my side, that while some things like payment method verification are in progress, one isn't able to exchange messages. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Ann72 @Michelle53 

I've had some individuals assume that they'd make a fortune in this business, or that I was doing so. I wrote out a list of ordinary additional expenses, which are independent of home ownership, that occur as a direct result of doing this business. They were shocked. It is not profitable, it is a labor of love. 

[Kelly149]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 Ive seen the same & ABB even promulgates the idea that the “entire” reservation is free money to a host. Anyone who has successfully run a STR knows it is far from passive income. Again and again abb (& guests) miss that mark. Quantity over quality is not a viable business model for an owner. 

[Michelle53]

@Kitty-and-Creek0   There certainly seems to be a level of apathy out there.   

I just had a package shipped to me (from a location in-state and less than 300 miles away)  which sat at the shipper for a whole week. Tracking showed it was out on the truck 4 times and not delivered and they just didn't seem to think it was an issue. 

I've placed two product orders online, advertised as available, even discounted on sale, and then after ordering, have had them cancelled due to "undetermined eta and shipping delays".   I guess they wanted my info for marketing later. 

I've used the online website contact forms for four different contractors - from snow service to home maintenance - and, after a week, have not had anyone contact me at all.

What is going on out there ??

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Michelle53 

Interesting that this happened to you as well. Here's another prime example: 

I ordered online something that was in stock, on sale and supposed to be shipped on the fast track the platform promised. It was listed to be coming from another western state, a 4 day trip at most. 5 weeks later it arrived, shipped from my own state. Standard delivery there, to here, is 2 days. Not to mention it was inexpertly packed, for an electronic item, not inspiring confidence.  I still don't get it. 

As per contractors - they are overloaded here, too. We have all been getting slow response, nonresponse, and non followup with promised repair estimates. Skilled contractors are retirement age, and telling us that younger people are not interested in learning the trades. Decades of experience and high skills are in real danger of being lost as people age and retire, with no one to pass these fine arts on to.  With the wildfires here in California and the west, housing needs to be built and rebuilt. There are not enough people to handle the demand. 

In addition, Covid has taken a very real toll here. There are not enough people willing, qualified, and available to fill the demand in just about every industry. Short staffed is a new normal now. "BC" is now "Before Covid" and those days are gone.

We are definitely all in this, together. 

[Michelle53]

@Kitty-and-Creek0   This is a very sad state of affairs isn't it ?     I don't need to have a contractor here immediately - all I'd like to have happen is that someone acknowledge that I sent in a request, and let me know if they can do the work.   If not, I'll move on. That isn't even happening.