Airbnb Gives Long-Term Discounts Without Host Permission

[Noelle144]

We booked a long-term guest for 35 nights. We were shocked to see that Airbnb gave them a discount even though we didn't have one set. According to both chat support and phone support, Airbnb gives long-term guests discounts even if the Host hasn't set one. Here is a screenshot of the chat from today: This is crazy to me. Airbnb gave away $600 of our revenue without our permission. To make matters worse, they can't back this up by showing me their written policy because they said it's an internal policy and "internal policies come and go."  I just wanted others to be aware as Airbnb hasn't communicated this to us, so I'm assuming many don't know. The only solution is to set a max nightly stay so that you don't book a reservation that is over 28 nights.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Noelle144 Airbnb charge  a lower service fee for long term stays. I suspect the reps were confusing this with your situation. We had a recent issue whereby a weekly price of £50 overrode our pricing. I know we didn't set it but someone must have done.

[Noelle144]

Interesting. Thank you for sharing!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Noelle144  we got a booking on Sept 5. this year. It's for a month and a half. The only discount applied is our weekly discount of 10%. I just looked again now and the math is correct and the way I've set it.

But Airbnb charged only 10% guest service fee to the guest while for a shorter stay it's 15%.  Maybe that's what your CS rep was talking about.

[Noelle144]

Perhaps our issue was a one-off? I spent over two hours yesterday going through every line of the listing and looking at possible discounts/promotions with phone support and my husband, we definitely didn't have a discount set. I have no idea how the guest got the discount, but I'll just remain optimistic that it won't happen again since it does seem bizarre and isn't happening to everyone. 

[Brian2036]

@Noelle144 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Emiel1 @Sarah977 

I would really like to know the logic behind Airbnb’s current push to promote longer term bookings.

They make less in fees.

The potential for problems increases.

Early cancellations justified by imaginary complaints increase, making more trouble for CS and hosts.

So why?

Is it to combat increasing political pressure to outlaw STRs?

If so, I doubt that it will be effective. There are extremely wealthy lobbying groups whose agenda is to put us out of business.

If a 30-day minimum doesn’t do it, they will be clamoring for 90 days next.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036  I think the push is based on guest surveys. There are many more guests now, since the pandemic, looking for longer stays. Many people who had jobs which required going into the office every day, got shifted to work from home. Some businesses realized that they could continue to let some of their employees do this, saving money on office space. My daughter is in this position as a financial advisor- she has been given the choice to continue to work from home, even though lockdown and isolation has been lifted- it makes no difference to the online work she does, and she can meet with clients via Zoom.

There are also many folks who have developed online businesses of their own.

So there are many more people free to travel and live wherever they like- digital nomads or those who might book two months in a warm climate, whereas before, they had 2 weeks vacation time and then had to go back to work.

Airbnb may charge lower service fees on long term bookings, but if they can capture that market, the volume of business makes up for it.

What amazes me is that they aren't listening to hosts, and applying different policies to long term bookings, aside from the long term cancellation policy, as many more hosts would be open to long-term if there were reasonable protections in place.

[Noelle144]

I like the theories presented thus far, but I’m sure money has something to do with the shift too.

Even though Airbnb makes less in fees on longer rentals, I’m going to assume that their net is higher in the end, depending on the market and occupancy rates.

For example (using basic numbers), if you have one guest for 30 days at $100 per night or $3000 for the month, that’s less marketing for Airbnb. They only had to invest to bring in one guest. Their marketing expenses are higher for short-term guests, and also, vacancies rates aren’t going to be 100% for the month, usually. So if you have 60% occupancy, that’s $1800. On the shorter stay that’s $270 for Airbnb plus higher marketing expenses. On the longer stay, it’s $300. Not knowing their marketing numbers, I would assume Airbnb’s break-even would be between 65 and 75% occupancy. Most websites are reporting the average occupancy rate for an Airbnb to be 45 to 55%. So taking this into account, and the trends that @Sarah977 mentioned, this is my best guess.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Noelle144 Airbnb's break even has little to do with percentage occupancy as they are not a hotel. Their costs are largely fixed with a small element that is variable depending on the number of guests and hosts that they need to service. But doubling this number probably only increases their costs by a few percent.

I think encouraging long stays is incremental business to them over short term rental and every extra dollar they make comes with little extra cost.

[Brian2036]

@Sarah977 

I can see that the one to six month market could be profitable but if that’s what they want to do they should form a separate subsidiary that does only that.

After 30 days you enter landlord/tenant territory in which the average STR host will be a stranger in a strange land.

And apt to be attacked and eaten by predators.

 The insurance requirements, local/state/federal laws, HUD, inspections, permits… I’ve been there and won’t go there again.

They could think up a catchy name to take advantage of the Airbnb reputation, but it shouldn’t imply that there’s anything “bed & breakfast” about it.

[Brian2036]

@Sarah977 

I was curious and had a look at Apartmentfinders.com.

Interesting reading. Fun reviews.

Many of the apartment complexes I looked at are charging a $50 non-refundable application fee. I really like that idea. 

They also charge a $200 to 300 “administration fee” which I assume goes to a-f.com.

1 to 12-month leases are offered, documents provided by the lessor, one or more months rent plus deposits collected in advance.

All of these are things Airbnb currently does not do.

[Mary419]

Did you get a screen shot of them saying it was an internal policy and internal policies come and go? Can you post that if so? They may delete it here but maybe you can post it in other host social media accounts if that happens. That is kind of a big deal 

[Noelle144]

I don't think I did, and even if I did, it's been so long ago I sadly wouldn't know where to find it.

[Stephanie2354]

Hello @Noelle144 I just had a similar issue. Our normal monthly rate is $2240 and air bnb allowed a guest to book for $850 a night. When I spoke to customer service, they alerted me that there was a discount set for the months of August and September for $850. They said there is no way to see these "monthly" discounts from the app and can only be seen on a computer. You also could not see the adjusted months without selecting edit under the monthly discount tab. I told the customer support rep that I definitely did not set these 2 month discounts as our rental typically averages $2000 a month and these tend to be busier months for us. He was unable to provide any answer as to how these monthly discounts were set and recommended I "regularly check the discount section." I am not sure if this was the same issue you had but wanted to share my experience!

[Noelle144]

Such a bummer! And good tip about the computer. Thank you for sharing.