Discounts

[Sonya128]

I want to give a free weekend to a friend in our Airbnb- Can I give my friend a code for 100% off and they book whenever they want for the weekend? How do I go about doing this? Any help greatly appreciated x

[Sonya128]

What a lovely thing to do ❤️ 

[Anonymous]

@Sonya128 Yes, blocking the dates and letting him stay without involving Airbnb is by far the simplest option.

The much messier alternative is to buy a gift voucher. But those are applicable to any listing, not just yours, and Airbnb still adds its hefty service fee to the transaction. So any way that you run a comp stay through the platform, you actually have to pay Airbnb for the privilege.

Whether the teacher can accept such a gift under the terms of the school's ethics policies is another matter, but maybe they're looser about that sort of thing over there. 

[Sharon1014]

Be careful with that one @Sonya128 .  Nice thought by your son of course,  however @Anonymous  is absolutely correct.  You need to check with the school principal whether or not such "gifts" are allowed. 

Many students will often give their teacher(s) are little gift at the end of the school year, like flowers, a coffee mug, a handicraft or something they've made especially for the teacher but gifts like free accommodation for several days may be a bit too up close and personal, and be seen as a bribe rather than a thank you gift.  Larger gifts might also contravene Education Department rules, so definitely check with the school principal first.   Teachers also can be quite loathe to have personal contact with student's families outside of the school environment, so just tread carefully.  You could put the teacher in an embarrassing situation in having to say thanks but no thanks.

[Sonya128]

Yeah l totally understand where your coming from -  I didn't think of it like that,  - we just thought it may be a good way to end a crazy teaching year for a great teacher. I think we will buy chocolates, but perhaps chat to the principal on where this sort of gift would stand with the school for future reference. 

Thanks for your help x

[Sonya128]

Thank you for the info - To be honest l never even thought about if he could accept the gift or not. I think we will just do chocolate box instead - a little easier all round l think. 

[Sarah977]

To those who characterized a friend staying for free or at a huge discount as resulting in a "fabricated review", I don't see it that way at all. It would only qualify as fabricated if it was dishonest- for instance if the host has a bunch of poor reviews and their friend then wrote them a glowing one, which wasn't a accurate review of the accommodation, just because they were friends.

Of course a friend would likely be "biased", but then even reviews from regular guests might be biased- a guest might give a great review to a not-so-great place because the host was a single mom and so was the guest, so they felt some affinity and wanted to help them get more bookings, or because both the host and guest were immigrants from the same place and really hit it off and had a lot to talk about. 

Fabricated means made-up. Whether someone who stays at your place is a standard guest, a friend, or a family member, as long as the review is truthful, there's nothing wrong with it in my eyes. If they state that it was sparkling clean when it's really quite grubby, of course that's not okay.