@Eileen462
Eileen, you do have a wealth of questions.....but that is not all bad because, for new hosts, the only way you learn is by asking questions.
I once had a guest arrive, he had booked for one evening. He liked what he was seeing and asked if he could extend his reservation an extra night! I told him as the next night was available he was welcome to extend his reservation.
It was then that complications set in!!!!
He said he had an Airbnb travel coupon he had been given for a problem with a previous stay and he wanted to use that coupon to extend this stay. Knowing full well how Airbnb operates, I told him that coupon he had would only be able to be used for an up-coming stay, not one he was currently utilizing......I told him to get onto Airbnb support and see if there was some way he could use his coupon for this particular stay (my mistake).That was about 2.15pm in the afternoon.
At 6.30pm that evening I got an instant book for the next evening from a French tourist with his wife and 2 children!!!
I went down to the current guest in our cottage and asked if he had decided not to proceed with a next night booking. He said to me...."No it's all been arranged, I have got onto support in Manila and they are allowing me to use my coupon for tomorrow evening"!
At that very moment I get a call from support in Manila as follows...."My name is xxxxxx I am your support consultant and I am currently attending to extending your current reservation for guest xxxxxx for an additional night stay at your property and I have noticed an IB slide in and grab your listing for tomorrow evening. Do you mind if I relocate the IB to another Airbnb property?"
I said to this support person there is no way that I will allow and submit to a host cancellation! He told me it would not be a host cancellation, he would relocate the guest, give him a 10% relocation bonus and I should not worry about it any further. He said he would contact me the next day to confirm the IB booking had been relocated. On that basis I gave him the go-ahead.
The next day support rang me to say the IB had in fact been found another listing and I did not have to worry about it any further........great, Airbnb doing their job!
At 6.30 that evening French IB booking with his wife and 2 kids walks around the corner wanting to know where the listing he had booked was......WHAT THE F>>>!
I got onto support in Manila, and........ I guess his mouth moved but, nothing coherent came out of it!!
I rang around the other Airbnb hosts I have a regular relationship with, we get together often for a coffee and a chat, and managed to get this IB booking into another listing for the evening. He was not happy but, we managed to sort it out where Airbnb support were completely useless.
What had happened! the French guest did not have an Australian sim card in his phone and made the booking from his wife's phone. All the Airbnb messages were being sent to his phone rather than his wife's and he was not getting them. He naturally assumed that the booking had been accepted, as he hadn't heard anything to the contrary and genuinely felt he had a confirmed reservation at our property!!!
Eileen we were able to sort this out as communal hosts where as Airbnb were completely hopeless. We didn't bother to involve Airbnb any further, we just let the stay proceed and when the funds for the stay appeared in my account I just transferred them over to the host who actually hosted the stay. The only downside was, she didn't get to review the guest!
Eileen, we are islands in a hosting ocean, it's up to us to make STR work, not depend on Airbnb. It works well in my part of the world because we work together here, not expect Airbnb to be our Fairy Godmother!
Airbnb will not give you other hosts information but a quick search of your area will enable you to make contact with other local hosts and I can't emphasise how important it is to have that local back-up when you might need it
Cheers......Rob
