Watch out for how discounts accumulate

[Antonino91]

Hi all, 

I had a very bad experience with Airbnb combining long term and special offer discounts in a way that it is not supposed to. 

I will use round numbers to exemplify: 

My place is 100, and I offer a 10% weekly discount. So far so good. I decide to offer a promotion, 20% discount. 
Thus, for 7 days, the guest should pay 7 x 80 = 560, and on this value the weekly discount of 56 should apply, total 504.
Or, the other way around, he should pay 700, discounted by 10% is 630, on which a 20% discount applies, another 126, so total is 504. 

What Airbnb did, and supposedly still does, is take 10% off 100, take 20% off 100, total rate 70x7=490. 

So, watch out, if you offer such discounts, because Airbnb will make the lowest price for the customer, beyond what you intended. 

[Sammy35]

YES YES YES, BUT THAT CLEANING CADDY OUT AND LET THEM TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN **bleep** GERMS

[Huma0]

@Sammy35 

But what if they don't? Left long enough, some dirt becomes permanent and forget about most guests washing the linen/towels often enough.

Ok, so maybe I am talking about stays of longer duration, but it's also a good way of making sure that the guest is treating the property respectfully.

I just did a mid stay clean for a guest today (for free, even though it's stated on my listing as an extra cost). He is ever so grateful and I have the reassurance that he is keeping the room reasonably clean because I had an opportunity to see it for myself.

I once made the mistake of only cleaning a the room of a guest once, about two months into her six month stay because she chose the option to clean it herself. Massive error. She always looked immaculate, made minimal mess in communal areas and brought down her laundry fairly frequently so I assumed all was well. It took me TWO DAYS to clean her bedroom after she left. She had never done a single bit of cleaning once the entire stay.

Each to their own though...

[Sammy35]

@Huma0 so well of course those are special circumstances.  depends on the guest the situation and everything else.  i don't clean up after people and whomever is in the house gets feedback once or twice.  thrice they are out and no reprieve.  macromanage till you have to micromanage.  that's my day job so it comes easy for me. plus....

...just like when i worked for citygov in philly.  CYA CYA CYA, messages pictures, pre-submitted we're probably gonna have an issue to CS but let's hope not however i want to open a case now and start the doc process please don't contact the guest without my explicit in writing permission.  i'm already ahead of the problem.  guest is on the back end.

we all are our own business owners and have to act accordingly.  this is a hobby for me but i treat it like a business.  that's what makes it works for me.  i have a 90% decline rate and my 10% accept rate are USUALLY A#1 guests.  i've been wrong twice.  i learned lessons.

there would be NO WAY i would not keep tabs on my guest bedrooms.  its all in a very tedious house rules that every person signs when they come in the door after i get ID from every party.  

in 60+ stays and 20+/- guests only ONCE did CS not support me from the gate.  and that's because i was offshored at 2am.  by 9am the next am i was on with a supervisor from the trust and safety team and the 3 igen fake millennials were OUT with NO REFUND whatsoever for TOS breach.

[Huma0]

@Sammy35 

So, do you state beforehand, e.g. in your house rules, that you have authority to enter their bedrooms whenever you like? 

I am not sure exactly how this applies to Airbnb rentals, but in terms of regular rentals in the UK, the landlord cannot enter without good reason (e.g. a repair needs to be done) and without giving reasonable notice, which is usually considered to be 48 hours notice. 

I would never enter the room without the guest's permission, so what do you do if they are evasive about it in some way and do not give you explicit permission?

To be honest, it's not a problem with most. If I ask to go into the room, e.g. to get something out of a cupboard, the majority of guests say no problem. The guest I mentioned above probably would have said the same thing too. She was a perfect guest in every other respect and super nice and polite. I just never thought her room would be so filthy given how pristine she was outside of it!

[Sammy35]

i have a legal and contracts background so what applies is contract law.  my rules at entrance are ST rental contracts with layman and legalese.  private room shared space is one thing.  whole home spaces are a bit different.  but it applies the same.

but the specific language i set forth in the event of a potential safety, hazard, security, property damage, or for anything deemed insurance liability risk mitigation, especially emergenices, (i even note leaving windows open for rain, electronics, plugs whatever..)

right to peaceful inhabitance is different not only continent to continent but also country and state.  my state does not require ANY notice let alone 24 hour advance notice.  and in the case of potential emergency, which you could basically just about call anything an emergency, the host and owner has the right to enter the property for the home, host, and guest safety blah blah with no permission at all.

now, i don't go snooping, but its my d@mn house.  and they're a guest in my d@mn house.  and if they don't want entry, they should check into a hotel.  locks are on the door for inhabitance privacy but my house my key opens the lock.  there's a hotel type lockbox should they chose to use it and i have a disclaimer about not using it.  most poeple don't want the key so they forfeit any claim.

its tricky with tricky people.  she was a secret slob...and disrespected you and your home enough to not be a good guest because being a good guest doing other good deeds is not enough if you leave a 2 day mess to be cleaned up.  you should have sumitted the pics, time ect to abb, stated you were busy but would be handling a resolution request asap, waited for the 14 day review, and then charged her so its on her record a dispute was filed against her, even if she didn't pay

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sammy35 

now, i don't go snooping, but its my d@mn house.  and they're a guest in my d@mn house.  and if they don't want entry, they should check into a hotel.  locks are on the door for inhabitance privacy but my house my key opens the lock. 

I agree wholeheartedly.

This is how Airbnb contracts should read, without all the bias, manipulation and prejudice being applied.

If you would be willing, I'd like to see a copy of your ST rental contract. DM would be excellent, please.

[Sammy35]

thanks for the support @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  i pull no punches, im super professional, usually in formal language but loosen up here a bit cause i feel safe (i probably shouldn't, though i'm not fearful of any potential negative consequences, that's the key)

super sorry, can't share....could be misconstrued as legal advice my risk and liability mitigation insurance stipulates that would be a biggie no no.  even with a disclaimer.  uggh, so sorry 😞

but the good news is a bit of research on contract leasing short term rentals etc along with some accompaniment from local legal law statues regulations etc could be enough--which is what 1099 (at least in the states) independent contractors that we all are should be doing anyways

@Huma0 and i were just discussing entry in london fundon yesterday.  she says 48 hours only with notice didn't mention about emergencies.  basically anything can be made an emergency. RARELY need to pull that rank but i do when a guest leaves me no choice...they bring it on themselves...

[Sarah977]

@Huma0 "She was a perfect guest in every other respect and super nice and polite. I just never thought her room would be so filthy given how pristine she was outside of it!"

As they say, you can't judge a book by its cover. Some of the most nicely groomed people, who are quite personable, live in total squalor. There was a long term renter in a house I property manage who was a young, friendly, good-looking, well-groomed doctor. When I went over to repair something he had let me know wasn't functioning, after he'd told me to go on in, that he'd be out-of-town at a conference, I walked in to find piles of filthy dishes, with cockroaches crawling on them, food left out, garbage all over the floor, smeary tables and countertops, completely disgusting.

When he returned, I asked him how, as a doctor, he didn't make the connection between filth and disease and that if that was how he lived, he'd have to look for another place to relocate to. 

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

I learnt when I was renting to lodgers (before I did Airbnb) that doctors and nurses can be the most filthy people. Obviously, I am generalising here and I am sure there are many who are very hygienic, but that is my experience as a landlord.

What you describe is no surprise to me. People wrongly assume that people working in those professions would be especially conscious of health. Not true. All of my doctor/nurse tenants were not only smokers and either heavily into drugs, alcohol or both, did not exercise at all and had cr*ppy diets and, in one case, was extremely promiscuous.

Don't mean to be 'judgey' here. I don't care about someone's personal life or habits, until it impacts my space and security. When someone lives in a frankly disgusting and unsanitary condition in my house, or invites round prostitutes and drug dealers to a shared home, that is where I draw the line.

The guest I mentioned above though was none of these things. I don't just mean that she was pristine in her personal appearance (I know, like you say, that personal hygiene is not necessarily related to how clean a person keeps a space) but how clean she was in communal areas where she never left any mess in six months. None at all. That is why I thought her room would likewise be reasonably clean.

[Debra300]

@Sarah977,

Don't leave the story about the without the end.  Did he clean up and maintain it as such? Or, did he relocate?

[Sarah977]

@Debra300  Oh, sorry, didn't mean to leave you on the edge of your seat 🙂 Well, I wasn't in the habit of going in there, because the place had long-term renters, who would stay on average about 8 months- it wasn't an Airbnb type situation. I told him that if he couldn't keep the place clean, he needed to get a cleaner on a regular basis, So he did do that, but subsequent times I went over, it was still not in good shape. He told me the maid didn't show up all the time when she was supposed to, and that she wasn't that thorough. I told him he should look for another maid.

He moved out a few months later, proudly telling me that he left it as he found it. But before he moved in, I had spent 8 hours with a cleaner, both of us working, and the place was immaculate. It most definitely wasn't when he moved out- it appeared that no piece of furniture, no matter how light, had ever been moved when cleaning, and there was bits of garbage and funk behind and under everything. The tiled kitchen counter grout was black with mold, as was the shower stall.

Then I found that the plants on the upstairs balcony, a number of them, which were lush and lovely when he moved in and which he assured me he was watering (that was part of the deal for renters- the rent was cheap so the place didn't come with a gardener) were all completely dead- he hadn't watered at all. When I called him out on that, his excuse was "I just didn't go out there on the balcony that much", so I asked him if he would let a patient die of dehydration because he "just didn't check on them that much", at which he turned bright red, looked at the floor and sheepishly said "Of course not."

There were also a number of missing items- blankets, cookware, etc. I had to go retrieve those from him- his excuse for that being that he had someone else pack up for him since he had to work and they didn't know what was his and what stayed with the house.

[Sammy35]

@Huma0  there is no explicit permission needed or granted.  it is implicit in the listing details.  and there are usually disclaimers for "emergencies" (i thought i smelled smoke, i thought i smelled a curling/hot iron (i have), i heard the tv on and that's a fire hazzard unattended even with a circuit breaker plug during a storm, heard a mouse, i thought i notice water under door, bugs etc).   i usually ask, but if they leave windows open (against house rules) and it rains i go in, shut them, write a note on airbnb left windows open i had to enter.  to avoid no notice in future please close windows or call me and ask me to do it for you.  sweet and sugery as pie like i'm sure they didn't realize...its all the game that has to be played.   it sucks, i don't do that in my personal life, i'm transparent and tell it like it is

this is business.  

[Diane440]

@Sammy35   Does this law also apply to hotels in the UK? I can see in a rental agreement for long term housing, but I thought everywhere in the world hotel guests would expect a maid to come in and tidy up unless a "Do Not Disturb" sign is posted by the guest. I didn't get into this to be a landlord or boarding house. I don't need airbnb for that. There's enough need in my local area to advertise for that. I thought the BnB part meant Bed and Breakfast where those kinds of places are more for overnight or weekend stays. Those who choose short term stays of more than a weekend would be the kind of people  who can afford and expect maid service and red carpet treatment. I'm not in this to be a flop house or youth hostel. 

[Sammy35]

@Diane440  good Q....honestly no idea.  try to focus on just my own little business venture.  airbnb is not a B&B.  not by far.  it started as couch surfers.  when i retire to italy i will run a bonafide BnB and it will work nothing like this debacle nightmare irresponsibly overrun with inept leadership and greedy venture capitalists.  lol.  and its getting worse.  i personally never make any assumptions about what is a generally accepted principle or practice, much less make assumptions.

here's what i know.  my guests will get feedback if they don't uphold the rules
then they will be exited
when i stay somewhere, i leave no footprint at all, except maybe a thank you or journal note and a bottle of wine for the special hosts.

unfortunately its getting used more and more (or tried to be by idiot guest "users) as flop houses, hostels, roommates boarders, party and sex houses, and porno backdrops...esp thanks to covid.  people are displaced.

[Sammy35]

@Sarah977  in house home safety security risk mitigation stay compliance advertised and again reminded in booking note and on paper with house rules at checkin.

if you see people not cleaning message the guest and take pic via the airbnb platform.  its your asset