Bad feeling: guest immediately asked about lockbox

[David-and-Annie0]

Hi, I am brand new to renting on airbnb. We just put our listing up last night and had it set on instant booking. (I have since changed it to "ask to book") We got 10 bookings! I was not prepared for that and am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I do not want our house used as a party house. One of the guests gave me pause: he has no reviews, is brand new to airbnb (despite the fact that he states in his description that he loves renting cabins in the woods away from the grime of the city), listed that 9 adults will be coming (our house is well-suited for kids; it has two sets of bunk beds), and the first communication with me was whether or not we have a lockbox/smartbox to get in (which could imply that he doesn't want to meet anyone at check-in). Am I being too paranoid, or do you think he may use this as a party house and I should cancel his reservation? I can do so without penalties now but I'd have to state that I'm uncomformable with him. I'm leaning towards that (my gut tells me to), but he has my address since he booked it and I guess I am just worried about this conflict/his reaction/disappointment and possible retaliation? Plus I feel kinda bad canceling on him. (Although is reservation is  2 months from now). What do you guys advise?

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@David-and-Annie0  Yes, the lock-box question is cause for suspicion. Perhaps dialogue further with this guest to get a better sense of his intentions, what kind of group this is (family, friends, work colleagues), whetever you can think of to ellicit some further information and get a sense of this person. Make it clear that no unregistered guests will be allowed on the property. Since it's two months in the future, you don't have the pressure to decide to cancel it under the "I'm uncomfortable" like you would if it was for a few days away, so you can give yourself a day or two to decide. 

I have a few comments on ways you might tweak your listing info- the place, by the way, is gorgeous. You make it clear that it's geared to families, with things provided for the kids to do. Yet many things in your photos are not that in line with having a bunch of kids running around- breakable little vase on the doorside table, wine bottle holder at kid-level, white carpeting throughout. You can ask guests to remove their shoes, but do you really think they all will? Maybe take some photos with kids' books and toys around, to convey the family nature of the place. Aside from the obviously kid-themed bedroom, and the little table with kids' dish setting, most of your photos send an "adults" message.

I don't think it's wise to reiterate under "Entire House" that they'll have the place to themselves. That's already what Entire House means, no need to reinforce that idea in guests' minds, as it's what the party crowd looks for.

Under "Interaction with hosts", your wording is unclear- you say you're there, but what does that mean? Do you live on the property in another dwelling? Close by? If you are close, make that clear- it can help ward off the party crowd. Also you haven't stated anywhere (unless I missed it) whether there is self-check-in or you will be there to meet and greet and give an orientation. So in a way, the guest's question was valid, as you don't state check-in procedure. If it's at all possible, I'd meet the guests on arrival, at least until you get more experienced, as your place definitely looks like the perfect party house.

Also, you mention a bunch of fines for not respecting various house rules. You can't charge fines for breaking house rules on Airbnb- all you can charge for are actual damages. It's up to hosts to enforce house rules and if a guest violates them, you can call Airbnb to explain the situation, and ask that the reservation be cancelled with no penalties to you, but it will actually be up to you to make sure the guests leave in that situation. And they'll be refunded any unused nights.

And I really hope you have private insurance that would cover you in case of damages- you can't rely on Airbnb in the least to do that.

[David-and-Annie0]

Thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful response. You made really good and helpful points and we truly appreciate it! We will definitely have to add more kid-friendly pics to start.

[Pete69]

Hope you require a large deposit!  Shoot video of the entire place (with date stamp) before each guest. Nine people IS a bit of a party. Your place is so cheap that anyone can afford it. That's about $32 per night per person. What is your cleaning fee?

[David-and-Annie0]

It's $160 cleaning fee. Yeah, we are extremely upset and disappointed with airbnb right now. We are completely new to this, so thought we could rely on their "smart pricing" to correctly price our place per night and based on month/season, etc. But, nooooo! They WAY undersold us. We have since gone in and changed the rate for any days in Dec and Jan we still have available, just to try to stop the bleeding, but the damage has been done. All of our weekends in Dec and Jan are booked (the busiest time of the year in Big Bear Lake, as I understand. At Christmastime, the town is at 100% occupancy!) I am trying to work with Airbnb to fix some of this: for example, someone is getting our place for $244/night for 4 nights, one of those nights being Christmas!!! Other comparable places to ours are going for $700-$1000/night. We are just devastated--considered pulling the plug on Airbnb (and are still considering...) or may try to explain to guests and have them re-book. But we'll get penalties and I worry about our host status. We are brand new and have no reviews--we don't want people writing bad reviews b/c we change our price...or do you think people will understand?

[Susan1028]

@David-and-Annie0 

You really need to explore the hosting forums.

Airbnb is a booking platform.  They make their money off booking fees, so the more bookings the better, and that’s what “smart pricing” is based upon.

Do protect yourself.

You’ve been offered some sage advice here and will benefit greatly from the host forums.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@David-and-Annie0 

10 bookings in one night? You are too cheap, rise your prices. Low prices = the wrong crowd.

[David-and-Annie0]

Yeah, we are extremely upset and disappointed with airbnb right now. We are completely new to this, so thought we could rely on their "smart pricing" to correctly price our place per night and based on month/season, etc. But, nooooo! They WAY undersold us. We have since gone in and changed the rate for any days in Dec and Jan we still have available, just to try to stop the bleeding, but the damage has been done. All of our weekends in Dec and Jan are booked (the busiest time of the year in Big Bear Lake, as I understand. At Christmastime, the town is at 100% occupancy!) I am trying to work with Airbnb to fix some of this: for example, someone is getting our place for $244/night for 4 nights, one of those nights being Christmas!!! Other comparable places to ours are going for $700-$1000/night. We are just devastated--considered pulling the plug on Airbnb (and are still considering...) or may try to explain to guests and have them re-book. But we'll get penalties and I worry about our host status. We are brand new and have no reviews--we don't want people writing bad reviews b/c we change our price...or do you think people will understand? We are missing out on thousands of dollars.

[Sarah977]

@David-and-Annie0  Trying to explain to already booked guests that the pricing was in error is not something you'll want to do. It can't lead to anything positive- do you really think the guests are going to say, "Oh, okay, we'll rebook at 3 times the price that we booked at, no problem" ? What is much more likely is that those guests would report you to Airbnb, because you can't change pricing on guests once they've booked.

I think you're just going to have to suck it up this time, but definitely raise the prices for all the still open dates. 

Try not to feel devastated- it's a big learning curve and most hosts had some issues when they first started out and had to suck up something unpalatable.

[Mark116]

@David-and-Annie0   Smart pricing,  unless you set the minimum as your daily rate, is always going to be a loser.  Right now it is telling me to rent my apartment for $61 a night.  But, I will be honest, if I booked your place at rate A, and you told me it should really be rate B, I would not be inclined to accommodate you, because I booked in good faith.  

[Emilia42]

@David-and-Annie0 Just FYI: YOU set your smart pricing minimum (Airbnb has nothing to do with that) So if you set your minimum too low them raise it. Smart Pricing will never drop below your minimum set price and you have 100% control over that.

[Karl-And-Cyndi0]

Unfortunately, you should not change the already booked rates. Even if a guest says they understand in the end it's what they say on their final review which is where they will actually tell the truth. In most cases it will not end well for the host. Consider this a very expensive lesson learned and change the pricing to what you would prefer them to be. So sorry about the trouble!

When we were setting up our listings I checked all the prices in the area and listed ours a few dollars lower than all of them except for the tent camping location. It's worked for us. Another that helped tremendously was when I called Airbnb's help line as I was putting the listing together. I asked a ton of questions and he gave me some very valuable suggestions and looked over what I had done to ensure I didn't miss anything. No one tells you that in the beginning and I'm so glad I did. 

[Lisa723]

@David-and-Annie0 you are not the first to be burned by "smart" pricing. But at this point if I were you I'd honor the reservations you already have at their original prices. If you start canceling guests or trying to change prices retroactively you will not be off to a good start. 

Consider usewheelhouse.com or another third-party pricing tool like beyond pricing for effective automatic pricing.

I personally would not be so concerned about a guest asking about a lockbox, especially this far in advance. Guests have all kinds of questions, especially if things are not crystal-clear in the listing.

[David-and-Annie0]

Can you list on usewheelhouse.com AND airbnb and link them?

[Lisa723]

@David-and-Annie0 Www.usewheelhouse.com. Not a listing service just a pricing service. They can set your Airbnb prices.