100% refundable (including Airbnb fee) ..... promotion ?

[Nutth0]

Hello , all Hosts

I am newbie to airbnb. Today I just saw that my list had some promotion add in. It is great.

Just want to know what promotion we can get from airbnb and do we need anything spacial to got it ?

If you had somethink like this before ? Do it help your booking ?

Thanks

Nutth

[Belinda55]

@Annette33 Agree, that's why I have now switched to Strict. Although I believe that penalises guests too harshly ... but feel I am left with little choice.

One of the problems emerging here is the conflation of Airbnb type rental (private rooms with personal service) with hotel  bookings. They are largely dissimilar and should not be subject to the same business rules. But there is more and more commercial-style rental on Airbnb, making it harder for private providers to compete.

[Ange2]

@Cynthia-and-Chris1   I wondered about that too. I thought it was impossible to book dates that had been booked, surely that is Airbnb tech end problem if it happens.

Does anyone else understand what the following means?

"If a guest books a reservation that overlaps with any part of an existing reservation, we won’t refund the Airbnb service fee if they decide to cancel."

[Belinda55]

@Ange2 As previously suggested by David:

"It is a way to try and limit say people making 6 bookings at the same time and then deciding closer to the time which one they will follow through on ...

Ditto the 3 refunds a year limitation."

[Ange2]

@Belinda55  Thank you.

[Rachael26]

@Ange2

You are correct and it needs to be clarified a bit more by Airbnb - but perhaps @Annette33 has the answer where she describes it in an earlier post - as a deterrent to the guest selecting another place later and trying to play one host against another....

[Annette33]

@Ange2, I don't think it's about double booking dates that have already been booked on a specific property, like it is for hosts, where a guest  cannot book a listing if the listing is already booked on those dates by someone else. 

I see this scenario like this, as it  is all seen from the guest's perspective, it concerns 2 different ( or more..) properties: It is possible that a guest  books 3 nights at property A, lets say from May 10 to May 13, it is available. Then the same guest proceeds to book at property B for May 12 to 16, 4 nights. The property is also available, thus  the booking goes through. I base that on an apparently flawed Airbnb system where indeed such overlap (the night of May 12)  is  possible.   Guest  may have either been careless in their booking, or done it by design, like perhaps place B has restrictions in place like not breaking up a weekend booking, a minimum of 4 nights, whatever, and the guest fully intends to do a cancellation somewhere in there...so that is what Airbnb wants to prevent with their additional requirement: the booking at property A is the existing reservation, the booking at property B is the overlapping booking. no service fee refund if there is a cancellation coming in that case. Makes sense to me.

In any case, it would be a good idea if the Airbnb rules had better and clearer wording.

[Ange2]

@Annette33 @Belinda55 @Rachael26 @David 

Thanks, never crossed my mind that guests would waste so much time and energy for such insignificant reward or be so careless with their own resources.  I guess it must happen a lot, be it by design or carelessness, for Airbnb to put in a fail-safe for it.

[Ange2]

I have a strict policy and no one has cancelled without good reason. I don't know if it's because I have a strict policy that guests are responsible about their plans.   But, I do know that I have a lot of people who dither about whether to book or not  –  will they lose the option if they don't book now, can I hold the dates until they decide, what if they find a better deal, they don't want to pay a penalty for cancelling.

If I were to change my policy to the 'no risk to guest' I wonder if all these dithering guests would just go ahead and book until it was convenient for them to make a decision, thus blocking the dates to other guests. This new policy is more suited to big business where the risk is minimal as opposed to individuals for whom it could spell disaster.  But it has seemed for a while that Airbnb is heading towards big business models and away from individuals sharing their home or renting out a single home.

[Annette33]

@Ange2, I do believe that most guests when they cancel have a good reason , that it is just a very few that are frivolous abd are trying to game the system. Who wants such a guest anyways? The ones that feel like they are forced to stay at a certain place, are the ones that then  will find reasons why this place is so bad, etc.. and they are the ones that become problematic to hosts. Ultimately they never wanted to come, so then they focus on leaving, inventing reasons, and everybody ends up unhappy. Much better if such a guest never shows up at my listing in the first place! This new service fee refund concerns refunds when a stay is cancelled BEFORE it has started, it is for the guest, the host has nothing to do with that. The individual cancellation policies we hosts have in place, flexible, moderate, or strict,  have not changed, so I just don't see a drastic change in anything, just less bickering.

[Ange2]

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[Annette33]

@Ange2, oh!!! that is news to me - good to be here in the forum to learn of such things, thanks! But where is that graph from? Is it somewhere in Airbnb rules now?  Who says the host fees get changed now? I am always careful with such things, too easily a rumor gets big, and all it is is a runmor - but I can be re-educated, and  when I see the proof, displayed by Airbnb in their rules, I will most certainly believe it. 

Going back to my own listing just now, they have the new guest service fee refund up - but it shows the cancellation policy at 5 days for moderate , as before. Hard to believe that they would change half of it, but not the other half. So that makes me doubt it at this point.

So, to check on this  theory about a 4% service fee for moderate cancellation hosts from now on, I checked a booking I just got yesterday - the new rule was in place then, so I expect ithe 4% service fee  you are mentioning to be implemented for that booking I just got:

 $8 are subtracted as my airbnb fee from a booking of @$263.00 . That is still 3% - and not 4% ! 

4% would be something like $10.52, rounded up as they are always doing it would be $11..

So at this point I consider all this to be rumors.

[Nutth0]

@Annette33 Thank for a information and congratulation to your new booking 🙂

[Ange2]

@Annette33   It is on a link mentioned earlier in this thread.   There are so many different stories,  who knows what the truth is.

Hence my suggestion to double-check any and all information.  As many have mentioned it would be good if Airbnb made it a practice of its business to tell hosts what they have implemented and what policies have changed, they appear to have so many pilot projects in test phase in different countries  that may or may not roll out  that no wonder there is conjecture, false reporting and confusion especially WHEN Airbnb don't tell hosts anything, they just happen upon new changes.

[Annette33]

thanks @Ange2 , I now found the link and checked it out:

It is not from Airbnb but some site that goes by allaboutairbnb.com. The guy clearly is in business for himself, to syphon off unsuspecting Airbnb people, he is mainly trying to sell a book , "Louis provides unique insights on how to boost your listing above others, and take advantage of opportunities for free accommodation.". that is the byline. 

pretty pathetic, like learn how to take advantage of free accomodations??   At one point in there there is a supposed link to the Italian airbnb  ( airbnb.it.) but guess what? the link doesn't work, while all the other links in his fear mongering do work,  they all go to more of his own stuff.  In essence, nothing of what he says is proven.

Can we expect Airbnb to preemt any such crazy stuff? No, those things are always out there - anybody can say anything, up to us to be more critical and not immediately see it as something that surely is against hosts.

[Ange2]

@Annette33   It was definitely rolled out in Italy there are many posts on the Italian version of this forum about it.  It was to be implemented across the board with increased fees for policy chosen, whether that is still a plan I do not know.

As for suspect site, not Airbnb proper, much of his information and data on changes is discussed on the Airbnb Italian forum by hosts who experienced it.  So, pinch of salt, yes, but the opportunistic, incredible,  maybe not so fast.

IF Airbnb were transparent with their new features and functions hosts would be less confused and would pay less attention to the information on other sites.  Plus Airbnb's constant changes makes a lie of something that was a truth yesterday.

In the end who knows what is what.  I will wait to see if my fee goes up to 5%.