Hello all! I've been hosting for a long time (about 3 years I believe) and have had 7 different listings on AirBnB, so I've been around the block. I've created this forum post in order to start a discussion regarding AirBnB's lack of support for Hosts as well as how we can take measures to protect ourselves and
I use AirBnB as a business in the same way that some use Amazon or Ebay. I place my product on their website and sell it, they take some percentage, and are tasked with moderating that space. This is not charity work, we host in order to make money. I feel that AirBnB no longer supports the sellers and gives too much power to the buyer. I say this due to multiple reasons. We've all seen the new changes to the cancellation policy and are aware of the impacts that free cancellations, forced alterations, and the grace period have had on us. For example, a guest books my listing for 20+ nights about two months in advance, and right before the deadline for cancellations comes around, the guest "forces" an alteration saying somehting along the lines of, "I want to shorten my reservation by 5 nights, and if you don't accept, I'll cancel my reservation". This results in a random 5 day span between reservations that didn't exist before and may be hard to shore up, resulting in a loss of money. When I attempt to engage with the guest, they call AirBnB and AirBnB supports the guest and threatens with a cancellation (on my end, making the host take the cancellaiton penalty and record) as well. This is incredibly frustrating and has had an immediate impact on my monthly intake.
Just last night, I got a call from a neighbor in an apartment complex in which I have two units. The neighbor claims that the guests in one of the units has been smoking cigarettes (clearly agains the house rules) and then littering by throwing them off the balcony and onto the floor. Additionally, the unit occupancy supports 3-4 people in a one bedroom one bathroom but the guest has 4 adults and 1 child, a total of 5 guests. The child has been let loose to run around and yell, disturbing the other tenants in the building. At least one tenant has told me that they attempted to speak with the guests but the guests were rude and disrespectful. The tenant/neighbor who called me last night threatened to call the police due to the level of noise. Additionally, these guests were extremely difficult to please at the beginning of their stay and I continously bent over backwards to try and please them at the cost of $400 dollars worth of purchases. At this point, I called AirBnB to mediate and get these guests out of the unit due to breaking multiple house rules (no smoking, respect the neighbors, and no noise past 10 PM) but AirBnB told me that if I wanted the guests out, I'd have to refund them the remaining nights. I demanded to speak to a manager, was told they would call me back within 30-45 minutes, and never recieved a call. I got sent a preliminary message on AirBnB.com, responded to it immediately, and never received a response or a call back. Its been 12 hours. I decided to go ahead and get the guests out at a loss of $450 dollars plus the sunken cost of $400 at the beginning of their stay. It is clear that although the guests had broken multiple house rules (basically all of them), AirBnB was unwilling to protect the Host and enforce any penalty. This is just one example across many experiences that I have had.
With the new cancellation policy, the grace period, and the lack of enforcement of house rules, as a Host I feel quite powerless. I am continuously encouraged to provide more and more for the guests, lower my nightly prices, provide discounts, etc etc. I am not sure if this investment is worth the time, money, and energy. If I cannot feel protected in my investment and with my property, it might be best to stop altogether.
I wrote this post so that I could hear how other Hosts are coping with these new changes and if they still find the process to be worthwhile. What strategies have you used to protect yourself and ensure that your guests respect your property and obey the house rules? Have you found a noticable difference with the new changes?
Thank you for reading this far!
Avi