@Mike-And-Jane0
I had a couple of guests in the first lockdown but those were local people who had become temporarily 'homeless' due to the pandemic and desperately needed somewhere to stay for a few weeks. After that the calendar was blocked anyway, so who knows what other requests I would have received but I would have been very wary of someone wanting 'to give themselves a change of scene'!
@Quincy As I host long term stays, it's not unusual for guests to ask for a discount 'because they will be staying so long'. They don't seem to realise that I only host long term stays and the price therefore reflects that. Fair enough. What I don't understand is why so many of them miss the weekly and monthly discounts I already have in place. They are right there in the breakdown in plain sight!
I don't get offended, I just tell them there is already a discount. Most will then either book anyway or look elsewhere and those that book usually turn out to be good guests.
Occasionally though, I get a guest who keeps trying to haggle. I always say no to the discount, but should actually always say no to this type of guest, because if they cannot see the value I am offering, they are much more likely to give me poor ratings and/or be difficult in other ways. This happened to me recently when I let one of them slip through the net (an instant booking) and it didn't turn out well!
Also, something I definitely noticed since the pandemic is that far more guests ask for additional discounts (see https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Are-extra-discounts-the-new-normal/m-p/1318829#M313662) and, for quite a while, it seemed to be just because they thought they could get Airbnbs cheaper when hosts were struggling to get bookings. This I really took an exception to. These were people who still had their jobs/could afford to travel. Why would they think that it's okay to take advantage of small businesses that are suffering? Of course, they probably didn't think of it exactly like that, but it's still what they were proposing.