Giving discounts for longer stays

[Ingrid356]

Hi everyone!

I am relatively new to the Airbnb hosting community, having started my Airbnb experience as an experiment in February. 

When I started out I set my nightly price at $95 and offered 10% discount for weekly stays and 20% for monthly stays, but changed this to 5% weekly and 15% monthly after I had a bad experience with guests staying for 13 days - it wasn't worth the extra work I had with cleaning and chasing up missing items, so I thought a lower discount might discourage longer stays.

Just recently I increased my weekend rates to $105, still keeping $95 as my base rate for week day bookings. 

I have just received a request for a 6-month stay by someone who is taking up employment in the town where I live. This period cuts across a number of confirmed bookings I already have into January 2020. So I was extremely polite and cooperative responding to the request, saying I would not cancel those bookings but if the potential guest was happy to work around those bookings we could probably work something out. I also pointed out that I currently offer 15% discount for monthly/longer stays. 

The enquirer has now responded by agreeing to accommodate those bookings but is asking for a "significant discount" as I will have guaranteed rental for 6  months and has put that in figures, looking for a nightly rate of approx $50. This represents a discount of roughly 50% on my potential weekly rate. 

The enquirer was also very keen to speak to me on the phone and provided a phone number (which was hidden by  Airbnb). There is reference in the enquiry to the "reputable organisation" my potential long-term guest will be working for, but no name of that employer was provided. 

Do others hear alarm bells ringing with all this? Or am I being overly and unnecessarily suspicious? Has anyone else had experience of this kind? And if so, how did they deal with it?

[Mike-And-Helen0]

Alarm bells for me. Trying to go off-platform which you can report them for, plus...

How do you know you'll get them out for your confirmed bookings and what kind of state will the place be in?

Have they any reviews for long stays?

[Ingrid356]

@Mike-And-Helen0
How do you know you'll get them out for your confirmed bookings and what kind of sta...

Good point - I hadn't thought that they could possibly be difficult and just not move out for the other bookings. I also think it would be quite difficult to even do the booking, with the guest going in and out multiple times over the 6-month period.

There are no reviews at all, although they have been on Airbnb since 2013. I have no further details as the booking is not confirmed.

I don't want to report them, unless they became more strident in trying to communicate outside of Airbnb. I do however suspect that they would like to go off-platform to possibly save on the booking fees etc.

Thanks for your feedback!

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[Diana106]

Alarm bells for me, too.  This is a short term rental, not an AirBNB type of booking. 

The idea that a longer term booking is better is a flawed one. If you make the same money from someone renting for two weeks as you do for a month, you'd have the place free for two weeks for friends, family or additional bookings.

I've had someone stay at my place for a longer term who was moving here. She became very demanding, said she'd accommodate a previous booking and then insisted that I cancel them a few days before they were coming even though she agreed before I confirmed her booking. Then, she asked to go off AirBNB since "the fees were too high" and she wanted to stay longer. It become like having a demanding roommate (I share the space with people that I book).

It gets to be a grey area as this isn't an AirBNB guest - it's a tenant or renter. 

How much cleaning/turnover do you do for them? Do you provide clean towels on a regular basis? Shampoo? Soap? Or whatever you provide for short term guests? 

Personally, I've had bad experiences with people moving to Toronto, where I live, as they sometimes want to stay indefinitely, and are using AirBNB as way to find an apartment.

If you have a bad feeling, trust yourself. In the end, it's your place and you need to feel comfortable with the people who come.

[Ingrid356]

Thanks Diana, for sharing your negative experience.

Great points re cleaning and consumables. That was even a bit difficult to navigate with the guests who only stayed for 13 days - and they left the apartment in a far dirtier state than any of my weekend guests.

I provide breakfast items for weekend guests, but would definitely not do that if someone was staying for a longer period - and certainly not if they expect such a huge discount.

[Rachel177]

@Ingrid356 I would be cautious about taking on someone for that length of time. You're not covered by airbnb for any damages, you can't take a rental bond & you may have someone who expects cleaning services like a hotel rather than a long term tenant who is responsible for keeping things clean & tidy. Better off to turn them down & suggest they look at other sites that target longer term renters rather than short term.

[Ingrid356]

Some more really good points to consider. Thanks so much for your feedback. 

[Kath9]

@Ingrid356, sounds like more trouble then it's worth. You'd probably make more money sticking to your short term bookings. It would be a no for me.

[Ingrid356]

You're most probably right. 

So far, I have had a few requests for longer stays but I think they must shop around and so usually they have made other arrangements in response to my message. This is the first time that the potential guest has continued the conversation. 

I like the flexibility of short term stays and being able to accommodate friends or family if they are visiting. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ingrid356 

how could he send you the request for the period when your calendar is already taken ????

btw be carefull with long term rentals, after some time they get tenants rights!

[Ingrid356]

They only requested two nights in September to send a query to me. I thought they might have been wanting the longer stay in the coming year. 

I'm not sure whether long term stayers would get tenants' rights in Australia, but I'm not going to put it to the test. 

Thanks for your feedback. 

[Anonymous]

@Ingrid356  Alarm bells? More like sirens. Everything about this is a no, no, no. What it actually amounts to is several different bookings for one guest, who makes much heavier use of the space than your short-term visitors, but for less money. And if during the first of this person's stays you decide you'd rather not have him back, you're in a real bind.

The only answer any experienced host would give this man is "sorry, my place is not going to be an appropriate fit for your needs. Best of luck with your housing search."

One huge thing to be aware of with Airbnb: it is absolutely terrible for rentals of 30+ days. You have no control of the deposit,  no recourse if after the first month they're unable to collect further payment, no protection against "guests" acquiring and potentially abusing tenancy rights. Not only is there no good reason for you to offer monthly discounts; I would actually suggest that you set a relatively low Maximum Stay (1 or 2 weeks) until you have a firm handle on what kind of bookings suit your needs best and how to screen your guests to avoid any further nightmare scenarios.

[Ingrid356]

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@Anonymous 

One huge thing to be aware of with Airbnb: it is absolutely terrible for rentals of 30+ days. You have no control of the deposit,  no recourse if after the first month they're unable to collect further payment, no protection against "guests" acquiring and potentially abusing tenancy rights. Not only is there no good reason for you to offer monthly discounts; I would actually suggest that you set a relatively low Maximum Stay (1 or 2 weeks) until you have a firm handle on what kind of bookings suit your needs best and how to screen your guests to avoid any further nightmare scenarios.

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Thanks so much for that evaluation and advice. I was not aware about this. 

Airbnb suggests weekly and monthly discounts, so the inexperienced host (like myself) is more likely to put these in place, thinking that this makes sense. I am still navigating my way around the site and all its features. I don't really have a handle on screening guests well but have picked up some invaluable hints from all the comments that have been posted. 

[Jennifer1421]

@Ingrid356What everyone else has said! If I wanted to be a full-time landlord, I wouldn't be hosting on Airbnb.

We host in a college and university town. Prior to each semester starting, I get inquiries for long term stays - a LOT of them.

I have a saved response that simply says:

"Thanks for your inquiry. I am unable to accept bookings for longer than 29 days at this time.

May I suggest Kijiji Peterborough's short-term rentals section, if you are not having any luck finding hosts on Airbnb who are able to accept longer term stays."

"Kijiji" is a buy/sell type of board similar to Craigslist, etc. There aren't many STRs listed there, but I like to at least pretend to be helpful 😉

In a similar vein, I have 29 days listed as my max (because of tenancy rights laws), but have hosted a couple of 10+ day stays this summer, which I'm finding a bit onerous. Have actually been considering shortening my max to a week. The break from laundry and cleaning has been nice, but I'm not loving having folks around every day (even though they've been lovely people).

Cheers!

[Ingrid356]

Thanks for sharing your experience and giving me some good tips on how to deal with this case.