Sending a Special offer to guest when using Instant Book!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

Sending a Special offer to guest when using Instant Book!

I have recently discovered one of the major downsides of using Instant Book!

 

Are you aware that it is only possible for a host to send a 'Special Offer' to a guest who is booking for the first time!

Subsequent stays by that guest are not subject to a hosts special offer.....there is no way a host can send one!

Once a guest has stayed at a hosts property, they lose the ability to send a booking enquiry. When the guest clicks the 'Contact Host' tab on the hosts profile they are automatically taken to their previous message stream with that host. And on that message stream are details of the previous stay! Host and guest can talk but, that's all!

 

I like to offer return guests a slightly cheaper rate but the Airbnb platform will not let me do that or offer any assistance in doing that! 

Because I use instant book, a returns guests option to request a pre-approval disappears, and the only option is to re-book at the hosts current rate, and Airbnb policy is, if the host wants give the guest a special offer, the only way they can do that is refund the guest through the Resolution Centre.  

Special offer 8.png

 

Now my issue with this is, the guest's reservation may be for April 2020 and I don't receive the guest's payment until after they arrive here. But if I want to offer the guest a refund as a special offer, (which appears to be the only way I can do it) Airbnb will take that refund from my next payout in a day or two and forward it to the guest.....even though I won't be paid for another 5 months.

 

Once again it looks like Airbnb are trying to frustrate the good relations built up between hosts and guests!

 

Cheers......Rob

 

22 Replies 22
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Inna22 

And that's my issue Inna, I don't want to send money to a guest before they stay, I want them to pay less for their return stay when they book.

But Airbnb will not let me do that and I was hoping CX would offer me a solution to enable this, but all they could come up with was what @Emilia42  mentioned and changing an existing reservation via the use of the resolution centre.

 

I would love someone in that organisation to start thinking about hosts and guests instead of finding new ways of counting money!

 

Cheers.......Rob

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Emilia42  Has the right idea here. “Change” the reservation to discount the stay and you’re not out any money. Absurd that CS has no idea how any of this works. And it’s a bummer that you are forced to be reactive instead of proactive. 

BUT @Robin4  you’re on to something with this idea; wouldn’t it be a great feature if we could send out offers to guests?!? I’d be happy to send out good deals to ideal guests, returning or new, if only this function existed. As it is now my pricing includes a: any lunatic can book bump. 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Kelly149 

Hi Kel,

Look if the stay was for next week or even a month ahead I would not mind going down @Emilia42 's  path but what you are saying is, offer changes to an existing reservation.....which Airbnb has been paid for.

Now you know as well as I do, Airbnb are not going to refund money out of what they have received, they are going to refund it from my account which means they will take it from my next payout.

You can see where the problem is here can't you!

 

Cheers......Rob 

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Robin4 goodness knows we've all been suprised by something counterintuitive that abb has done, but I don't think you're right in this case.

 

If you go the Resolution route, then yes, you give up money before it is given. BUT if you change the reservation, then all of that happens within the reservation, not out of your account. Try it and see.

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

I think the problem here @Robin4 is that you've gotten bad info... I'd trust @Emilia42 over whoever picked up the phone at CS any day.

 

the key to this misunderstanding is is it RC change or just a reservation change?

RC takes money from you right now. Change/Alter a reservation just alters your later payout.

 

A host shouldn't ever use RC for a stay that hasn't happened yet (though many do to try to avoid taxes/fees), RC should be used for after-stay issues, IMO

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Robin4  I used change reservation feature a few times and @Emilia42  is right, I received changed amount after guest's arrival

 

The problem with the resolution center is when guests are paying 1/2 now and 1/2 later and you cant use resolution center until the second payment is done. I tried to charge a pet fee as soon as my guest book but I couldn't.

 

Your returned guests can book directly with you, they already have your contact number. Without ABB fee they will pay 20% less and you will get a full price.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Emilia42  @Kelly149  @Jennifer1421 

Thanks so much guys, I have gone in and changed the payout amount I was to receive and it seems to have worked just as you said Emilia. 

That is how I will now approach this issue with return guests in the future, I do like to reward them with a cheaper rate. Previously I have thrown in an extra night or given them a bottle or two of wine. 

 

You know, isn't this the great part about this community!

 

You get onto the paid experts who have been brainwashed into the company's mindset and many of them are clueless as how the platform actually runs. I perhaps should not grizzle too much. In three and a half years, this is only the third time I have received bad advice to an enquiry of mine by the company!

 

But the difference is I have never ultimately received bad advice here on the Community centre! There is always someone who has personally experienced just about any problem we are likely to encounter.

The difference is we have an active interest in the nuts and bolts of what we do, the company has an active interest in making money!

 

*

We experience the same thing here with our two major airlines. One of major carriers in Qantas our national carrier, the other is Virgin Australia.

When Ade and I travel, it's a big deal because Ade can't walk, she depends on her 'Gopher' (mobility scooter) to get around. If we attempt to book with Qantas, they shake their head and say....."Nah, hire a Gopher at the other end, we can't handle them"!

With Virgin, they can't do enough for Ade, they let her ride her gopher up to the door of the plane and help her from there to her seat and staff take the gopher down and put it in the hold. At the other end she is last off the plane but her gopher is waiting there at the door of the plane for her.

The culture within the company comes from the top down!

Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas receives a salary of $1 million dollars a fortnight......

 

To Qantas it's about making money, to Virgin, it's about looking after passengers!

 

Thanks for the help guys, you are all great.

 

Cheers......Rob

Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

Well you lovely people: @Robin4 , @Branka-and-Silvia0 , @Emilia42 , @Kelly149   & @Inna22

Thanks for raising this issue, along with the solution.

 

In my case, I only open my calendar a few months ahead of the current date, so I have more control over Airbnb in my life... as we travel and also have family and friends often visiting, requiring the space.

 

I’ve always informed my past guests (who have been a pleasure to host and are likely to consider returning) - the option of contacting me via the message board. I let them know that even if they can’t see my listing as the dates could be closed, to just contact/communicate.

 

I’ve had a couple of returns do just that, this year, giving me the dates they were interested in. 

If the dates worked for us as hosts, we’d communicate that they would be available at $$.

 

I’ll make the $ changes then sit on the calendar - still blocked. Then through the message board, let me know I’m “good to go!”  

 

They then let me know when they are “good to go” and I’ll set a five minute timer. I then text message, that the dates will go public at the agreed time and presto. They book straight away.... problem solved.

 

But,  if I had an open calendar, I would definitely do as Emilia instructed.

🙂