I am a host and had to cancel a reservation made yesterday due to guest declining to pay tax...

[Marita11]

Aloha,

We host a condo on Maui and had a guest reserve our unit almost 6 months in advance.  This reservation was made yesterday.  Per our listing, we will charge an additional HI accommodation and state taxes on top of the total nightly rate.  Our guest accepted the reservation, we then altered the reservation to add the taxes and the guest declined the alteration as they felt that they were "hidden fees."  As a result, we as hosts decided to cancel the guest's reservation.

We do feel that this is an extenuating circumstance and should not be penalized by AirBNB.  This is the first time we've had to cancel on a guest and our understanding is that our condo will not be available for booking  and we will incur a penalty.  We have not had any other issues from other guests regarding the additional taxes.  This seems a bit extreme for this particular case, no?  What's the best way to contact AirBNB to explain this situation and not be marked for any of the penalties?  The booking was made yesterday.

Cheers,

Marita

[Holly43]

I disagree with adding taxes into the nightly rate, as then the host is paying the Airbnb 3% fee on what they are collecting as taxes, and that’s not awesome. I don’t have a better answer though lol! Really, Airbnb should make a separate fee box where a host can charge the taxes during booking, and NOT have Airbnb take 3% from the taxation as well as the nightly rate. I’m lucky, in Denver, Airbnb does all taxes for us, so we don’t even know what the guest pays as far as taxes.

[Matthew285]

@Holly43, you are spot on with the problem of AirBnB taking 3% of the tax (which they should not).

I think the small extra cost is worth it to avoid unhappy guests like this, but to each their own.

And yes, 100%, it would be better if AirBnB helped the hosts in Hawaii like they help them in Denver.

AirBnB handles the tax properly in San Francisco, also.

[Kelly149]

It’s actually worse than the 3%. The tax included leads to an inflated guest fee as well. So abb inflates their cut every time a host follows the “wouldn’t it be easier to include the tax” logic. 

This is a clear case of abb choosing their own bottom line over truthfulness

@Marita11 is right, she is following the advice given to all hosts where tax is not added properly. You’re just lucky @Matthew285 that you have not had to deal with this. 

[Marita11]

Yes Holly, definitely agree!  HI hosts have been asking for for the separate fee box for a couple of years nw but the state of HI hasn't yet decided how to move forward with short term rentals...hence confusion experienced for guests and hosts.  You are indeed lucky!

[Nancy158]

Holly,

i think you realize that Airbnb is NOT providing a service to hosts in Denver?

airbnb refuses to charge the 10.75 percent lodgers tax which should be collected from the guests at booking.  So as the host you will be reaponsible to submit 10.75 percent more on your earnings-- many hosts learn this the hard way (like me)...

[Andrea9]

@Marita11

I looked at your listing, and suggest you also make the the condition about tax being charged later to be included in the House rules, and possibly also under Additionally to be Acknowledged.

That way it's crystal clear, and if guests don't read the description, you'll have it mentioned two more times.

Besides, your House Rules are like your Terms of Operation written in stone. Anything extra, like pet fee or extra guest fee for children (instead of free) is best mentioned there and not only in the description text.

[David126]

I looked at the listing and obviously know the background, certainly not clear that you would be reinvoiced.

Would drive me potty to reissue every booking and wait for them to agree, and if they do not?

I prefer to keep it simple.

[Marita11]

@David126  This is the first time that I've actually used the forum so lesson learned again on using it as a resource for guest issues before making changes.  Looking back I would have preferred to go back and forth with the guest more and ask them to cancel since they refused to pay the tax.  

[David126]

@Marita11

What if they did not?

Pretty sure my Guests who turned up tonight had done nothing but book and make a note of my physical address, they certainly had not read my check in time or my welcoming message.

All the while this is happening your dates are tied up.

[Marita11]

@David126

Oh they 100% did not!  Like I said...lose/lose.  It only gets real when total cost is involved.

[Marita11]

@Andrea9  I like this idea - although our message will be redundant on our listing the potential guests won't miss that we'll be sending an alteration to the cost which is only the tax on the nightly rate.  Great suggestion.  

[Fred13]

  Good conversation really, for this tax thing is indeed tricky, some places have one methodology, another a different one. Yes, it would be great if Airbnb collects it, though they are dealing with so many different realities.

  Thrilled @Marita11 you took my thoughts so well,  was just thinking of you, and the hassle you have to go through to collect something you have to ultimately pay.  There is always a better way, and I am sure you will hit on it.

  A different twist I started doing lately, was to add a 10% 'cleaning deposit', which is part for cleaning/part for helping with tax (9%), and though it doesn't come out exact, it did smoothed out the overall approach with tax which Airbnb doesn't charge in my neck of the woods. Just a thought.

[Marita11]

And you know, looking back, we actually emailed the guest to tell them that we would be adding the 13.45% tax to the nightly rate before we accepted them.  I don't know what else we could have done!  We mentioned it on the website and in our messages.  Like I said...lose / lose.

[Sheila146]

@Marita11 @Fred13 @Matthew285 @Marzena2

HI Marita,

What an interesting discussion you have started!  I don't agree with others who say you shouldn't ask customer service for extenuating circimstances.  You had it in your listing and you told the guests ahead of time.  They would probably have given you a terrible review after that so you were gonna lose either way, and CS may be understanding of your predicament.

I also charge my guests the tourist taxes in cash at the check-in.  After they book I send them an invoice with a  nice explanation, then I bring the hard copy to the check-in.  Not a single person has complained or acted like it is nickel and diming, including the Americans and Canadians (just referring to earlier comments).  

When you fold the taxes into the base price, that is 18 or so% the guest will be paying on that extra amount. and you your 3 to 4%.  I explain this to the guest and they appreciate that. They also appreciate that (in our city) it is lower at 3.2% than the hotels are required to charge (2€ per person per day), which I make sure to point out.  I've never seen anyone march out of a hotel lobby over the tourist tax or state tax, so our guests should, and generally do, understand in the bnb scenario.  

In addition I don't want to add it in to my base price because the higher price lowers my listing in the search in my nearly saturated city.  I suspect that many many of my fellow hosts in my city are not even paying this tax as it is at this point honour system, because Airbnb is not transparent to the city about host information.  The city estimates it is losing about €500,000 in unpaid taxes from our industry.  I scrupulously pay mine out of fairness and so the city will stay sympathetic to the vacation rental industry here. My prices are low enough already without my losing €600 per year paying thee taxes. 

I would love to have that extra fee box instead. But it just occurred to me lack of fee box does work very well for Airbnb; not that I am casting aspersions, just an observation.  I would happy to see the fee box and airbnb paying it to the city directly.  But that is surely a pipe dream.

My suggestion is to add the suggestions made in this thread to your listing so the 2% who actually read the listing will definitely see it.  Additionally, I suggest informing the guests via email as soon after they book as possible, sending them a pdf of the invoice you will be giving them.  At the same time I also send them directions and a nice tourist guide I put together. I also let them know that there is some traffic noise outside the apt, even though i mention that at least 3 times in the listing including the short listing.  Better to have them cancel asap then come and be unhappy, or cancel last minute.  Saves on bad reviews.

Good Luck!

Sheila

[Marita11]

Mahalo @Sheila146 for your thoughtful suggestions!  You mentioned that you collect your tourist taxes upon check in.  Do you check your guests in in person and is that how you are able to collect the taxes?

I think we're going to go the route of being overly communicative with our guests before they decide to book.  This particular situation with our guest declining to pay the taxes is our first incident that we've had where any guest pushed back with a strong message to the point that we had to cancel them.  We did not feel they were open to more communication but in retrospect I wish I would have given them the opportunity to cancel on their own so we wouldn't have to be dealing with ABB resolution.  Lots of lessons learned here and I greatly appreciate all perspectives.