Pet Fees and Deposits - Airbnb Enhancement Request

[Jeremy708]

I have searched the forums and see that Airbnb provides no standard mechanism to charge a pet fee or to add a pet specific deposit.  This is a gap in functionality.   I had a bad experience with a guest and their pet.  Airbnb informed me that the standard security deposit and host guarantee do not cover damages or cleaning fees due to pets.   With the standard policies not covering pets, and no way for hosts to charge pet fees or deposits, this is a gigantic gap in functionality.    Yes, I know I can manually request additional fees after a reservation is paid in full.  This is not a managable process or an acceptable solution for hosts with multiple properties.

Airbnb development support: Please fix this gap and provide a standard means to ask gusts if they have pets and add charges to the reservation based on their answer.  I use other property management softwares that offer this functionality.

Community members, please reply in support of this enhancement.  Thanks.

[Lisa723]

@Jeremy708 there are large numbers of previous requests/complaints on this topic. @Airbnb has clearly demonstrated that it does not care and has no intention of addressing this problem. The best solution may be to not allow pets through your Airbnb listings and accept pets only on other platforms that support a pet fee and don't exclude animal damage from deposit coverage, etc..

[Brian2036]

@Jeremy708 @Lisa723 

I agree.

VRBO has adequate provisions for pets and it seems to work.

VRBO would also LOVE to list your property and will assign someone to help you get it done.

[Anonymous]

@Jeremy708 The many, many requests from hosts to add pet fees and other optional charges (e.g. meals, airport transfers) into the booking process have been met with silence. Making matters worse, Airbnb broadly considers anything that the guest calls an "emotional support animal" to be exempt from hosts' pet policies and fees, as though it were an actual trained service animal.  This might be part of the reason they don't offer a built-in pet fee. 

If this is a deal-breaker for you, it might be wise to shop around with other platforms. 

[Amanda660]

I have 6 bookings this month that include pets, it would be so great if they could be included in the initial booking rather than having to make requests and offer the opportunity to hold a deposit.

[Sarah977]

@Jeremy708  You are beating your head against a brick wall. Pet friendly hosts have been asking for this for years and it has been ignored. Airbnb obviously has no intention of providing this feature.

[Liv]

@Jeremy708 

Hey everyone,

We’re very happy to share some details with you that have been recently announced! In the following weeks, Hosts will finally be able to add a Pet fee to their listing. 🙌 🐕

We really appreciate your feedback, so please share with the Community your first impressions on the new feature once it has launched. We look forward to hearing what you think. 😊

Thanks,

Liv

[Suzanne857]

Hi Liv,

Can you kindly confirm if the booking feature  asks for the number of pets and then charges the pet fee for each pet or is it just the flat fee for infinite number of pets? 

Thank you for your help.

Suzanne 

[Suzanne857]

Hi Liv,

Can you kindly confirm if the booking feature  asks for the number of pets and then charges the pet fee for each pet or is it just the flat fee for infinite number of pets? 

Thank you for your help.

Suzanne 

[Emilie]

Hi @Suzanne857, 

You can set a per-trip pet fee directly within your booking settings. This is a one-time flat fee per guest reservation, rather than per night or pet. 

I hope this helps 🙂

Emilie

[Carly142]

No, That does not help. 

It is not reasonable to expect the fee for 3 dogs for 10 days to be the same as one dog for 1 night. 

Per night or per pet (or both) fee structure would be useful, whereas a one-time flat fee is actually making things more complicated, as I still have to use alteration requests rather than this new system, which is confusing to guests. 

[Emilie]

@Carly142 I was aiming to answer the above question, but I really appreciate your feedback on this pricing tool. I'll pass on your comments to the team!

[Marco4659]

What if you pay the pet deposit, but your pet dies before the arrival date? My current issue as host does not want to refund. 

[Sophia]

Hey there @Marco4659, this thread hasn't been active in a while. I just wanted to drop in to say that I'm really sorry to hear that, sending you my heartfelt condolences. Have you contacted Airbnb Support? They could help you better and perhaps get in touch with the host. You can contact them through through the Help Centre: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/?audience=guest

[Marco4659]

Hi Sophia, yes I have thanks for checking. Airbnb was gracious enough to manage my refund for my deposit as I never stayed on the property (I canceled with Rafa and will never stay at his properties.)

I also had paid extra for emergency cancellation which helped me as well.

I’m hoping this owner learns a lesson about having compassion and consideration for owners who have lost their pets. Hope he doesn’t have to go through what he’s put us through. 
He lost a lot of future business as I am always in the area for work and was looking forward to trying his properties. Oh well, his loss.