We'd like to turn off the new pet fee until issues are resolved. Is this possible?

[Diane1173]

We want to continue charging our pet fee through the Resolution Center and make it so they can't add pets on the booking form.

Also, wondering if this will affect a search for pet friendly hosts, since the search now has the option of adding the number of pets, just like children.  If we are able to turn it off, would we be excluded from the search results?

Our reasons are:

1. We charge extra for more than one pet. And if it is a long stay we charge extra for one animal.

2. No way do we want them to see that they can bring up to 5 dogs for one fee.  And that it is just a courtesy to tell the host that you are bringing more than two animals? This is problematic as our cottages are small.

3. Now guests are all the sudden stating their animal is an 'emotional support' animal so that they stay for free.  So, now Airbnb is making it  really easy to read the service animal policy which states they don't even have to tell us they are bringing an animal if they consider it an emotional support animal.  

There are just too many issues with the way they structured this and it seems they didn't ask for host input to avoid all these issues.

[Ralf5]

@Diane1173 ,

if you don't like the new pet fee why don't you just leave it blank.  I am in the same situation, that I had guests bringing 2 cats and one dog, usually I do charge 5 Euros per pet but since these guests stayed 10 days and so I gave them a discount on the 2nd cat. I am not happy with this new field either so I just left it blank and I continue to send out a host offer or a change request which includes the pet fee. If you are happy with the resolution center, you should continue doing it that way.

Usually I don't accept more than 2 pets at the same time and if I do (might be the case, if there is good and credible story behind ...) I want to charge additional fees for the additional pets.

Once I did have an inquiry (all my 3 apartments) for 12 adults plus 40 huskies. There was a dog sledding race in my town and the guest told me that I shouldn't be worried about the dogs, because they would stay outside in the garden anyway. Can you imagine how the garden would look like after 40 dogs stayed there for long week-end. Of course, I denied this inquiry.  

Further I had a guest, who booked one apartment with her dog, so I charged for the dog. After check-in it turned out that the dog was a service dog. It really was the case, because once my guest had diabetis and one morning she was close to get hypoglycaemia so the dog immediately indicated this to her. However, the guest didn't want to argue about the pet fee and I didn't see the need to reimburse her for the pet fee either. I am hosting for more than 10 years now and this was the only case with a service animal. 

There is one of my apartments, where pets (including service animals) generally are not allowed because of some guests are allergic to animal hair. Generally, I think that it is not fair to bring service animals without notifying the host upfront and also, I think that we should be allowed to charge the pet fee in these cases as well. May be you can add to your house rules that any pet including service animals needs to be agreed with yourself before booking.

Your last question: if you have ticked "pets allowed" in your listing it does show up in the search results if guest select the "pets allowed" filter. 

[Diane1173]

Thanks @Ralf5  for the detailed reply!

First, I can't believe someone would request 40 dogs!  What a story!

I thought the 'pets allowed' filtered had been removed. Maybe you are correct.

Thanks for the suggestion, I would rather do it through the Resolution Center too-unless they modify the new feature after Hosts' input.

Yes, the idea that someone can show up with a service dog-even if the unit doesn't allow pets-and not let us know is problematic.  He have a rental that is not suitable for animals or children, as it would disturb the guests below.

Thanks!

[Jennifer2010]

Not being able to specify more than a flat pet fee is unacceptable. Also, it was not clear at all in the hosting update or listing setup that guests wouldn't have to specify if they are bringing a pet if it was fewer than 2. I have to let the staff know if a pet is coming, so they can be prepared for the more extended cleaning we do when pets come. I don't want to have to turn of pets allowed, but if I just leave the amount blank, it makes guest think the pets are free.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Diane1173  we were always pet-friendly.. until Airbnb introduced this problematic pet fee option. So we become pet unfriendly in all our listings. Then we decided to allow it again in just one of our listings but we didn't set a pet fee. It is written in our description that we charge a pet fee per dog per stay. It's a trial. The first time someone will complain about a fee or will mention ESA or ADA without any proof or will complain about an extra fee, we will turn it off again.

[Emilie]

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all well! I wanted to share some news in regards to this policy. It has now been updated to honour your concerns in regards to emotional support animals, giving you more control over pet fees. You can find more information here. 

Thanks again for all your feedback!

Emilie

@Diane1173 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Jennifer2010 @Ralf5