Tag Archives: airbnb hosts

Higher Rates on Airbnb Than Other Sites

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Airbnb isn’t the first company in this industry to believe they can treat owners with arrogance. Most readers know who I’m referring to and that company has had an amazing attitude adjustment after seeing both owners and guests flee from their site.

Booking agents are totally irrelevant without owners, who take most of the risks in this industry. But since most owners are small operators and booking agents tend to be huge companies run by overpaid CEOs, they start believing they can enforce outrageous policies and treat customer service as a cost they want to get rid of.

Ever try to call Airbnb? Good luck. Question one of their policies? You get a ChatBot responding to you.

We own many properties and knowing full well how badly they need us, our response to their arrogance is simple: you can rent any of our properties anywhere else, for less. We list on several sites, and Airbnb is useful to us — some guests only look there and they book from the site. Others shop around and we get a hit for the same property on several sites. I’ve yet to see one choose to pay more just for the privilege of booking on their site.

I doubt anyone at Airbnb cares at the moment. After all, they are so much bigger than us. But I’ve seen this before, from their once-arrogant competition. Sales will falter, the C-Club will demand answers (only when they don’t get that fat bonus, forget the obligations to the actual owners of the stock) and people will be sent out to kiss ass and “try to understand how they can be a better partner.” Then we will set terms for them to get equal billing, just as will did with those other guys.

Ultimately, they will listen… money is common language. So from one CEO to another: a storm is coming your way. Enjoy the sunshine while you can.

Airbnb Hosts Fighting Back: Unlist Your Account on April 1

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Calling all Airbnb hosts: Anyone who wishes to participate in the #HOSTSFIGHTBACK initiative please read onward.

On April 1st, 2020 at 9:00 AM we will delist all of our properties from the Airbnb platform in an effort to communicate to Airbnb Corporate that we are not in agreement with their cancellation and refund efforts made during the coronavirus outbreak.

To date, I have lost 65 reservations and almost $48,000 in revenue across my short-term portfolio from Airbnb for the months of March through May 2020. Some of which were guests who received a full refund without falling under the extenuating circumstances policy.

Reading some of your comments on this Facebook Page, it appears that hosts’ cancellation policies are not being upheld and instead of finding creative and fair ways to offer guests and hosts a fair solution during this pandemic, Airbnb has almost completely sided with guests offering full refunds during this difficult time, leaving hosts completely out to dry.

Other short-term rental platforms like VRBO are upholding cancellation policies entirely, and booking.com and corporate hotels are offering travel vouchers to use to be used at a later date. Why are we being treated differently by Airbnb?

Aside from the total disregard of our cancellation policies, I find it appalling that Airbnb is still collecting its host fee on these cancellations they are processing in-house. I have confirmed via the payout transactions page on my personal account that Airbnb collected $79.29 worth of host fees on cancellations from my end, which means they have collected $158.58 total, including the guests’ cancellation fees.

It might sound like a small number, but multiply it by 150 million users on the platform to find out how much Airbnb has taken from you. Go into your “transaction history” page and download a CSV of your transactions. You will see the “host fee” column once you download it.

It appears that the “host fee” is being still being charged or collected on Airbnb’s part and split with the account owner. As you will notice when you check individual reservation details, the service fee is clearly being taken out of your payout (see screenshot).

I believe as hosts and as property owners who are risking our most precious assets, we have a right to be heard. Without us, the platform would cease to exist. Let our voices be heard by delisting your property on April 1st starting at 9:00 AM to trigger an Airbnb meltdown, forcing Brian Chesky and the other decision-makers at Airbnb to hear our concerns and pay attention to our policies.

You do not have to deactivate your account. We are asking that you un-list. How do you unlist? Sign into your Airbnb account and click “listings”. Scroll down to “listing status”. Click “edit” and then “unlist”. This will temporarily unlist your Airbnb listing from the platform which will in turn trigger a response from Airbnb Corporate.

Charged for a Private Single Bedroom I Didn’t Book

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I never completed confirmation for my booking and obviously did not stay at the property. However, I was charged almost $90 Canadian. There seems to be two hosts affiliated with this property and they seem to be playing tag with each other, claiming the “main” host is not getting back to the one that has responded to me.

It would appear that he has many positive reviews so I am not sure why there is such a delay or hesitation to resolve this matter. I’m sure many of you can relate when you are traveling on a budget and cannot deal with having nearly $90 CAD removed from your bank account without a reason.

Airbnb Hosts are Screwed. Just say no.

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Welcome to Airbnb 2019. I have removed my listings. My how things have changed. I have been an Airbnb host since around 2010. I have always been a Superhost, for what that’s worth. It used to be so easy and so cool. Now it is truly a nightmare.

The focus has changed to be politically correct and all for the guest. The guest gets to see your photo but you can’t see theirs until they book. Really? How is that fair? Like a guest won’t discriminate based on my looks?

Any time you talk to customer service you are sent to India. Their accents can be so thick I have to ask them to repeat things and then I have to repeat things to them as well. Who is this working for? Why can’t they hire people in the states for these jobs? I had my account locked out for no reason and that has never happened. I will just make a list of what has happened this year.

I was locked out of my account. It took numerous calls to India and then no follow up. Magically it was unlocked.

My listing disappeared. It would show up in a Google search. When I logged into my dummy account (one I set up to see what guests actually see) it was not listed. It took two days and many phone calls to try to even explain this to the customer service. I kept telling them you need to look at this with an Airbnb account logged in, not my host account. Again hours on the phone. Exhausting.

I only take guests who have a complete profile. I state that in my listing in the first sentence. Yet Airbnb wants me to take anyone.

We no longer have the right to refuse a guest for any reason. If a guest takes too long to respond I politely tell them they need to respond soon or I won’t accept. Well Airbnb didn’t like that and it puts a mark against your account.

My feeling is Airbnb no longer want hosts who live in the homes. They want a turn-key operation just like a hotel. I am extremely upset by this. It’s like they want to run an underground hotel.

The host is not valued. We are being pushed out by investors and Airbnb loves that.

If you call and ask any questions they don’t want to hear about it. They blocked off a day for a guest who did not have their ID. They blocked that day out for 11 hours for the “potential” guest to provide Airbnb with an ID. I told them they better unblock the date as this was a new user and there was no guarantee I would even rent to him.

After this happened is when my listing disappeared. I do believe they take a retaliatory stance towards hosts.

Airbnb is actively weeding out owner occupied listings in favor of investor owned units. This is an underground hotel situation. They wont tell you to quit, they will just do what they did to me: make your life miserable so you quit.

Airbnb has turned very greedy. Any good they do comes off the back of the hosts.

Airbnb does not care about the safety of the host. If we don’t feel comfortable with a potential guest we should not be penalized for not accepting them.

Airbnb no longer has my support. I will do what I can to keep them from growing in my city. I will now oppose them. I see what their goal is. They want to get rid of owner-occupied properties and move into self-run homes turned into underground hotels.

I see the error of my ways with supporting Airbnb. All it does is cause more people to travel.

Guests are not as appreciative as they were when I first started. Most guests are still nice, but I can tell some wish we were not living in our home as they have gotten used to renting cheap space with no owners present.

I rented my space to share with other humans and had an experience. Airbnb used to be about that. Now they want to just be an underground hotel. Airbnb could care less how we hosts feel. Just say no to Airbnb.

I Removed my Property Before Airbnb Deactivated it

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I’ve been hosting on Airbnb for six months and basically Airbnb makes me peanuts. The number of nights that they sell is too small, and too short; I could earn more even if I rented my apartment on a long-term basis. Using Airbnb actually reduced my earnings because I often get offers by agents for a two-week to one-month stay, but could not accept it because someone had booked for two nights, which blocks the duration of longer stays. This resulted in much lower earnings using Airbnb than without it.

The truth is Airbnb is a small player; they are a peanut earner. When I cancelled one booking (to make way for a long stay), I received warnings that I may be suspended for the cancellation. I got another offer for a 60-day stay, so I had to cancel another booking for two nights so I could accept the long stay.

That’s when I realized Airbnb is just a waste of time. I went ahead and delisted my property permanently from Airbnb. The funny thing is, three days later Airbnb informed me they suspended my listing because I made two cancellations. Then they told me how I should behave, what I should do with my property, etc. What a joke. Don’t they know I had already delisted my unit? Unless I’m making any real income, Airbnb is just wasting my time.

Never Again: Airbnb Holds Payment for Thirty Days?

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Airbnb is a joke. They got their money. My guests came and stayed at my house. I chose PayPal as to how I wanted to receive my money; the system told me I would have to wait 3 to 5 business days, which was cool with me. I called today to check on the money and talked to a non-native English speaker. I couldn’t understand everything he was saying but he told me that they were sending my money to my Paypal account today. Then he put me on hold for about 40 minutes and never returned. I hung up, called back, and talked to an American English speaker. She informed me that since this was my first time using Airbnb without a certain number of guests, hosts have to wait 30 days to get their payout. Are you serious? What’s the reason I have to wait if all my credentials check out? I’ll never use Airbnb again. I will be taking down my profile and anything I have on this website. There’s no reason for me to wait 30 days for a payout; it’s ridiculous.

Seems That People’s Expectations Were Too High

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Airbnb is not a walk in the park, nor is it easy money; anyone who wants to host should not expect this. My wife and I have been running an Airbnb – private room in our house, sharing the kitchen, bathroom, amenities – since May 2015. Although the income isn’t that significant we have the advantage of meeting people from all corners of the globe and have hosted at least one guest from each continent. However, most have come from our home country of Australia or East Asia. For the purposes of this web page though I will give our best and worst stories as a host. I have also changed the names. Despite their picture on Airbnb, Dianne and her friend Angela were not fragile young ladies but a couple of girls from North America who could hold their own. They arrived in early 2016 (a relatively hot time with smoke from nearby fires) staying for five nights, spending the day touring around the local attractions and the night sleeping. One evening we all went to see the local fairy penguin parade. In terms of enjoyment of company these two were great to have around. The worst was a gentleman from France (one of their small Pacific island colonies). He was ‘bad’ but his lack of organization skills cost us a little. He arrived by taxi and was surprised that he could not easily hire a car (in the height of summer and the tourist season). It meant we had to give him lifts to various places and for him changing his plans. It wasn’t a disaster but we were glad to see him go.

Tenant Hijacks Property, Airbnb Refuses to Help

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I’m not really a guest. I am an owner whose tenant decided to operate an Airbnb even though it violated his lease and is a breach of our agreement. When we asked Airbnb to take the property down from their site they refused, indicating their arrangement with our tenant and stating only the tenant can take it down. The tenant has refused to do so, so we served him with a Notice to Quit, the first step to eviction. The process could take four to six weeks if we are lucky. Until he is out, we can do nothing about him continuing to be on Airbnb. Last weekend he rented out to a party of about 200 people. We are in California, where tenants have more rights than owners and when the state needs money they turn to the owners to provide it. We need better laws to defend honest citizens from the leaches that some Airbnb hosts are.

Hosts Get no Protection from Airbnb

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I am currently with my very first guest from Airbnb. I have been renting my two units successfully for four years but on a monthly basis, from 35 days to 8 months at the time. I had established procedures on checking on my tenants and being very careful to whom I rent. I even learned how conmen work and could recognize them immediately. This first guest of mine was very disrespectful from the very beginning. Due to a mistake on Airbnb’s part they did not charge her the entire amount she owed, and now I cannot collect the balance. I called customer service twice and the second time, the girl said they had no record of my first call. I don’t want to go through the whole story, but after careful review of the posted terms and conditions, hosts need to understand that Airbnb does not protect their interests. Their platform is that they are only an advertising agency and the contract is between guests and hosts. They are not obligated to take care of claims on damages, payment issues, or similar problems. This is not hotel management. You are on your own. Of course, I am very experienced in knowing what my rights and obligations are under the law in my state, and I have no problems filing claims with the court. However, as a host, I don’t vet the tenants and I don’t have their billing information. So, it is almost impossible to file a claim in court against problematic tenants. Airbnb policies are not acceptable. You need to understand that they will not provide any help and they are not obligated to provide protection to hosts. Simply find another place to advertise.