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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Aug 11, 2016 19:28:02 GMT
Not sure if this is the correct board or not, so Deborah feel free to move it if you think it's better somewhere else. I participate in the Airhostforum which has some interesting conversations. Today I saw this, which is worrisome! So an Airbnb Community Manager is letting it leak that the platform will push IB more aggressively? It actually doesn't surprise me as I know that ALL short term rental properties are moving to instant booking. Wimdu is pushing it, VRBO is pushing it, and now potentially Airbnb? Well, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. |
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Post by High Priestess on Aug 11, 2016 20:12:04 GMT
Thanks for posting that, Milu.
Many hosts had been concerned that this might be the way Airbnb goes in the future, once they began doing forced instant book on select new hosts. Experienced hosts saw that and then thought the writing was on the wall to require all hosts to use IB. This was of more grave concern to me than any feature or change or development that Airbnb has come out with to date. It is not only worrisome, it is deeply troubling.
When I wrote to Airbnb recently, one of the things I pointed out was that many hosts (including me) take long term reservations -- over 30 days -- and you absolutely cannot rent long term to someone (who then gets tenants' rights) without doing any screening whatsoever. That would be very dangerous....I mean talk about rolling out a red carpet for squatters!
If Airbnb mandated use of IB, then I would definitely want to stop doing long term reservations on Airbnb, which would pose a serious dilemma since I get very many really great long term bookings via Airbnb. Bookings of 1 month to 3-4 months long, generally students or researchers. I am oriented to taking long term bookings from those who have a project in my area and who will then leave and go back home. I am not so interested in taking a long term booking from someone already living in my area or who is moving to my area to do a long term booking, primarily because I am not offering permanent housing. These are not things one can determine by having guests check off various boxes of information. One has to engage in communication with people to find out certain things.
If Airbnb forces IB on hosts, they will lose many hosts, and I would think a great opportunity would open up for competitors to offer a new platform or platforms that allow us to have our freedom again. I would move more and more back to using Craigslist and a couple other platforms that don't require Instant Book.
THere would also I think be serious liability problems for Airbnb to basically force hosts to accept guests whom they don't want. There are so many problems with that -- legal problems and other problems. It's very unacceptable to most of us.
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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Aug 11, 2016 21:16:41 GMT
Deborah, you always give the best replies! For me it's not worrying as I already have IB on my listings and unlike you I don't do any long term, but it's not at all a good idea as a sweeping change. I think it will be a year before Airbnb is sold to Expedia.
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Post by High Priestess on Aug 11, 2016 23:47:00 GMT
You think Airbnb will sell to Expedia? Oh gross!! Really? They would do all this work to make Airbnb "special", and then just sell it away and give it up? Oh I hope not.!!
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