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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2016 3:05:29 GMT
Just because I'm always pondering, that is one of my main concerns of public forums.
It was only the other day I mentioned how Airbnb put guests up in a fancy pants hotel, in NYC no less that they could never afford to even consider, for whatever grumble regarding the Airbnb accommodations they booked, were so stupid, I can't even remember.
I can see how many 'lurkers' we have, and could twist our camaraderie in a way to make it become a trouble for us.
That's why I love FB, the groups I'm interested in are closed.
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Post by Mabel on Sept 27, 2016 3:50:59 GMT
see this is why i don't block you from my feed, Rhonda. Is this a feed actually? and is there a block feature? I'm not smart about these things.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2016 4:03:25 GMT
Bellows "If I Only had a Brain"
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2016 4:11:29 GMT
Grace,
Are ya keeping me around cause I told you apprised was correctly spealt?
Or iz it the deranged humor I cling to like a chastity belt in the historic novels I don't read?
Spell check has spealt underlined as incorrect, and Google has no suggestions.
I thought you spelled it correctly in the past tense.
This is so much funner than cleaning loos!
Many thanks to all!
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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Sept 27, 2016 13:57:02 GMT
Deborah, I'm about to experiment with listing on Home Escape but wanted to check in case there is any referral credit. If there is, send me the link so that you can get something (or maybe nothing). I was so irritated last week - I'd been talking to a friend about airbnb, giving her all kinds of advice and info and I told her that if she signed up, that I'd appreciate getting the referral credit, so to please let me know and I'd send her the link. It's $100! She went ahead and signed up on her own and then told me "oh, i wanted to get it done" like I would have made her wait two weeks for a link. I could have given it to her in 2 seconds! She's cut off from my fountain of knowledge now
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Post by High Priestess on Sept 27, 2016 14:50:05 GMT
Milu -- they don't offer referral credits to sign up hosts. They dont' themselves get paid any service fee -- while they might be eager to have hosts sign up, I think one of the main ways they are attracting hosts now is by offering a completely free service.
They aren't a third party in the host-guest business contract -- they dont' collect the payment from the guest, and they dont' limit communication between host and guest to their website. THey allow you to post contact details in your listing as well as your website address in your listing. But they do seem to need to check any website links first before they allow you to post them. They also check your listing before they allow your listing to go live. That would be difficult for them to do if they really got big, to put the time into checking every listing before going live.
Once you fill out your listing, they send you an email asking if you are either (1) the owner of the property, or (2) a property manager or tenant at the property. If you are not the owner, they ask you to send them documents to show that you have permission to rent out/sublet the property. So if they do this for all those who register, they will screen out those who are tenants but are subletting without permission of the landlord/property owner. But this is going to be quite a lot of work for them to do. I wonder how they're going to be able to afford to spend all this time.
THere are some things I don't like about the information they want to give you when you sign up. For instance they ask you to state the year you bought the property. I would rather not provide that level of detail to complete strangers in a rental housing ad. There are some other things about the way the listing works that I don't like so much and where I find Airbnb's method preferable. But we'll see how it goes...
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Post by High Priestess on Sept 27, 2016 14:56:35 GMT
THese are Home Escapes' cancellation policies, which it allows you to choose from. Note that since guests pay you directly, YOU will be the one enforcing any cancellation policy, not Home Escape. They just have these there so you can be clear with the guest what your policy is:
Flexible
Bookings cancelled at minimum 7 days before the start of the stay will receive a 50% refund. Bookings cancelled at minimum 14 days before the start of the stay will receive a 100% refund.
Standard
Bookings cancelled at minimum 14 days before the start of the stay will receive a 50% refund. Bookings cancelled at minimum 30 days before the start of the stay will receive 100% refund.
Rigid
Bookings cancelled at minimum 30 days before the start of the stay will receive a 50% refund. Bookings cancelled at minimum 60 days before the start of the stay will receive 100% refund.
Strict
Bookings cancelled at minimum 60 days before the start of the stay will receive 100% refund.
No refund
No refund offered.
Other
Any other policy you want to use and describe to guest.
I used "other" and stated my policy as follows:
Cancellation Policy: If you cancel your reservation, the reservation fees will be refundable, less a $75 cancellation fee, if I am able to rebook the dates. The refund will be contingent upon my ability to rebook any cancelled dates. If I am only able to rebook some of the dates, your refund will be proportional to the dates I am able to rebook. Your refund will be processed when I receive the booking payment from the replacement guest.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2016 18:52:43 GMT
Aloha Milu,
I had a g/f do the same thing.
I was kind of miffed, but she is actually a wealth of information and income to me, so I let it go.
My nephew also did it to me just a few months ago as a traveler, him and my mother asked all kinds of questions about Airbnb, as he was traveling for school; finally I asked him to allow me to refer him, or whatever it is, and my mother said, NO, he wants his mother to have it. So I think he/she got nothing, and my g/f gets very few inquiries from Airbnb.
People are weird, and chit comes back around.
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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Sept 28, 2016 16:15:00 GMT
Ok, going over there now to pfaff around in the site. Thanks for the info about the cancellation policies. Deborah, your paragraph is so good, is it ok with you if I use that wording? NP if you prefer to keep it yours I am using the Grammarly app and it has a plagiarism warning on it, it's so good for me, I always forget my grammar when I type fast.
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Post by High Priestess on Sept 28, 2016 17:14:10 GMT
Yes, go right ahead Milu, it's fine if you use that paragraph. I'd love to see my cancellation policy become more widely used by hosts as I think it's one of the best policies for hosts! Even if I never get any bookings thru them it's nice just to be able to have a place to promote this cancellation policy!
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Post by All About Airbnb on Sept 29, 2016 18:37:32 GMT
And here's the official confirmation - from an Italian Airbnb rep - that the company will roll out globally the changes to the cancellation policies 🌎 Thus, get ready also outside of Italy...
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Post by High Priestess on Sept 30, 2016 0:57:11 GMT
Terrible...but thank you for letting us know.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 1, 2016 2:19:35 GMT
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Post by Mabel on Oct 1, 2016 3:51:06 GMT
Hi Deborah,
I was gonna wait till my case in the resolution center was resolved before i posted this - the one where the guests who decided last minute to choose another place in order to fit more people than I usually can fit, then gave a false reason to cust service so they could get out of my strict cancellation policy, but at this point my outcome doesn't matter to this post. I just wanted to say that the third cust service agent who I talked to on the phone had a noticeable nervous tone in his voice as he repeatedly mentioned that airbnb was constantly trying new things to help both hosts and guests... (he was obviously aware of how negatively the new cancellation policy will affect hosts) and several time mentioned that he hoped it didn't negatively affect hosts, which showed he knows that it is, and they're getting flooded with calls about this. Anyway he sounded very ... worried almost when he sent me to the new policy page. I went there.
Basically what the new policy says in so many words is that it doesn't matter what category of cancellation policy the host chooses, of the new options they now offer as of the 19th of this month. Because no matter what option a host chooses, Airbnb will still be able to override that policy during any given cancellation, and refund the guest at their own discretion regardless of circumstances, if they see fit. They stress in the wording of the policy quite a few times "travel issues". This can mean anything from guests not having their act together enough to arrive as expected, to the host not being available for check in during unavailable times as described in the listing.
It goes into a lot more than that, but basically the new policy as stated leaves hosts with pretty much no protection or rights whatsoever in regards to enforcing any choice of cancellation policies by the host. This is likely what those in other countries are protesting. It is also likely just another "experiment" like all the other abominations, and one that even customer service agents are embarrassed by. I expect the outcry to be considerable on this one.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2016 4:29:47 GMT
Aloha Grace,
Thanks for the information, but IMHO they've been doing this all along, just generally not at the host's expense.
My current guests who have just arrived explained they had used booking.com. Arrived at the house, there was no address stated, gates were locked, owner not home, and telephone number provided was not correct. After 18 hour flight, they not so happy, booking.com replied the owner was at the house and waiting for them.
The demanded booking.com refund their $ immediately, which they did do, and the couple booked a hotel room.
This morning, Mr Guest downloaded Airbnb app, and Voila!! here they are. My only request is that they be Airbnb verified, which apparently only took an extremely short time.
I'm still standing behind Airbnb, it works for me, generally speaking, the guests are much better than from HomeAway/VRBO and Flipkey/Tripadvisor.
I'm so flippin over booked, I wouldn't even care if any did cancel with my Strict policy, and give me a flippin day off, pay or no pay.
Plus, just like the majority of any retail business, refunds are incredible. I go in, buy the wrong color lamp. Have to return it. Go in and buy 10 new place-mats...can't stand them and return them. Go in and just buy a piece of crap I decide I'm not wasting 10 cents on, return it.
My policy has always been, "You don't like my house, me, whatever? Think you're gonna play Grumpy at my house?" Take your $$ and begone ASAP!
I will add that this sounds like more trouble in the making for Airbnb. Perhaps somebody, or a lot of bodies need to get laid at Airbnb, and approach this with a happier attitude.
Things were going fine before them, and life will continue without them if they keep up all their experiments.
I don't have a clue, nor do I give a rats ass, but my listing on page 599 is getting bookings galore. It's all a mystery, only my booked room is on page one, and I un-logged checked my listings the other day to see if there was the drop down box of "See Rhonda's other listing" which somehow has disappeared. I don't know how these people are locating my listing, as I sure cannot.
And.....the filters...PFFFT!!.....it's in such a dumb small space, it took me 5 minutes to find it. All /superhost "badges' have been removed from original search, so who would ever search or know what a Superhost is, except a seasoned Airbnb traveler?? So what, you can filter for POOL (like CC stated the other day a guest had booked wrong area), they'll show you a house with a pool that takes 4 more flights to get to the location it's in.
I just walk a path of faith that I've always been provided with what I need at any given moment in time, and will continue to play Airbnb upstairs which works for me, and keep my long term rental downstairs as long as people are willing to pay a price worth my wile to give up my additional personal space.
I'll repeat what I stated last week or so...... It will be interesting to hear what song I'm singing come the end of October. Every reservation is via Airbnb with the exception of one from HomeAway.
The other saying I learned working for the gov't when asking a question, the answer would begin..."At this moment in time......"
I was happy to use that with a guest the other day with one of the two other platforms, his requested dates got booked since his brilliant question of "is the room available for such and such dates?"
I don't care if Airbnb stops posting pictures either, the other sites don't, and I don't give a rats ass what they look like, they're renting a room. I've had cartoon characters, animal pictures, many, many pictures that did not show the persons face. So it was often not accurate anyway.
That's my -2 cents for the day. Long Term tenant checking out 8 am October 4th. Yee flippin ha!!
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