Refundable Damage Deposit for AirBnB or B.com booking, how?

[MockettsFarm]

Hi there.

If you list on AirBnB and/or Booking.com - do you charge a refundable booking deposit? if so how do you do this please?

I am listing on AirBnB and it does not seem to give that option.

I really want more bookings, but I do not want people staying in my cottages without paying their damage deposit - relying on AirBnB covering any problems, to me, feels risky...?

[cleanforum]

yes you can. Its under listing->pricing->Extra Charges

https://www.airbnb.com/manage-your-space/xxxxxx/pricing

I have 300Euro. I think this is the amount you can theoretically claim against after you provided the proof to ABB. They decide.

[MockettsFarm]

thank you very much I have had a look now and found it. it appeared when I did the initial set up this was not an option.

how do you find air bnb? their cancellation policy options make me nervous.

[Joanna]

I have ABB set to just show dates within the next 3 months (I'd set it to less if that was an option). Initially they brought us several bookings but all wanting odd dates - Thursday to Saturday or Sunday to Wednesday, for example. Our cleaners are only available on weekdays so we got left with odd days that we couldn't let.

Recently I tweaked our prices to make them more expensive so we are covered for the odd gaps. Since then we've had less bookings but still get the occasional one. We're also getting more direct bookings which could be guests googling us after finding us on ABB.

Annoyingly, ABB constantly ask us to drop our prices, but when I checked other comparable properties in our area we were actually among the cheapest so I put our prices up instead!

[MockettsFarm]

interesting, ok thank you very much for your reply. I find it odd that as a guest you can only "Request to book" - not simply as a question. Will have to see how it goes!

[Bordering]

#cleanforum - I think this amount is pre-authorised against the guest’s card, and the ‘host guarantee' is (for what it’s worth, probably not much) in addition to this.

#mocketsfarm - there’s no enquiry-only form. Making potential guests state their dates in an enquiry means they know it’s available and the price, so I guess they’re more likely to book if your reply is positive. To minimise trivial questions make sure your description includes everything they could possibly want to know.

#Joanna - they will always suggest you could price lower, however low the price is. Just be sure you’re priced in line with comparable properties if you want bookings. In some areas there are very modest rooms for as low as £12, but you don’t need to compete with these. Guests tend to know they’ll get what they pay for.