Lay My Hat

Hi,

I am new here on this forum. I know this forum for years, but now I am registered.

We are in the rental business for 8 years now. We rent out in France and in Spain for us and for friends.

We have a lot of experience with Abritel, Owners Direct and Holiday lettings.
Since this year we added Airbnb, but in fact that is a bad experience.

I discovered that their policy is more advantageous for the guests than for the owners. I received a cancellation 1 day before the rental period of 2 weeks. 2 days later we received a mail that due to illness 100% was reimbursed to the guest and this will be withheld on our next payment. No proof towards us, just that.
They make this too easy for the guests. Guests can look at the weather forecast, go to a doctor and ask for a paper.

When you have a booking of 2 or 3 days, not a big deal. But when you have a booking from airbnb for 2 or 3 weeks and more than 3,000 eur is involved, you cannot do anything if there is a cancellation due to illness .......
Impossible to find other people at such a short notice.

So I will be very careful next year with airbnb: I will block the mid and high season for all the properties and put only some weeks in the low season. This is too risky!
So just be carefull!! Airbnb is the BOSS and you have no say in this as an owner. THEY decide to reimburse 100% even if your cancellation policy is strict.

When I travel, I pay for a travel insurance!

And this is why I am no longer on ABnB.

Their cancellation policy is fine if you are a hotel or just letting out a spare room occasionally but I can't afford to take the risk of a late cancellation. I'd be very lucky to resell at such notice without offering a huge discount. It just doesn't work if you are running a holiday let.

It's not worth the risk in my opinion so I voted with my feet.

In fact, Airbnb is fine when only renting a spare room. Years ago Airbnb started with only a bit of B&B. People booked only a few nights.

I think Airbnb should change their policy. For now, it is too risky!

What a great deal for those guests. I'll bet they'll also claim on their insurance and get a double whammy. This could be one hell of a great scam Airbnb are not aware of.

Pilot, it just occurred to me, why are Airbnb withholding from your next payment? Surely if the guests cancelled before the booking you would not yet have been paid by Airbnb for them to take it back from you?

Just an observation re cancellation from a guests point of view.
My son contacted the owner of an ABB place he was going to stay in this Wednesday. It was only then that the owner said she was canceling his booking due to the ill health of one of her relatives abroad.
I know this must be very rare (and in fairness to ABB they have paid compensation as no other flats were available in 'old Rouen' for my sons dates) BUT I'd like to think I would find a stand in key holder in these circumstances. Or maybe I'm being uncaring.....

Sam V wrote:Pilot, it just occurred to me, why are Airbnb withholding from your next payment? Surely if the guests cancelled before the booking you would not yet have been paid by Airbnb for them to take it back from you?

On friday evening he cancelled the booking for the next day (2 weeks!) and asked me if he could get a reimbursement. I said no.
He contacted Airbnb 3 days later (so he could verify his possibilities .....). Airbnb already paid us, because the guests contacted them 3 days later.
Then we got a mail from Airbnb telling us his girl friend was ill and he gave Airbnb sufficient proof (??). So 100% reimbursement and they deduct this from our next reservation.

Disgusting ......

I would continue to argue with Airbnb that you are entitled to your full payment and that the guest must have had insurance to cover his losses, etc OR that you need the guests proof to claim
On your own insurance (let's pretend you have such a thing!) In the meantime all the time you do not take another booking from Airbnb they cannot withhold payment(s) from your next bookings, unless of course you already have future Airbnb bookings.... perhaps you could cancel them? What's the deal with Airbnb if owner cancels?

Sam, we have 4 properties on airbnb (from us and from friends) and we have bookings registered.
When you are with Airbnb, you need to follow their rules. That is why I will only put now difficult weeks to rent out. The rest of the time is blocked.

If you have a cancellation then AirBnB now allow reviews to be written. Posted about this in another section. The situation could turn against you.
Ignore the derisive comments by a one member.
http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27823

casasantoestevo wrote:If you have a cancellation then AirBnB now allow reviews to be written. Posted about this in another section. The situation could turn against you.
Ignore the derisive comments by a one member.
http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27823

Is this post really necessary? The two topics are unrelated even though they are about AirBnB. I've certainly seen both threads and I'm sure other members have too!

pilou64 wrote:Hi,

I am new here on this forum. I know this forum for years, but now I am registered.

We are in the rental business for 8 years now. We rent out in France and in Spain for us and for friends.

We have a lot of experience with Abritel, Owners Direct and Holiday lettings.
Since this year we added Airbnb, but in fact that is a bad experience.

I discovered that their policy is more advantageous for the guests than for the owners. I received a cancellation 1 day before the rental period of 2 weeks. 2 days later we received a mail that due to illness 100% was reimbursed to the guest and this will be withheld on our next payment. No proof towards us, just that.
They make this too easy for the guests. Guests can look at the weather forecast, go to a doctor and ask for a paper.

When you have a booking of 2 or 3 days, not a big deal. But when you have a booking from airbnb for 2 or 3 weeks and more than 3,000 eur is involved, you cannot do anything if there is a cancellation due to illness .......
Impossible to find other people at such a short notice.

So I will be very careful next year with airbnb: I will block the mid and high season for all the properties and put only some weeks in the low season. This is too risky!
So just be carefull!! Airbnb is the BOSS and you have no say in this as an owner. THEY decide to reimburse 100% even if your cancellation policy is strict.

When I travel, I pay for a travel insurance!

If you look at where you manage your property, you can set up your cancellation policy. We have ours at strict, which means we get 50% if they cancel up to a week before arrival and the full amount if they cancel during that week.

That is more generous than our normal policy but it's better than nothing.

Jonathan

Jonathan - Airbnb can, in certain circumstances and at their discretion, cancel the booking, even if you’ve specified strict cancellation. As with all sites like this, their supposedly rock-solid guarantees can be exposed to be paper thin, either for owner or guest, on occasion.

Jonathan, I also have a strict policy with Airbnb, but airbnb overruled it. Airbnb is the boss and when you put your property on their site, you automatically you agree with Airbnb's policy.

So be carefull. For example you rent out a nice villa and somebody books it for 3 weeks in August, with 1 mail from Airbnb you can loose 3 weeks. Impossible to find another holidaymaker just a few hours before their holiday.

People can take advantage of that: cancel for medical reason and book a very advantageous last minute somewhere else!!! Just a paper from your doctor and that is it. 100% refund from Airbnb!!

Btw, the strict policy (without illness, death etc) with Airbnb is not strict at all! So Airbnb is only for really low season. I learned my lesson!

Thank you for making that clear Pilou, I've been stung by Airbnb in the past with their 'we'll decide how much to refund, it'll be 50% thank you' guest compensation policy, so for our villa I will definitely be blocking out out peak months now as any loss of a booking during that time would have to be covered from our own pockets.