Many times on this forum people advise each other to follow their gut instinct and I generally agree. But as my gut instinct would lead to me losing a week's rental at a time when my place is empty for four weeks, I wanted to ask some advice from you wise people.
Let me explain:
On Wednesday, one of the sites I list on came to me with an inquiry for next week. I said yes, happily, cos it's empty as a ghost town til mid-March. This site takes a 20 per cent commission from the renter, so the rate he pays is higher than I charge for a direct booking. (I still get the same).
So when he asked them for a discount, I wasn't completely surprised, except that he wanted more than 20 per cent off. As this would seriously eat into what I get, I counter-offered a little over 10 per cent. He said yes to this yesterday so should have paid a deposit today.
Just now I got a message from the manager of another site I list on, where I pay the commission (well worth it for the bookings I get), saying she had an inquiry for the same week. Immediately suspicious, I told her I had a booking, and asked who her inquirer was. Yep, same guy.
Now, I can understand that he would want to shop around for the best deal, but he had already said yes to the first offer. If I accepted the second site, I would make significantly less, because I pay commission to the site to handle the booking, but it's the same rate as on my rent-by-owner sites.
Needless to say, I refused the second inquiry.
Still no deposit from the first offer - and I'm inclined to tell this guy to get lost. I fear he will turn out to be high-maintenance as a guest as well. Trouble is, the apartment is empty since last week and I have no bookings until mid-March - my longest empty period.
Should I swallow my pride and accept (assuming he does cough up for that first offer)? Or stick to my principles and bite the loss? Am I taking this too personally? Am I not yet a hard-headed businesswoman?
Thanks for any advice.
Elaine
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