Trying to ween myself off of Airbnb

[Brian Eilering]

As everyone is rushing to get into the Airbnb market, we have been in it long enough to want to get off of their platform altogether.

We still want to do short-term rentals just not on Airbnb due to their guest-friendly company policies.

We are not in a vacation area so VRBO produced next to nothing.  We actually cater to workers coming in and out of our area.  We love the aspect of the 30-90 day guest.  We have our units on Furnished Finder and it fills some of our calendars, just not all of them.  

Does anyone have experience with other sites or strategies doing short-term rentals....not on Airbnb?

[Collin Hays]

We do not list our properties on Airbnb due to ethical concerns. I am all about the customer, but when Airbnb forced hosts to give refunds indefinitely during COVID, no questions asked, we felt that to be completely unethical:

Airbnb was essentially placing the homeowner in the position of insurer, with the homeowner absorbing all of the financial brunt of cancellations. That’s not what hosts signed up for. Death, illness, job loss, and all sorts of other valid issues, can cause an unexpected cancellation.  That’s why you buy travel insurance.  

Meanwhile, for all the cancellations that were insured - guests that purchased the insurance pushed by Airbnb - Airbnb simply pocketed all of the premiums, not giving a dime to the hosts!  How they escaped a DOJ or FTC inquiry is truly incredible.

If I was forced to do business with Airbnb, I would simply shut down the business.