All Forum Posts by: Carolyn Fuller

 I could be way wrong. Outside of South Korea, I don't know what the expectations are. 

This past January I had a guest who booked my STR for a month. She was not even a week into her booking when she said her plans had changed and she would be leaving in 2 days. She wanted a full refund on the remaining part of her booking.

I told her I would refund her any portion that I was able to rebook. She ended up only getting about a 1/4 of her money back but I think she was Ok with it. She had total control over the situation. When no one was booking any of the days, she asked me to drop the asking price and I did. When that didn't work, she asked me to drop it even lower. I did exactly what she asked. I think the fact that I gave her that control, she was able to accept the fact that very little of her money was refunded. 

By the way, this guest was from China and I think Asians might have different expectations about refunds. 

I learned later that, by law, South Koreans can cancel a reservation and get a full refund on remaining days all the way up to the checkout day. Airbnb now won't allow a South Korean visitor to book instantly because the host must first agree to the South Korean refund laws. I agreed to a short stay South Korean booking in my shared space listing because it was both short and cheap but I would never agree to a longer stay South Korean booking or one that was for the expensive apartment. I'm guessing this law results in far fewer Airbnb options for South Korean travelers. 

 Not necessarily. My units are in a college town between Harvard and MIT but we relied heavily on international visitors. Among many other issues, international tourism has taken a big hit under this administration. 

re: "Questions: Can you force Airbnb to collect all the taxes? Is this something the County local government can enforce?"

It's the state or city that can force Airbnb to collect all the taxes. It requires lawyers and isn't cheap... Massachusetts forced all the short term platforms to collect all the state and local taxes which wasn't all that easy for the platforms to calculate. Each city has its own tax formula! I think they submit the taxes to the state and the state distributes the local portion to the cities and towns.

We are currently staying in an Airbnb in Salzburg. We found an envelope in the unit when we arrived with instructions on leaving the city tax in the envelope before we leave. Other Airbnbs on this trip have informed us that we need to pay the local taxes upon arrival. As a host, I'd prefer to collect them before the check-in but I'm guessing our current Salzburg hostess has had reasonable experience trusting her guests to leave the appropriate tax euros.

If it is near Syracuse University, consider listing on Sabbatical Homes (www.sabbaticalhomes.com) or the Syracuse off-campus housing website (https://housing.offcampus.syr.edu/list)

Our STR wasn't getting the advanced bookings it normally has gotten for summer rentals which was causing me some anxiety. In December, I decided to rent it mid-term for the calendar year. Significant reduction of income for a significant reduction in anxiety.

Experiences from market to market often vary significantly so what's going on in your market is unlikely to be the same thing that is going on in my market.

That said, my market has gone bonkers. My MTR market has completely vaporized in a matter of months (i.e., since February of this year!). 

My STR market was behaving so unpredictably earlier this year that I decided to just rent our STR mid term for the calendar year.

I'm guessing the reason my MTR world is crashing is because I rely heavily on visiting scholars and our universities are under attack. Not a clue why my STR market went to heck in a basket. I suspect the STR issue is that booking lead times are shrinking.

When I started out as an STR host in 2012 I was just on VRBO's platform, which was known as Home Away at the time. My very second guest was coming for 2 weeks. I researched her on the internet and discovered she had quite a reputation for being the tenant / guest from hell. I put a lot of effort and research into how to ensure a smooth and uneventful 2 weeks.

I don't think VRBO guests are inherently more reasonable guests than Airbnb guests. I suspect they are all very similar. I'm actually amazed that VRBO's advertising children gleefully jumping up and down on the beds doesn't produce a more problematic guest but I guess it doesn't.

 In my youth, I had a very short career as a waitress. One night, one of those "unreasonable" customers announced herself at the door when I over heard her saying, "I don't know why I ever dine out. The food is always terrible and the service even worst." I prayed she didn't sit at my table but, of course, she did. And she brought me to tears within 5 minutes, at which point, an amazingly skilled waitress took over from me. I watched in complete amazement as that waitress had the entire table eating out of the palm of her hand within 10 minutes. She had the skills to turn a super unreasonable customer into a happy, satisfied, and very manageable customer. It was then that I knew I needed to change careers but I stayed in awe of the skills I saw that night.

Becoming an STR host in my retirement has given me the opportunity to learn how to turn the "unreasonable" guest into the happy, satisfied and manageable guest. And, in the process, increased my ratings from 4.89 to 4.96. It also is a supremely satisfying experience!

Great read and many pointers on how to become a 5 star super host!

Unreasonable Hospitality: https://www.unreasonablehospitality.com/