All Forum Posts by: Collin Hays

It all depends on whether or not you want to operate ethically.  The management company space is crowded with mostly unethical people who are ripping homeowners off.

As for my company, we charge 25 percent of rents.  Most management companies have also begun the practice of charging hefty booking fees that they do not share with the owners.  It's called rent shifting.  It's very unethical but most homeowners haven't the slightest clue.  Go to youtube and type in "vacation management companies exposed" for a short explanation.

Most management cos also mark-up repairs and use their homeowner clients' cabins for up to 2 weeks a year for "administrative and marketing" purposes.  In other words, they use two weeks to barter for various goods and services.  I know one fellow who used a client's cabin for "administrative" purposes for several truckfuls of firewood as an example.  Same guy gave away one week per year of a client's cabin for a fellow to mind and manage his salt water aquarium. Goes on all of the time.

I've got better things to do with my time than rip people off.  But those are pretty standard practices in the industry.  

All of the “I told you so’s” are coming out of the woods here!  You were a lot  smarter than Dr Fauci!

“It isn't something the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about, because we have ways of preparing and screening of people coming in [from China]," 

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci.

 Don’t take me too seriously.  I have a very dry sense of humor.  Laughing a little is good balm right now.

Yeah I don’t see that letting folks stay my cabin is causing the spread of COVID.  As long as they are staying inside - playing board games, naked twister, watching movies, etc., no harm no foul.

COVID isn’t going to be quashed this side of a vaccine.  As soon as social distancing subsides, it will flair up again.  

If social distancing was really the answer, you wouldn’t be driving around seeing Walmart and Lowe’s still open. Nor would there be any travel, subways, or buses.  Give me a break.  

I consider all of my guests essential.  So there's that.

A cabin is a house.  I have no issue with folks sheltering in my cabins - they’ve got to shelter somewhere - night as well be at my places.

Obviously that was a full month ago and I was dead wrong.  My apologies.

Honestly I'm not worried about it because I don't use the AirBnB platform.  This being a discussion forum, it is helpful to know, however, what all of the fuss is about.  As I said, cancellations and refunds aren't the issue per se.  The issue is who is an insurer.

It doesn’t really matter why a reservation is cancelled; there are a myriad of good and valid reasons to cancel a plane trip, house rental, or appointment with your shrink.  

This is about insurance and indemnification.  Homeowners are not insurers.  If you are Airbnb and selling trip insurance, then step up as the insurer and pay claims.  You don’t skirt the very insurance you are selling and place the homeowner in a position of insurer.  

Airbnb’s contract needs to explicitly explain to hosts something like the following:  “You agree that the trip insurance we are marketing is actually just a profit center for us and we don’t pay claims for valid cancellations, but we instead are going to place you, the Host, in the position of insurer for cancellations as it suits us.”