All Forum Posts by: Josh Ball

Had a guest staying for 28 days. Prior to their arrival we did an entire unit deep clean to ensure it was in great condition for their stay. The stay has ended, we find the unit in a mess upon check out. Burn marks in the rug (non smoking unit), stains on every linen, grease stains on chair & sofa in living room, dishes piled high, needle in the bottom of garbage can. Needless to say we were shocked after the booker had 4 really good reviews. We submitted a claim through aircover & this guest is denying everything. Burn marks were already in the rug, stains were there, we left the unit in good shape & cleaned up before we left. They have refused to pay the claim amount so I have elected to involve Airbnb. We knew that we would want to do another deep clean upon completion of their stay, which we budgeted for out of our monthly revenue but didn't expect needing to replace items & steam clean/shampoo a bunch of the furniture.

Anyways, here to ask, what are the chances anything comes of this? Do we just bite the bullet & go buy a new rug, linens & eat the extra cleaning fees or is there still a chance Aircover does something even after the guest denied? I've attached a couple of photos for reference. 

Thanks.

Proper Insurance most recently.

 I have switched back to the original model. Airbnb now displayed with all fees included so I've got service fee charged separately. Booking have stayed about the same

I have raised our pet fee to $30/night. I have also noted in my booking messages that "If travelling with a pet. They must be crated/kennel while left unattended in the condo. Kennel/crate is not supplied." 

Thanks everyone for the advice/recommendations.

We've started a new condo in a vacation town a couple of hours away. We're allowing pets (with a $75 fee) to pass along to the cleaners. After this recent guest, the pet hair, pet debris from a dog that was clearly walking in grass & brought in the unit has caused for a deep clean of our unit. We knew that by allowing pets, we would need to schedule deep cleanings every so often but we had dog hair everywhere, mud marks on the door like it had been scratching to get outside, paw marks on the rugs, sheets, etc. 

I'm thinking about adding a message to guests who book with a pet that "no pets can be left unattended in the unit" to try to reduce the people bringing pets just to avoid boarding costs.

What do y'all do in this situation? This is our first guest who has left a good bit of hair/debris from their dog.

 I haven't noticed a change in bookings. Although, I am using Price Labs & I am worried the pricing I am providing is the new model but the majority of my competitors that Price Labs is pricing my property off of aren't. Therefore hurting me in the long run.

Competitor $100/night plus the 15%ish fee. Price labs prices me off of that to be competitive at $100 & I'm now at $85 since I'm paying the fee directly.

Quote from @Craig Jones:

I was just about to post about this.

Under the standard fee model, the guest service fee is about 14.2% and the host service fee is 3%.  So AirBnB gets a 17.2% cut in total.

If you choose "simplified pricing" the host fee is 15% and there's no guest fee.  You can then raise your prices so the guest sees the same total as before, and you actually end up netting 2.2% more.  

Another (minor) benefit is that AirBnB compliments you in front of the guest during the booking process:

Of course I'm not really covering anything.  The money has just moved under a different shell.

Craig do you know if the nightly rate displays to guests as a higher rate being that 15% is included? Or does the search results display the standard way with the fee included also?

I've recently switch to the "simplified pricing" that takes the 15% from each payout but doesn't display the additional "service fee" to the guests booking. I'm curious your take on it & whether you believe it to be beneficial? Do you find guests lean towards properties that have it already included in the nightly rate or would rather see the "service fee" charged by Airbnb?

 Thanks Andrew.

Do you find a lot of people take advantage of it or isn't worth the headache?

We've recently started a new STR in a small coastal town. The town allows golf carts with a permit. We've been thinking about adding one as a perk to our guests but wanted to get some opinions.

How does Insurance work? Assuming your guests have to sign a waiver? Do you handle this through the platform (AirBNB or VRBO) or outside? Other Pros/Cons?

Thanks in advance.