All Forum Posts by: Mindy Jensen

@Mindy Jensen I know if you as a host cancel

On Airbnb that prevents you from being a super host for one year. I think what the host did is fair. There is no way in hell the guest would willingly pay more if asked - in fact the guest would be saying “it’s not fair he wants me to pay more”. So the host cancelled the reservation (with plenty of advance notice we are

In early September) and the host will accept any penalties from the platform. Sucks for the guests who thought they were getting an awesome deal but there is plenty of time to rebook elsewhere so I don’t see what the issue is...

How long after reserving/how close to the travel dates did the host cancel?  This situation LITERALLY happened to me on the host side two days ago, someone booking for Labor Day weekend 2020.  

The way the calendars work is you set how far in advance people can book (I have 1 year) and that's also how far in advance you can set your prices.  I try to be especially mindful about this around holidays, for this very reason.  However, in the case of Labor day, it occurs several days later next year than it does this year, I've been traveling, and facts of life are I don't have the time or inclination to update my future pricing one day at a time to stay on top of it.

In my particular instance, I got a reservation for September 5-7, 2020.  At first I didn't notice the year and thought "This is weird, aren't we past the 5th yet?" and then I realized it was for next year.  I looked at my calendar, realized it was 2 days on Labor Day weekend, and *immediately* messaged the guest explaining what had happened and that for that weekend there's a 3 day minimum and the rates are X.  I was happy to adjust her reservation accordingly, but if she didn't care to do that, she was welcome to cancel with my apologies.  Maybe 15 minutes had elapsed from her booking.

Sucky thing to do?  Well yeah, I don't like doing that and if it had happened further down the line/closer to her stay, I probably wouldn't have done it.  But it's also sucky for me to be expected to honor my lowest price on a holiday weekend when someone's literally booked it the moment the dates come available, 12 months in advance.  

Currently, the penalties for cancelling a guest without good cause (like an urgent repair/mechanical issue) involve stripping you of any Superhost/Premier Partner status you may have (for a year, with AirBNB - which is a Big Deal to me) and dinging your search ranking. If you cancel a guest on AirBNB, they will block your calendar and not allow you to book those dates with another guest, to discourage things like this.  I'm not sure what the policy is on VRBO.

Anyway, my perspective is that there's multiple angles to look at and depending on the circumstances, better/worse ways to handle this issue.  I'd hope that my situation gets some grace given my particular circumstances.  Your friend's may be different, and I'm sorry this happened to him.  There are already consequences in place for hosts who cancel on guests, though I could see a world where depending on how much time has elapsed since the reservation/how close in time the reservation is, there could be a financial element as well (like a reverse cancellation policy).  And of course, there should always be contingencies in the event of an unforeseeable issue where the host has to cancel due to urgent repair, etc.

As an agent, don't you have a legal responsibility to submit all offers to the owner?  Then it would be the owners decision to reject the offer.  

@Brandi Scharrer I've gone through the BiggerPockets list of real estate abbreviations and still can't find STR :D What does STR stand for?

I'm also a digital nomad, and have been spending most of my time renting apartments in Asia. But would love to setup a "home base" in Las Vegas. I'm going there in October and November to learn as much as I can about multi-family investing and the neighborhoods. And to see if it's a place I see myself living long-term.

If you ever want to meetup and talk real estate, or join any real estate meetups in Vegas, just let me know!

@Mindy Jensen let me know when you have a Tshirt, shorts and flip flops convention with margaritas. I don't dress up anymore. Mexico, Hawaii or Costa Rica will work. Have fun people.

@Mindy Jensen I would love to buy a PDF version to load into GoodNotes on my iPad to use with my Apple Pencil. Will an option like this be available at some point? Thank you!