How do you respond to hagglers?

[An Old Tavernkeeper]

About 1/3 of our Airbnb guests come back but the large number of those book direct. We have the advantage of having a vineyard on site and being 2 hours from DC, so if they are coming back to visit the vineyard we can snag them again.

Our issue with Airbnb guests is that they are generally cheap, dirty, wasteful and rude. Not all, but the majority.

 

[Morticia]

It does amaze me that we add 3% to our AirBnB rates to cover our commission, the guest plays a huge fee on top of that to AirBnB, and we still have so many Air bookings this year. All these people paying more than they'd have to if they'd just book direct. We have a little "book direct" card we put in their free coffee cup when they check out, letting them know they'll save on their next visit if they book direct.

One thing I've discovered is that while I get some guests who come back from AirBnB, our return rate for those guests is much lower than first-timers who book direct or even those who find us through other OTAs. It's like Air customers revel in trying different places, even though they found our place amazing in every way.

We’ve had air guests tell us they don’t pay a commission so it’s the same price no matter how they book. (Not true because they are paying my piece of the commission, but they don’t realize that.) Others have said they don’t trust air hosts so they want the 500 lb gorilla backing them up. (Seriously? You don’t trust the hosts but you’re going to stay there anyway?)

You’re correct, tho. More booking dot com guests come back as direct than air.

 

[Lee2014]

The first B&B I worked at discounts were in our favor. A couple people got the best rooms in the house for the cheapest room rate during the off season only because we didn't feel like cleaning it that day when we had open clean rooms available. We just told them that there was an issue with the room they booked so we are giving them a free upgrade. They were all delighted!

 

[GoodScout]

We use free upgrades all the time to move people to rooms that can reduce our housekeeping load on a given day, or sometimes just because we don't want people in the Main House that night. The least-expensive room is right under our bedroom, so we often upgrade people out of it so we don't hear muffled luggage-bumping at night.