All Forum Posts by: Carolyn Fuller

Unfortunately, my STRs rely heavily on international travelers. I haven't had any cancellations yet this year and don't know if there will be cancellations. 

My MTRs also rely heavily on international travelers. Inquiries for the MTRs have dramatically fallen. I normally would have all my MTRs leased through the end of the calendar year by now and none of them are leased through the end of the year.

So, yes, I'm taking a hit. I just don't know how much of a hit.

Are others nervous about what impact a decline in international travelers will have on their STRs? 

75% of my current bookings are from international travelers so I'm worried.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...

I take exception to this statement. As a 57 year Cambridge resident who strongly supported this zoning reform, I can attest that all the public meetings I attended during the process that led to the Feb 10 vote, were a mixture of support and opposition. Most of the meetings had close to 60% supporting and 40% opposing.

And it's not just the public meetings. Housing advocates have been successful at ensuring our city council has a majority pro-housing city councillors. Starting in 2019, every election cycle has seen our pro-housing candidates win 6 of the 9 city council spots.

I do both STR and Mid Term. Airbnb is super expensive for mid term.

You need to figure out what your market is for mid term. For me, it is simple. My units are both near 2 huge universities (MIT & Harvard) so it is easy to target visiting scholars and lease by the semester (winter, summer, fall). The unit that I can't STR is leased 100% with no gaps but I'm stickler for leases starting and ending on a semester timeline. If someone wants to lease, say Jun 1 - July 15, I say "sorry."

I advertise mid term via non-STR platforms, in my case, sabbaticalhomes.com & the university off-campus housing sites. I'm charged peanuts compared to what Airbnb would charge.

If this property has no well defined target audience, it will be very difficult to design your leases to match the audience. Therefore, it will be an expensive potshot. There will be plenty of gaps.

Heads up, South Korea is now forcing Airbnb to offer full refunds to South Korean guests all the way up to the final day of the reservation. Airbnb gives hosts the opportunity to decline the reservation. If the reservation is just for a couple of days, I accept it. Longer and I would reject it.

A lot of my guests expecting full refunds are coming from East Asia. I'm now wondering if that isn't a cultural difference. Perhaps the East Asian hospitality industry provides full refunds no questions asked. 

I worked for a US retail company that had a policy of accepting returns no questions asked and even when I accidentally uncovered someone seriously abusing the policy, my bosses wouldn't pursue the matter. 

As a host, when I treat the expectation as a cultural misunderstanding, as opposed to spoiled guest syndrome, the whole experience goes much more smoothly. 

I'm not sure why this is happening, but I seem to be getting a lot more people who want to cancel and get full refunds in the 11th, 12th or 13th hour than ever before.

I found the hard "no" led to headaches so I switched to, "if it is rebooked, I will give you a refund." That has worked out much better.

Some of my 11th hour cancellations end up deciding to come after all. 

My 13th hour cancellation was someone who had booked for 3 weeks and after a week announced that her plans had changed and she was leaving the following morning. She wanted a full refund on the 2 weeks she was cancelling. 

She finally accepted that she wasn't getting a refund if the unit wasn't rebooked. She monitored the bookings and asked me to slash my prices in hopes of getting bookings. I did as she asked and managed to book 6 of the 14 nights she had cancelled. And that was at bargain basement prices! After removing the expenses involved with turnovers, she is getting back a 1/4 of what she lost in that cancellation. 

It was slightly more work on my part but a ton fewer headaches. She isn't thrilled that her refund is so low but I was able to give her an exact account of the revenue minus expenses and she thanked me.

Far fewer phone calls. Far less of a headache. I'm happy and the guests are reasonably ok. The ones who decided to come, after all, left 5 star reviews.

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

Quote from @Carolyn Fuller:

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

Thanks, John. At a place I own surrounded by wineries, we provide a local bottle of wine. People love it, and for only $13, its worth the price of an enhanced guest experience and higher chance of a 5-star review. 

 Unfortunately, some blue law states (e.g., Massachusetts) don't allow us to leave alcohol in our Airbnbs... Sigh...

That's too bad. Alcohol seems to always be a hit. 

 Huge hit! Anyone who is able to leave a bottle of wine for their guests should do it. On the other hand, the croissant are cheaper, local and work pretty darn well.

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

Quote from @Carolyn Fuller:

My ratings & reviews improved substantially when I went from providing quality chocolate & fresh flowers to providing croissant from a local bakery. Expenses went down and ratings / reviews went up.

I did the switch after staying in an Airbnb that provided both flowers and local bakery goodies. My husband & I really appreciated the bakery goods, not only because they were tasty but because they left the address for us so we could continue delighting in the offerings. We didn't even notice the amazing fresh flower arrangement for almost 24 hours!  

I immediately got home and created a laminated note about the unique local bakery, which bakes the best croissant I have ever tasted, including the croissant I had in Paris, just around the corner of the Airbnb listing. I leave the laminated note plus the croissant and no flowers.

Local goodies win out over anything else you can provide.

Thanks, Carolyn. I really appreciate you sharing this. Who is picking up the croissants and dropping them off at your place? 

 I am but our cleaning crew does it for us if we are out of town. We live right over the apartment.

Quote from @Tom Dieringer:

Great question, in particular, for those who don't live next door or down the street. I don't have the ability to bake cookies and run them over. We're in a semi-remote resort area and the nearest bakery is a half hour away. We're considering doing something like Dave's cookies via Amazon but that's only semi-fresh baked and subject to shipping damage.

 I don't think you will see much movement in your reviews with Dave's cookies. If there is anything in the resort area that your on the ground crew could pick up and provide, that will make a difference. There's something special about being offered small local items. 

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

Thanks, John. At a place I own surrounded by wineries, we provide a local bottle of wine. People love it, and for only $13, its worth the price of an enhanced guest experience and higher chance of a 5-star review. 

 Unfortunately, some blue law states (e.g., Massachusetts) don't allow us to leave alcohol in our Airbnbs... Sigh...