All Forum Posts by: Jeff Langley

Absolutely say no… and then expect Airbnb to refund the guest anyway. That’s what happened to me. Good luck!

I’d rather have thorough communication than no communication. 

With that said, my cleaners only notify me when something needs addressed. Set clear expectations with your team and have those conversations at the beginning and when necessary. I personally don’t care when a sheet is stained or a light bulb is out. I empower my team to solve problems on their own and only include me when necessary. 

Operate it like a business and not a job. My $.2. Best of luck! 

Quote from @Bryan S.:

I’ve dealt with a bunch between hurricanes / snow storms/etc

For hurricane Ian (coming to my area) - I just gave a refund as when it was headed directly for my market. Was just hoping the land would still exist. 

For snowstorms (guest having travel trouble) - if I have an opening I probably won’t fill I offer a rebook. 

Other times where it felt like they could fly the next day, I held true to the cancellation policy [no refund / no rebook] and they came the next day. 

One time I told the guest to talk to Airbnb. Airbnb just called me and highly suggested a full refund and put me in a precarious position making the guest think I’d give a refund or I’m a jerk 

Curious to hear other folks approach here as well
 

I had a similar situation where Airbnb called me and tried to convince me to cancel/refund the guest. I said no and that i would like to follow my strict cancellation policy along with my description suggesting the guest get travel Insurance…. Airbnb chose to refund the guest anyway. I’ve had two interactions with Airbnb and both cost me thousands. 

Sure, some will be in trouble and some will succeed. That’s no different than a lot of things. If you buy on strong fundamentals and truly focus on location location location, you should have no issues. I increased my nightly rates and already have strong bookings for next summer. 

I think most educated investors could have seen this coming in Phoenix, as the podcast suggests. 

Has anyone had any luck getting a HELOC on rental properties? Seems like all banks put a stop on it for now.

Quote from @John Underwood:

Quote from @Dave Stokley:

Quote from @John Underwood:

This is no surprise as Airbnb keeps making changes that are not owner friendly.

Only charging owners 3% is pretty friendly. If you have to process your owner credit cards that's 3% right there. Plus you have to figure out how to drive thousands of people to your personal website (tons of money and time), you don't have Aircover, your guests have no prior reviews, etc.

 Vrbo is a better product for me. 

It's not the 3% which I agree is good. It's the changing algorithms, not showing up in certain type searches, siding with travelers over anything and everything.

Some of this is just what I have heard as Airbnb doesn't bring in many bookings for me. I have true vacation rentals and people are using Vrbo 98% of the time at least in my areas and on my properties. 

I absolutely prefer VRBO, but unfortunately it’s about a 50/50 split for my area so i have to offer on both. 

Absolutely agree. There’s no longer a need to be solely held hostage by Airbnb. They cost me 5k over the summer by locking my account for no reason and no matter how many times i escalated the case, Airbnb had zero answers and randomly closed my support ticket. I can’t risk that happening again. 

I would certainly pass. If you’re looking for a hands-off approach, why not buy more multi family and make a “safer” play for LTR instead of a new shiny object?

Transparency.

I’d be very hesitant, especially if the area gets snow in the winter. I have a place in a flat area of mountains, but the road is dirt and not maintained by the county/city. No matter how thorough my communication is, people still take cars/vans where they shouldn’t go and get stuck in mud or snow.