All Forum Posts by: Lisa Graesser

I take direct booking for our high season Jan -April, one year in advance and usually to repeat guests. I take 1/2 total upfront and balance due 60 days prior to arrival. Cancellation policy is full refund less cancellation fee of $200 and any credit card fee is cancelled greater than 60 days prior to arrival, 1/2 refund of total if cancelled 60-30 days prior to arrival and no refund if cancelled less than 30 days prior to arrival.

Quote from @JD Martin:

I keep in reasonable regular contact with guests before their stay but I will not provide access or location information earlier than an hour or two before their stay, as I have had people show up before guests have left and before cleaners have finished. Without the address and access code I don't have to worry about that. 

If you have a remote lock like schlage encode,  you can enter the time the code will start and end , but give the guest the information of how to enter in advance, I think If I was going on vacation and did not have any info on how to get in prior to one hour  before check in that would make me a litte anxious and start my vacation with not so great vibes.

My cleaners charge $125  cleaning fee for  2 bed/2 bath and $150 for a 3 bed/2bath, I charge an additional $15/night as a pet fee (Max 2 dogs), Airbnb doesn't allow an additional nightly fee so I charge $150/stay, my cleaners charge an extra $25 for the additionl cleaning required for pet hair removal. 

Glad to hear you are OK and didn't sustain too much damage.  The pictures & videos I have seen are so devastating. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible storm.

Definitely, you will introduce a different demographic from vrbo then you will with airbnb. 

Although I am sure some guest do like that added touch, I would not leave in my rentals. For one reason not everyone drinks or may not drink wine. For another reason, what if you have someone struggling with alcohol use and I certainly wouldn't want to entice that struggle. If guests want alcohol the can bring in their own preference.

Thanks for the heads up, I saw an email about discounts but I didn't read it.

I pay my cleaner via Venmo as soon as she sends me the message that the cleaning is completed.

I have the similar settings as @Bruce Woodruff "guest must have a good track record" and I send a pre-book message that they will have to provide me with their email address in order for me to send them the rental agreement and I have not had any issues with using that option. I recently booked a place on Airbnb that did not have instant booking. It would not have deterred me from booking, but I did not like the fact that I may have had to wait 24 hrs for a confirmation. So not sure if it increases bookings unless the guest doesn't have 24hrs to wait. But the initial impression for the guest is probably better when they can instant book.

I received this message also. I checked the reservation that they stated may have been affected and my guest was charged correctly.