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AirBNB as a TS rental platform

WVBaker

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I think you can block the calendar in a way that it's only possible to reserve the exact dates you have available.
You can and perhaps I've been lucky but, never had any problems with AirBnB with any rental listed with them over the years.
 

Robert D

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It takes a while to get your listings setup on Airbnb but it's more than worth it. I think it's very important to spend the time needed to create a good listing with lots of pictures and information that accurately describes your property. Airbnb has a long list of different types of amenities and features that helps to describe what you have. I think it's a big mistake to over sell or over hype your property. If you have basic accommodations at a budget price for the area and season, don't say it's a Ritz Carlton. There's a market for all levels of accommodations and the guests perception of what they're getting is critical to getting 5 star ratings on Airbnb and becoming and staying a superhost. It's also very important to be responsive to inquiries and this is one of the factors that determine if you make and continue to be a superhost. My response time has been 100% within an hour for virtually the entire time I've been on the site. Items like this determine where your listing gets displayed on the site. I think it's very important to be on the first or second page. If there's 300 listings for the time and place, not many will see it if you're on page 20.

You have to be very careful in setting up your calendar. Best to tell the system to make all dates unavailable by default and then just enter the dates that you have available. Be sure to remove dates from your calendar if you rent it on another site like Redweek. This is critically important if you have your listings setup as Instant book which I do because someone can and will rent your place in the middle of the night when you're asleep and if your calendar is not accurate, you can run into big problems with Airbnb. It's probably good to not do instant book at first until you get familiar with the system. The site is very powerful and flexible in pricing, minimum / maximum stays, check in days, check out days, and a ton of other areas and it takes time and experience to learn how to use the tools on there.

Also need to check the cancelation terms because I think the system defaults to flexible and I want strict terms where the guest can get a 50% refund if they cancel at least 7 days before check-in and no refund if they cancel inside of 7 days. My weeks are high demand and I can get them re-rented for more than 50% if I have 7 days notice.

I've been on the site for about 6 years and became a superhost a few months after going on the site and have been one ever since. My listings get posted almost immediately but that might be because I've been on the site so long. Regarding payment, I've always received the ACH in my bank account around the second business day after check-in.

If anyone needs help with getting started, PM me and I'll try to help or at least point you in the right direction. I'm not an Airbnb ambassador and don't want or expect to get paid for helping people. I was lucky that an Airbnb employee helped me when I first went on the site but the company was a lot smaller back then.
 

chapjim

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[
True, but didn’t work on three occasions

You can block it but Airbnb pays no attention to it. Airbnb isn't geared to fixed reservations like timeshares.
 
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chapjim

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Airbnb can't rent nights that are not in your calendar. I have many listings where only one week is in my calendar.

True, but Airbnb can and will propose nights that are blocked out on one's calendar. Up a few posts, that was my problem -- I didn't read the email from Airbnb carefully and it proposed a period one night off from what I had blocked out. My fault but the point is, Airbnb does not feel bound by the blocks on a calendar when it comes to proposing a booking.
 

Robert D

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I've never had Airbnb propose a stay that was not on the calendar unless a guest requested different dates from what's on the calendar. Virtually all of my listings are instant book so I don't usually get a stay request that I have to approve.
 

chapjim

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I've never had Airbnb propose a stay that was not on the calendar unless a guest requested different dates from what's on the calendar. Virtually all of my listings are instant book so I don't usually get a stay request that I have to approve.

That's exactly what happened. A guest requested different dates than what I had open. Fortunately, when I explained it to the guest, he didn't really care whether it was a Saturday start or a Sunday start.

For what other reason would Airbnb propose a stay except at the request of a guest?
 
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Tank

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Contact Airbnb Support and they will let you know. Its possible the system flagged it or you need further verification. They will help you too make it show up live on the site. This is the Help Center - https://www.airbnb.com/help/hosting-stays and try this link when logged in ... https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact-us?role=home_host

recently had a AirBnb rental @ Lake Tahoe timeshare resort.
so I don’t own the place just using my reservation.
what do we do with these type of notices?

saving the above quote with this for help
Thanks
Dave

FB69AFC3-C626-4C79-ADDD-57A7E1C858A7.png
 

chapjim

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recently had a AirBnb rental @ Lake Tahoe timeshare resort.
so I don’t own the place just using my reservation.
what do we do with these type of notices?

saving the above quote with this for help
Thanks
Dave

View attachment 36898

I had the same problem listing a resort in New Orleans. The license costs $500 and the city's website is down so you have apply in person.

I gave up! Some of my earlier posts in this thread were about how to delete an draft listing that will never go live. Nobody knows!
 

rapmarks

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I had the same problem listing a resort in New Orleans. The license costs $500 and the city's website is down so you have apply in person.

I gave up! Some of my earlier posts in this thread were about how to delete an draft listing that will never go live. Nobody knows!
I need to delete a draft listing I never knew I started and a couple of others. Will work on it on a rainy day
 

pacman777

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Hate to admit this but for timeshare rentals just stick with RedWeek. It’s got the most visibility and traffic and people looking to rent already know what timeshares are and how they typically work. Also don’t have to deal with high maintenance negative guest reviews or Airbnb not releasing payment to you if a guest falsely complains. Just don’t use Redweeks full service or payment processing as they screwed me out of $3k at the start of the whole Covid debacle saying the guest cancelled since Colorado skiing was halted and notified me via email a day after check in date even though the resort was fully open and accepting guests and airlines were still fully operational.
 

Robert D

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Hate to admit this but for timeshare rentals just stick with RedWeek. It’s got the most visibility and traffic and people looking to rent already know what timeshares are and how they typically work. Also don’t have to deal with high maintenance negative guest reviews or Airbnb not releasing payment to you if a guest falsely complains. Just don’t use Redweeks full service or payment processing as they screwed me out of $3k at the start of the whole Covid debacle saying the guest cancelled since Colorado skiing was halted and notified me via email a day after check in date even though the resort was fully open and accepting guests and airlines were still fully operational.

I would agree with this if your objective is to get the least amount of rentals as possible. Not sure how you can say Redweek has more visibility and traffic than Airbnb. Airbnb has the largest amount of rental traffic on the planet and Redweek isn't even in the top 10. The only people who know anything about Redweek are people who are familiar with timeshares. A condo is a condo whether it's a timeshare or wholly owned and you'll get a lot more rentals from Airbnb than Redweek or any timeshare centered site.
 

grupp

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Hate to admit this but for timeshare rentals just stick with RedWeek. It’s got the most visibility and traffic and people looking to rent already know what timeshares are and how they typically work. Also don’t have to deal with high maintenance negative guest reviews or Airbnb not releasing payment to you if a guest falsely complains. Just don’t use Redweeks full service or payment processing as they screwed me out of $3k at the start of the whole Covid debacle saying the guest cancelled since Colorado skiing was halted and notified me via email a day after check in date even though the resort was fully open and accepting guests and airlines were still fully operational.

Renting on Redweek is really depends on what resort you are renting. Some resorts, particularly high demand Marriotts, do great there. But, I agree with Robert that for many resorts there is just not enough traffic on Redweek and you will not get a good price if you get anything at all. I found that out the hard way.
 

pacman777

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I would agree with this if your objective is to get the least amount of rentals as possible. Not sure how you can say Redweek has more visibility and traffic than Airbnb. Airbnb has the largest amount of rental traffic on the planet and Redweek isn't even in the top 10. The only people who know anything about Redweek are people who are familiar with timeshares. A condo is a condo whether it's a timeshare or wholly owned and you'll get a lot more rentals from Airbnb than Redweek or any timeshare centered site.
I guess I was speaking in terms of just timeshares (not overall rentals in general). I’ve used Airbnb as well but had more success with RedWeek for my Vistana home resort rentals (mostly Kierland spring training). No doubt Airbnb gets more traffic and eyeballs but then again the supply of rentals is massive and you’re competing against owners who have nice homes that they are renting out flexible length of time and often for cheaper than my expected price that I’m used to getting
 

WahooWah

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I guess I was speaking in terms of just timeshares (not overall rentals in general). I’ve used Airbnb as well but had more success with RedWeek for my Vistana home resort rentals (mostly Kierland spring training). No doubt Airbnb gets more traffic and eyeballs but then again the supply of rentals is massive and you’re competing against owners who have nice homes that they are renting out flexible length of time and often for cheaper than my expected price that I’m used to getting

I agree with you here, pacman. If you are renting a timeshare at a branded property in a highly demanded season and location, you will probably do very well with Redweek. A lot of rental agents are watching Redweek for these types of properties and can bring the renters to you (from VRBO or AirBNB or their own book of business) with very little hassle. AirBNB sounds like a major headache for a number of reasons that are simply not issues when advertising on your own on Redweek (without Redweek's extra "assistance"). VRBO charges you about 11% and they are forced to collect the local government taxes, which is a problem if the owner doesn't already have their license or tax IDs set up before renting out their week. I still can't figure out from this thread what AirBNB actually charges you in commission or taxes.

Using VRBO and AirBNB for condos makes a lot of sense. I'm not yet convinced that they are good tools for renting timeshares.
 

rapmarks

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I had Airbnb listing for July 2 thru 9. This is the one I set for five day minimum and 149 a night in March, the first three days were booked 99 a night. Airbnb did not know why that happened. I later booked the other four days. Today I received a request for more pictures for July 2 thru 7. Sure enough the days already booked were shown as available.
 

AGyllen

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I had tried renting via VBRO before, and rented a unit from there, and had considered AirBNB. but getting the week or days available (calendar features) and getting the listing set up was a bit of a pain.

I was recently approached by AirBNB Ambassadors who are looking for TS rentals to post via AirBNB. Figured I had nothing to lose so I would try it.

They set up the listing with description and pictures, and I did all the rest ,with date available and rental type etc. They charge no additional fee, but there are given credit by AirBNB to bring the listing to them. So they assist with the listing setup and get paid from AIrBNB. AirBNB is charging me a 3% commission charge. Which is lower than Koloa. Koloa is specifically geared to TS and as such adding a listing is easy, as they provide all the description and pictures. But I just don't know how much traffic they get or if navigating the website is the easiest.

I have rented 1 unit on Koala, I would have had a 2nd rental last week, but as I was completing a rental privately, I got a request to rent it. Which I had to decline. They were not happy with me. But heck I had not even finished with the private rental, as it was just happening.

Koala had my Destin mid June rental, priced well ($2100), good location( Destin Emerald Grande), large unit (3 BR Plus Harborview), posted it 5/17. I know only 6 days, but not a single nibble. I also had it on TUG where I had 1 nibble but they were ultimately not interested. So with AirBNB I put the listing up Friday night, and by Sunday early it was rented. So I had not considered AirBNB, but I am rethinking it now. If you want the Ambassador Info for the guys I used, PM and I will provide the contact.

Hi! I would be interested in the contact information for the person you used. I received a voicemail from someone claiming to be an AirBNB Ambassador interested in my week that I posted here on TUG... but I wasn't sure if it was legit or if it was a scam. I am encouraged by reading your post here!
 

Jesse6283

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My listing still doesn't show up, when i search Cancun for Dec 26 to Jan 2. Frustrating experience with the platform so far

How long did you wait before you searched for your listing? After you "publish" your listing, there is usually a 24 hour review period (sometimes more), before it goes live on the site. As you can imagine, with millions of listings and users uploading their own pictures, their needs to be an internal audit on every listing before it goes live to make sure that there is nothing inappropriate.
 

Jesse6283

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recently had a AirBnb rental @ Lake Tahoe timeshare resort.
so I don’t own the place just using my reservation.
what do we do with these type of notices?

saving the above quote with this for help
Thanks
Dave

View attachment 36898

@chapjim @Tank --- In regards to Permits, you can claim an exemption if you have a timeshare! You most likely do not need to apply for a city permit for short term rental as your hotel already has it... Here is how you do it on Airbnb: Click on get your permit and then there will be a section that says "I am exempt" -- You can click on that and then say that you have a hotel. Airbnb will do a quick verification on their end but when they search the address of your listing and see that it is a hotel/timeshare they will not require you to do this. If your listing is already live, you can also access this section by clicking on the Policies and Rules Tab in your listing and then scrolling down until you see "Regulations". If you do not see "Regulations", then Airbnb does not require a permit for your listing as your county has not required it yet...

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1628186474251.png
 

Mongoose

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From a standpoint of "closing the sale", How does AirBNB compare to Redweek or the Tug Marketplace? I've only had one rental and that was on Redweek. Thanks!
 

jules54

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I’ve rented a lot of my New Orleans properties on Airbnb and VRBO. Jesse is correct Airbnb gives exempt status to Timeshares in New Orleans and no permits are required. I did struggle with this, but an Airbnb employee emailed me and directed me on what to do.
VRBO couldn’t seem to figure out the same system they warned they would take down any ads that did not have permits by a certain date and they followed through and did so. In 2020 Probably because of Covid it’s like that never happened. I just reactivated my ads and have heard nothing from VRBO about permits.
Once you struggle through getting that first ad up and figure out what your doing everything goes smoothly. I never do instant book as I need to see each request and find the availability before I can confirm. Airbnb blocks out your calendar as soon as you get a request. You have to go in and unblock the calendar if the guest doesn’t book.
 

Jesse6283

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From a standpoint of "closing the sale", How does AirBNB compare to Redweek or the Tug Marketplace? I've only had one rental and that was on Redweek. Thanks!

Airbnb has millions of members that are searching on the site + your ads will be indexed on Google/Search engines so there is a far higher chance you will sell your unit. I always tell new hosts when I onboard them, the best strategy is to put your listings on ALL of the websites, and may the first rental win! Also, once your listing is live on Airbnb, all you have to do in the future is update your calendars for following years so it is well worth your time to setup a listing on Airbnb + RW/Tug to increase your chances of renting.
 

Jesse6283

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From a standpoint of "closing the sale", How does AirBNB compare to Redweek or the Tug Marketplace? I've only had one rental and that was on Redweek. Thanks!

Airbnb automates charging the guest for you and the contracts. Essentially, as a host all you have to do is press the "Accept" button when someone makes a request or alternatively, press the "Make Offer" button, in which you can change the dates and price if you are negotiating, and the guest will press the "Accept" button on their end. When the Accept button is pressed, it will charge the guests charge and it is also accepting the terms and conditions as per the Airbnb terms and conditions which is essentially the contract, based on the cancellation policy you have also selected on your listing settings. No need to worry about contracts or PayPal. Airbnb will pay you the day after the guest checks in. One other thing to note, Airbnb will usually mark your listing by default as "instant book" - This means that someone can book your unit without asking you for approval first, if you wish to approve the sale first, turn this feature off.
 

Robert D

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Airbnb has millions of members that are searching on the site + your ads will be indexed on Google/Search engines so there is a far higher chance you will sell your unit. I always tell new hosts when I onboard them, the best strategy is to put your listings on ALL of the websites, and may the first rental win! Also, once your listing is live on Airbnb, all you have to do in the future is update your calendars for following years so it is well worth your time to setup a listing on Airbnb + RW/Tug to increase your chances of renting.
This is excellent advice, well stated and I agree completely. One think I would add is to spend time composing your Airbnb listing and include all of the information you have including info and pictures from the resort's website. Also, accurately describe your property and don't oversell it. There are customers for all levels of accommodations and the worst thing you can do make your guests think that it's a lot better than it is. Perceptions are very important. If it's a Holiday Inn, don't say it's a Ritz Carlton.

One thing I've noticed thus far this year is I'm getting more rentals from Redweek than ever before and more than I've gotten from Airbnb. Airbnb can't be beat when you get close to the check in date and especially for last minute rentals.
 
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