Month: March 2020

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What Airbnb Is Doing For Hosts – 4 Actions Airbnb Is Taking To Support Hosts

This evening, the CEO of Airbnb had a live meeting to discuss the 4 actions airbnb is taking to support hosts. There has been a lot of backlash from hosts who are in a very rough spot since the pandemic, and many hosts are going to struggle to pay their mortgage or rent.

With that, the Airbnb CEO finally decided to step up and talk to hosts. For many like myself, it was about time to hear something from Airbnb. The only thing hosts like myself have heard was that all guests who booked would be receiving a 100% refund for the extenuating circumstances policy. I am 100% for people’s safety, and don’t want people traveling if it isn’t the right thing for them, but it has been tough for everyone.

No matter if you were in short term or long term rentals, it has been a tough time.

Here are the four things the Airbnb CEO has pledged to do

Airbnb CEO Message

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Here are the four actions the CEO promised they would do. Some of the more granular details are yet to be seen, so how everything will work is still up in the air. ⠀

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First, Airbnb will payout hosts $250,000,000 based off 25% of the cancelation policy the host had in place for any bookings that canceled due to COVID-19 made prior to 3/14. This means, if your cancelation policy states you provide a 50% refund, then that means you would ultimately be paid out 12.5% of what you were expecting to payout. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Second, they will offer a $10M superhose relief fund. This is by far the most vague of any of the things they are taking action on. How they will be determining who will receive money and how much was not discussed at all. I am assuming more information will come out at some point in the near future. ⠀⠀

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Third, they will be reaching out to people who have recently stayed at Airbnb’s and ask them if they would like to donate anything to their hosts. I think this is a nice gesture, but not really something many people can afford forking out money for at this point. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Lastly, they said all Airbnb owners will qualify for the small business loans from the stimulus package. Not 100% sure how this would work and who all it would benefit, so need to do more research on this one.

There are still many unknowns, but it was nice to at least hear something from the CEO of Airbnb. Only time will tell to see what actually happens and how much relief hosts will be getting.

Key Takeaways:

  • Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. There are hundreds of thousands of Airbnb hosts that will go under due to the world and environment we live in today. 
  • Don’t ever expect a handout from the government. In all my numbers, I never expect the government to give me anything. No matter what situation I am in. 
  • Keep your head and up and remember you can only control what you can control! There is no reason to get worked up on things that you have 0 control over. 
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Pandemic Airbnb Guest From H E Double Hockey Sticks

Had a large number of responses for this past guest I had stay!

75%!of people said I should not give Kristi a refund.

For those who are getting caught up, this is what happened.

This guest Kristi booked after Disney and all the parks in Orlando shut down. Her booking was after things continued to spiral out where more and more non essential businesses were shutting down.

I had dropped my price per night at Turquoise by 50% to try and attract anyone who would still want to come to the area just to relax and get away.

Kristi booked. She was excited to come down for a four night stay.

Per my standard messaging process, I messaged Kristi the morning after her first night stay to check in to make sure they were having a five star experience.

The response I got was pretty shocking. “We have no interest staying here with the pool Closed!!” She continued on to say, “There is clearly nobody resurfacing the pool!”

The community this home is in has a pool for everyone to use. The HOA didn’t send out any notification to the homeowners that the pool would be closed for the foreseeable future.

Kristi was extremely upset as they only wanted to come down to have a pool to enjoy.

I understood her concern and got a little creative. I had just had someone checking out of Ol’ Faithful that same morning. Ol’ Faithful is another Airbnb property I have less than 5 minutes from Turquoise.

Ol’ Faithful has a private pool and is a $20-40 per night more expensive place than Turquoise.

At no additional charge, I immediately called Kristi and let her know I would upgrade her to Ol’ Faithful at no additional charge and they would then have their own pool.

They were less than thrilled. I let them know that I do not have any control of the community pool and that I am just trying to solve their problem so they can enjoy their stay.

They finally agreed to go over and stay there for the remainder of their stay. Here was the challenge for me. To not complicate things, I just decided to block the dates on the calendar for Ol’ Faithful while not changing their original reservation.

This caused me to eat two cleaning charges for this one couple and block two different bookings for their reservation at the same time.

I didn’t hear from Kristi for two days and then she all of a sudden sends me a message that they will be cutting there trip down by two days to go home. Not only that, but she requested a refund for the two days they would be cutting early.

So what did I do? I responded politely back to her letting her know that I would go ahead and refund her the two nights. This would end up costing me more money just in cleaning fees than their entire booking itself, but I felt it was the right thing to do.

I immediately sent over the alteration thinking she would accept it and the dates would then be open on my calendar for others to book. There are things that I need to schedule like my cleaner going to clean and opening the dates back up for others to potentially book.

Kristi didn’t accept the alteration. She still hasn’t even responded to the change I sent over to refund her for two nights they wouldn’t be staying so my calendar would open back up.

This morning I checked again just to make sure she didn’t accept it. She hadn’t. The original offer I made was a two night refund to her at the cost she paid. This would be roughly  a $94 refund to Kristi.

I was being overly generous to Kristi, but since she didn’t accept the alteration, my calendar was both booked and the night was past that I was giving her a refund for.

So, I decided to cancel the alteration request this morning and I updated the refund to a one night refund since she has not responded. The reality is that nobody is going to book for tonight, so this night is already a wash, but I will still leave the one night refund request out there for Kristi for her to accept.

If she doesn’t accept by tonight, I am going to remove the one night refund request as well.

On top of all this, I received a few bad pictures from my cleaner on how Kristi and her husband left the place. It was definitely a bummer to see as her husband told me on the phone that they were only using one room in each place. That was not the case. They also decided to set the thermostat to 68 degrees while opening multiple windows in the home. And this is Florida, where the temp has been over 90 degrees for the past few days.

Key Takeaways:

  • I always try to offer a great guest experience for all my Airbnb guests, even if they seem to be a pain. 
  • Try to go above and beyond to get good reviews in all situations. I am very interested to see if Kristi leaves me a review. I will for sure be leaving a review for her 🙂
  • Be fair in all things you are handling with guests and how you communicate with them. 

Don’t forget @TheYoungRetireeBy33’s 3 Core Principles:

1 – Your money should make money for you⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2 – Start early to realize the power of compound interest⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3 – Eliminate your largest expense by house hacking

 

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Market Volatility – What Stocks I Am Buying

The market has been extremely volatile the last month. With everything going on, there is a lot of opportunity for people who are positioned well to take advantage of it. The stocks being hit the hardest are the hospitality and travel industry (in my opinion). There are other sectors that I am sure are also being hit hard with everything going on. The hospitality and travel industry are the two that I feel are hit the hardest with everyone self quarantining. I also have had a direct impact I have felt with my Airbnb business that I have been operating. 
Yesterday, I received my bonus check. This allowed me the opportunity to invest in the market.
 
I invested $10,244 into the market and this is what I purchased.
Action On Stocks
 
My regularly scheduled $1,200 of VTSAX like I do every Thursday. This doesn’t change.
 
With the volatility in the market and certain sectors being hit more directly, I decided to look at some stocks I wouldn’t normally consider.
 
With that, I decided to buy Carnival Cruise Line (CCL), Delta Airlines (DAL), and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH).
 
I purchased Carnival at $9.18 which is 81% down from their high before the market began crashing. Carnival is another cruise line that I believe will come out strong after everything settles down. What exactly happens and if they are at their true bottom yet is to be seen. To checkout some articles on Carnival, click here. 
 
I purchased Delta at $22.375 which is 62% down from their previous high. I believe Delta will come back strong after everything settles down. They might need some financial help in the meantime, but I believe they will come back strong. Here is an article that talks a little bit more about some of the things going on with Delta Airlines. 
 
And lastly, Norwegian Cruise is down 84% to $8.36 where I purchased shares. Here is a good spot to read more about Norwegian Cruise stock. 
 
I am in these stocks for the long haul now. I believe these companies will bounce back after the hard times.
 
I could be right, I could be wrong. Part of the fun of investing!
 
Are there are opportunities like this that you are similarly trying to take advantage of? I don’t agree with trying to time the market, but when a sector of the industry is hit hard, I feel there is opportunity. Whether the particular stocks I chose are the right ones, only time will tell.
 
There are many other stocks in the travel space that I am sure would be good to look at. These are the ones I decided to buy.
 
As always, this is for entertainment purposes only, this is not financial advice.
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@TheYoungRetireeBy33 3 Core Principles:
1 – Your money should make money for you
2 – Start early to realize the power of compound interest
3 – Eliminate your largest expense by house hacking