what a day today's been I just drove from Dallas to Houston to work on some
Houston stuff and a lot has happened in the last eight hours and it's some drama
so let's just jump right into it today I'm talking to you about planning for
the unexpected and how to handle a last-minute guest alteration and how to
handle what it gets us and check out the day that they're supposed to all of it
in one OK roll that beautiful bean footage! welcome
back AirBnB family so let's set that down there we go okay so everything's
coming along great in Dallas Demi, our new executive assistant hired a
couple more cleaners so the Dallas cleaning team is popping wonderful so
we've replaced our, you know, cleaners that we terminated and we're back to
running in top shape Fort Worth we're hiring another cleaner I think we've got
that underway so we've got 21 dallas properties that are running hot right
now and I think we're almost like 100% occupied and starting the 28th of
September the Dallas State Fair the Texas State Fair is going to be in
Dallas which we've we've raised our rates for that there's a Dallas Cowboys
game the first weekend of October and we're completely booked for that at
premium rates which is cool so October's going to be great in Dallas so we're
picking up another two-bedroom this is one of the eight properties we're
picking up you know over the course of the weekend and I'm finally getting it
done here because there was a delay so I had to come down to Houston myself to
hammer this contract home so I dropped off a cashier's check got the keys ready
to move the furniture in on my way I get an email and this is where I'm going to
teach you lesson number one because I always teach you something I'm never
just gonna rant at you guys this is not your traditional vlog I'm always
teaching you something so here's an inefficiency I've discovered because I
got an email that was sent to my AirbnbAuto email which is for the primary
co-host for my portfolio my admin account which I'm logged in on the app
so my admins logged in to the app and I don't get an email from Airbnb support
to my admin account I get to my primary co-host account because that's the
dealing with most of the guests but the problem is when they send you that email
it try to redirect you to the app to be logged into that account so if you have
both accounts and you get an email trying to resolve something as the
primary co-host you can't open it from your admin account right so what you
need to do is you need to log into the app as your primary co-host account and
then on a browser login as your admin right if you ever get an email where
maybe you have to do resolutions you can still go to the Resolution Center on the
browser that's pretty simple but if you need to communicate with our VP support
from your codes to account you'll want to be logged in on the app because
response time for them we actually had them take money from us because we
didn't respond in an hour because I couldn't and I messaged Kathryn and she
didn't get my message in time or something and we didn't respond in an
hour so the guest got like 60 bucks from us yeah little things they add up they
definitely do add up imagine that happening a lot so that's one fix but
let's talk about this email the email says that a guest wants a full refund
and this is where the drama starts to unravel like during my car ride down to
Houston we have a guest checking out of this two-bedroom er property but she
doesn't check out right she's a my a we can't get ahold of her she's got the
keys she won't respond Catherines trying to communicate like my phone calls and
my text messages which is her primary thing we've talked about this and I told
her that she needs to communicate through the app all the time on the air
B&B platform and I'm about to tell you why so she's not communicating we can't
get in another clean we can't get in there to make it ready for the next
guest we've got another guest who's booked and he's driving this big 16 foot
like food truck and you know of course we need to accommodate him thankfully we
have a three-bedroom nearby that we can put him in for two nights while we try
to resolve this issue with the guests it's not leaving right so Katherine
finds a place for him she meets it with him in person gets him set up and
checked in he agrees to being over there for a night or two while we figure out
what's up with this other building so we thought were good there
the problem here is Katherine did not do a few things so you need to do these
things in order if a guest because there's a consequence and I'm getting to
that so if a guest hasn't checked out contact a guest on the platform right to
show that you are you know doing your job
host and Airbnb is going to look at the platform communication as their way to
give back to discern what you're up to reach out to the guests on the platform
then send a text to make a phone call like I need the keys right but do all
your communication on the platform first then contact any future guests that
might be affected by this like inability to host them all of a sudden and see if
you can come up with a solution for them if it's like this you might have to
delay them a few hours or a day you don't know yet but you need to
communicate with that guest that guest is the most important part of this
situation and communication with them should be paramount making sure they're
accommodated so you want to communicate with them and try to find a solution get
them to agree to something right then you call Airbnb and say here's my
situation I've got a guess that's not leaving I've
got to put a guest somewhere else in the meantime I've already talked to that
guest I know I have it under control and here's my solution for now right I want
to let you know that I've got it handled but we need to put something on paper
here you can also reach out to the guest who is being affected by this checkout
problem and make sure that they're okay and confirm that we agreed upon
something right get that documented by Airbnb you'll need that later maybe
right so now you make sure that that other guest is accommodated with your
back-up plan and you're pursuing that other guest like aggressively to get
those keys back and trying to get them checked out you can assess them like fee
for late checkout you can charge them for an extra day if that other guest
cancels and you do this right you can charge that guest for the cancellation
that you had to pay to the to the second guest if they cancel then the guest gets
a refund that guest who's not vacating the property could be liable for that
but everything needs to be like ducks in a row here so the problem that we're
having because that did not happen that way right Kathryn did everything through
text message and phone calls she didn't document everything on Airbnb and she
sure as hell didn't call Airbnb and say here's her problem and here's how I
fixed it she didn't do that and that's really the nail in the coffin here the
guests who we put somewhere else last night he decides that he doesn't
want to move to the reservation area that he actually booked initially right
he wants a full refund unless we accommodate some really egregious like
or a kind of unachievable thing which is to move other people around I think and
let him stay in this three bedroom I think that's what's going on so now he
wants a full refund cuz he doesn't want to go
to the place that he booked originally and he calls Airbnb and Airbnb pretty
much sides with him immediately because there's been no correspondence from us
right no proof that we've done anything to accommodate this guy he just says hey
I've been mistreated I'm not in the place that booked this is really stupid
I want a refund so now Catherine's been on the phone for
an hour walking the Airbnb support rep through proof that all of this has been
done on the up and up and it's not our fault she's got to send screenshots and
stuff via emails like she's got to send proof that she's been speaking to the
guests and it's been a headache we could lose
$1,400 on this reservation and if they cancel this reservation it's a violation
of like host standards so the block all the dates so you can't get a new booking
and they'll give you $100 fine you can even get your listing paused for stuff
like this right not cool so if you want to avoid this type of trouble and you've
got a lot of properties like me there should be a protocol that you follow to
cover your ass and that is the core of this forewarning so line up your Airbnb
app to be able to communicate with Airbnb however they communicate with you
most which is probably your primary co-host account handle your resolutions
and asking guests for money and sending money through a web browser do it on
your desktop that's way less frequent than this in the moment communication
then if you ever ever guess that's now checking out do it in that order reach
out on the platform they are being to be platform to both guests and then call
the guests that's going to get affected and help them out make them the priority
and then let every B&V know you have it under control and that here's your
resolution and of what you're doing so that way they can confirm with that that
effective guest do it like that Airbnb will have faith in you as a host
because they want to work with you and you're much more likely to come out
ahead where you're not going to get canceled on and if you get canceled on
the guests that did the wrong thing is the one will have to pay for the
reservation so hope this helps you out a ton because it's a headache for me today
and that's just the beginning of how what my day was I will tell you about
the rest of it later so you want more drama subscribe because there's tons of
it here at Airbnb automated he's 47 properties something happens like ever
day so thank you for watching and I will see you on the other side