Unsure if other members who have listings via abnb have notice the slow decline in bookings. It’s been rough the past yr with the saturated short term rental market in DR. Noticed quite a few host offering deep discounts & plenty of listings are still unbooked. Had a strong feeling this time would come sooner than later. Can’t speak to level of bookings in other cities besides SD where abnb apts. are dime a dozen.
- Thread starter Mario1208
- Start date
Abnb hosting been a struggle recently
Hotels are also struggling, you can get $60 per person per night all inclusive in quite a few decent hotels at the moment. In my opinion MITUR should have moved far more quickly to regulate the AirBnB's, it was like a goldrush with everyone and their dog setting up AirBnBs in every block, no control, then a race to the bottom in terms of pricing. They seriously need to move quicker on implementing licensing and taxing AirBnBs on their revenue, which will then shut down a lot of supply and help prices to move up.
While I understand that point being discussed here regarding taxation etc, generating revenue off the both involved parties is in fact kind of how Airbnb charges for their services, no? They provide venues of communication/escalation/payment etc. in a safe manner (or it should be at least safe) in exchange for the service fee.
Good example: we rented an apartment in the EU a couple of years ago, when we moved from the DR to EU. The same unit was offered privately, directly from the landlord and via Airbnb. Difference was that while the rent itself was a bit cheaper renting privately, we would have had to pay deposits and such, while with Airbnb that was not necessary as they take responsibility of things should anything go wrong, so we went with the Airbnb route, it was more convenient for the landlord and us, as while Airbnb charged us both something for their service, we both got peace of mind and we paid no deposits. Please bear in mind, the deposits were not something you would pay in the DR, but for a unit for 4 people in the EU, so thousands in EUR. With another unit, we even had some trouble with the landlord (no fault of ours) and the moment he wanted us out from there, Airbnb was looking for alternatives for us and even paid for the first few nights for us, just so they could calm the situation and we would not have to deal with the problem landlord.
It's a flailing economy worldwide, not just in DR and not just Air BnB.
People can no longer ignore the day to day struggle inflation has caused?
Discretionary money has dried up, Covid bail out funds disapated, the pent up demand after lock downs is satiated, and DR no longer is the bargain beach getaway that built the tourism boom. Far from it.
What could follow, like falling hotel prices is softening demand for property, falling real estate prices and a return to homes sitting on the market for years, as buyers become as scarce as the use of approved motorcycle helmets.
When things get tight you see the word "Staycation" becomes the norm.
My sister and I were chatting yesterday and I asked her if she and her husband were planning any fall trips and she said just short and local if any. We agreed it's at least $1,500 per week for hotel, gasoline and food for 2 people to travel even local. And everyone loathes flying anymore so there's that.
Bring in more Chinese cheap crap.
People can no longer ignore the day to day struggle inflation has caused?
Discretionary money has dried up, Covid bail out funds disapated, the pent up demand after lock downs is satiated, and DR no longer is the bargain beach getaway that built the tourism boom. Far from it.
What could follow, like falling hotel prices is softening demand for property, falling real estate prices and a return to homes sitting on the market for years, as buyers become as scarce as the use of approved motorcycle helmets.
When things get tight you see the word "Staycation" becomes the norm.
My sister and I were chatting yesterday and I asked her if she and her husband were planning any fall trips and she said just short and local if any. We agreed it's at least $1,500 per week for hotel, gasoline and food for 2 people to travel even local. And everyone loathes flying anymore so there's that.
Bring in more Chinese cheap crap.
Appreciate your feedback I understand your point of view & agree it’s a safe method (to an extent) of finding a convenient & comfortable place for a temporary stay while vacationing. My experiences as a host haven’t been the most positive I’ve had numerous items disappear or damaged while abnb states host are insured 💯 for claims reimbursements are based on their appraised value (discretion) which is well below out of pocket expense. Even if a receipt is provided for missing or damaged item/s they decide how much you’re going to be reimbursed. It’s also a long drawn out claims review process. Apologies for off topic abnb rant lol
On another note as safe as Airbnb is to no fault of the company there will always be a chance of an individual or parties booking reservations under someone else’s name with no concerns of causing damage or doing worse. There’s an infamous situation in DR which occurred approx. 8 months one so ago in the same building where I have the apt. listed. At that time I was there in my apt. Viewing outside the balcony around 6am the building was surrounded by officers. Eventually found out same day via building staff a person who reserved a penthouse via abnb booked it under someone else name & committed a murder in the apt. It’s an extreme & uncommon example but that situation put thoughts in my head about not being sure if im long for the financial relationship with abnb considering the risk involved on both parties minus Airbnb.
Higher taxes and higher prices aren't always successful when the customers are going broke from high taxes and prices. Ask a Canadian.
Have you ever had anything go wrong with AirBnB? They are a complete an utter nightmare, and completely useless. Firstly, they say that their fee is never refundable (and even when a guest was raped they refused to refund their fee, it was in all the newspapers). Secondly all they do is go backwards and forwards between the guest and the host, they don't add anything to the equation, and indeed because your legal contract as a renter is with them, it's way harder to reclaim money than it would be if you rented directly.
I rented an apartment in Cabarete, the AC didn't work in one of the rooms, trip completely ruined, ended up in a major argument with the owner and AirBnB were completely and utterly useless. Eventually I had to do a chargeback on the credit card, and then they started all the " we are all a big happy community" nonsense, and saying that if I did a chargeback it wasn't fair and could lead to consequences.
The laws are completely different in Europe, they have duties of care, so their service would probably be different there. But there are reasons that AirBnB is banned from Central London, a lot of Paris, Barcelona etc. etc.
If you do a bit of googling you'll see that there are many many many cases of people who have had nightmares with AirBnB. At least hotels in DR are regulated, they have to check ID's carefully, they have to have security cameras, they have to be super safe. This is what MITUR registration would enforce.
Having rented dozens of different Airbnb apartments, my only complaint is that Airbnb often blocks me from contacting my host upon arrival. The algorithms don't seem to like it when I leave Canada. The rating system should eliminate problems but somehow human beings find a way to create drama on their own.
You made me go back in my mind to each Airbnb rental over the years we've had, and I can confirm, we've never had anything going wrong with Airbnb. With a landlord yes, as said above, but even that, Airbnb fixed for us, quite generously. Perhaps we've just been lucky, I'm sorry to hear of your negative experience.
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but when've we've rented via Airbnb in the DR, the person who receives us at the property, shows us around and makes sure that everything works. Only once the reservation has actually begun, the funds are released to the host, so before that I could just go to Airbnb and complain that the property has an issue. If there is nobody at the property, there is still this chance that we can actually accept it or report an issue to Airbnb immediately?
Did you submit evidence to Airbnb that the A/C was not working, and they did nothing?
This is at least what I understand that's the best of Airbnb and it has proven to be valid for us at least this far. We always read the property reviews and the host reviews properly, check the photos, evaluate how is the pre-rental communication with the host, ask questions etc. If the replies are odd or take a lot of time, we usually change properties... I think we have indeed never stayed in a place with very few reviews or properties without reviews. Same goes with us as renters, I hope the hosts are seeing us not being that dangerous tenants...
I don't doubt that many people have had bad experiences with Airbnb, but I bet the platform also has quite a few users and many of them have not had bad experiences. At least in the places we've rented in the DR, the security and ID control has been darn strict... We've never felt insecure to the slightest...
I've both rented and hosted. We live here in Sajoma in a house we initially rented thru Airbnb. We realized upon arrival it was for sale, we negotiated a price, came back and signed the papers. The same trip we stayed in Cabarete for several nights in a beachside condo thru Airbnb. No issues as a renter. Soon after we bought the house, the pandemic hit. We had bought the house and everything inside it as we weren't quite ready to sell our business and retire. We were going to continue to market it thru Airbnb. What a nightmare. Because of international travel restrictions we rented almost exclusively to Dominicans. Remember a few years back when Punta Cana hoteliers contemplated restricting Dominican guests because of their poor behavior? Gawd. Us too. They stole every piece of silverware, destroyed artwork, busted dining room chairs and other furniture, ran over sprinklers in the yard etc. Got no help from Airbnb. The final nail in the coffin was a Dominican from the US who booked 13 days. Great I thought. Day two he saw a big cockroach. Ok I'll send the lady up with Baygon. Nope, ain't gonna let her in. About day 4 a heavy rain caused a drip in the hallway. Ok I'll send a repairman. Nope, ain't gonna let him in. Couple days later he decided he thought the little lady who watched my property was somehow a threat. Ok I'll send up a locksmith and change the locks. Nope ain't gonna let him in. Day 10 or so he moves out, demands a full refund, and Airbnb sucks his money out of my bank account. Yeah they can do that. I fought for weeks with them. I forwarded all the conversations I had had with the renter over WhatsApp. All my attempts to respond to the renter. Didn't work. I will never host again. Airbnb comes down on the side of the renter not the host. Meanwhile, we have booked the Cabarete condo a couple weeks from now.
I rented an airbnb once in the colonial zone. I got there and there was no power. I left and wrote to airbnb, they said they coulnd't help me at the moment because no one was answering the phone (No power, joke right?)
So they asked if I could prove there was no power?? I had already left. I took a photo in the dark, sent it to them and got my refund. Still very insane.
LOL, you can't make this s**t up.
When you arrive, you turn on the A/C. You don't wait 20 mins until the room is cold. We didn't realise until the guy had gone that it wasn't working. I was travelling with a friend, not a boyfriend but a friend, we both had other partners, so we wanted two rooms. It was Friday night, 7pm when we arrived. The guy when we called him said he couldn't get it fixed until the next day, and the next day the technician came and said it needed a new circuit board and that wouldn't be possible until Monday. So, weekend ruined.
AirBnB asked me to send a video to show that the A/C wasn't cooling. Like WTF. I said to them about 100 times that a video can't show that an A/C is not cooling. We asked for a refund. AirBnB contacted the host, she immediately said no refund. We said it wasn't correct, the host then sent her guy at 7pm on the Saturday and told us we had 30 mins to pack and get out. Which we refused. We said we would call the police. AirBnB told us to stay, but then subsequently said that because we had stayed we had to pay for all 3 nights without deduction. Complete and utter farce.
And obviously the owner was abroad, nobody was paying tax, nobody had any insurance, nobody was registered with anybody.