Discount seeker - what a pain in the butt

Discussion in 'Airbnb & Short Term Letting' started by Gockie, 30th Sep, 2016.

Join Australia's most dynamic and respected property investment community
  1. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    27,103
    Location:
    Sydney or NSW or Australia

    Ah! You like to watch? :eek:
     
    Colin Rice likes this.
  2. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    23,319
    Location:
    Sydney
    Price is what a willing buyer and seller actually trade at. If someone quotes me high and says they can beat a competitor I feel like I'm being taken for a ride. If I know what the competitors charge and they are on ball I have no issue.

    The one I dont get is Good Guys. You pick up an item and then someone grabs you and asks if you have been served as you walk to the checkout. Nope...They then offer a discount. To the price you had thought you were paying. And its on special, cheap whatever.

    I dont understand people who give away profit either. If I owned a good guys like my local one I would have stopped this years ago.
     
  3. Coastal

    Coastal Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    22nd Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    454
    Location:
    Brisbane
    When you have bought a tv..dont you ask for a discount?
     
  4. Pumpkin

    Pumpkin Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    26th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    1,342
    Location:
    Brisbane
    In Harvey Norman, I often ask for their best price.
    But in rentals, I had people asked me for my best price :oops:. I answered with blank face.

    Received a rental application last week, after showing them and talking for half an hour or more. No mention of money.
    Was about to process it and had a look again, the rent amount is $20 short. Emailed them and after 24hr, got a long reply to justify, ie to say how crap our property is...
    Well, it'll go down better if they didn't just sneak that in.
     
  5. Brady

    Brady Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    2,561
    Location:
    Adelaide, SA
    Good Guys are very sales driven, I wonder if this is a case of the counter staff putting the deal under themselves?

    Not sure how they operate.
     
  6. SeafordSunshine

    SeafordSunshine Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    24th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    993
    Location:
    Sydney
    I know someone who never asks for a discount.. and annoyingly comes home with 1st class upgrades... :confused: WHy havent you got a symbol for jealousy?...
     
  7. jodes

    jodes Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    23rd Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    315
    Location:
    Sydney
    We just airbnb'd out or PPOR for 8 days while we were in Melbourne. We had one booking come through for 4 days leaving us with (obviously 4 more days).
    We had a booking request come through for those exact four days but also asking for a discount. Because the timing worked for us, we agreed to a $50 discount (which was minimal on an $800 booking) and the guy was happy with that and booked.

    I was extremely responsive to all his messages, wrote a kind welcome note in Korean which he noted, and when he checked in he said the place was lovely and they liked it very much. All good. Then about two days later, he complained that he saw a couple of cockroaches so he sprayed them and there were some dead cockroaches on the floor. Could we have a cleaner come in? (this was among some threats in broken English about not being nice if we didn't get a cleaner) (NB: This is Sydney in the peak of summer in an old building...) We agreed to have a cleaner come in to sweep up the maybe 3 baby cockroaches and they did a full clean. We didn't hear back from him. Then he gave us our review- 2 stars.
    Our place is extremely clean other than the odd cockroach, we have 29 reviews of which 25 are 5 stars, 4 are 4 stars, great location, modern etc etc.
    Honestly- Is a few cockroaches enough to downgrade us to two stars overall? (I'd be interested to hear the general consensus).
    (I've gone on a bit of a tangent here but from this, I don't think I will offer or accept people who ask for discounts anymore- it indicates to me they will never be happy with anything)
     
  8. Excalibur1

    Excalibur1 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    19th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    335
    Location:
    Sydney
    You will always get people like that. Nothing you can do about that. Its part of doing AirBnb. Always respond to their review explaining the situation so other guests can see. Every business will have problems and mistakes. Its how they deal with those problems that distinguishes them from other businesses, this is especially true in service industry.

    We had similar issue on one of our bookings. That's all you can do, just explain the situation and how you dealt with it. I also never offer discounts. The only discounts we offered was to returning guests or if they referred someone to us.
     
  9. Depreciator

    Depreciator Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    15th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    1,963
    Location:
    Sydney
    No, of course a couple of cockroaches is not enough to give you a two star rating, but it's done, so don't worry about it. Lots of good reviews always overwhelm the occasional not so good one.
    I get my place treated by a pest guy every year and never see any cockroaches apart from the occasional big flying one. Sydney people are pretty blasé about them, but they freak out some visitors. Huntsman spiders also freak people out, but Sydney people are really relaxed about them.
    I don't discount, either, and if people seem like hard work, I dissuade them from booking.
     
    jodes likes this.
  10. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    14,742
    Location:
    Sydney
    Ants have been a problem for me; but not at the moment.
    In Queensland I envisage geckos could freak people out.
     
    Last edited: 9th Feb, 2017
  11. Depreciator

    Depreciator Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    15th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    1,963
    Location:
    Sydney
    The pest guy I use got rid on my ant and gave me a litre of the spray uses to keep them gone.
    I had some people from Europe once who said they were worried about spiders. I told them they had come to the wrong place. Then I said, 'You're not going to come across a dangerous spider upstairs, but if that pesky snake shows itself, you'd better yell out.'
     
    Ghoti likes this.