Private room or Entire Place?

[Meghan179]

Hi all, realizing that my “private room” listing may in fact be an “entire place”, and I wanted to get feedback. There is no kitchen, but a totally private entrance, porch, bedroom, and bathroom. There is not point during the reservation that we share any space. The hallway is blocked off with a curtain (see listing). I mention multiple times this is a suite in a multi-suite building. We are planning to temp wall to replace soon, but would love to list as “entire place” in the mean time if you think it fits. What do you all think? https://abnb.me/QG0CPPaxjgb

[Meghan179]

I just figure out how to do “entire guest suite”, that seems to be more accurate!

[Emiel1]

@Meghan179 

Airbnb describes an entire place as useally also having a kitchen.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/5/how-do-i-choose-what-type-of-place-to-stay

[Meghan179]

Thank you, that was one of my hang ups as well. I think entire guest suite might be the way to go.

[Sarah977]

@Meghan179  Entire guest suite is accurate. 

Is there any space in the room to set up a small table for the coffee station that the mini fridge would fit under? It looks weird to me to have that set up in the closet where guests hang their clothes. Or maybe a double door on the closet so one opened to the fridge and coffee maker, and one to the clothes hanging area. The way it looks from the photos, it seems like guests would have to push their clothes aside to get to the fridge and there's a likelihood of getting coffee stains on clothes.

Not to mention fire hazard.

[Meghan179]

Good feedback! We will look into that!

[Louise0]

Believe it or not, in 2018 I stayed at a very expensive hotel in Bloomsbury, London - The Kimpton Fitzroy - that has just such an arrangement.  I couldn't believe it.  There was nowhere to hang clothes that didn't entail sharing the space with a coffee cup.

The 'wardrobe'. Kimpton Fitzroy, London.

[Anonymous]

@Meghan179  "Entire Guest Suite" is probably the most functionally accurate label, but it's important to bear in mind that people tend to book without reading the listing very carefully. Since the suite is not an "entire home" in the conventional sense, I would strongly suggest keeping Instant Book disabled and confirming that your guests understand the unique nature of the home before approving each booking.

Unfortunately, that label is poorly represented by Airbnb's search filters. Guests who use the "Entire Home" filter in their searches aren't always just looking for a separate entrance and a kitchen. People with concerns about Covid risk or privacy might not feel adequately protected by a curtain, and that could bite you in the butt when they rate and review the stay. Your optimal guests as far as that is concerned are people who would be open to a private room in a shared house, rather than ones who chose to filter those out of their search. If you believe in the approach of  "under-promise and over-deliver," Private Room might actually be the better designation.

[Lisa723]

@Meghan179 @Anonymous @Emiel1 

IMO “entire guest suite” is exactly appropriate. This is how we categorized our basement suite with separate entrance and no shared space, breakfast area but no kitchen. In several years of hosting this space only two guests were surprised. The first was early in our experience and was a lesson to update our photos and text. The second was a fellow host who really had no excuse, and said as much himself.

[Anonymous]

@Lisa723   Lucky you. Despite making everything excruciatingly obvious in my listing, I never stopped getting requests from people who didn't read a word of it and thought they were booking an entire house. Granted, people booking city breaks tend to plan their trips more haphazardly than those seeking a rural refuge.

I agree that "entire guest suite" is appropriate, for those who are attentive enough to understand what that means, but there's a lot of room for improvement in the way Airbnb communicates this in the listings and search results. It's definitely not the setup I'm looking for when I'm searching Entire Home listings as a guest, so I'd prefer that it wasn't grouped into that category.

[Lisa723]

@Anonymous you can add property type filters to your search too. When traveling solo an entire guest suite is exactly what I search for. I definitely don’t want a private room in a partially shared home. So a host who listed their separate guest suite as a private room would lose me as a customer. I think the “entire space” classification is only about whether you have to share any space, not the type of space it is. I agree with you that the curtain is the weak spot in this listing and I suggest it should be replaced with a locking door ASAP.

[Meghan179]

Thanks! I have updated some language and I also put “can you confirm you have read the listing and space details?” In our scheduled “after booking” message. We are fast tracking the divider wall, so hopefully in the month it takes to get that up all is well.

[Helen427]

@Meghan179 
May we suggest you source a freestanding  portable wardrobe for your guests to hang their clothes.

It will be a lot more practical to have it in a different part of your Guest Suite than having clothes crammed in with kitchen items.

With many small businesses and retail outlets having been screwed over and closed through most unfortunate circumstances one should be able to purchase one in good condition for a reasonable price.

Ask around in your community or keep an eye out in second hand sale places.

All the best

Central To All Home & Location across the yonder in Auckland, New Zealand!

[Meghan179]

Great feedback, we will be on the lookout!

[Sarah977]

@Meghan179  Another suggestion- that bedside table is fairly pointless as it is. For one thing, a queen bed for 2 people should have bedside tables on both sides of the bed. The table you have is too low- the lamp on it doesn't even come up above the mattress. 

Many people read in bed at night. The tables should be higher, with lamps that are good to read by, at the right height.

And there should be nothing on them but a lamp. That's where people put their book, their eyeglasses, their phone, jewelry they might remove at night, etc. It isn't the place to cover with decorative items that guests will just have to move elsewhere in order to use it for their own stuff.