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]

Thanks! I will add it to our list of upgrades as we go on.

[Corey-And-Michelle0]

Have a question for the group on this matter (Private Room vs. Entire House or Entire Guest Suite)... 

We have a lake cottage and have recently remodeled it to have a door with a keypad between the back part of the house (we have our own bedroom, full bath, and a kitchenette and our own entrance) and the front part of the house (which includes the guest/main entrance, a full kitchen, full bath, bedroom, living room, outside deck, etc.). We do not enter the main part of the house while guests are staying.  We do put that they may see us walk through the yard to access our boat or see us in the driveway getting in our car, but most of the time they would have no idea we're even onsite except that we mention all of this in our listing.    

What is the best type to list as for our scenario?  All of the photos in our listing are guest areas that we do not access (other than maybe walking through the yard to get to our boat.  

Should we list as Entire House, Entire Guestsuite, Private Room or something else?   

To date we've listed as Private Room and explained to guests that they main part of the house that they have access to is totally private and we don't enter that part of the house and there is a locked door between the two spaces.  We figured it was "safer" to list this way vs. Entire House and then the guests get mad because we live in the back of the house.  In comparing our rates to other private rooms in our area, we're WAY high because we're lakefront and highly desirable in our area vs. the private rooms that are located in the middle of our town.  I feel like we may be missing a lot of traffic because of listing as a private room.  Another reason why we listed as a private room is because a few shelves in the fridge have some of our food stored in it (we don’t access during guest stays) and some shelves are empty for guest use. 

Any suggestions of which way is better to list (Entire House vs. Private Room)?  We would obviously explain the situation with us being in the back of the house and onsite but didn't want to upset guests. 

Would love feedback or critique on our listing if anyone has time to check it out.   

https://airbnb.com/h/cookscottageonjames

Pic is the door between our part of the house and the guest part that is locked always. 

[Sarah977]

@Corey-And-Michelle0  Entire Guest Suite would probably result in the least confusion and stop your place from looking too expensive. Technically you could call it an Entire Home, but some guests who don't read thoroughly will just assume it is the entire structure, and get miffed to find out you live in the back of the house.

Private room means just that and is normally a situation where guests share some common indoor spaces with the hosts and possibly other guests. A private room is normally just a bedroom. There may be a private guest bathroom, there may be a coffee station or pint size fridge in the room, or not. The host may share their kitchen with guests or expect guests to eat out if they live in an area with cafes and restaurants close by. The host may allow guests use of the living room.

But it is almost always a shared space situation, more than just possibly seeing the host in the yard. (Although there are some where the guests just have a bedroom and bathroom and nothing is shared with the host, who is just renting a room for the money and doesn't want to have to socialize at all with guests)

A place with a private entrance, a kitchen, a bathroom, a living area and a bedroom is an entire private suite (or studio apt. if it's just one room with everything in it), not a private room. 

[Corey-And-Michelle0]

@Sarah977  Thanks for your advice and taking the time to read my issue.  I have seen lots of your comments in the forum and really appreciate your comments!  Will change our listing.