Hosting while living in home

[Robyn408]

Hi

I would like to only vacate my home when it is booked.

any insight would be helpful.

What do I do with personal belongings food etc

[Emiel1]

@Robyn408 

If you offer the whole house, then there should not be personal belongings in spaces accesable by guests. If it is a room etc. they can be in the shared spaces.

[Mark116]

@Robyn408  You would probably want to lock up the majority of your personal belongings/papers possibly in one room that you would keep locked and not available to guests.  It will be difficult to get guests not to use your food if you are renting out the entire place, unless you have a 2nd refrigerator somewhere or you lock up one cabinet for your own stuff.  

[Ann783]

@Robyn408 I rented an apartment in Paris where the host let only on weekends. She had a weekend place in the country and was able to empty out her refrigerator and remove the vast majority of her personal items.

[Lisa6736]

@Robyn408 What's best and what's acceptable aren't always the same, right? We rented a flat in London at Christmas and the host left (what looked like) all their belongings; clothes in the closet & drawers, food in the refrigerator, even Euros in a coin box.  While it was nice to have all the extras, I will say the one thing that would have been more fitting is to remove the clothes in the closets.  We didn't need the space however, it felt as though we were intruding.   

[Anonymous]

@Robyn408  Anything that you don't want guests to be using or looking through should be removed to locked storage. Unfortunately, there have been many reports of guests breaking locks to snoop around. 

Some items should be taken out of the house completely before vacating for guests: weapons, prescription drugs, cosmetics, personal documents (including digital),  perishable food, and anything valuable or irreplaceable (jewelry, family treasures, etc). If you have no choice but to leave clothes in a guest-access area, be sure the guests also have empty storage that's clearly dedicated to their use. 

The listing editor has a place to disclose the presence of personal items under "other things to know," but it's best to also be explicit in the description that the home is primarily your residence and contains your stuff.  That's often a deal-breaker for the newer generation of Airbnb users, but there are still old-school homeshare guests that value the authenticity of a real home over a bland holiday flat.

[Christer-and-Nazli0]

So, we are renting out ous sailboat with our private belongins, sailclothes, books, kidclothes. But all this is written in the description since we are using the boat by our selfe every other week,

We done this for 6 year and havent had any complains

[Wayne433]

We rent out our home, we have one master bedroom that is lockable. The other 2 bedrooms are available with nothing in the cupboards, closets or drawers. We put all our personal items in there and clean out the fridge. It's a great way to keep the clutter down and pay for vacations.

As a guest we did stay in an apartment where they left all their personal stuff out, it was weird.

[Maribel130]

I own a 4 bedroom house. I live in the basement in the in-law suite. The whole upstairs I rent out. As a chef, that worked in hotels, I keep the upstairs clutter free and stocked with everything the guests needs. I do not need anything from that part of the house. I treat my basement suite ( which locks and I have my own bathroom & kitchenette , and garage entry) like my own condo suite with a ‘guest- house’ attached above. This is a great set up. The garage and basement are all mine. The ‘house’ brings in great revenue when rented out to groups. I also have cameras set up to monitor the front door , garage and driveway activity. I personally greet the guests at the door and give them a 2 minute welcome & quick tour of key items. I make it clear that I live in the basement and I require full names of all guests, the reason for the visit and confirmation of the key house rules. ( such as no visitors, no smoking, no loud noise after 10pm). 98% of groups are great. 

[Sarah977]

@Maribel130  Sounds like a great arrangement. What the OP was asking about though is a situation where the host rents out the home they normally live in when they are out of town, or go sleep elsewhere when they get a booking. So they have a situation where they have to figure out how much personal stuff should be packed away. 

It seems to me like a tricky thing to manage- I certainly wouldn't want to take bookings of only a few nights if I had to spend time packing and unpacking my personal possessions, and it would feel odd to me to have total strangers in spaces I normally have to myself, with my stuff there, but I know some hosts do rent in this way.

[Lidia358]

Hi I’ve been renting for 10 years. I know it’s changed but I still rent with all my belongings in the house. As some people have said - it is explained in the house manual. I rent short term so I don’t move or lock up. It’s a Karma thing I guess. I do not do instant booking though. I’ve mostly had this work well for me. 
I do not list use of wardrobes if they are not free. As there are extensive lists in what is available it makes it clear, to most people at least

[Jay1741]

I offer whole who use minute master bedroom/bathroom and lock up the cleaning supplies within the room. I keep all my personal belongings as well as things I know I wouldn’t want my guest using within the room too. I set aside a few cups and dishes for their disposal and my good silverware is locked up. I have a keypad deadbolt lock on the master bedroom and bathroom so it is complete off limits and not accessible when the house is booked.