@Martha9:
You have great reviews.
If you are happy with the number of bookings you are getting, I would suggest leaving your daily rate as is, you may want to consider adding a few personalized touches. It doesn't have to cost a lot but a few extra bucks spent might go a long way. For example:
Small welcome basket of snacks, couple of fruits & goodies for guests upon arrival
Maybe have a few refrigerated drinks such as water and orange juice (not sure how expensive OJ is in your part of the world, but if too expensive find another popular alternative)
Offer a small basic coffee/tea bar for guests with a little note saying welcome and please enjoy!
Something we used to do and our guests would mention in our reviews was a handwritten note in our bathroom where we would explain what was available for their use and to let us know if they had any questions or needed any other items.
I know in our pictures our listing shows pretty basic items in the kitchenette, but we have actually beefed up our welcome basket to include several items such as instant oatmeal, hot chocolate packets, teas, coffee, small bags of chips, some mini-chocolate bars and a couple of whatever fresh fruits are in season. We also offer a new orange juice in the fridge and whatever we have in stock like a bottle of sparkling water, a cheap bottle of wine etc. These little extras might help your guests' perception that your value is worth 5 stars. Of course you cann't please everybody and every now and again, you get that person that gives 4 stars across the board.
When time allows, we write a thank you letter to our guests and leave it in a basket we have right outside their front entrance. We thank them for choosing to stay with us, we hope they enjoyed their stay with us, and request that if they have any suggestions for how we can improve the experience of future guests, we welcome constructive feedback. We've actually received some really great feedback. Especially at the beginning when we were first starting off.
One thing we did that was helpful after hosting a few guests was stay in our own unit overnight night and showered there as well. It sounds silly, but it really gave us a good sense on what it was like to be a guest in our own space. We realized we definitely made the right choice with the mattress, had great pillows, added a throw blanket to snuggle when watching T.V.
Since our pictures were taken by an Airbnb photographer we have added several additions:
We added pics of:
*Upgraded our heating/AC unit
*Added 2 lamps one for each nightstand
*Upgraded our T.V. most recently
We let our guests get surprised by offering more than they were expecting:
*Added a magnifying mirror in the bathroom
*Area rugs for the bed, shower, and bathroom sink areas
*Hamper in the bathroom
*Small closet with hangers
*Snacks in the fridge
We've been hosting since December -2014 so we are fairly "new kids on the block," but we keep growing and hopefully improving on the type of experience we provide our guests.
Hope some of this info helps:)
