Hi @Sally10 You are my dream host. I wish I could have my house like this!
I read all your reviews, clearly you are doing something right and targetting the right market as no one has complained and you've kept your ratings up! That's not easy, sometimes you can get a guest group in who complains not realising what they have booked. You've positioned carefully about not being a 'new luxury place' (I get that as I have to do the same).
What do you want to "keep up"? Have you received private guest feedback given nothing publicly said?
I'm assuming that you are already maintaining as you go, but if not, I had experienced hosts advise me, comfort is everything and wear n tear is not. So if chairs or beds start to become uncomfortable, time for new ones. If floors or walls are showing wear, sand them, replace them or repaint them etc. If bathroom cabinets or showers are showing their age, maybe start with a bathroom. Although I'm not convinced spanking luxury new bathrooms for all the investment, are worth it in an airbnb. I've stayed in all sorts of airbnbs and the best ones were the funky, not neccessarily luxury bathrooms. Better off throwing the money into additional features.
I'm impressed with the amount of white you have, clearly its keeping clean. I just cannot imagine keeping my place with white furniture given we get family bookings at a farm with lots of mud when it rains.
Do you look after the property yourself, clean it yourself, anything you notice that would annoy guests that they haven't told you? Spa (so much work and cost yikes!), dry sauna, Sonos wired sound? Whatever ideas have you had suggestions on? New features like EV charging ? Pool table, outdoor games table?
Ask some friends for their thoughts as well. Although they will be biased by what they like, not what your target market is. And that's the trick. I advise on go to market strategy for a living/day job, and its all about knowing and meeting your target market's needs. It seems to be you are already doing this. And when in doubt, go and speak to a customer. They'll tell you!
So can you reach out to guests in the last 12 months with a personal message asking for any feedback on what they suggest you could improve? To me, thats the best place for input. Sounds like from your reviews, some will answer. If you get even 20% response rate out of 50, that's a good sample!
Don't ask your builder (I did that, they give advice that would help add value to the place but that's often the opposite to what an airbnb needs!)
Good luck
Kind regs
Mary
