[FESTIVAL] How I shifted from 10 years of renting through agencies to AirBnB

[Nick]

(photo-cartouche-ChaosduGouet-CG-A.Lamoureux)

This topic is part of the CC Hospitality Festival.

The original was posted on the French-speaking Community Center by @Caroline1857 and we have translated it below.

My beginning on Airbnb: how I went from 10 years of rental with agencies to Airbnb and what benefits this brings me in 2021...

I have been renting my villa all year round since 2011 through multiple agencies. After 10 years and non-transparency on the agencies' part linked to the crazy amount of commissions taken and zero services in return, I launched into the Airbnb world.

After the initial concerns raised by my immediate family ("No, it's crazy, you're not going to rent via Airbnb, are you? Aren't you worried?"), I started creating my first listing by choosing photos from here and there that I had accumulated. I clicked the List button in 2019 😊. In 2020, I rented very well but via agencies again.

February 2021, first reservation in the middle of winter, yoohooo! And a good experience: a family very satisfied with their stay, leaving me a really nice comment. And then in May came a 15-day reservation for the month of August, and in June a second reservation for a week in August - perfect!

And I was learning every day...

By participating in the Community Center, which lets you discuss specific questions when starting out. Thanks also to @Emilie for cheering up and motivating the troops 😊

• I also admit that I learnt a lot by looking at the listings of experienced hosts, their beautiful pictures and their house rules, for example. It gave me a lot of ideas, and my listing metamorphosed in 1 year.

• I spent 15 days in the villa this summer, and I put myself in the shoes of a traveller: what I like about the accommodation, its strengths, and I tried to show this through my listing.

• I especially want to welcome families as I am a mother of 5 young children and they love to spend time in the villa, so I know it is suitable for young children. In this post, you will find what I have highlighted to make the villa more attractive for families, and so far, it has worked well, 3 reservations = 3 families 😊

• I am pretty positive and trusting by nature, so I try to tailor my listing and bring out a caring rather than an overly procedural character, especially in the house rules. Maybe because I haven't had any unpleasant surprises as yet, but it's just in my nature 😊

Pros and cons…

In 4 weeks of reservations in 2021 (and the year is not yet over), I made the same income as in 6-8 weeks via agencies with far fewer short stays and household expenses. I am looking for quality rather than quantity, so after securing 3 weeks in summer, I blocked out the other weeks to avoid too many tight stays and to be able to enjoy the visits with my small family too.

 

For next year...

I wonder if I'll block out every other week to have time to handle the stays smoothly, but it also cuts me off from 15-day reservations. Or I could try the 15-day minimum reservation and block the week before and after as soon as 15 days are secured, then release at 7 days minimum, if I see that it hasn't been reserved, we'll see 😊 But I like having that flexibility and freedom to manage my calendar myself and not depend on anyone to accept or decline a request 

This is my short and positive Airbnb experience, so far so good (crossing my fingers tightly) 😊

Enjoy the summer!

Caroline

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Nick This post confuses me somewhat. The agencies in the UK charge very similar, if not less, commission than Airbnb. The only thing that stops me using them is that they demand you to be locked in for a year plus which is not acceptable to us as we like to choose when we stop renting. 

[Caroline1857]

Hi Mike and Jane, @Mike-And-Jane0,

Thank you very much for your feedback ! You are absolutely right, AirBnB charge as much as the agencies but in my case I found out that some agencies where sub-contracting other agencies (abroad), taking somehow double commission. As a result, my villa was advertised at so many different prices that it was certainly confusing for those who “google” it over the net. I found sometime travelers had paid so much that I felt it was really unfair for them. On top of that, I was not receiving a percentage of that huge amount travelers paid but the same amount originally agreed with the primary agency. So I stopped for a lack of transparency and hopefully for the benefit of my guests and mine as well :-). Now with AirBnB, I like that transparency knowing exactly what the travelers are paying and what I am receiving, and as you mentioned, I have the freedom to adapt my calendar, my prices as I wish and accept who ever I want which is great !

Have a great day !

Best regards,

Caroline

[Laurelle3]

@Caroline1857 Great read, yes I believe that you should live and or stay in your Airbnb because you then know what is missing or have to much of to maintain and clean for health and safety. 

We lived in our cottage for 18 months before putting it on Airbnb as we were renovated the main house.

When it was ready we had family and friends stay and asked for a critical report as what was good and bad. There wasn't very much to do to put things right for other people.

So far no negative comments and we have found that guests are taking a little holiday and eat out. So the kitchen is always left clean.

[Caroline1857]

Hi Laurelle, @Laurelle3 

Thank you for your great feedback ! You are absolutely right, staying at the place you are offering on AirBnB, at least once a year (if you can) allows you to improve your place, add/refresh couple of decoration item, fix some troubles with a window, add some kitchen items…. In addition, whenever I am travelling, I always come back with some ideas. This year, we stayed in a place where the owner had fresh green cut leaves from his garden in each bathroom, it was smelling good and does not cost anything really. So I decided to add small fresh cut leaves in each of my bathroom this year and it looked really awesome 🙂 Great personalized attention as you describe very well in your "Hospitality" post (https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/FESTIVAL-What-is-Hospitality/m-p/1495607), I enjoyed reading it as well, I will comment separately 🙂

By the way, I love your place, it looks so inviting and I can see we like the same colors, white and blue “turquoise” 🙂 I love Australia (been there a lot when I was based in Jakarta) and I promised my 6 years old daughter (who is passionate about Australia) that we will spend some time there whenever my last 3 years old daughter get older and can walk for longer time 🙂

Have a great day !

Best regards,

Caroline

[Laurelle3]

Hi Caroline, we have obviously good taste. I usually pick a couple of flowers from the garden and put on the kitchen bench and some fragrant ones in the bathroom along with pot plants. Keep enjoying doing your thing for your guests.