How many hours per week do you spend hosting and related admin to run your business?

[Jennifer-Rae0]

Hello All!

I have been doing a calculation of how many how per week I spend, based per season, on managing my AirBnb.

I have 2 rooms for guests.  About 60% of the booking are for 1 room, 40% for 2 rooms.  Average booking per week winter are 1-2, spring and fall 3-4, and summer 5-7 nights per week.

I have calculated the number of hours per week I spend on business development and admin which is the same amount of time per week (pricing, updating listings, comms with airbnb, forecasting sales, compare to LY, etc.), as well as time spent per booking which is variable depending on the number of bookings (cleaning, preparing breakfast, checking profiles, answering questions, shopping, garden, housework, booking external activities).

For 1 booking night per week, I have found that I spend 11.5 hours per week in total (winter is low season).  In high season, its close to 40 hours per week (as am booked around 95%).

How many hours per week are you finding to manage your property from A to Z? Does the below look like how you spend your time?

average nights per week booked	1
business development & administration hours per week
adjust pricing on beyond pricing	1
update listing on AirBnb	0.5
manage calendars Airbnb & Beyond Pricing	0.5
communication with AirBnB	0.25
research competition & pricing	0.75
accounting, spread sheet updates	0.75
booking eternal activities for guests (wine tastings, tours, massage, restuarants, etc)	0.25
business analysis (compare previous year, forecasting next 3 months, etc)	1
hours per week guests & bookings management
communication before booking	0.25
communication before arrival	0.5
cleaning rooms & guest space	1
purchasing food & supplies	0.25
prepare & clean breakfast	0.5
communication during stay	0.5
review after stay	0.25
prepare & clean apero	0.5
fondue when requeste: prepare and clean up	0.5
hours per week other
house & garden maintenance	1
arrange repairs	0.25
shopping FR and supplies (sheets, furnishings, etc)	1
TOTAL HOURS PER WEEK	11.5

[Jennifer-Rae0]

I forgot to add: the hours in 'house per week other' obviously get higher when there are more guests as there is more shopping to do for supplies (outside of the basic ones), as well in the spring and summer as there is more work to be done in the garden (as the guests use the space).

[Ann72]

@Jennifer-Rae0 I think 11 hours a week sounds like the right average.  I spend an hour or two a day on average.  Although there's less activity in the winter, I spend more time running numbers and doing projections and massaging the listings.  I don't have to clean or prepare anything because I'm a remote host, but I'm in a lot of contact with my team on the ground for maintenance and supplies, which I buy for them.  I maintain a few spreadsheets so I can see where I stand compared to previous years and what the P&L looks like.

[Jennifer-Rae0]

@Ann72 Ann for your input!  When I have more bookings (like in the summer where I am fully booked), I am working nearly 40 hours a week.  I offer free breakfast for the guests and am here during their stay.  I also book activities for them, and prepare fondue/apero when requested.  And I do the cleaning as well.

I too do P&L as well, it is time consuming.  I run my own figures ( sales, number of bookings, guests, number of days, etc) and have an XCL on price per booking, guest and night.  Then compare to previous years.

As you are remote and have a crew running things on the ground... if your rooms are booked near 95% during high season, do you find your crew is working nearly full time? do they also prepare breakfast and meals?

[Ann72]

@Jennifer-Rae0 We don't offer anything like meals - just the place!  So my crew on the ground is there for cleaning and maintenance and addressing any issues that come up.  And we don't book activities or anything else for the guests.  They actually seem happier not to see or hear from us at all!  

I've added some simple formulas to my Excel sheets that automatically calculate average price per night and compare to previous year, average number of nights booked per property and compare to previous year, and total booked income and compare to previous year.  Every time I get a new booking I enter in a few numbers and the formulas do the rest.  Obsessing over the details is a nice distraction from my day job.  🙂

[Inna22]

@Jennifer-Rae0 interesting post. I guess I never realized how much time I actually spent doing these things. I would say I spend more than 15 min per week on purchasing food and supplies. There is always something needed from home depot and supplies seem to run out at different times no matter how much I buy in bulk. But definitely not an hour a week on shopping for furnishings. Maybe an hour a month. I try to buy most things on line and reorder or pick things up as I see them on sale.

Communication: reviews take me a minute between other tasks. All the guest communication also takes me far less. I use a lot of templates. Most people ask a version of the same thing (that's already answered in my listing). 

I have six listings and it is not six times more work- I do not work 60 hours a week (even though it feels like it sometimes).

Attending to emergencies or immediate guest needs during stay can be time consuming. There is always someone who can not flush a toilet or connect to wifi. I would allocate extra 2 hours a week to that.