Just one question.... maybe two!

[Cindy1197]

What's your one best piece of advice on short-term rentals or something you wish you had known before you started.?  We're new to this and trying to educate ourselves. Thanks!

[Robin4]

@Cindy1197 

Hi Cindy, there is no one best piece of advice I can give but I am going to post for you a few landmark observations from over the years but my 'leave pass' to be typing away has expired for a few hours. I will come back here with a more detailed post for you later in the day ok.

Cheers........Rob

[Robin4]

@Cindy1197 

Welcome on board Cindy, although you don't say it I am assuming you have been a guest but now want to give hosting a go.

If this is right, I hope you can make the success out of hosting that many other hosts here have done. 

Cindy every hosting situation is different and the risks that you face are dependent on things like, are you a hands on host or a remote host. Do you host on your personal property or do you host as an investment from afar. If there are going to be issues the risk will be considerably higher from listings that the host has little personal control over. 

Cindy success comes with experience, there is no single piece of advice that will lead you to that pot of gold but if I can just list a few basic requirements, it might get you off to a reasonable start!

1/......Listing Description: When preparing your listing to go public, make it as user friendly as possible. Remember, it's your turf, and things that seem bleedin' obvious to you are going to be alien to a stranger. Put breakables at the back of shelves and off low tables, reduce your risk.

Clearly define what your listing offers and what it doesn't. When describing your listing do it with a stranger! Someone you know who isn't closely attached to you, describe it from a guests point of view. Don't use professional photography......fancy photo equipment tends to give a false impression of size and space, and many photo shoots use prop accessories which disappear along with the cameras when the shoot is finished. Guests will complain if the reality does not meet their expectation. Keep it real. all phones now are more than capable of giving good photo images for a listing description. 

Set your house rules  succinctly in bullet heading form but be brief, Guests get bored quickly and will at best just skim over house rules. Stay clear of putting up lots of 'post-it' notes telling guests what they can and can't do. It looks like you are being a 'helicopter' host and hovering over them all the time if they are continually faced with do and don't prompts! They are paying for the space, give them a bit of space!

2/.....Pricing: This is your property, it's your business, take control of it and make it do what you want it to. Don't be swayed by promises of more bookings for cheaper rates. If you are the cheapest listing in the area you are going to attract the least desirable guests. Before you list your property do a profit and loss statement something like this to ascertain just how much you need to make to turn a profit.

Remember, it's far better to have an empty property than to host at a loss, and from Airbnb's point of view you will never be cheap enough. Don't use Smart Pricing or pricing tips or Length of Stay discounts until you fully understand how they work and what consequences they will have on your bottom line. 

3/.....Insurance: Insure your property with a reliable Insurer who charges a set premium amount for a defined level of cover. Set a deductible you can handle, keeping in mind that the higher the deductible, the cheaper the annual premium will be. I put $6 per guest night into a special fund to cover minor damage and I have set a deductible of $2,500. This means my annual premium is peanuts because the risk of large scale loss in extremely minimal....but I have that defined level of cover there in black and white if I should ever need it, and for any minor damage, I just pull what is required out of my damage fund account, put it right and get on with hosting the next guest. Most of these instances are accidents, some times the guest will meet me some of the way, other times they won't, that's fair enough, hosting is a risk and some form of damage is unavoidable. My statistics say it comes about once in each 30 hostings! I don't involve Airbnb or any of their 'host protection' or security deposit scenarios. For one thing, the security deposit is never taken from the guest! It is simply a statement that the guest is asked to honour any claim a host might make against them. If they haven't been honest enough to step up to the plate and accept responsibility to start with, it is highly unlikely they will accept a hosts claim and make restitution. The guest has 72 hours to accept a security deposit claim.....most of them don't so, the host is left hanging out to dry! 

And don't rely on Airbnb's Aircover or host protection scheme. It is not insurance, any claim will be subject to wear and tear, reparable options. It is an adjudicated system and there are so many loopholes in it you will drive yourself mad trying to get anywhere. If the host ends up with any compensation at all, it can be as little as 10% of the claim.

Cindy, forget that these things possibly exist and put your own affairs in order, you will know where you stand and never be let down then! 

4/......Reservations: I strongly advise the use of Instant book!

Guests fall into two camps, passive/complimentary or.......aggressive/demanding. Someone has either read your listing description, like what they see, just want to pull out their credit card and stay, no ifs, no buts, just bring it on!......"We have seen your lovely listing, are coming for a wedding at a local winery, Jack and I can't wait to stay in your cottage!"  Brilliant, I can't hit the accept button fast enough, they have come to me in a complimentary way and I know they will be great guests.

Or they will jerk you around with a heap of questions that could most probably been answered if they had read the listing description properly and are simply designed to make you give ground. "We are coming for a wedding nearby, is there offstreet parking, do you have an iron so I can press my dress, is it alright if I have another couple for a couple of drinks before the wedding?" Now hang on, I don't know you from Adam and in the space of one sentence you require 3 things of me! I am much more hesitant, I want to see what their past review history is like, I need to do a bit of soul searching before I accept a request like that Remember every time you give in to a guests questions you strengthen their ground and you weaken yours.  Cindy you get very good at picking them after a while, and it does pay massive dividends.....in over 600 hostings I have only ever had 3 slip under the radar and I wouldn't want to see walk up my drive again!

If someone wants more than what you offer you are much better telling them that your property might no be a good fit for them and they should perhaps seek out another property that might be better suited to them. In most instances that has the immediate effect of putting you back in control. It lets them know that this business operates by a set of rules and if the hosting proceeds it is more likely to be a successful one. If they don't want to accept that they will go somewhere else. Cindy, don't deal with hagglers, they are not like a fine bottle of wine they don't get better with age.

5/........The hosting: When the guest arrives, give them something little they are not expecting, a chocolate on the bedside table, a nice warm or cool environment, They were not expecting but appreciated it. Just as they leave send them a nice message make them feel they were welcomed, not just another key in the drop box. If guests arrive happy, and leave happy they will be a lot more forgiving if things were not quite perfect along the way.

Cindy, if you can take this on board you will be guaranteed of a steady stream of nice guests, I won't go into the review system now, that's another story but I have that covered in other threads on this hosting board. 

I wish you all the best Cindy and good hosting. I know this is longer than the short one liner you were looking for, but there is no simple shortcuts to good hosting, it is a series of little things you learn along the way, I did by coming here before I got started, it worked for me, hope it works for you! 

Cheers........Rob

[Marie6762]

@Robin4 

Thanks, Rob - I’ve been a home host for 3 years, and found your Profit/Loss accounting very edifying! 

[Robin4]

@Marie6762 

Some great people from the past here on the CC gave me lots of solid advice from their experiences, and I am just trying to pay it forward. All the best Marie.

Cheers........Rob

[Cindy1197]

Thank you so much for your tips!  I really appreciate you taking the time to offer this advice.  This will be very helpful!

[Huma0]

@Cindy1197 

If I had to narrow it down to one thing, it's to never assume that the guest has read all, or even any, of the listing information. I discovered early on that some guests don't read the most basic stuff and then arrive with a completely unrealistic expectation, e.g. not realising I have three cats or even that it is a homeshare and that I live here. Not sure why anyone would think they would get a four storey house in a fairly central London location for the price of a room, but not everyone is that logical.

So, I always do my best to make sure the guest has read and understood the most important points and try to ascertain if they will be a good fit for my listing and my listing a good fit for them. I am sure it has helped me to avoid all sorts of misunderstandings and increase my star ratings.

[Cindy1197]

Great advice!  Thanks.

[Suzanne302]

@Cindy1197 

@Robin4  and @Huma0 are very experienced and have given great advice! I will add one thing that I struggled with at the beginning was taking things personally and being upset over little things that truly don't matter in the long-term.

They stained my washcloth??!! How dare they!

Let the little things go and hosting will be much less stressful!

[Cindy1197]

Another good piece of advice. It's good to go into it with that attitude.

[Donna51]

@Cindy1197 

Things I wish I had known/thought of:

Great cleaning people are hard to find (you're asking them to come in a limited timeframe) and I ended up charging guests less than I pay the cleaners, taking the loss so I at least don't have exorbitant cleaning fees. (While I appreciate @Robin4 's details and wish I had had those as a guide, in Seattle, $15 would be a joke for a cleaning fee. I can't get anyone to come for less than $60, for a 250 square foot studio. So, location matters.)

If you find something you like -- linens, primarily -- buy 2 sets, or 3. And lots more for towels. That allows you to rotate one set in while you wash the other.

I also learned the hard way that washing blankets so frequently has shortened the life of my washing machine.  I initially used blankets so people wouldn't necessarily use the duvet, but recently decided it's better to wash the duvet cover every time, since it's more lightweight.

Dark, 'makeup' washcloths that don't bleed are optimal. I've had a heck of a time getting makeup out of white washcloths and towels, even with bleach.

Learn about the most effective laundry tricks and tools. I *highly* recommend the book Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore and the products/tips they suggest. I haven't nearly found joy but I've found less pain in treating stains. 🙂

'Little' things' but hopefully they help.

[Robin4]

@Donna51 

Hi Donna, what do they say...."Different strokes for different folks"!

I know a cleaning fee of $15 is just a token amount and is not practical at all for remote hosts, but one has to be realistic on a couple fronts when it comes to listing pricing.

1/.......What is a realistic amount someone will pay for what I offer? This is not the 'Ritz'.....it's just a humble converted garage in the backblocks of nowhere. It doesn't have anything special apart from I can offer.

There is no endless swimmer out in the garden, no manicured 18 hole golf course through a gate in the rear fence.....it is what it is, and by the time Airbnb put there service fees on, this humble converted garage turns into a $130 per night guest outlay. I set my rate by what the market is prepared to pay.

2/......I have never condoned the cleaning fee as a backdoor method of disguising an artificially low listing price.....start off low and hit em with extras! I have seen cleaning fees of $120 for something not much bigger than what I offer. I don't agree with that.

Most of the cleaning I do myself, because I know it's done to my standard, I am retired, need to keep myself active and don't depend on the money. Realistically it should just be part of what I offer.

But I am in this situation where a local woman I worked with at a voluntary meals delivery service was struggling by from pension to pension and started borrowing money on a regular basis. She knew I was running a rental cottage and in the end I said to her...."Rather than lend you money which you have to repay out of your next pension I will give you $30 a turnaround to service my rental and you can do 2 a week". She absolutely jumped at that offer so I do a couple a week and she does a couple a week, she gets her $60 and I get my $60 in cleaning fees......and she doesn't borrow money any more!!! It works perfectly for me Donna.

Like I said, 'different strokes for different folks'!

Cheers.........Rob

[Donna51]

Hi @Robin4 ,

I'm a bit confused. You listed an average cleaning fee of $15 in the detailed list you initially shared, but your reply note above mentions $60? My intention was simply to share with @Cindy1197 that she should be clear on what it takes (time-wise and $) to hire cleaning folks in her area, if she needs to. 

And I don't see me taking a loss on the cleaning fees as a backdoor method of any kind. I think we're in agreement. The market price for my place can't go too high and I like to keep it at mid-range of what's within a mile radius, so I take a loss of $10 when I can't clean it myself (I charge $50 in my listing, but my cleaners charge me $60).

You've worked out a wonderful situation, it sounds like, for you and for someone in your community - that's terrific.

Take care,

Donna

[Robin4]

@Donna51 

To try and clear up the confusion Donna I set a cleaning fee of $15 per guest stay and I average 4 guests a week......$60 I get for that week in cleaning fees from Airbnb.

I offered my help, Fran,  2 turnarounds a week at $30 per turn around. So what this means is I subsidize my help at $15 per turn around. I get $60 per week on average which I pass on to her........I do half the work which I considered covered as part of my listing amount, she does the other half for which she gets the cleaning fees. 

Now this is an average Donna, some weeks I get 5-6 overnighters, Fran still does just 2 turnarounds.....she gets $60 out of the $75-$90 that I get from Airbnb. Some weeks it might be just 1-2 guests and she will for a week like that get just 1 turnaround for that week, it averages out for me!.

I understand full well there is no way I could get a professional cleaner in here for less than $50 per turn around, but I don't need to.....I live on the property and am fully capable of doing all the servicing work myself but, what I am doing is paying someone else so I can have a couple of days off and in the process still get the turnarounds done and helping Fran out as well, she is a cleanaholic, loves the work and appreciates the extra money.

Does that make sense?

Cheers.........Rob

[Cindy1197]

Wow...more great info. Thanks so much!