Hello to all.
My name is Graeme and I have been a host on Airbnb since January of this year.
I am originally from Leeds in the UK but now living and hosting on the edge of Paris, France.
I have two listings. Https://www.airbnb.fr/h/Graeme and Https://www.airbnb.fr/h/graeme2 ( I hope that I didn't break any rules by posting my links - no advertising intended).
I have been overwhelmed by the response and I am lucky enough to boast that I rarely have days when I don't have a guest staying.
If I do have the odd day free, I slash the price and in half on the day before just on the off chance that someone is looking for a last minute bargain.
I am learning all the time and constantly trying to improve (for example I recently had the idea of putting umbrellas in the rooms for guest use and am planning to buy a batch of bathrobes so that I can offer a clean one to each guest on arrival).
I reinvested a lot of my early earnings back into the property but I can honestly say that hosting has transformed my life. I was struggling desperately for money but this month and next, my projected Airbnb earnings will outstrip those of my day job.
I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to meet and host such a diversity of people from around the world.
On the whole the experience has been amazing with just a couple of issues that irritated me ( both involved personal hygiene). It's amazing how difficult it can be to eliminate body odour smells!!! I change the bed linen for every guest but somehow it tends to linger in the air and surroundings.
I have tried to implement a diplomatic way of dealing with this tricky issue by incorporating it into my house rules and in my automated welcome message.
In early May I had a catastrophe whereby the toilet broke resulting in a flood whenever you tried to flush. A huge piece of ceramic fell from the back of the unit. To flush I had to pour a bucket of water down the bowl!!! Of course, with this being France, I had to "follow procedures" and it took nearly two weeks for the unit to be replaced. I took the proactive step of messaging all of my pending guests, informing them of the situation and inviting them to cancel if they so desired. If they elected to continue with the booking, I offered to reimburse 25% of my earnings. Amazingly, nobody cancelled and my reviews were not negatively impacted.
Happy ending, I now have a gleaming new toilet unit that is so much more aesthetically pleasing than the old one.
I feel so fortunate to have decided to enter the hosting community and hope to continue for years to come.
Nice to meet you all!!
Graeme.
