Not having fun hosting...

[Timothy380]

I am after suggestions for making my hosting better. Its currently really boring and not much fun.

I have my listing : please google it.  Or 》 airbnb.com/h/timspad

Maybe someone can tell me how to make this less of a chore and more of a chilled place. I LIKE being a HOST  and AirBnb is OK. It could be so much better. What do you think?

[Anonymous]

@Timothy380   Hosting is more of a job than a hobby, considering that you get paid for it. If you're not concerned at all with making money, you might consider offering your homeshare on CouchSurfing or on social media for people who share common interests with you. 

If the part of the job that you like least is all the cleaning between stays, you can try setting a minimum length of stay so that you're not turning over rooms too often.

The "fun" side of hosting a homestay is usually the connections you make with the people who choose to book. Looking at your listing, though, it's hard to tell what kind of guests you're trying to attract. Why are there over 20 pictures of the exterior of the house? Why are all the images so dark and out of focus? What do you think the imagery says about the experience you're offering? Most importantly, if you put yourself in the shoes of a guest visiting the area for the first time, is this the listing you would choose?

There are a lot of small things you could do to make the common areas feel more comfortable and welcoming for guests. Nothing wrong with having your personal stuff in the room - it's your home after all - but if a room looks dirty and cluttered, it sends an aggressive signal that it's your personal territory and not a shared space. The barrenness of the bedrooms also sends a message that you haven't put much thought into creating a comforting environment for your guests.

If you're not getting the results you'd hoped for, I'd suggest going back to the drawing room and creating the environment that you'd want to experience as a guest yourself, and maybe getting some help photographing it. It's perfectly fine if that means leaning hard into a special niche - you don't have to be everything to everyone. But if you're going to list on Airbnb, cleanliness is non-negotiable.

[Timothy380]

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[Anonymous]

@Timothy380  That might be amusing content for a Reddit post, but please don't publish it as a review. It violates several terms of the Content Policy , makes you sound like an unhinged bigot, and provides very little information that's helpful to other hosts. Airbnb would almost certainly remove it, as they refuse to host content that exposes them to the risk of a defamation suit.

The point of a review is not to analyze a guest's personality, and it's extremely inappropriate to publicly air out sensitive personal and medical information about a guest. That is never OK. If you're not getting along with a houseguest, you are free to terminate the booking and forfeit the payout for the remaining nights. If you instead choose to run out the clock and write a defamatory review, that only reflects poorly on you as a host. 

[Timothy380]

Absolutely. Unhinged bigot s about right. The guests behaviour was designed to extract such a response.

He was, in effect, 'blackmailing' my Airbnb efforts.  I MAY leave the platform due to this guests responses to my advert, subsequent rent and experience. Tough luck isn't difficult to handle. Inain privilege and undifferentiated prejudice is. Regards.

[Laura2592]

@Timothy380 I don't think anyone expects hosting to be "fun." Don't buy into the ABB marketing.  It's not a magical ticket to the land of unicorns and tolerance.  You are basically renting your space to strangers on a short term basis.  Some of those people will be interesting or amusing.  Most will be people you probably wouldn't want in your home without the promise of compensation. Its a business, not a party where you curate the guest list. 

I love our cottage and enjoy sharing it with the percentage of our guests who get the same excitement from learning about its history and relaxing at the space. But clean up isn't fun. Dealing with entitled people who complain about small things isn't fun. Replacing broken items when people are careless isn't fun. Calling out those who try to bypass rules and throw parties isn't fun.  But you know what? I'm getting paid. And when I don't have enough money to compensate for the difficulty or unpleasantness of my experience hosting I raise my price.  It's gone up quite a bit.

[Timothy380]

Thank you. Very ASTUTE. Maybe AirBnb is not for me, nor my house is for Airbnb. 

[Anonymous]

@Timothy380  Yes, I think you're correct on that point.

[Charles224]

@Timothy380  I can't see the issue mate.

Your price is totally sharp. Are you trying to get more punters?

I noticed you seem to have every angle covered with photos of the outside of the house, while almost every host never shows outside photos. Too much information for those on the rob. Perhaps just take an arty shot of the entrance?

The basic rule for all photos is "cut the clutter by 20%, and then do it again, and again"..

And we all (vegans and bikers) want to see the bed / bathroom /kitchen etc; so you could focus on better photos of these areas (after applying the basic rule).

As for the description, keep it gentle and 100% about what you can do - the "Not this and Not that" kind of thing comes accross as agressive. Just do that in the background where you can click the Yes/No buttons. 

Some bike photos would be cool !!

Remember, you are actually part of the 'real' AirBnB experience.

Cheers n Beers.

Charles

[Timothy380]

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[Sarah977]

@Timothy380  As a home share host myself, I do have a lot of fun with many of my guests. We'll sit and chat over coffee or a bottle of wine, we've gone out for lunch together, I've taken them to beaches they would never know about as tourists, or invited them along on an outing with friends, if it felt like they would fit in.

But while a guest in a home-share is subject to the host's lifestyle in common areas, I would never book a place myself that looked so incredibly cluttered, with every surface covered in stuff. It is also impossible to really clean a place when it is so cluttered. So I would avoid the common areas and mostly stay in my room, and you would probably consider me no fun to host. And your guest rooms don't look at all inviting.

I find it amusing that you say for guests to not mess up the house, when it already looks messy. What's that photo with the completely covered desk and the open toolbox on the floor supposed to represent?

It takes me an hour and a half to clean the private guest room and their bathroom, and another half hour or so to make sure the kitchen and other common spaces are clean and tidy, and that's with the fact that I normally am clean and tidy anyway and don't have clutter and knicknacks around.

The kind of guest who is attracted to a place that is messy and not well cleaned, may be the type of guest who isn't much fun to hang out with.

Cleaning, communicating with guests pre-arrival, keeping your bookings in order, writing reviews, are all part of the business of hosting, and are not intended to be "fun".

[Timothy380]

Maybe Airbnb is not for me, or, my place is for you.

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Timothy380 @Sarah977 @Charles224 @Laura2592 @Anonymous 

Hello. I see very much what you are aiming for and I like the way you describe your listing.

Your place looks really clean to me, just very cluttered.

I get the toolbox in the room but others won't. 

You have WAY too many images of outside and I agree with others to re take the images. I'd go for a bright, sunny day and open very clean windows.

If you work as a teacher do you have a colleague who is into photography who will help?

I would re-write the title. "Biker's rest" or some such.

I'd also remove the bit about "don't mess my place up" from your profile and maybe remove the capitals from your description.

Consider raising your price, and advertising your airbnb link in biker/vegan groups on social media.

[Timothy380]

Maybe, just maybe, this place isn't for you....

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I know many off-site hosts personally and none of them "have fun hosting". We meet our guests a few minutes on arrival and that's it. Some hosts don't meet them at all bc they use self-check-in.. Airbnb advertises it and presents it as fun, meeting new people and friends ... but for most hosts, it's just a very risky business, fun like Russian roulette.