[POLL] How long have you been hosting for?

[Sybe]

Hey everyone,

It can sometimes feel like it was only yesterday that you welcomed your first guest. Time flies when you’re having fun, and when you do what you love, those years can feel like just days passing by.

How long have you been hosting for? 

What is it that kept you going? How did you get past the bad times and how did you celebrate the good times? This is your hosting experience in general so if you were a Host before you joined Airbnb, that time counts too!

I can’t wait to hear from you. 😃 

Sybe

P.S. While you’re looking back at the years you’ve been hosting, we’d love to invite you to share your most memorable hosting stories with us at @Stephanie’s topic here!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sybe we started 3 years ago this July with 1 apartment in our refurbished Georgian house. By October the following year we finished two more apartments just in time to be shut down by Covid!

We have sadly now had to list the apartments with another provider (Cottages.com) due to the disastrous  lack of bookings post the Summer Airbnb update. 

Unless Airbnb gets its act together soon we will snooze our listings and rely 100% on Cottages.com. The extra effort of listing on both just isn't worthwhile if the level of Airbnb bookings is close to zero.

[Markus352]

I have been a host on Air BNB since 2016.

It started when I felt alone in my big house after the separation of the then life partner. I used to live in shared apartments a lot. But I didn't want that anymore. A colleague advised me that I could offer my 2 rooms in the lower area as Air BNB.

So I started the ad and since then I am a host on Air BNB. Air BNB makes it easy to offer your accommodation and I like the fact that the entire process runs through the platform. This also includes that Air bnb takes a part of the revenue adavon. A clever business model.

I was able to continuously improve the accommodation based on the feedback from my guests. In the meantime, I have a new partner and we are always very happy to receive guests again. it is a welcome change, because we live very much in the country and have little contact with others. So we always have more or less social exchange with guests from all over the world. Before Corona, we had many guests from Asia. After Corona until today there are more guests from Switzerland, or the surrounding countries.

Fortunately, we have had few problems so far. I once had a guest who registered as 1 person. Suddenly your friend were with us. But Air Bnb has also supported me in these matters. Especially the community thought I like very much.

I see our Air Bnb not as a source of income, but more as the opportunity to meet interesting people. Next year we will install a kitchen in the Air BNB to increase the comfort for the guests.

As long as we like it, we will still run the Air BNB.

We are very happy with the support we have received from Air BNB.

[Denis130]

Markus352

Liked your thought, "meeting interesting people" has been a definite additional benefit  for doing Airbnb having spent 20+ years in the travel industry (airline passenger and cargo service). Airbnb brings that back for me.

This Community Center is also a great place to ask questions and get answers/opinions for solving issues that have usually already been dealt with in some fashion or another by longer term hosts.

[Kristi1834]

@Sybe I have been hosting for one month and 11 days! I don't know what took me so long to start, because I have loved every minute of it.  I have converted my garage apartment (behind my main home) into a rental.  It has been a pleasure to meet new people from so many walks of life and to help make their vacations memorable.  The side income is an added benefit as well.  I love where I live and sharing it with others has been a joy.

[Sybe]

@Kristi1834 That's amazing to hear and glad you're enjoying it so far. I hope there are many more months and years to come! 😃

[Suzanne302]

@Sybe 

I've been hosting a little over 4 years now. I decided to try it out after a very good long-term roommate moved out and after my first few guests I realized I really liked playing "host"!

I bought a new house in 2020 and had to adjust my hosting style a bit. In my old house, guests had a lot of privacy and essentially had one side of the house to themselves. My new house is a 1926 cottage, so the layout means I have more interaction with guests and it's a more intimate experience.

[Sybe]

@Suzanne302 Was it difficult to adjust to what I assume is a more involved style of hosting?

[Suzanne302]

@Sybe 

As an introvert, YES! LOL!

I went from rarely seeing or hearing my guests to running into them frequently and being able to hear them from time to time since my bathroom shares a wall with the guest bedroom.

I must say though, I have come to enjoy the "forced" intimacy and have had fun talking with many lovely guests. My current listing seems to attract a different type of guest - The kind that seem more used to shared spaces and usually leave their bedroom door open when they are not at the house, especially the solo travelers. I take that as a compliment that they feel very comfortable in my home!

[Larry241]

Bought my house in 1983 because it had a rental unit i rented it out. I started with my best friend big mistake. One renter was walking around in the garage with a pistol because he thought he heard a burglar. He shot thru the garage ceiling which I lived above. He had to go. Finally found Mike. He was the best he lived downstairs for 30 years and became part of the family. He died in 2019. I have not done any maintenance down there for 30 years and had really not seen it too much. I thought about it and figured I'd spend the big bucks to have it completely gutted and fixed up brand new. During that process my wife and I talked about it and thought that we would join Airbnb. I've had all kinds of people some were not kind to the apartment and others that were extremely kind to it. I've just been learning to take it in stride and do the best I can. I'm retired now the house is paid off and the extra money is nice.

[Sybe]

@Larry241 That must've been quite an event, were you at home when the gun went off? 

I'm so sorry to hear about Mike, we lost someone we considered part of the family not long ago as well so I know what it feels like. I hope your new adventure with Airbnb has helped get some closure.

[Larry241]

Yes I was at home when the gun went off and my dog had been laying in the spot in the hallway where the bullet went through just a few minutes previously. if I have been standing at my bathroom sink I would have taken it in the head. Thanks for asking, Good luck thanks again.

[Helen2454]

I started an AirBnB 2 years ago due to covid wiping out our primary work (theatre and film) suddenly no income staring us in the face. The first guests to our little cabin were AWFUL!!! (they came into our home and started playing drums!!!) Yet undeterred we welcomed the next guests (lovely!) and since then over a hundred couples/friends. It has been a joy meeting them all! During lockdowns we stayed open as we host a little log cabin in the woods and keep our distance from guests to give them a sense of privacy - 100% of guests during covid needed a mental health getaway. (the entire cabin wiped down with alcohol between guests) It was great to chat to guests and feel connected to humanity during lockdowns! We love seeing people arrive albeit stressed and tired and watch them transform and leave so happy and relaxed. We've also had a few mother/daughter weekends, a wedding proposal, a traumatised person (from a horse accident ) made a breakthrough by spending time with our gentle horses. We worked very hard to make guests feel welcome, and that they are in a super clean environment despite roughing it in the woods! 

[Sybe]

@Helen2454 I can only imagine how satisfying it must be to return to your beautiful cottage after a hike in the woods! It's so heartwarming to see that it's not just hosting people what you're doing but also changing their lives and helping them for example get over a trauma. Thank you so much for sharing!

[Lorna170]

@Sybe   We have been hosting for more than 20 years with multiple stand-alone properties.  When we began, there were many "mom and pop" advertising venues, so we spent a considerable amount in advertising.  That has drastically changed due to the large market share that is represented by AirBnB and one or two other name-brand OTAs.  We do wish that the OTAs were less intrusive to our business practices and truly earned the percentage of our profits that they take.

We have sold most of our properties as we have scaled back due to retirement desires and the diminished income due to the increasing costs associated with booking via OTAs.  Only one property is listed on AirBnB and concurrently with other OTAs.  We will continue with AirBnB until we sell this property, but since the summer release/updates have not had a single booking through AirBnB, which is troubling.

Overall, we have had a good hosting experience.  We have enjoyed most of the guests that we have had the pleasure to meet in person or have had good communication with.  The one or two guests per year that have challenged us as hosts or who have damaged our properties have not deterred us from continuing this venture.  We believe that we have had a positive impact on the economy in our area by offering employment that has greatly benefitted our staff and their families.  We have hosted STRs to bring tourism dollars to the area as well as LTRs that are affordable to local residents.  

[Michael-O-Reilly0]

@Sybe Our hosting Journey started about 15 years ago, we started out hosting Irish Summer College Students as they came to our area to learn the Irish language or 'Gaelige'  as it is known.  Then around 2016, we started hosting on Airbnb,  It has been a wonderful 15 years of welcoming guests to our home, meeting people from different countries, and learning about each other's cultures and traditions. During this time we have truly learned that we might have different views, religions, and cultures, but we all belong to one Global community, looking forward to welcoming many more guests to my home.