Too old for this STR

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Whoever said the guests now are worse than before Covid -  is right.

After a year-long pause, I am back to hosting. Yey. I had 5 groups of guests last month.

1. group - 4 young guys. Left a mess behind.
2. group  - booked a month in advance, then rescheduled their stay, then canceled
3. group  - they pulled  2 window blinds too hard and blocked them. Two of us, muscles and the ladder were needed to fix it
4. group - they were OK, thanks God!
5.  group - didn't read the listing description and now I am guilty and they are stressed. A bad review is expected.

Ok, the last group's problem is Airbnb's fault as well as theirs. It is hard to find all the info even on the desktop. Everything is hidden and has to be expanded into some stupid popup windows to be visible so no wonder important information is overlooked. Writing the listing is also more complicated than ever. I tried to edit my 3 listings a few weeks ago and after an hour I was completely exhausted and gave up. I really miss the layout from 2017. Airbnb should rehire those programmers again.

I think I'll give up on hosting. It's too much risk, too much stress, too few bookings, constant bad changes of Airbnb platform... I'm too old for this s*** 😄 

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Ugh, what a crummy opening back up experience. 

Is there any way you could target a different demographic? Like a shared student apartment? A long term work/ live space for a therapist or something like that? 

On the other hand, sometimes the universe conspires to lead you to a new phase of your life. Which can be a good and rejuvenating thing. 

How long have you been hosting?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977  yes, I can switch to different types of renting and probably will although, at the moment supply is greater than demand for STR, LTR and for working spaces as well

I am hosting since Jun 2016 until Covid, March 2020. I reopened at the end of March this year

Oh Yes the universe is powerful, we can't go against it 😄

How are things in Mexico? Any tourists=?

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Oh yeah, the place is packed with maskless tourists jamming into bars and restaurants, it's quite insane. 

I started hosting just a bit later than you did. I think I put my listing up in Oct. And got my first guest the beginning of Dec.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977  oh yeah, I expect insane maskless tourists jamming on our coast in a few months as well 😄  it will be interesting...

Well, my 5th non-reading-the-listing guests checked out today. I gave them a full refund for the remaining nights, found them another accommodation nearby and everybody happy 🙂 2 towels are missing but who cares. Maybe I gave 2 instead of 4, maybe they took them, It's hard to tell now. I have too many towels anyway, if I quit hosting I have enough bedding and towels for the next 5 generations, I should put them in my will 😄

6th group checked in today, they seem like a nice family, knock on wood...

[J-Renato0]

Hello @Branka-and-Silvia0 

I think that in Croatia things has returned to normal in terms of covid. In Brazil not yet.
Well, I do not know if my experience during these hard times can be of use to you.

I reopened my calendar in Octuber 2021.
I have not been taking bookings for less then 14 nights. (I am considering to set 28 minimun nights)
I am not taking more than 2 guests by listing.
I leave a gap of 4 days between each stay because I do not want to get stressed and for safety measures.

There are guests that are nomadic workers  (they work via internet) and book the listings for more than 1 or 2 months. Sometimes even more time. I have had bookings from foreigners that use internet to work. They are usually programmers, web designers, and etc. You have to have a good internet connection, at least 35mps speed. 

If you avoid groups and set minumum stay (14 nights) it can be easier to manage the listings.
Maybe less profitable, but in view of the world scenario it is not too bad.

If you quit, certainly we the hosts will miss you here. You write your posts with good humour!
Whatever is your decision, I wish you both the best.

[J-Renato0]

I should have said Oct. 2020, last year.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Thank you @J-Renato0  🙂 

Yes I've heard about the Covid crisis in Brasil and in Manaos 😞  is it getting any better?  Pandemic is worse in densely populated countries. Croatia has a population of only 3,5 milions, Zagreb is the biggest city with about 1 mil citizens so it should be easier to control it. But here is not great either. Brasil has 68.500 total cases per 1 mil and Croatia has 81.800 per 1 mil.  According to statistics, we are worse.

Yes, I've been thinking to do the same like you do, longer min stays, focus on professionals etc...

Do you find your guests/renters on Airbnb or some other sites?

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  I'd venture a guess that Bolsonaro is fudging the numbers, just as some US states with right wing governors are, whereas Croatia isn't.

Scientists and medical professionals in Mexico have said that Mexico's infection and death rate is at least 8 times higher than the official stats.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977   the numbers are probably much higher everywhere

I am renovating one apartment and the workers I hired told me yesterday they feel sick and have been tested. I hope they didn't catch Covid, it would prolong the timeline for at least a month... or more... 😞 Still waiting for results

[J-Renato0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

My guests comes via Airbnb. As far as I can remember, I do not have active listings in another platforms anymore.In terms of statistics, I think that Brazil at the moment has the worst figures in terms of death tolls. However I think it is getting better as long as the people are being vaccinated. There are some politicians that want to impeach the president alleging that he did not buy enough vaccine on time. Moreover, he does not recommend to wear face mask and is against lockdown when local authorities think it is necessary. ‌‌‌‌😳😱    
However the Supreme Court says he can not overrule cities and states lockdown ordinance.
Face masks is still mandatory by ordenance of the cities mayor and governors of state, and also recommend by national healthy system.  😷 🙂

And the life is going on... ! 

Hey  @Sarah977   see the text above! Does it ring a bell? There was another president (he was fired) in the north hemisphere that also were against lockdown and face mask! 

[Sarah977]

@J-Renato0  For sure. Mexico's president said his amulets would protect him from Covid. His federal health official said he wasn't closing the borders because "sick people don't travel".

You couldn't make this stuff up, it sounds too insane, right?

I think India has now beaten Brazil on the out of control pandemic bad response. They just registered 400,000 new infections in the past 24 hours.

[J-Renato0]

@Sarah977  @Branka-and-Silvia0 

Yes the management of the pandemic by the federal government (presidency) are being considered one of the worst on earth.
In number of death tolls, last December US it was in the first place and Brazil in the second place. The US has already changed the course of their route successfully. Lamentably, Br azil has not manage to reverse the course.
You can see an interesting and enlightening article about what is happening here:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56899177

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@J-Renato0  it seems India has the highest numbers lately. It is shifting from country to country but interestingly, China had just 16 new cases today. How come?

But, J-Renato, how do you manage gaps between your bookings if your min stay is 14 nights? Do you allow bookings from particular days or dates only or you have some other system in place?

[J-Renato0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Airbnb does not allow me to set more than 2 nights as preparation time.
So when someone books I imediately go to the calendar and block manually for 4 nights before checkin and after checkin. Sometimes it turns into a huge gap because the next guest does not arrives imediatelly after the previous guest leaves the property. Anyway, to me it is OK, considering that it is not possible, at least to me to have maximum profit considering that we are going through hard times.
Sometimes, if I can not win a game, I'd rather draw than lose. However in general I have resonable profit.

According to your evaluation and convenience, you could as well open dates to fill some gaps, such as 1-week for example beteween the longer periods of time that are booked. In this case you can create some rule for the special period of time to accept bookings for less nights.

I do allow bookings for any open dates as long as it is possible according to the minimum of nights set.
However you can set rules if you want the guest checking in on some predetermined dates immediately after the blocked 4 nights. (However it can create limitations, may not be good).
In this case, you have to creat rules where the guest can only have checkin, another rule where only checkout is possible. Then you place this rules according to your convenience on the calendar.
When I used to use booking dot com, it was very easy to configure it, but I quit booking dot com.
Via Airbnb is much more completed to create restriction (rules).
I only use rules for special periods of times, such as days around new years eve and days around carnival feast.
I do not recommend creating restrictions (rules) for times when there is less demand for accommodation.
Anyway, everything I say here is based on my experience. Do not take it as an absolute truth that is suitable for everyone.