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*** 😄 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

So, update...

5th. group shortened their stay, I agreed and fully refunded unused nights. Then they gave me 4* for overall, accuracy and communication, and in feedback, they explained they didn't read the description  🙄

6th. group, great guests... except the kitchen cupboard door just fell off 😳

I have one more group arriving in Jun... pray for me 🍄🍄🍄🍄

[Ute42]

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 

😎   Business as usual.

I don't know but maybe I'm also getting too old for this STR. I have another 18 months to go and then my mortage will be payed off 100% and I owe the bank nothing. I'm not sure what I'm going to do then, maybe nothing?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ute42great, then you can stop hosting and start house swapping :)))

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Ute42  Maybe Fred could turn his Belize atoll into a retirement home for old, burnt-out Airbnb hosts 🙂

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

  @Fred13  what do you say? 😄

Great idea but, as times goes by the entire coral reef wouldn't be large enough for all burnt-out hosts  😄

@Sarah977

Did you watch the movie "The best exotic Marigold Hotel" ?  😄

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  I'm pretty sure I did see that movie, years ago, but I can't remember it. I'll look for it again.

[Dimitar27]

You came back to the game too early. I'm in the same situation and my decision was clear, that it's not the right time to host again. I will try to keep my tenant for another year. Flights are  -80%, Covid is still a factor in our daily life. Still no light at the end of the tunnel.

[Louise0]

I feel your pain.  I've just blocked my entire calendar because I cannot deal with the calibre of guest my place seems to be attracting at the moment.  My last group were the final straw.  Treated the place like a flop house and left it as a pigsty.

I agree that a MAJOR factor is the way information is presented on the site.  Navigating it for guests and hosts is not intuitive and important information that was once easily accessible is now buried; guests don't find the information, let alone alone read and comprehend it.

I cannot and will not host until this is fixed and I'm sure many feel the same.

[Sarah977]

@Louise0  Airbnb has most definitely, and seemingly intentionally buried crucial info in our listings. I started hosting in 2016 and the entire listing description was visible without clicking on anything. And the house rules appeared right under it. Now a quarter of the page is that stupid box that says how many recent guests said it was sparkling clean and other useless things that are made evident in our listing descriptions and reviews.

But not thoroughly reading through everything doesn't seem to me to have anything to do with the type of awful guests hosts are reporting getting so many of lately. I mean, just because a guest didn't read through everything doesn't have anything to do with acting like disrespectful pigs. You or I could book a place, only looking at the photos and price, but we're not going to invite all our friends over and trash it out.

And the newbie guests I've hosted before were totally respectful, so what do you think is the reason for this rash of horrid guests? Have Covid restrictions really created all these monsters? Did being cooped up for so long really turn them into people who need to now go totally wild? I can't really figure it out.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977 @Louise0 @Dimitar27 @UGeen-and-Lana0 @Ute42 

I think it's the unfortunate mix of Covid restrictions, Airbnb's pro-guest policies,  higher supply, lower prices, frustrated and entitled " I " generation, hidden pieces of information, and so on...

Dimitar, you said you will continue to rent long-term... if you have good tenants then, of course, it's the best solution...  but tenants become more entitled and demanding as well. I am trying to rent a room in a flat with roommates for almost 2 months now and I rejected quite a few prospective tenants. It's better to stay empty than to deal with reckless and irresponsible tenants.

[Wendy1409]

I agree.  It's not just hosting- it feels like ever since Covid, people are generally ruder and quick to anger. I had hoped that it was just a difficult transition after being in isolation for so long, but we're well out of lockdowns stateside and I still see it.  Road rage is especially an issue i find.  

I could understand that people who initially booked right after lockdowns were lifted might have been just letting their hair down and extremely rowdy, but it doesn't seem to be getting better.  Travel has also become cheaper to try to compensate for lost income during lockdowns,  and travel in general has become extremely trendy, so I think those things add to it as well.