If it wasn't for the money...

[Zacharias0]

If it wasn't for the money I really wouldn't be a host. I give my applause to those who allow couch surfing for free or are doing this out of meeting new people and so forth, but some of these guests can ruin it for the whole lot. I enjoy those guests who arrive after check in time and leave before check out time, I also enjoy those who clean up after themselves and know how to live independently without asking questions which are found in the listing. I really like those guests who after I pre-approve there requests 5 minutes after sending it actually accept it. Those are the guests that make a hosts life easier and I hope that by them staying with me I make their life easier in some way vis a vis money saved.

Then you have those "uninformed" guests who by one form or another teach you just how to be a better host, for lack of a better phrase. They use all 10 towels in the bathroom so now you only leave 2 for them in their room, they stain the white bath mats so you switch over to bamboo mats with a plush backing, they cook curry and fry fish in the kitchen even though you state it time and time again- PLEASE do not cook-so you remove all pots and pans from the kitchen and then there are those that lose the house key so you install a key pad entry. We like to think all guests enjoy a free breakfast, but buying danishes and cured meats in a world of people who are on health kicks and gluten free just seems a waste of money and effort.

I suppose being a successful host is about being nimble, realizing that some things work great in theory, but not so in practice, and focusing on the main reason the guest booked your place- it was cheap, location was great and it was clean. Sticking to those three things and offering little else has become a winning strategy- at least for me.  <End Rant>

[Anna446]

@everyone

Am very busy in BR, you have to understand that summer time, is always busier. Summer is vacation to every one, no one travels in the winter much. Am very impressed with the quality of wonderful brazilian guests, all so decent, polite, cleaner than I am. They polished my pans, they cleaned the refrigerator, they cleaned the floors, the bathrooms. 

Not only they cleaned my house but left a few items as a gift for my kitchen. They would bring me dinner. I have to say, am very impressed with the brazilians here, kind, considerate, thoughtful, left me great reviews, and now this second group overdid the cleaning and we now friends. 

Thank you Airbnb for giving me this opportunity to meet wonderful people through  your platform. Am definitely going instant booking as soon as I have the time to do this. Am just waiting for the payment of the second guest which left today.

love from Brazil

anna

[Anna446]

@everyone

I need to know where I can write about a guest , to notify airbnb of what happened, I do not want the guest to know what I wrote.  Thank you.

[Robin4]

@Anna446....

Anna, you should know by now, you have been very active on the forum for a month or more and in that time you should have seen a number of posts about just this topic!

If you want to get to Airbnb help, have your conversation totally private, and actually post a screenshot of an issue the best way is as follows....

Step 1: Log into Twitter

Step 2: Search for @Airbnbhelp and choose "Follow" them

Step 3: Send a Direct Message (DM) explaining your issue and wait for their response.  They may ask for information such as your listing or specific information about your problem, but always provide it over DM so it is not public.

If you follow this procedure Anna you will be in touch with a higher level of expertise than through the call centre. You will be able to post screenshots of relevant information and you will get a speedy response by those who are actually authorised to make decisions.

As I said your communication if you 'direct message' will be private, the only people who will see it are you and the Airbnb help person who responds to your message.

Anna, not wishing to be unduly unkind but, your a smart girl, the information I just posted is straight from the Search the Community tab! It was a post done by Dave & Deb earlier this year!

Many of us are starting to have an issue with posts like this because they clog the system with information that is freely available with the result that really good posts that do require some back and forth liason are simply pushed down the pecking order until they disappear and the value that they potentially have to other hosts is lost! 70% of the posts on this forum are 'How do I contact Airbnb'....there is a limit to how often we can answer that question!

Most problems that a host is ever likely to experience will have happened to other hosts in the past, and by typing your question into the 'Search the Community' tab you are almost certain to get the answer you require without stretching threads out in this way.

Anna, I know you think I am having a go at you but, look at far you have come in the last month since discovering the forum!

I just want to see you become a heap better at what you do and become that 'Superhost'!!

Cheers.....Rob

[Anna446]

@Yen-and-Robin0, I have tried to direct contact the admin, but it said that my level of hosting is not allowed to contact the Admin directly.  My very purpose of trying to contact them directly, is so I do not clog the system with personal complaints about the guests. I will wait until the end of the summer to do this, am extremely busy right now. Thank you for your comments, I hardly take anything personally, so no worries. Thank you for taking the time Robin, you are very kind, I appreciate your suggestions.  cheers! anna

[Amy38]

@Anna @Robin4

there is another abnb forum outside the abnb system that can be very useful.  And its home page begins with all the abnb contact numbers.  Airhostsforum.com

[Wendy147]

I am also wondering about saturation and why there are not as many bookings. We have 20 houses on our block, and 6 of them are Arbnb places. I was told by another short term rental site that the number of places listed has more than doubled in the last year. We try to do some extra things for our guests and always greet them and give them a tour of our place. We have gotten very nice reviews and hope that helps for the future. We have lowered our price for winter to make it more attractive, but I agree that you can't go too low. Good luck to everyone in 2017.

[Anna446]

@Ron46

Hi again Robin, so sorry about my lack of skills with the site of Airbnb. It is very busy here in BR, with bookings, and seems that the whole world is coming to BR for vacation. Our ecological areas are attracting many Europeans and Americans. I have not dedicated time to learning how to use the site, due to this lack of time with guests in and out. So I am very sorry to clog the forum with my questions. If I do it again, please ignore my post, maybe the Admin. will answer me. Lest I find the answer digging around. I did not mean to exacerbate anyone and I totally agree that other more senior hosts may get irritated with repeated instructions. thank you!Anna

[Annette33]

Dear @Anna446 , I see you being very active here in the forum - welcome to Airbnb hosting! The first thing any newbie to Airbnb should do is to educate themselves in detail about all of Airbnb rules and policies. You say you had no time to do so, but I kindly suggest that instead of posting here so many times, and not really with pertinent questions but with general comments, to please take some of that time and look into the Airbnb platform and learn - you'll find most answers right there!

But if you have a new question, please start a new thread for it. Btw, no Airbnb administrator  will assist you or help you here in the forum, don't confuse them with the forum admins here - they take care of the  forum, not of Airbnb business. when reaching out to Airbnb you will not ever be connected to an Airbnb administator but to a qualified agent on the help desk. 

Please keep in mind that as Airbnb hosts we all are running a business and are expected to be pro-active and solve the minor problems coming our way. Airbnb help is there for more complicated issues. Take a deep breath, work things out yourself, and most issues, like your suspected break of the shower handle by a guest will end up being a no issue. But perhaps take this potential scenario and educte yourself about how to file a claim with Airbnb.

I can help you right now with two issues: you asked a while ago how to not get notifications for new postings on this thread anymore:  like any thread, go to the  original post, pull down the options in the top right corner and click on "unsubscribe".

When you discuss things with specific people here, dont just type the @ sign and a name. look at the specific names Airbnb brings up and select the one that your reply is directed at. So when you want to talk to @Robin4, make sure you select him, not just any Ron out there. Same for Pat, make aure you select the right one. All issues that just take a bit of double checking and detail work. Good luck!

[Jeanette28]

I will NEVER do Instant Book on Airbnb! I have almost had to call the Police twice before on a few completely Intoxicated folks that were beligerant! One gu took all of his cloths off right in front of me and then STOOD there (when I said I would do his laundry for him) ! Sometimes its better to meet them first and make sure they are OK before you let them stay ONE night, let alone a whole Month or more, just because they get a discount for staying longer. 

[Robin4]

@Jeanette28

My God, this is a side of hosting I have never seen. You guys must have nerves of steel!!! 

All I have had is a stream of the nicest people, extremely respectful and an absolute pleasure to host.....and, to the point of this thread, I don't do it for the money! We have enough to live comfortably without becoming hoteliers. We do it for the love of meeting new people and gaining experience from different cultures and perspectives. I can't say I would do it if there was no money involved but, I will say it's one of the best things I have ever done....I literally can't wait for the next guest to arrive.

But I do have a massive advantage over many of you! At least my cottage is a distance from the house. There are a couple of locked doors between the cottage and our bedroom! There is no way I could have a complete stranger, not just in my house, but in the next bedroom to where I am sleeping!

I take my hat off to you.....you are a special breed and as I said, you must have nerves of steel to actually make it work. Particularly you hosts who are women. It is a terribly sad reflection on gender that women are not treated with equal status as men. It appalls me that women are seen as easy prey and in many instances such as you have described Jeanette, something to be actually mocked.

At times I am truly ashamed to be a man....purely by association, and it wish it wasn't this way.

I am afraid I don't have an answer for this! If you treat them with a friendly introduction it will be seen as a 'come on'! If you treat them with a cool efficient style you will be seen as a 'frigid bitch'!

At times I feel like giving the forum away because I feel so terribly for people who experience what you have experienced and I guess I just want to go and hide my head under a pillow.

I just hope it never happens again Jeanette, and I wish you luck with your future hosting.

Cheers.....Rob

[Jeanette28]

It's possible that because you are blocking a few days out if the month that you are missing out on the few guests that would rent for the entire month.  I do this occasionally because I need to be present here on the day of booking and their first night in case they have any questions... What I do is use the custom pricing and make the night I am away really expensive (instead of blocking it) so that it's less likely someone would come in for just that night. But yet the monthly custom price is still the same and so if they request to book a month it's possible. They wouldn't be able to book the month if you had a few days blocked out in the middle.

And even if someone requests a month stay coming in on a night where you are unavailable you can also change the reservation. They come in the day before or the day after with their agreement. This has been working well for me instead of blocking.

[Val20]

I recently turned on IB on my listings out of desperation. The reason I did this is that I searched airbnb from my friends computer and realized he was not seeing any of my listings because the defautl search option had IB turned on.

So I went ahead and turned it on, but I added a filter " with reviews from other hosts" .

To make a long story short, IB does not work well, it should still be on BETA, should not have been rolled out.

I´ve spent the past week trying to figure out why on earth all of a sudden, for the past month and a half I was hardly getting amy inquiries...while I am a 6 time super host and I have been gettign bookings on a regular basis for the past year and a half.

I lost so much money. I just turned OFF IB, I hope it gets back to normal. I am devastated. 

[Kathleen1]

I am also in Seattle.  I have been on Airbnb for over 4 years, honestly I have never had 1 problem, but I am only doing 15% of my business on Airbnb because I am have more success on other platforms.  Airbnb’s business model is changing and For me, as a 5 star host, not better. 

[Jeff116]

good guests will always be good they get it  scabs dont

[Susan354]

Ive been hosting in Vegas for 4 months or so , previous landlord and I have been lucky until the last guest .. his dogs torn molding and plaster off bedroom wall, burnt hole in shower curtian , left the place litteraly worse than some of the awesome kids that have stayed with me. 

dont let one jerk discourage you! Its very rewarding and a good income ... Im also in Vegas and if you need some ideas I can help yuo! 

Take care!

Sue