Newby - looking for advice re home share

[Susan725]

i all. I have hosted foreign language students over the years and recently decided to advertise on air bnb. I have an attic bedroom and guest bedroom with private bathroomertised. These rooms are in our family home and we have 2 small boys.

My question is regarding keys really, I have put on my ads that check out time is 8.30am on school days and 10am at weekends. I have also put that check in time is 4-9pm.

I wondered if someone say rents a room for 2 days do they get access to the house at any stage during the 2 days or can I restrict it to during the times I have stated?

It's just as this is our family home with 2 children I wanted to have some control over the time period during which they would have access to the house.

Thank you in advance

Sue

[Linda108]

@Susan725  If I understand your issue correctly you want to restrict your guest access during the day and you are essentially renting a place to sleep during certain hours.  You can do this if you can work out the logistics, but you must be very clear that this is the set up.  Guests on holiday may not like it but perhaps guests who are going to be out starting early in the morning wouldn't mind.

What you are contemplating is not the norm on Air BNB so you should not use Instant Booking so you can ensure that the guests understand the house rules.

[Paola432]

Hi Susan,

I perfectly understand your concern as I am a mum too and I run several airbnbs, one of which is a room in my house. At the really beginning, more then 2 years ago, I did start giving the guests strict rules on house access, but it wasn't easy and it wasn't working. The first impact is that you don't trust your guests, so they will not like / trust you and the whole airbnb concept it really melts down.  You can't really say to a guest , perhaps on holiday the most of the time, to get out of bed at a precise time and get out of the house at a set time during their stay. On the first day indeed you set the time for check in etc... but then during the stay it is different. A set time everymorning to go out sounds quite awkward and not really polite. My advice is to take the matter in a different prospective and accept booking from females only for example, if you feel better (it is just an example). 

Anyway if you explain it VERY well in the house rules and description in ADVANCE you are free to set whichever rule you want, and you will get booking anyway but in few weeks/months you will realize that reviews aren't great and guests they will moan about this, hence your bookings will start to decline, so in the long term would not be beneficial. You really need to understand that people using Airbnb are jsut like you and me, they respect family values etc... before being able to book anyone need to upload all the documents etc... I think it is a very safe enviroment.

I always say to people wanting to do Airbnb in their property to think from the guests prospective. Do you like if you book a place for holiday and the host says that you have to go out at 8:30 am? and then you can't access the property all day? And you don't trust them to have the key?  By Law you can't restrict the access to their properties (documents, medications) in the room .... what if they need to leave and they need to get their gear/mediacation?

If you really don't bother the only way to get around this in a nice way is to set the booking as 1 day maximum , in this case you will only have guest staying 1 night hence don't need to give the key etc.... but as you may understand you won't have many booking (depending on where you are based ... airport location gets 1 day booking request as they are used as a stop over before early flights etc...)

I hope my comment helped, don't hesitate to ask if you need any advice.

Cheers

Paola

[Susan725]

Ladies thank you both so much for your advice I really appreciate it, I understand what you are both saying and will now make sure to give guests keys.


could i just adk another question please.


the only requests I have had so far are from males with no reviews, and only email address as verification.

I have declined all 4 of these bookings. What would yer opinions be? Im nervous to give someone a key to the house with only an email address as identification.















[Paul647]

Hi Susan 

I'm a relative newbie too. I'm on instant booking but I'm hosting a next door property that is self contained. I have a young daughter and if I was you I wouldn't accept anyone without reviews. I have had 1/2 guests without reviews who luckily have turned out to be great. Maybe if you ask questions of males who have reviews. They may be working and would be out early in the morning for work. I find people from this group make the best guests as they are out early and tend to have meals out. It also adds some security if you know where they work. Don't be afraid to ask questions as you are sharing your home. 

[Susan725]

Thanks a million for the reply.
i asked 1 guy for a copy of passport etc which he wouldn't provide me with.

thanks again for your advice I really appreciate it.

[Ange2]

@Susan725   If you verify your profile with a Government ID,  only people with same will be allowed to book ( or so it has been said - better check as rules change constantly).  But, you can ask potential guests to upload ID to their profile, you can ask them questions, you can ask them for a profile photo. You can ask them anything you like that will make you comfortable and you can remind them of your rules and expectations at the same time.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Susan725

I host a private room in my home and due to my location I have hosted a lot of exchange students for 1~4 months. Half of them had no reviews and were 1st time Airbnb users. I made sure to get detailed information about why they were coming to Seoul, their plans (which local school they would be attending), past travel experience and had several conversations going thru some of the more important house rules (especially the no guests of guests in my home rule - I always check and make sure potential guests are okay with not being able to bring friends over for the entire 1~4 months they stay in my home) and other stuff in general.

A lot of the time, I get the impression that potential guests are just as anxious about me as I am of them, and this is usually a good sign.  Once my guest arrives, I ask about school class schedules to get an idea of when they leave and come back each day.

I haven't had any *serious* problems yet 🙂

Good luck~

[Madison17]

If your concern is the keys, I'd suggest this lock I just recently came across that I think you'd benefit from to help avoid the whole key situation! It connects to your AirBNB calendar and once guests book a stay with you, it automatically emails them a key code, and auto updates with each new booking! (: It's seriously the best, saves me so much time and handles everything for me https://www.amazon.com/AirLocking-Smart-Lock-for-AirBNB/dp/B0759NPC5Y/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=airloc...