Starting Airbnb Business

[Venantius-Ivan0]

Hi, 

We are thinking to start Airbnb business. Our area is around 5Ha, but we only built 4 villas, resto, pool and 1 big reception center, entrance, parking and lot of spaces for green and even trekking route. 

Our questions will be:

1. How to do benchmark with the surrounding Airbnb? 

2. Should we start first when the villas are ready (villas and pool are ready), or should we wait until the full kitchen set and equipment are ready to serve breakfast, dinner etc. Our location is on the main street, but the area is not yet really develop (no big supermarket or restaurants nearby)

3. Do we need stationed manager and 24/7 staffs to take care of the incoming guest, upcoming orders/request etc, or we can inform our service is only from 6am to 10pm - for example

4. Should we already start to manage the social media ie. IG, Tiktok, Facebook, or should we start low profile with mouth to mouth promotion, until we are really 100% ready? 

Thank you

[Alex]

Hi @Venantius-Ivan0! 

Welcome to the Community! We're so excited to have you here, and I truly believe that you'll do wonderfully in your new projects.🤗

In order to help you, I'm going to mention some members to see if they can start answering your questions: @Marie8425, @Shelley159, @Ahmed1048, @Jonathan2725 and @Nathan146. 

I'm excited to share some helpful links from the Help Center that will guide you through the hosting process. I hope you find them useful as you embark on this journey!

• Prepare to host
• Prepare your space
• The basics of hosting on Airbnb
  

Hope we can help you with all of this information!

Best, 

Alex

[Marie8425]

@Venantius-Ivan0 

I am sorry I am not clear what type of property your renting?  You say Villas but your questions seem mor related to like hotel rooms?  Understanding would help me give ideas different needs.

[Venantius-Ivan0]

Hi Marie, 

it will be 4 villas in the area of 5Hectars, so we have a lot of greens around including short hiking tracks. 

The location is at the elevation of 1300meter from the sea level, hence not in the crowded beaches area, but therefore not yet many cafes, restaurants and convenient stores. 

We were thinking to prepare frozen ready food for micro waves, but my concern is it will impact the reputation. However, it we have to be ready with full kitchen and menus, our budget is already limited. Hence, the question is should we start operating the villas fist without F&B service, or waiting until the restaurant is ready as well. 

Thank you

[Shelley159]

Hi @Venantius-Ivan0 

It's tough to know when to start listing your property! Here's what you have to weigh up:

If you start getting bookings right away, that helps you to cover costs and to fund any further improvements that you want to make to the property. It also helps you to see how things go when guests stay over, so you make much better decisions about how you spend money on future improvements.

On the other hand, Airbnb relies heavily on guest reviews. If you list before you're in a position to get good reviews, your guests may give you a low rating. If the reviews are really bad, this could have a permanent impact on your listing (not only because future guests can see the bad reviews, but also because you'll rank lower in searches).

So if you do start taking guests before everything is 100% in place, be sure to describe and photograph only what's available. Don't oversell or create expectations that you cannot meet. Make sure nothing in your listing reflects things that you hope will be in place soon, but that aren't completely ready. One of the categories that guests specifically review you on, is whether the listing accurately reflects the reality.

Hope it helps and good luck!

[Venantius-Ivan0]

Hi Shelley, 

Thank you very much for your advise. We will ensure to show and list what we have and what we can provide first to manage the expectation. Understand once reviews are uploaded, it cannot be deleted. 

Thanks again