Hi Sophia,
You have gotten some wonderful advice from fellow hosts on this thread! I’m going to talk about what helped me most in the early days of opening my first Airbnb, which was a home my family and I lived in for 20 years.
I had no idea how to start an Airbnb so I contacted several friends in my area who were also successful hosts, and I networked with them to learn as much as I could. I even helped clean their Airbnbs, and physically doing those turnovers taught me how important cleanliness is and why you need to do some deep cleaning with every turn.
Those hosts helped us make good basic decisions about setting up the home. For a max of 6 guests we needed 6 chairs at the dining table, 6 comfortable places in the living room to sit, and enough beds (that aren’t pullout sofas) to accommodate 6 adults.
We have a max of 6 with 1 king, 2 queens + 1 high end modern futon. With the futon we could say we can accommodate 7, but our mentors stressed that it’s better to under promise and over deliver, and they have been right every time. It is why we get a lot of compliments that the house is “even better than expected.”
The last and most important piece of advice, is to consult Airbnb for advice on any issue. They will tell you how to handle it according to their terms of service, which is extremely valuable. There is a lot of misinformation in Facebook groups, which is why I started going directly to Airbnb with any questions.
When our initial new listing boost was over and we were no longer getting the bookings we did when we were high in the searches, I called Airbnb. A very knowledgeable rep showed me how to use all of the different promotions and discounts to attract new bookings. This was the most valuable thing I learned because it turned our seasonal vacation rental into a year round business.
Good luck on your first Airbnb. Please let us know you’re doing along the way!
Mary Ann
