Two for One Problem

[Kelly149]

Dearest Hosts, can you help me put to rest or better solve a problem (or tell me if you think it is unsolvable in this Covid era)??

Problem One, please tell me what you think this means:

In an abundance of caution, we are making the barn available primarily to single household groups traveling independently. If you are a group made up of multiple households or your visit to Austin includes extended visits with people outside your household or if your travel includes public transport (airplanes) then please discuss with owners to see if your trip can be accommodated (this may require higher cleaning fees or purchasing days before or after your stay as a buffer).

Problem Two: I'm not sure if it is participating in CC or the collection of guests we've had or the moving target of ABB expectations or my personal predilection to perfectionism, but such a high percentage of guests are a problem that hosting is more dread than joy. Even the money doesn't seem to outweigh the ninnys. So, ideas?? Turn off IB, turn off listing (this may happen on ABB in a week when I don't sign Cleaning thingy, but we'll still be on Vrbo), shorten listing, lengthen listing, take less guests....

I look forward to your suggestions!

[Anonymous]

@Kelly149  That paragraph looks like an overreach to me. I don't think as a host you're in any position to regulate concerns such as how guests reach your property or who they interact with outside of it. If your safety strategy relies on self-reporting, all you're really doing is giving people a big incentive to lie about their plans. 

It also doesn't inspire any confidence from the guests' perspective, to think you might have done less cleaning or tighter turnovers based on guests telling you they didn't visit Aunt Betty. Realistically, you're in no capacity to make an educated Covid risk assessment about your guests, and much of the information you'd need for that is none of your business. As a guest, I would prefer that you treat every group as though they were potentially contagious, and use the appropriate cleaning and preparation time by default. Much as I enjoy the personality that comes through in the writing on your listing - you seem like you'd be a blast to have a drink with! - I would never book with a host 

I'm very curious about how long Airbnb is going to keep hosts delisted for not signing their stupid cleaning thing. Seems like they've painted themselves into a corner with their threats there - right on the cusp of their IPO they're vowing to drop a huge chunk of valuable inventory and pass an easy advantage over to their competitors? 

On the last question, my suggestion would be to keep your listing active at least until the 20th, but turn off IB and engage some discussion before accepting bookings to make sure you're getting people you're comfortable hosting. And then, for your own safety, assume they're actively shedding Corona particles during their stay.

[Kelly149]

@Anonymous yes, of course I know I'm at the mercy of what people do/don't say and always well aware that anyone could lie about anything at any time... Most of the listing is written from a posture of 'hey, go away if you're looking for a free for all', but no way to know how many undesirables it gets rid of vs how many non-problems it gets rid of.

I do find that most guests don't lie, they just seem to have odd standards for what is 'ok' at an abb listing. ie 'this isn't a party, I'm just making dinner for my entire extended family' or 'these aren't extra guests, we're just going to all hang out for awhile before we hit the town'.

Most of this wouldn't at all be an issue if I had a 200sqft guest room, but this is a self-contained 1300 sqft guest house. So they're kind of independent, but they're in my backyard. It's a large place, and they rented the whole thing, but hosting a family of 4 or a single couple is a whole different animal than hosting 6 unrelated friends who think they can invite over every person they know in town...

You're on to something with the just assume everyone is a problem strategy. I've considered ditching everything but the NO additional guests on property, and just greatly increasing pricing for everything over 3 people. 

And yes, I agree with you, it will be interesting to see what happens come 11/20...

[Anonymous]

@Kelly149  I'd totally give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they're being honest - but for my part, I try to make it the preferable option. What I was thinking there was that if you advertised what amounts to a two-tiered pricing system (standard price for what you consider low-risk guests and extra fees for those you deem higher risk) it's hard to imagine people saying anything that would result in their booking being declined or hit with extra fees. So while I'd encourage some conversation about how people are traveling and managing the pandemic situation, I think you'd get more straightforward answers if you removed any mention of extra fees. 

Fortunately your barn is self-contained, so if it turned out that some your guests were Covid-positive you can still host safely with the aforementioned precautions in place. But keeping a firm NO on unregistered guests is definitely crucial, and lowering the maximum occupancy is also a reasonable option. 

[Kelly149]

@Anonymous I went in and took out anything that implies additional fees or how they're traveling, bc you're right they could have licked the handles in an airplane bathroom before they drove here. It still says single household groups. Thanks

[Anonymous]

@Kelly149 please update us on how this develops! I'm hoping that with these little tweaks you get some more relaxing guests - lord knows, it's been a rough year and you deserve some good ones. 

[Kelly149]

@Anonymous Thank you... the traveling band of "co-workers" who made bonfires late into the night followed by shirtless group yoga in the yard during the day, put me over the edge... so I added the no mixed households & don't have crazy plans notes to the listing and then, even in spite of that ,got a mom who booked for herself and 5 children to come to an all weekend baseball tournament (oh and actually, it isn't 5, it's really 7 but we don't ever count the "babies" she says) and then she got completely ballistic when I said "ummmm, yah, no, I don't think so". I'm still shaking my head about it.

People can't master the English language so pricing out the larger groups seems like the best plan. It will probably knock out some really normal families of 5, but I don't know what else to do

[Anonymous]

@Kelly149 Send us the naked yoga guys...I can't host anyone now (Berlin is under serious lockdown) but we need something to look at and our dog is getting tired of being the cute one!

[Emilia42]

@Kelly149 I know it doesn't seem ideal from a cost perspective but what if you made the barn available to only 2-4 guests. For the time being, tweak your photos and descriptions to make the place look small; only suitable for a couple or small family. I do this for my largest listing. I don't show pictures of certain rooms or big sofas because I don't want to attract "groups." While in reality, 5ish people could stay there comfortably, I get mostly couples (which I like) and everyone is so pleasantly surprised by how much room they truly get.

[Kelly149]

@Emilia42 yes, I'm coming around to that. I have it priced now to include 3 guests and then the per head goes up from there. We're capable of hosting 10, but I've stopped doing that on ABB bc of no security deposit and I'm still trying to avoid it on Vrbo bc that's just too many bodies right now.

[Emilia42]

@Kelly149 I got a lot more couples this year which when all said and done I made less money but it was less of a headache and less stressful. I rarely worried about excess messes, noise, or the house rules not being followed. In many ways, it makes up for the loss of revenue.

[Kelly149]

@Emilia42 yes, that's kind of where I am... the risk exposure and the aggravation of crappy people is making me cranky. And I'm training in a new teaching program and Covid schooling and Covid everything else... Bringing down the total people may be the best answer.

I know I've hosted really nice people in the past, but they get overshadowed by the lousy ones

[Sarah977]

I'm one who has always been of the "quality over quantity" mind-set when it comes to guests- always rather had my guest room at half occupancy, if it comes to that, than any hassles or big clean-up projects. With all the reports I read here daily of horrible guests, I'm surprised more hosts don't see it that way. 

To that end, I've never used IB. And never had a bad, rude, or clueless guest- quite the opposite. Never had anything damaged, never had anyone cancel last minute or try to scam a refund. I'm sure that's due to a combination of factors, but whatever it is, it's worked.

@Kelly149

[Kelly149]

@Sarah977 yes, I agree with you (not thinking about occupancy, etc) but in the nation's 11th-ish largest city, non-IB is fairly non-negotiable. The listing itself has to act as that first conversation and then from there I'm at the mercy of guests self-selecting that they aren't a good fit. I'd certainly rather do it myself, and it may come to that at some point, but for now, I need pricing and the listing info to do the heavy lifting.

And I think hosting 1 person at a time would DEFINITELY cut out 99% of my issues, but at 1300 sqft that just isn't an ideal business plan.

[Sarah977]

Yes, I realize my hosting situation is quite different from yours, and probably the vast majority of hosts' and I have it pretty easy. 

But there do seem to be other hosts here on the forum who have listings in areas that seem like they would also have a great deal of competition who also don't use IB, like Andrew in Berlin.

It would sure be nice if Airbnb stopped making IB the main criteria for search ranking, would sure cut down on bad guest experiences, I think. But I doubt they ever will- they've obviously determined that it brings in more revenue faster. If anything, I think they'd go in the direction of making it mandatory, which is the day I delete my listing.

@Kelly149