We're done with hosting on AirBNB

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hey everyone! Count us in between the people who are leaving AirBNB.

We've been Superhosts for more than a year, but the stress and the money are simply not worth it. Our worst review was a 3 star review, which came from a guest from NYC, who complained about the noise one of our neighbors was doing while installing a new toilet in his apartment. The noise started past 10:00 a.m., and we didn't know of it in advance, so we were unable to warn our guest about it. The guest checked out of the apartment abruptly, even tough the security staff at our building assured us that the noise didn't last longer than 15 minutes. Fortunately, we left this guest a honest review, which in her case, was a harsh review. Evidently, we received the same from her (except for the "honest" part, of course). We have learned the hard way to review guests as honestly as possible.

On another occasion, a guest returned at night to our apartment, while being drunk. He wasn't able to open the building's main entrance with the key we gave him, which worked perfectly fine, but wasn't "drunk proof". We ended up calling the building's security staff at 4 a.m., to ask them to open the door for our drunken buddy.

We've had wonderful guests, but honestly, for us, 1 bad review eclipses 30 good ones, and the AirBNB algorithm seems to "think" the same.

Anyhow, we've decided to quit, and rent our properties the old way, not having to worry about whether we can provide some guest a paper clip, in a timely manner, to change the SIM card on his IPhone (we don't live in the properties we rent, btw, and any adult should be able to solve something as simple as this, by himself, considering our property is located in the middle of every kind of store you can imagine).

On one of our properties we have bookings until the end of April, and we've already blocked May and the upcoming months after it, so we don't receive any more bookings. On our other property, our last booking is in August, but we're considering canceling it, so we can get out of AirBNB as soon as possible. Only a sense of responsibility is stopping us from doing it. What do you think we should do?

Best to all, folks!

- Mick & Mar

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hey everyone! Count us in between the people who are leaving AirBNB.

We've been Superhosts for more than a year, but the stress and the money are simply not worth it. Our worst review was a 3 star review, which came from a guest from NYC, who complained about the noise one of our neighbors was doing while installing a new toilet in his apartment. The noise started past 10:00 a.m., and we didn't know of it in advance, so we were unable to warn our guest about it. The guest checked out of the apartment abruptly, even tough the security staff at our building assured us that the noise didn't last longer than 15 minutes. Fortunately, we left this guest a honest review, which in her case, was a harsh review. Evidently, we received the same from her (except for the "honest" part, of course). We have learned the hard way to review guests as honestly as possible.

On another occasion, a guest returned at night to our apartment, while being drunk. He wasn't able to open the building's main entrance with the key we gave him, which worked perfectly fine, but wasn't "drunk proof". We ended up calling the building's security staff at 4 a.m., to ask them to open the door for our drunken buddy.

We've had wonderful guests, but honestly, for us, 1 bad review eclipses 30 good ones, and the AirBNB algorithm seems to "think" the same.

Anyhow, we've decided to quit, and rent our properties the old way, not having to worry about whether we can provide some guest a paper clip, in a timely manner, to change the SIM card on his IPhone (we don't live in the properties we rent, btw, and any adult should be able to solve something as simple as this, by himself, considering our property is located in the middle of every kind of store you can imagine).

On one of our properties we have bookings until the end of April, and we've already blocked May and the upcoming months after it, so we don't receive any more bookings. On our other property, our last booking is in August, but we're considering canceling it, so we can get out of AirBNB as soon as possible. Only a sense of responsibility is stopping us from doing it. What do you think we should do?

Best to all, folks!

- Mick & Mar

[Pat271]

Sorry to see you go @Mick-and-Mar0!

One thing I don’t understand; you said:

“We've had wonderful guests, but honestly, for us, 1 bad review eclipses 30 good ones, and the AirBNB algorithm seems to "think" the same.”

You have 4.92 and a 4.96 ratings on your listings.  That’s pretty high.  Did the algorithm at some point lower your search position significantly?  It shouldn’t have - maybe there is something else wrong.

Pat

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hey Pat, thanks for reaching out!

Even though, as you said, the ratings on our listings are very high, we have an overall rate as hosts of 4.9, which is just one decimal point above the limit to maintain our Superhost status. Our average listing rating is 4.94, so why would the system round it down to 4.9, instead of letting us keep the 5.0? Besides, we've been keeping track of our listing's view count, and we are definitely getting fewer visits, and therefore, fewer bookings (we were used to a 90%-100% occupancy rate, and now we are hitting 75%-90%).

From a financial and a stress viewpoint, AirBNB is not making much sense now, compared to an ordinary rental.

Take care!

- Mick & Mar

[Rowena29]

@Mick-and-Mar0 

 I have never ever LTR but we are about to head down that path ourselves. I tend to think if you have a whole house and do not live nearby, the aribnb system is becoming increasingly less desirable ( although I am not very experienced, I have only been hosting for about 15 months).

I certainly agree with you that the amount of time and energy you seem to need to put into hosting these days is huge ( and i'm not talking about hospitality angle. I'm talking about running around chasing your tail because airbnb tell you they'll do one thing, then they do the other.. Or a guest is a fool.      I spent nearly 3 hours messaging back and froth between a guest the other day because she couldn't' understand a simple question about bed set up, because she couldnt' be bothered to read the description or look at the photos. Another guest - a lovely guest - at the last minute wanted 2 extra rooms - I had to cancel prior arrangements to get them ready,  - fine - but long story short 3 weeks later it's apparent I'm not going to get paid for this due to aribnb CS incompetence.  I can live without the money but I resent the HUGE amount of time and effort trying to find out what the hell is going on as well as the outcome being no money.

I am really looking forward to having  more time and less constant micro managing  that I am hoping will come with a LTR.  (This is not why we are moving to LTR we always intended this, STR was only ever going to be  a short term thing for us).

RE you r booking in August - how about this scenario?

Place your listing on the long term market and only if it does get filled  - cancel the booking.  I think cancelling the booking IS a bit rude - but given it's all the way ahead in August i can't see that it's going to create too much trauma. Things happen. I've had hotels cancel bookings on me for a variety of reasons.

Nobody will thank you for showing such honour and inconveniencing yourself - certainly not the airbnb platform.  

However I"d also advise you not to make a knee jerk reaction because you are feeling so cross right at the very moment. Have you done a long term financial comparison for example? For us, after analysing 12 months income and expense, we would be about 4 - 6K better off long term renting, so it's an obvious decision to make, but that''s us in our particular market where LTR is scarce and the location is sought after. 

Be sure your decision is based on fact and not a knee jerk reaction to a bad experience on the platform. Long term tenants can also be nightmares..

Just my thoughts...

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hi Rowena!

Thank you so much for your input. As you said, living in a different place you're renting can be quite a challenge. Some guests even get angry because they don't find themselves able to operate the coffee machine, even though we left the manufacturer's instructions right next to it. Are we supposed to get out of our daily jobs to give them lecture on how to operate the thing?

We really appreciate your advise about promoting our place for a LTR, while still being on AirBNB. We will definitely consider doing so.

Have a wonderful day!

[Jennifer1897]

As others have said, 99% of your reviews are excellent, and your overall rating is high. I agree with you that the decimal point system is a little too harsh, in that one negative review can really set you back.

However, I did go back and look at the review you speak of, and the guest actually left something decent. She highlighted that your space was nice and that they were very comfortable. I think the way in which she mentioned the "Untimely construction" was actually in your favor, as she stated that you handled it well and professionally. As both a superhost and frequent guest, I would not count that review against you, as a guest potentially booking you place. 

While I obviously can not be certain. I really do not see that review counting against you to the point your occupancy dropped up to 25%. November and December were my slowest months, and I have seen multiple host say their bookings have decreased as well. 

Overall you look like a good host, who has had success in both your listings. Every once and a while we are going to encounter things out of our control, or that one guest we just can't make happy, don't let it deter your overall experience. 

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hi Jennifer!

Thanks so much for contributing to the discussion. We agree with you that the guest that checked out abruptly left a "decent" written review, but she definitely punished us severely with the number of stars she gave us, overall and in specific categories. We think she tried to look like a "cool and understanding person" in the written section, but she definitely didn't behave like one during her short stay.

We also agree that we cannot be 100% sure if our few bad ratings are the cause that our occupancy rate is diminishing. Perhaps the market is getting saturated in our area, or perhaps we're going through a low season. The only thing we can be certain of is that we are getting considerably less money for doing this than a year ago, to the point LTR is becoming more attractive.

At one point, our fantasy was to quit our jobs and live entirely out of AirBNB income. Become "AirBNB moguls". Not anymore.

Best.

[Robin4]

@Mick-and-Mar0 

I don't know quite what you are expecting from a booking platform but, with 130+ reviews in a bit over a year and an overall rating of 4.96 and 4.93, plus Superhost status, are you perhaps setting your sights just a little bit high here?

It is virtually impossible to maintain a perfect 5 star rating over the long term! We all get that one guest or two who we wish we had never accepted, but really, that is not Airbnb's fault. They are a booking agency, and they cannot guarantee that you will only receive guests who will give you 5 stars!

With those overall rankings you would need a long string of poor guests to tip you below the 4.80 minimum to keep your superhost status. You say you only need to lose 1 decimal point to lose your superhost status, but that is not correct! with 130 reviews you would need 3 x 4 star reviews in a row to push you from a 4.93 to a 4.92, you would need another 2 x 4 star to push you to a 4.91, another couple to push you to a 4.90. 

You are a long way from losing your Superhost status.

I am also on a 4.93 ranking,  I shouldn't be, 14 of my reviews gave me a 5 star in every category but a 4 star overall. I should be on a 4.98, but I am not stressing unduly about it. 

If you have an occupancy rate of better than 75% you are making more out of Airbnb than you would be making in the long term rental market because you are charging a higher nightly rental than you would be able to get through LTR. And you never have to chase the money, it always appears in your bank account after the guest arrives.

Maybe it's the additional work and organisation with short term renting that has got to you, but from what I have seen of your listings, I don't think you have much to blame Airbnb for, I think you have been pretty good to them........ and they have been pretty good to you!

Just on a side note, I did find your picture description for your 3Chic apartment very confusing! Your pictures seem to show two entirely different apartments!

Cheers......Rob

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hey Rob!

You're very kind for giving us your point of view.

We agree with you that from a mathematical standpoint, our rating is above 4.9, since we have to consider the centesimal. However, as you can see in the picture below, if we access to our Superhost stats, the rating is a plain 4.9. We're sure that if we ever hit 4.84, our rating is going to come down to 4.8, and so on. The platform should display your full rating, without rounding up numbers the way it does.

We understand that AirBNB is not to be blamed for nightmare guests. But they are definitely responsible for: (i) keeping the platform bug free (we cannot tell you how many times we've had to contact CS because our co-host suddenly find herself unable to access our guests' messages), and (ii) honor their Host Guarantee whenever a guest damages the property. Regarding the latter, the number of cases documenting AirBNB's rate of host protection denial, in this forum, is alarming. We've been fortunate enough to have only suffered minor damages in both of our properties, caused by guests. G-d forbid we ever have to deal with something more, knowing AirBNB most probably won't have our backs (judging from what anyone can extensively read here).

On the other hand, we should clarify that we're not angry with AirBNB, we just really aren't pleased with STR anymore. You said that with a 75% occupancy rate, we should be getting more money than with a LTR. That's not correct. At first sight it may seem that the income is higher, but we have to pay way more bills while hosting on AirBNB, than as LTR landlords (condo maintenance fees, internet, electricity, water, gas, etc.) Plus, the tax burden in Mexico for STR is significantly higher than LTR. Once you factor all the variables, LTR is the way to go, money-wise and stress-wise. We wouldn't want to discourage anyone from hosting on AirBNB: if it’s a better option for someone, he or she should go for it.

Finally, the main picture of our 3Chic listing is from the rooftop area, and is correctly labeled as such. We chose it because it's our favorite spot on the building and perhaps the reason we bought the apartment in the first place. Our guests are allowed to use it, as well as any other resident of the building. Out of 120+ guests that have stayed in that property, less than 5 have said anything about finding the picture misguiding (and among the few that said so, some recognized that they didn't pay attention to the picture's label, and that that was the source of their confusion).

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us!

- M&M

[Mick-and-Mar0]

[Robin4]

@Mick-and-Mar0 

What happened to your last post M and M.....it disappeared!!

Fully understand what you say, it makes perfect sense, it just seems strange that someone with such good stats and who are obviously great hosts and diplomats for Airbnb would want to throw in the towel. This is the sort of response we generally see from someone who has been totally caned and abandoned by Airbnb, not someone as successful as you guys!

I had not taken STR tax issues into consideration when I mentioned the money bit. Here in  my state we do not have those sort of issues to worry about and, in general in this country a $400 per week LTR property will bring $130 per night on a STR basis. So the situation here is perhaps more friendly to short term rental!

As others have said M and M, it would be a pity to see you go. Hosts of your calibre with reviews behind you like yours don't exactly fall thick on the grass! You are the sort of hosts that make Airbnb look good, and as your opening post eluded, you obviously strive to be the best you can.

Which ever way you go I wish you all the best!

Cheers.......Rob 

! : Yeah I didn't read the picture captions when I made that comment, sorry!

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Thank you so much for the encouraging words Rob!

About out last post, there is a message at the top of our browser that says "This reply was marked as spam and has been removed. If you believe this is an error, submit an abuse report." Remember what we said about the platform being bug infested? 😉

About the difference in income between STR and LTR in Australia, all we can say is: WOW. No wonder why some people still consider STR such a good option.

Thanks again for taking the time to give us your opinion. Camaraderie between hosts is perhaps what we enjoy the most out of AirBNB.

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Hey Rob!

You're very kind for giving us your point of view.

We agree with you that from a mathematical standpoint, our rating is above 4.9, since we have to consider the centesimal. However, as you can see in the picture below, if we access to our Superhost stats, the rating is a plain 4.9. We're sure that if we ever hit 4.84, our rating is going to come down to 4.8, and so on. The platform should display your full rating, without rounding up numbers the way it does.

We understand that AirBNB is not to be blamed for nightmare guests. But they are definitely responsible for: (i) keeping the platform bug free (we cannot tell you how many times we've had to contact CS because our co-host suddenly find herself unable to access our guests' messages), and (ii) honor their Host Guarantee whenever a guest damages the property. Regarding the latter, the number of cases documenting AirBNB's rate of host protection denial, in this forum, is alarming. We've been fortunate enough to have only suffered minor damages in both our properties, caused by guests. G-d forbids we ever have to deal with something more, knowing AirBNB most probably won't have our backs (from what anyone can extensively read here).

On the other hand, we should clarify that we're not angry with AirBNB, we just really aren't pleased with STR anymore. You said that with a 75% occupancy rate, we should be getting more money than with a LTR. That's not correct. At first sight it may seem that the income is higher, but we have to pay way more bills while hosting on AirBNB, than as LTR landlords (condo maintenance fees, internet, electricity, water, gas, etc.) Plus, the tax burden in Mexico for STR is significantly higher than LTR. Once you factor all the variables, LTR is the way to go, money-wise and stress-wise. We wouldn't want to discourage anyone from hosting on AirBNB: if it’s a better option for someone, he or she should go for it.

Finally, the main picture of our 3Chic listing is from the rooftop area, and is correctly labeled as such. We chose it because it's our favorite spot on the building and perhaps the reason we bought the apartment in the first place. Our guests are allowed to use it, as well as any other resident of the building. Out of 120+ guests that have stayed in that property, less than 5 have said anything about finding the picture misguiding (and among the few that said so, some recognized that they didn't pay attention to the picture's label, and that that was the source of their confusion).

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us!

- M&M

[Juan63]

We all suffer occasionally from hosting burnout. I would suggest blocking a few days, a weekend or even a week just to regroup and then decide.

[Mick-and-Mar0]

Thank you Juan! We thought we could take a break, and remain on the platform, but since we're not getting more money out of STR, we don't see why bother.