Days new and can't stop logging in to see if that first guest has shown up!!

Answered!
Dona-and-David0
Level 2
Michigan, United States

Days new and can't stop logging in to see if that first guest has shown up!!

Am I an addict???

 

Seriously though, we're days in and I just learned about this community. We have a Quonset Hut on Maple Lake in Paw Paw, MI. I'd love it if other hosts could offer some feedback. I'd like to know what you like but, honestly, I'm very interested in what you don't like. I can take it. Probably will need help from therapy, but I can take it. So, please dispel all notions of sugar coating and spareing my feelings. Here it is:https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/53366560?source_impression_id=p3_1641426265_%2BZWSq6PLfYSn%2FTwE&guests...

 

 

Thanks In Advance,

 

David

1 Best Answer

@Dona-and-David0  Your listing is off to a great start. The description is both perfectly thorough and a pleasure to read. Your village is a place I'd never heard of before, but you've sold it to me as a great place to visit, and the photos of the scenery are lovely.

 

One thing about that though: you've advertised lots of fun summer activities and illustrated with some colorful autumn photos, but right now it's January. I don't think people planning a rural getaway in your area in the next months are thinking about swimming and kayaking. And while families and large groups often plan months ahead for the summer breaks, your hut only fits solos and couples, who tend to be more spontaneous. So if you're eager to get your first guests, I think you should focus on advertising the spot as a winter destination. Keep the summer stuff in too, but foreground everything about winter sports and activities, rotate in some seasonally appropriate photos, and show the home at its most warm and cozy. Even if you don't have a fireplace or sauna, some interior shots bathed in soft warm light will touch on the vibe people in the nearby metros are searching for.

 

Now we need to talk about those House Rules. You've clearly put a lot of thought into what you expect from guests, which is great, but my eyes glazed over halfway down that list and I could hardly be bothered to get more than halfway through through. This is not what you want. That list should be concise enough that people read it, so it's best to trim it down to the important things people must be clear on before they book, like smoking, pets, and unregistered guests. The other stuff, like remembering to use coasters, doesn't belong there - people won't remember it unless you go over it at check in and perhaps display a brief, printed House Manual. Everything concerning checkout (departure times, cleaning) is best covered in correspondence the day before, so you can take that out too. And those extra sentences where you convey flexibility on some rules (e.g. visitors) weakens the whole thing. Keep the flexibility under your hat, so you can offer it selectively to the guests who earn your trust.

 

Also, sorry to say, the effort you put into figuring out penalty fines for several violations was a total waste. Airbnb is not going to process those fees so they're just hollow threats. They're not known to be deterrent to bad guests, and they're really off-putting to the good ones, so it does you no good to have those in there. Your only real recourse for a rule violation is to end the booking, so rather than conjuring imaginary punishments, I'd focus on attracting guests who appreciate the place so much that they'll go out of their way to remain welcome back. 

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@Dona-and-David0  Your listing is off to a great start. The description is both perfectly thorough and a pleasure to read. Your village is a place I'd never heard of before, but you've sold it to me as a great place to visit, and the photos of the scenery are lovely.

 

One thing about that though: you've advertised lots of fun summer activities and illustrated with some colorful autumn photos, but right now it's January. I don't think people planning a rural getaway in your area in the next months are thinking about swimming and kayaking. And while families and large groups often plan months ahead for the summer breaks, your hut only fits solos and couples, who tend to be more spontaneous. So if you're eager to get your first guests, I think you should focus on advertising the spot as a winter destination. Keep the summer stuff in too, but foreground everything about winter sports and activities, rotate in some seasonally appropriate photos, and show the home at its most warm and cozy. Even if you don't have a fireplace or sauna, some interior shots bathed in soft warm light will touch on the vibe people in the nearby metros are searching for.

 

Now we need to talk about those House Rules. You've clearly put a lot of thought into what you expect from guests, which is great, but my eyes glazed over halfway down that list and I could hardly be bothered to get more than halfway through through. This is not what you want. That list should be concise enough that people read it, so it's best to trim it down to the important things people must be clear on before they book, like smoking, pets, and unregistered guests. The other stuff, like remembering to use coasters, doesn't belong there - people won't remember it unless you go over it at check in and perhaps display a brief, printed House Manual. Everything concerning checkout (departure times, cleaning) is best covered in correspondence the day before, so you can take that out too. And those extra sentences where you convey flexibility on some rules (e.g. visitors) weakens the whole thing. Keep the flexibility under your hat, so you can offer it selectively to the guests who earn your trust.

 

Also, sorry to say, the effort you put into figuring out penalty fines for several violations was a total waste. Airbnb is not going to process those fees so they're just hollow threats. They're not known to be deterrent to bad guests, and they're really off-putting to the good ones, so it does you no good to have those in there. Your only real recourse for a rule violation is to end the booking, so rather than conjuring imaginary punishments, I'd focus on attracting guests who appreciate the place so much that they'll go out of their way to remain welcome back. 

Wow, Just Wow!  @Anonymous, I expected feedback but never in my wildest imagination did I foresee such a thoughtful, critical, reasoned, and helpful response. And on top of all that, one packed with actionable suggestions we'll implement tonight. Thank you again. Know this, when next we're in Berlin we'll be sure to reach out to you, maybe stay at your STR.

 

David & Dona

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Dona-and-David0  Love your attitude, but I'm sorry, I just can't find anything to rake you over the coals about 🙂

 

Seriously, though, I think you could do better on the interior photos. I realize it's a small space, but some of your shots are somewhat dark. I would like to see a better photo of the bed, with the entire bed in the photo. And wwhile it looks  like it might be a challenge to fit bedside tables in there, maybe you could come up with some sort of bedside shelves and lamps. As someone who always reads in bed at night,  I personally get irritated when there are no bedside lamps. 

 

I see you mention the small shower stall.  Funny story (sort of)- a friend of mine who hosts a private studio in her home also has a small shower stall, in fact the entire bathroom is quite small, but adequate enough for average size people to use. She got a booking and when she saw the guests' photo, she knew immediately that they would no way fit in that shower stall, as they were, to put it mildly, extremely "heavy". 

 

She tried to discourage them, without mentioning their weight, just reiterating how small the bathroom was, and that she would be amenable to refunding them if they would like to cancel.

 

Oh no, they wanted to keep the booking. Well, they arrived, walked in, took one look at the bathroom and shower stall (which someone would have had to shoehorn them in and out of) and cancelled. My friend was hugely irritated, as of course she had prepared the space for them, and lost the possibility to rebook it, but she so wanted them gone asap that she just grit her teeth, and authorized a refund.

@Sarah977,  Thank you for the great feedback! We do intend to get a pro photographer in there and we had multiple discussions about side tables. We couldn't find anything suitable (up to now) so we decided to go with what we had. Between your answer and @Anonymous's answer, we certainly have some re-tooling to do. The funny thing though, is we're really enjoying the process. 

Thanks again,

 

David & Dona

@Dona-and-David0  You don't necessarily need a pro photographer and there's something you need to watch out for if you do hire one. 

 

I see tons of listings that use these "pro" photos, but the photos are these wide angle shots that try to get the entire room in a photo. What you end up with is wonky photos that distort and elongate the space and make it look much larger than it is. 

 

Those are not appropriate Airbnb photos.  What you want are normal photos that accurately represent the space. If you can't get an entire room in a photo, which is pretty hard to do, take a couple of photos of each area from different angles. 

 

Your photos aren't bad, but you could just play around a bit with the lighting for the ones that seem dark.

 

And you don't have to have some specific matching bedside tables. There's nothing wrong with eclectic- plenty of hosts, including me, have furnished their Airbnbs with stuff they've found by the side of the road on garbage day, at yard sales, etc. and repainted or repurposed.

 

Mostly guests just need a place to put their phone, book, jewelry they may take off at night, and a lamp to read by or turn on in the middle of the night of they have to get up to go to the bathroom.

 

 

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

It's lovely,  @Dona-and-David0 , but I'd edit the wording more tightly.  No repeats, you mention quirky, welcoming and warm twice in close proximity. Experiment, pretend you are copywriters. I did some editing training and an exercise we had to do was to edit a 2000 word text into half and not lose the meaning. Was easy. Then we had to do it again, down to 500 words. Really hard. And then, into 200. Painful. A killer exercise but teaches you a lot about what to look for. Try it! Btw I never edit or check my responses in the forum, they can be as loose as they want to be.

@Sandra126 , thank you for the tips. Here's what my weekend will be like. Copy all the listing content into separate paragraphs in one document and edit from there, because your comment made me realize a pitfall in the way the listing is constructed. We filled in each section almost independently of each other. Not quite, but enough so for you to spot the things you pointed out. We'll see if this technique works. Then, of course, we'll layer on top of that your "cut-in-half, and do it again" strategy. Not sure how that last bit is going to go because we've never done that exercise. Oh well, it's all an adventure! Thanks again.

Dora486
Level 10
Frigiliana, Spain

The small shower story,  I think perhaps that might be us a some point.  Ours is definitely cosy.  How would you discourage the erm larger guests from booking?  

@Dora486 , I think straight-up honesty wins the day. You say what you have, show it if possible, and wait until you have a personal interaction to mention it, again. After that it is wait and see. This is theoretical of course because, alas, we're still waiting for that visitor to show up. They're probably hunkered down somewhere against the weather front we're experiencing now ;=). I certainly don't want to presume what decisions a guest will make regarding what adjustments and trade-offs they're willing to make to experience what we have to offer.