Hosting Burnout

[Hillary60]

My husband and I have been renting out an apartment attached to our home for 2.5 years now. At times, it’s amazing and I love it! Other times (like now) I’m totally over it. 

We we live in Salt Lake City and our busy season is obviously winter. I love our winter guests - week long stays with guests who are gone all day to go skiing. In summer however, SLC serves as more as a passing through point for the rural west and national park scene. 

We we had some issues last year with a series of one night only bookings. That was exhausting and quite frankly not worth it. We changed our night minimum to two nights and that helped SO MUCH and gave us a renewed energy for hosting. 

This summer weve we’ve encountered a new problem - because salt lake is one of the bigger cities in a 200 mile radius, we get a weird weekend crowd here to party. These guests are not accurate in their requests and I have no way to verify before it’s too late (example - lady from Idaho requested a 2 guest booking saying that she and a friend were attending a concert. The guests were loud, drinking, etc and definitely way more than 2 of them)

does anyone have any tips on how to prevent things like this? Other tips to prevent burnout? Has anyone tried a longer night minimum and what has your experience been?

[Suzanne111]

I actually NEED the money. BUT. I require a 4 night minimum because I do the same amount of cleaning... washing the sheets, towels, dusting, vacuuming, washing the floors, the toilet, the tub, the bathroom mirror, emptying their trash, doing their recycle, cleaning out the frig...ALL. OF. IT. whether someone stays 4 nights or 2 weeks. Add the toothpaste, the soap, the shampoo, the toilet paper, the dish detergent, the laundry detergent, all of which I supply! It's NOT worth it to have someone for only 2 nights. I fail to mention the cleaning up after someone using my kitchen if they are less then on top of it.  It is a lot of work .

As far as the partying? Because I am a host and not a guest, I am not famaliar with airbnb's guidelines as to how to be a good guest. In my situation, I am actually sharing my living space .  "Guests" are just that. They are guests in someone's home and I expect them to act accordingly. I would have no compunction in letting someone know that their behavior is not appreciated.  Maybe set up a few rules in your description.

And good luck.

[Casita-By-The-Texas-Bay0]

Hi @Hillary60 !

You have a beautiful home! I also had to increase the stays from one to three nights minimum...it is much more easy to manage this way!

I would recommend you add some language to your house rules prohibiting parties, laud noise, etc...or you can add "quiet time" hours. 

I added the following to my House rules, hopefully they help give you an idea that may work for you:

*NO SMOKING allowed in house. If evidence of smoking in the house is found, you will lose your security deposit, and may be evicted from the property.

*NO PETS allowed. If evidence of pets in the house is found, you will lose your security deposit, and may be evicted from the property.

*No parties or events are allowed.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Hillary60 

if you think it's exhausting then think about all of us, off-site hosts who can't afford more than 1-2 nights min and depend of our neighbors to inform us if our door is left wide open or our guests have a party with unauthorized visitors 😮

How to prevent burnout? Relax 🙂 Life isn't perfect, nobody is perfect

[Lawrene0]

Things that are not working really do lead to burnout, @Hillary60 . Could you survive by booking winter only and upping the rates a little? 

In my case, I was finding same-day turnarounds were difficult at best, and nearly impossible at worst. Nothing but stress. So two years ago I upped my rates and set prep days. I am doing slightly better income-wise. 

I am doing much better serenity-wise.