MISLEADING ADVERTISING

[Cally1]

The word ENTIRE added to accommodation categories by Airbnb is causing us ongoing issues with our guests.

The word "Entire" affects the way a guest perceives the listing and gives the impression that all guests have access to every ‘bedroom ‘
in the house.
In our case, this is not correct.

We are not a rooming house, we are a SELF CONTAINED TOWNHOUSE (3 Bedroom) 
Guests have ‘exclusive’ occupancy of our property but...do not have access to bedrooms not paid for.

Eg: If a couple book our property at ‘2 guest’ base rate,  then they only have access to ‘one’ bedroom and the remainder of the property.

In the past by leaving other bedrooms open we have been exposed to 2 guest inviting friends over or using every bedroom because the believe ENTIRE means every room in the house.

This means that we have additional cleaning costs and wear and tear on the ENTIRE property at the base 2 person rate.

We would like the word ENTIRE removed from our listing as it is unnecessary and causes us problems....

[Gordon0]

'Entire' is an appropriate descriptor, @Cally1, and is in no way 'misleading advertising'. I think your explanation of what it is the guest gets is a little clumsy and could be made a littlle easier to understand with an example. Additionally, it isn't clear what two people (not a couple) 'qualify' for...one room, two etc.? There's also the question of the guest being able to choose which bedroom they get. 

[Cally1]

Thanks Gordon,

This may be just an Australian thing  but...just to clarify, we have managed Airbnb’s for 6 years with three different properties and...this has never been a problem. The ENTIRE word added to our listing is The problem.

We have good communication with our guests and have always taken each booking on a case by case basis.

Our guests always get what they request at a reasonable per person prices.

e.g Two individuals always get ‘two’ rooms for same price as ‘single’ room couples.

Three Individual people get ‘three’ rooms (as required) at 3  person rate etc. and YES they can choose which room they want. 

Regardless of the information provided in our description and house rules to remedy this, we now often have situations where ‘two people’ who have paid ‘base’ rate expect to be able to invite anyone they like and use every bedroom in the house ...because they feel they are entitled to the ENTIRE House

Our rates are fair. We are not a rooming house and we do not charge the ‘ whole’ house rate unless 4 people make a booking...

We do not want to charge two people the ‘full house’ rate if they do not require all bedrooms. Hope this make sense?

[Susan151]

@Cally1  AirBNB does not allow us to rent out by room, only by person. If your listing indicates three bedrooms, that is what you have offered and they have paid for.

To do what you want to do, you will need to create three listings– 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, and three bedrooms with different prices. I know three hosts that were just suspended for trying to charge extra for a second bed for a second person. It doesn't end well for you if one of your guests complains.

[Cally1]

Thanks Susan ,

This may be just an Australian thing  but...just to clarify, we have managed Airbnb’s for 6 years with three different properties and...this has never been a problem. The ENTIRE word added to our listing is The problem.

We have good communication with our guests and have always taken each booking on a case by case basis.

Our guests always get what they request at a reasonable per person prices.

e.g Two individuals always get ‘two’ rooms for same price as ‘single’ room couples.

Three Individual people get ‘three’ rooms (as required) at 3  person rate etc. and YES they can choose which room they want. 

Regardless of the information provided in our description and house rules to remedy this, we now often have situations where ‘two people’ who have paid ‘base’ rate expect to be able to invite anyone they like and use every bedroom in the house ...because they feel they are entitled to the ENTIRE House

Our rates are fair. We are not a rooming house and we do not charge the ‘ whole’ house rate unless 4 people make a booking...

We do not want to charge two people the ‘full house’ rate if they do not require all bedrooms. Hope this make sense?

[Alice595]

@Cally1I agree with @Gordon0 and @Susan151 . If your listing contains entire house or apartment, what you listed bedrooms and bathrooms should be open to guest no matter it is one guest or 6 guests.

If you want to rent out each room at the same time for one or two guest who only takes one bedroom, you may have to create a new listing. In your case, you can create three more listings. There are two options

(1) Keep the current listing to rent out entire house. But link the calendars of three single bedroom listings with the entire house listing. Then if one bedroom is booked, the entire house booking will be blocked automatically. Guests still have the chance to book the other two bedrooms through the other two llistings. And when entire house listing is booked, all three single bedroom listings are blocked for those booked dates automatically.

(2) Just keep three single bedroom listings and remove the current listing of entire house listing.

I have the same situation like yours. I created four listings for flexibility. The listings of single room booking are linked to the Entire House listing. It works pretty well. The only issue is that you have to manually block dates from all four listing when you need to manually block dates. For example, when you go on vacation and nobody will take care of your airbnb rental, you will need to block the dates for all listings manually.

[Cally1]

Thanks Alice ,

Just to clarify all bathrooms, living and remainder of property are always available ‘exclusively’ to our guests.

This may be just an Australian thing  but...just to clarify, we have managed Airbnb’s for 6 years with three different properties and...this has never been a problem. The ENTIRE word added to our listing is The problem.

We have good communication with our guests and have always taken each booking on a case by case basis.

Our guests always get what they request at a reasonable per person prices.

e.g Two individuals always get ‘two’ rooms for same price as ‘single’ room couples.

Three Individual people get ‘three’ rooms (as required) at 3  person rate etc. and YES they can choose which room they want. 

Regardless of the information provided in our description and house rules to remedy this, we now often have situations where ‘two people’ who have paid ‘base’ rate expect to be able to invite anyone they like and use every bedroom in the house ...because they feel they are entitled to the ENTIRE House

Our rates are fair. We are not a rooming house and we do not charge the ‘ whole’ house rate unless 4 people make a booking...

We do not want to charge two people the ‘full house’ rate if they do not require all bedrooms. Hope this make sense?

[Cally1]

Thanks Alice,

Seems you understand our dilemma. 

Truth is, we never had any issues until the ENTIRE word was added to our title.

Your remedy sounds good but also creates a whole lot of work/administrative that we have never had to deal with before.

I still think the ENTIRE word is confusing and unnecessary....

[Alice595]

@Cally1Entire is one of the filters. And some guests just like to have exclusive use of the property.

If you have to explain this to every guest after they book about which room they can use and which they cannot. It probably adds more work load then putting three more listings there. It could increase your income as well because if one guest rents one bedroom, you still have two other listings open to rent the other two bedrooms.

In your case, if just one guest books your house, your listing is blocked for those booked dates. Nobody else can book. If you continue runs this way, there would be potential issues when you accept some bad guests. They could just book for 1 or 2 and come with a group of 6 or more. When you read through other posts in this forum, you will see many hosts encounter the issues of getting more people than booking confirmed guests when they rent the entire place.

[Debra300]

You do have the option to list the condo with different bedroom amounts, e.g. 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms, and 3 bedrooms.  Put door locks on the bedrooms, and lock off any room that was not included in the reservation.  Be sure to link the listings together so when one listing is booked the others will be blocked.