New host - I'm nervous!

[Emily743]

Hi I quickly had six weeks booked, accepted them but am still super nervous. I messaged all of them and feel comfortable but you still never know. Do I get something signed from them before they rent? Copy of drivers license, etc.? 

I am also offering two bikes for their use. Should I have them sign some type of waiver to use them? 

Any other tips would be much appreciated. 

Thanks,

Emily

[Jonathan6]

You may have jumped into this a little quickly and have not fully explored what ABnB does.

1. You will get nothing in writing from your guest, ABnB handles all the booking, payment, etc.  You can look at the profiles and see that they provided a government ID, if they have reviews and ratings, etc.  If you have any issues, you document it with ABnB and the guest through the web messaging. 

2. I hope you have talked with your insurance carrier and let them know that you are renting your unit, that you are providing bikes (and anything else) and had them make sure you are covered.  Having a blanket liability release before your renters use the bikes would be a good thing to have, but no matter what you put in writing with a guest, it doesn't stop someone from suing you.  

Good luck.

[Ana1136]

@Emily743 you need to check your local laws and take care of your insurance if you plan on offering such extras. I wouldn't offer, you can let them know where they can rent a bike. If you give them anything to sign you need to have that fully disclosed and that info should be available to them before they book. We take copies of their passports because we are legally required to report a temporary place of stay for every guest but we have had guests refuse to give me such info and I have sent them to the police station themselves, they had to buy the paperwork, pay the tax (which i pay from the nightly rate if i fill out the paoerwork), lost more than 2 hours filling in the info and waiting and had to bring me back the papers so I still had the info but they lost extra time and money. My point is guests don't always listen, be friendly with them but don't let them forget that there are rules to be followed. 

[Emily743]

OK thank you so much. I just pulled the picture of the bikes and changed the description. SHould I now message the people that have booked to let them know? Now I am worried I will get a bad review!

[Jonathan6]

As we have both said, start with your insurance carrier.

[Lawrene0]

You cannot pull an amenity or offering after someone books, @Emily743 . This bunch will have to be your learning curve. 

You can pull it now for future guests, but not for these. They booked expecting bicycles.  

That said, don't live in fear of bad reviews. Just be a great host. You'll be fine. 

Here's a trick, though: Let these first guests know they are special - they are the only ones who will be getting bicycles! Get them on board by asking them to keep quiet about the bicycles in their review. 

[Emily743]

Perfect advice. Thank you SO much

[Kelly149]

@Emily743 many hosts get nothing more than whatever abb sends them about guests.

some hosts, however, know that profile info can be a complete fabrication so they require to see an ID so that they know who is in their space. You'll need to decide what works for you and also, you can only require what your listing said at the time someone booked, so just work your way thru it and adjust as you go.

Also: why do you already have a cancellation on your account? This isn't good.

And, it be great if you had some House Rules.

Good luck!

[Ana1136]

@Kelly149 is right @Emily743, your first "review" is an automated posting for cancelation. That is of putting especially for a new host. What happened there? We have all made mistakes when starting but make sure not to cancel any reservations. If anything needs to be canceled contact Airbnb and have them cancel for you. Also the Airbnb web page is a great source of information, maybe you should read a bit about the way Airbnb works. Good luck! 

[Emily743]

I know that looks bad. After my first and only booking someone approached and asked to rent it for an entire year. This is a new property I purchased that I plan on strictly renting thru Airbnb. Guessing there’s no way to remove that.

I thought I had house rules..omg thank you I will add today. 

[Ana1136]

@Emily743 did someone book your place for a whole year and you canceled? You should have contacted Airbnb and in order for this not to happen again in the future you should set up a maximum number of days a guest can book for. 

[Emily743]

No someone booked a week thru airbnb then a friend of a friend asked to rent it for a year, so it wasn’t thru Airbnb. It was so far in advance that I cancelled on this person that I set them up with a friend on Airbnb with a listing in the same complex. 

[Gordon0]

Personally, @Emily743, I'd take your foot off the gas a little to better understand what you're getting yourself into. A cancellation so early on in your Airbnb career can often be a kiss of death, so try not to make any more mistakes. 

[Emily743]

Understood thank you

[Charlotte495]

Although I'm having a little trouble with Airbnb's customer service right now, historically they have been very good at helping and might even take that cancellation off your record if you have a good explanation.  I set up my entire "house manual" in a Word document that I have printed in a binder in my cottage.  Then I copy and pasted the entire thing into Airbnb's "house manual" slot.  When I was first starting out, I had a note right at the front of the house manual that said "I'm new to renting and want to get great reviews.  If you see anything I could improve on, or if you feel any part of my cottage was not as described in my listing, please let me know!"  People were very receptive to this.  And you ever feel like someone was disappointed and it was all or partially your fault, you can always refund them a little money at the end.  And when I was first starting out I used Slice Insurance - which is specifically for vacation rentals and you pay only by the rental.  If you rent all the time it can get expensive but if you're doing it less often it's a very cost effective way of getting some coverage.