New host - advice please

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Joey208
Level 2
Preston, United Kingdom

New host - advice please

Hello

 

We have recently opened up the house next door to our home as an Air BnB after a three year delay due to my cancer treatment and latterly Covid.  The house is a 3 bed semi and we only use the front downstairs room as an office with the rest of the house being for the guests.  We felt we would start out by allowing anyone who booked the house to have the whole place to themselves rather than share common spaces and bathroom/kitchen.  The house sleeps 5 in the standard layout out but up to 10 with additional floor mattresses etc.  When listing I noticed that the house did not come up in top results if searching for 2 people and also spotted that others with similar large properties also listed the  individual rooms.  So I did this.  I have had a couple of bookings and now have some questions maybe more experienced people could help with.

 

1.  What is the best way to list - my issue with what we did is that a couple booked the house as a one bedroom booking (£40 per night) rather than as full house (£90) for a month.  This means that when you apply the discounts ABB advise you to offer they are paying less than half of what the booking would be for the whole house.  And they definitely expected the whole house to themselves.  I have now amended the listing so that anything other than whole house booking can only be made for up to 4 nights - therefore anyone wanting the house for weeks or month/S would have to book at the whole house rate - but is there anything else I should do?  Will this affect my position in listings?

 

2. When they arrived the couple agreed they didn’t want cleaners in and were happy for me to use my office two afternoons a week.  Due to Covid I sanitise my way in and out and they tend to go out on my afternoons.  Shortly after they arrived though they appeared on the doorstep of our house next door saying that we needed to open up one of the other bedrooms as there was nowhere near enough storage for them.  I had locked both of the bedrooms they did not book as they had only paid for one.  I felt criticised and anxious to please my second guests so I did open up the room (my husband furious) and they have since used this room for storage and cleared out my linen cupboard and under the stairs space as well.  The whole house is going to need a total spring clean when they have gone - additional cost for me.  Can I charge them for the use of the second bedroom?  

3. On day 3 they appeared at the door saying the bathroom upstairs was leaking.  Indeed there had been water leaking down the wall into the kitchen and into a socket which sparked and smoked!  I immediately sent for the plumber as the couple were suggesting it could only be a problem with the waste from the bath.  I asked if the had used the stand tap showered head at all but they hadn’t.  The plumber came out to us twice because he needed to return with his mate to lift the bath and out cameras down.  No problems detected and he suggested that they may have left the shower head running but with no evidence we had to pay up the £120.    On bank holiday another visit requesting a mop and bucket as the bathroom was leaking again - this time down the wall above the cooker, boiler and a couple of sockets blowing fuses etc.  I was grumpily informed that I would need to do something about the bathroom as normal wet rooms had much better sealing around the walls and a drain in the floor.  I was puzzled and told her that this wasn’t a wet room it was just a tiled bathroom.  The second ‘flood’ was actually not their problem - the ball **bleep** had broken on the toilet so it was spilling out onto the floor - I tied the arm up until we could get the plumber and we emptied the tank to below the overflow.  It was while we were doing this she told me she knew there was a problem with the wet room when she had used the shower head the week before to clean the thunder flies off the walls and it leaked into the kitchen.  So they had been responsible for the £120 leak.  I am furious as nowhere does it say it’s a wet room - it clearly isn’t - and they denied even using the shower head when we asked.  Can I charge them for the first leak?  We have had to replace sockets in both cases and when they go we will have to re paint the kitchen so again more cost.

 

4. Finally they are extremely wasteful with electricity - they leave lights on every time they leave the house and I don’t mean just the odd light it is every light and lamp in every room.  We are quite eco conscious so it annoys us on that level but also when I submitted my reading to Shell this week after three weeks of them being there they queried my reading as it was way above what it should be - this makes me think we will have a massive bill for this stay.  I do have stickers for the switches and sockets for next guests but is there anyway to charge for high utility bills?  Particularly as they got the house for more than half price anyway?

 

These are people who have nothing but glowing reviews but I feel taken advantage of and am regretting allowing a long let which I thought would be easy?

 

Any advice or do I just suck it up?

 

j

 

1 Best Answer
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Joey208 

 

I can't answer all of your questions as I rent out individual rooms in my own home, where I live, and have never rented out the property as a whole unit. I can see how issues like this can come up if you are listing both the whole property and individual rooms though.

 

I can't seem to see your listings on your profile, so I don't know if you have snoozed them or something?

Anyway, the reason I was looking was to check what you have in your house rules etc. I personally find it really important to spell stuff out to guests, even if you think it should be obvious.

 

Here are a few suggestions:

 

- If you haven't done so already, please make it very clear on your listings which areas the guests have access to, e.g. for the individual room listing, specify that they do not have access to the other bedrooms. If a guest asked me for use of an additional bedroom, they would have to pay something for it, even if they're just using it for storage.

- I also mention energy efficiency in my house rules.

- I insist that every guest confirms they have read the full listing and house rules either before they book, or as soon as they book if they use Instant Booking. 

- I also do a pretty thorough welcome tour, which includes reminding them of some of these, e.g. turning off lights when they go out, how not to flood showers etc. (I also had problems early on with guests thinking a tiled bathroom was the same as a wetroom). If you have explained this, then you have every right to ask for compensation if the guest then ignores your instructions and causes a flood or leak.

- Because these things have been mentioned to them before, it's much easier to bring it up if again when they ignore it, e.g. send them a gentle reminder to turn off the lights.

- I don't know if you can charge extra for electricity but perhaps other hosts have advice on this. I certainly don't think you can charge it after the fact, i.e. if this was not mentioned on your listing. Instead, you would have to have something written there about excessive usage resulting in additional charges and set a limit in Kilowatt hours for what that excessive usage is so that it's clear cut. Adding a smart meter would encourage guests to keep an eye on their consumption, but also, you could get a system that allows you to switch off lights from your phone if you 100% know the guests are out of the house. Again, you need to specify this on your listing so there is no dispute about you doing this. On the other hand, this could encourage guests to become lazy about doing it if they think you are the one responsible for turning off the lights!

- As you are not living at the property, I would also consider locking areas like the linen cupboard that you don't want guests to access.

- Ignore Airbnb suggestions about discounts and pricing tips. They are nonsense. For example, they were recently telling me to discount my most popular room by over 40%, even though I know it's already very good value.  Base your prices and discounts on what you feel the listing is worth and what similar listings may be charging in your area. Never discount a listing to the point that it's not financially worth it for you.

- Try to keep all conversations on the Airbnb messaging system so you have a paper trail if anything goes wrong, like a guest causing damage. If you end up having a verbal communication with the guest about any issue (rather than just casual conversation), send them a follow up message via Airbnb to summarise what you discussed. Airbnb will need to see this if there is any dispute with the guest in future.

 

 

View Best Answer in original post

6 Replies 6
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Joey208 

 

Regarding question 1:

 

I wanted to take a look at your listing(s), but at this moment you have no active listing(s)

 

The useal way to offer individual rooms in a house, which can also be rented as whole house, is to create listings for each individual room (or any combinations you wish to offer) and 1 listing for the whole house. The calenders must be linked as explained here:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1864/how-do-i-link-airbnb-calendars-for-multiple-listings

 

Best regards,

Emiel

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Joey208 

 

I can't answer all of your questions as I rent out individual rooms in my own home, where I live, and have never rented out the property as a whole unit. I can see how issues like this can come up if you are listing both the whole property and individual rooms though.

 

I can't seem to see your listings on your profile, so I don't know if you have snoozed them or something?

Anyway, the reason I was looking was to check what you have in your house rules etc. I personally find it really important to spell stuff out to guests, even if you think it should be obvious.

 

Here are a few suggestions:

 

- If you haven't done so already, please make it very clear on your listings which areas the guests have access to, e.g. for the individual room listing, specify that they do not have access to the other bedrooms. If a guest asked me for use of an additional bedroom, they would have to pay something for it, even if they're just using it for storage.

- I also mention energy efficiency in my house rules.

- I insist that every guest confirms they have read the full listing and house rules either before they book, or as soon as they book if they use Instant Booking. 

- I also do a pretty thorough welcome tour, which includes reminding them of some of these, e.g. turning off lights when they go out, how not to flood showers etc. (I also had problems early on with guests thinking a tiled bathroom was the same as a wetroom). If you have explained this, then you have every right to ask for compensation if the guest then ignores your instructions and causes a flood or leak.

- Because these things have been mentioned to them before, it's much easier to bring it up if again when they ignore it, e.g. send them a gentle reminder to turn off the lights.

- I don't know if you can charge extra for electricity but perhaps other hosts have advice on this. I certainly don't think you can charge it after the fact, i.e. if this was not mentioned on your listing. Instead, you would have to have something written there about excessive usage resulting in additional charges and set a limit in Kilowatt hours for what that excessive usage is so that it's clear cut. Adding a smart meter would encourage guests to keep an eye on their consumption, but also, you could get a system that allows you to switch off lights from your phone if you 100% know the guests are out of the house. Again, you need to specify this on your listing so there is no dispute about you doing this. On the other hand, this could encourage guests to become lazy about doing it if they think you are the one responsible for turning off the lights!

- As you are not living at the property, I would also consider locking areas like the linen cupboard that you don't want guests to access.

- Ignore Airbnb suggestions about discounts and pricing tips. They are nonsense. For example, they were recently telling me to discount my most popular room by over 40%, even though I know it's already very good value.  Base your prices and discounts on what you feel the listing is worth and what similar listings may be charging in your area. Never discount a listing to the point that it's not financially worth it for you.

- Try to keep all conversations on the Airbnb messaging system so you have a paper trail if anything goes wrong, like a guest causing damage. If you end up having a verbal communication with the guest about any issue (rather than just casual conversation), send them a follow up message via Airbnb to summarise what you discussed. Airbnb will need to see this if there is any dispute with the guest in future.

 

 

Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@Joey208 You don't say much about the couple's reason for booking: why do they need housing for so long and why do they have so much stuff with them? My concern about them staying for a month is that they may be trying to establish tenancy and you may have to go through an eviction process with them to get them out. I don't want to be an alarmist: this booking just seems to have a lot of associated red flags. 

 

I know the temptation as a new host is to say yes to everything in order to build up your profile, but I would urge you to stick to the rules and boundaries you have established. It helps to weed out the bad guests and people you just generally don't want staying with you. In the situation with the guest asking for a second bedroom, I see nothing wrong with telling them they booked a single room, and if they need more, they can book the whole house listing. Now that you've already opened the room for them without mentioning an extra charge, I think it's going to be difficult to ask for more, but you could certainly try. 

 

As the guest is just renting a room, not the whole house, I would consider mentioning the lights being left on and if it doesn't improve, consider turning  them off (not in the private bedroom they're renting, but elsewhere). They're only renting a room after all, and the other spaces are shared. Maybe they will get the point. I don't care if you already have it in your rules or not: leaving lights on all over the place is wasteful and disrespectful. 

 

Overall, just learn the value of "no" and respect your own boundaries. I don't care what their reviews look like: their behaviour doesn't sound 5-star to me. 

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Joey208 Oh dear - where to start...

1) If your house has 3 beds list it as that and don't take discounted bookings for less than 3 beds. You will get bookings - they may just be relatively last minute

2) Chalk the current guests up to experience - But do stress to new guests that it isn't a wet room. Should be obvious if it doesn't have a drain

3) Ikea do 5W LED bulbs for £1. These are just about powerful enough and its less stressful when guests leave the lights on. Sadly when its not their house people leave lights on (or its an age thing as my children don't know how to switch lights off.

4) Your use of the front room is a potential issue - I assume you don't list as a whole home (as it isn't) but you won't attract as many people if they see you are using part of the home.

5) I agree with @Huma0 - Ignore Airbnb price suggestions they are BS. Just check out the competition as if you are looking to book a place like yours.

6) Build up reviews by taking min 3 day amp 7 day stays. 

7) Let us know when we can look at the listing

Joey208
Level 2
Preston, United Kingdom

Thank you all so much for the advice and support.  The guests have left today (thankfully as the comment about establishing tenancy had me worried). And we have indeed chalked it all up to experience.  I have added a couple of stickers to remind guests to turn off the lights and to use the laundry equipment  properly.

 

I am going to o have another look at the listings and pricing based on suggestions above and have stressed to our new guests that we have not provided a wet room!!

 

in future I will stand my ground about the extra room and pray that my most recent guests do not return.  Shorter lets is probably the way for us to go and the next couple of weeks are looking good.

 

My listings are at the links below - not sure why it’s not linked to my login here at the community hub.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/h/dalmorepreston