New to hosting? We’ve got you covered!

[Stephanie]

Hiya everyone,

We’re very pleased to announce a brand new board on the Community Center: the New to Hosting board!

This is a dedicated space where new hosts can share their beginner questions and stories, and we encourage all of you lovely experienced hosts to share the wisdom of your journeys and support of new members.

We’ve moved some amazing threads over to the board already so there’s some great tips to get new hosts started: a big thanks to all of you who contributed on them over the past few months and years.

What’s the best tip you’ve received on the Community Center?

It’ll be great to see how the CC has helped all manner of hosts in different ways and share your appreciation for your fellow community members.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Paola1656]

Hi,

Thank you for creating and managing this community center!

I have had airbnb guests for the 1st time and they deteriorated the room.

Fortunately, I had specified a deposit in the regulations.

How do I claim it after check-out?

Thanks a lot for your precious help,

Paola

[Kurt240]

Thanks for setting up this board. It has been a huge help to my wife and me in setting up our new cottage. It is easy to spend a lot of time browsing these pages for Air BnB advice. So many well-written bits of advice and it helps to know that virtually any problem we are having/have had is something that another host has learned from and we get the benefit of their experience.

Many thanks!

KP

[Mariya58]

Hi guys! I am brand new to AIRBNB, yesterday listed my first place. I have filled up all the information, uploaded photos, pricing, cleaning and everything but STILL I can not find it in the search engine, whether I put different number of guests, dates or search by map.

Any suggestions? 😞 

[Sarah977]

@Mariya58  It takes about 24hrs for a listing to appear in search. It isn't instant.

[Eric5747]

I just experienced the same. It took the better part of a day, or maybe even a full 24 hrs, before my listing showed up in searches. I see you wrote this on the 22nd. Did it resolve itself by the 23rd? Cheers. 

[Pedro-Henrique-Rangel0]

Hey! how the community doing?

Fresh new host here! - I got 2 apartments listed on Airbnb and I wanted to test the links of each listings and they worked until one of them didn't let me continue with the booking process so then I went back to edit and realized that one of them appears to be suspended!

Can someone explain or help me on how I can fix this!

Thanks! 

@Sarah977 

[Rebecca1639]

Hello

Yesterday I received a new inquiry (my second) and after a few questions, the next message was unintelligible. I asked her to rephrase and turns out she was giving me her cell number in between words. She wanted to book outside of AirBnB with a different arrangement to 'avoid paying the fees.' I replied that I would only accept her booking via the platform. Has this happened to anyone else and why would any guest see this to his or her advantage? Thanks!

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca1639  Yes, many guests try this on. What's the advantage? As you say, theyare trying to avoid paying Airbnb fees. They don't seem to realize that hosts report guests for that. (You should flag guests like this- click on the flag symbol next to their message).

[Rebecca1639]

Thank you and I will.

[Vadim50]

Hello ! I live in Ukraine, why did I run out of guest bookings? what did I do wrong?

[Sarah977]

@Vadim50  I'm not sure what you mean by "ran out of bookings". I see one cancelled booking on your profile from 2019.  Then it appears that you just reactivated the listing in 2022, for the purpose of having Ukraine supporters send you money.

This is not at all in the spirit of what Airbnb hosts around the world were trying to do, which was to send money to established hosts, who now obviously are not going to be getting any actual bookings in a war zone. 

[Eric5747]

Greetings all. I just went live with my first listing a couple of days ago and so am brand new to this world of hosting. I opted for the 'Instant Book' option with a Flexible cancellation policy. I also indicated that guests would be able to check themselves in via the front door keypad. Yesterday late afternoon (4:30pm) I received an Instant Book request for the very same evening, a guest asking to book the space for a week. I straight away felt somewhat suspicious of the booking request, but decided to go forward. Airbnb notified me that the payment method still required confirmation, even as the guest reached out straight away with an anticipated arrival time (6pm) and a request for the front door code. I responded with welcoming language and notified the guest that once the payment confirmation came through I would reach out to him again. Payment confirmation came though a couple minutes later and he again requested the code. Maintaining very friendly and (I think) gracious language, I told the guest that as this was such a last minute request, and this being our first hosting experience, I would be happy to meet them upon their arrival to let them in and provide a quick orientation. After modest insistence that I need not trouble myself and a little friendly back-and-forth, he agreed and said he would see me later. After a few hours without further news from him, I sent him my phone number and indication that I was residing in the house right next door so he could come knock at any time upon arrival. By midnight, without further communication from him and knowing he had my phone number and location, I went to bed. It is now 10am the following morning and I have heard nothing further from the guest. Per Airbnb, I am "currently hosting" this guest. At this point, I am inclined to believe this was a scam effort from the start, directed at getting access to a home for reasons that are illegitimate. Of course, other scenarios are possible, including, god forbid, that the guest had a car accident or is indisposed for other legitimate reasons. That said, my question to the group is -- does this story sound at all familiar, especially for those of you who selected Instant Book, Flexible cancellation, and contact-less entry? Thanks for whatever insights you can offer. This very much felt like a trial by fire intro to the world of hosting!  Best, Eric

[Sarah4381]

I have just had a Long-term booking guest request to shorten her stay from 46 days to 43 days.  No big deal to me whatsoever--in fact, it gives me a couple extra days to do some maintenance I wanted to look after.  The problem is with the fee calculation.

The total booking was for a payout of $1367, and now the payout will only be  $967.  There is no explanation from Air B'nB as to why shortening a stay by 6% results in a payout reduction of over 30%?  This is insane.  I don't want to be unreasonable to the guest, as I don't feel this is her fault or her problem...and she's booked for another 6 weeks later on in the summer.  It just REALLY doesn't seem fair to me, that I have the space booked for 6 weeks and will be paid less than my rate for 14 days.

@Airbnbdo you have any insight?  I'm a super-host and don't want to lose my status by not responding to her quickly enough, but I don't want to just agree and then have it COST me money to allow her to stay. 

Any insight anybody can share would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[Stella543]

Intersting ive just had my first long term booking.  I set a 25% discount and its come up as a 39% discount, and ive not idea why.  Id love to accept the offer at 25% but cant seem to do so.  Again @Airbnb can you help?

[Stella543]

and it is also showing all the dates she has requested as unavailable even though. I have not accepted the booking?