We have 3 bedrooms and state that the home can sleep 6, but we don't want 6 single folks...:)

[Brian1086]

Does that make sense? 

The home is:

- 3 bedrooms

- Bedroom 1 = King Bed

- Bedroom 2 = Queen Bed

- Bedroom 3 = bunkbed

In short, we feel that 6 singles create a party-like atmosphere and like most I'm sure, we're not going for that.  Is there anything to do within our listing to work towards 2 couples and 2 kids/single folks in the bunk bedroom or single folks in the bigger rooms and singles in the bunk bedroom?

[Linda108]

@Brian1086   You have a lovely home and I hope you plan to add more pictures including all bedrooms and bathrooms.  You cannot stop singles from booking per se,  but you could engage the requesting guest in a conversation and really play down the party aspect.  Ten steps to the unit and interior steps as well, will probably not be condusive to families with young children but perhaps families with older children will be drawn to the location.  Play up what is in your area.  Change the title from Hideaway to Family get away or something like that.  In other words, market to the type of guest you want.

Additionally, given that SF is such a wonderful place for younger singles, you might want to install a system that monitors the level of noise and notifies you if the decible level is too high.  Also, start out with a two or three day minimum to discourage single night on the town.  You can change that minimum up or down as you gain experience.  Be sure to let your neighbors know you are available if they have any questions or complaints.  Better they call you and not the police.   Good luck.  Hope my feedback is helpful.

[Brian1086]

Thanks!  A reservation has been booked for someone with 1 really solid review, who is coming to SF for a "milestone" bday with his friends - 6 total, since the house states it sleeps 6 total.  I  don't plan on cancelling his reservation (I  know how this negativley impacts scores), but is this an appropriate note to send?

--

Hey Eric - Great to meet you and really looking forward to hosting you for your milestone bday! Super exciting.

Can you tell me a little bit about your group and what your expectations are for your stay in our home?

The reason being, I want to make sure you are comfortable with your booking of our home and that we absolutely hope you and your friends will enjoy our family home, San Francisco and the wine country.

To set expectations, the neighborhood our home is in is quiet and we have had other Airbnb's in the past get singled out, etc for excessive noise, parties, etc. It's our goal not to be that type of host/Airbnb home and yet completely understand if you are looking for something more accommodating to noise levels, etc. I know I like that from time to time myself 🙂

I just thought I would communicate on this stuff since the home does sleep 6, but as noted doesn't have 6 beds and want to make sure everyone in your group is super happy when they come to celebrate your bday!

[Linda108]

Keep all messages a short and on point as you can.  Most people will glaze over long responses. Perhaps using phrases such as, "please confirm your understanding of the sleeping arrangements since you are a party of 6 friends.  additionally, please note this residential neighborhood is NOT party central so I assume your celebration would be best enjoyed at all the wonderful SF options.  let me know if you need any recommendations."

If you accept this reservation, be sure to get the name of each guest with the caveat, "only registered guests are allowed in the home."  If you have any exterior survellience, for example a Ring bell or door camera, mention this again.

While your friendly attitude is great, you are a host and need to establish that along with friendly good wishes.

Good luck and best wishes for your success.

[Brian1086]

Again - thanks!

I didn't realize this, he actually registered each of the 6 in his party and aside from him, they all have multiple very positive reviews.    That was a pleasant surprise to see.  Thanks again!

[Sarah977]

@Brian1086  Here's a little suggestion for you when looking at reviews, if you sense that a guest may not be being completely honest about their intentions, or you have some other naggy red flag feelings and they don't have a lot of reviews, since you can't always trust reviews unless there's a whole string of them which would give you a pretty good picture.

Click on the host profile who gave the review and look at that listing to see whether this was a private host, or a property manager with many listings. If it's a property-managed listing, I take those reviews with a grain of salt, because they often don't even meet the guests- self check-in and out, and as long as the guests didn't trash the place, they tend to leave generic "Nice guests, welcome back" sort of reviews. You can then also click on the guests' profiles who left reviews for that host, scroll down until you find that host's review of them, to see what kind of reviews that host leaves in general for his guests. If they're all more or less the same, and pretty impersonal, I myself would discount them.

Of course, when a review is somewhat detailed, and it's obvious that the host had a fair bit of great personal interaction with the guest, that's more believable. 

[Anonymous]

@Brian1086  Your duty as the host is to clearly disclose the number of rooms and beds available for sleeping, which I'm sure you've already done in your listing. But it shouldn't ever be necessary to make distinctions around the nature of the relationships between people who happen to be sharing the beds. It would be rather creepy if guests felt obliged to disclose to a stranger whether they were romantically involved with their traveling companion.

It's understandable that you don't want people throwing parties in your house, but 2 or 3 couples can get up to every bit as much mischief as 6 singles, so I think you're engineering the wrong variables here. Your House Rules can communicate policies on noise, unregistered visitors, and cleaning tasks you expect to be performed before checkout. But if you're not living onsite, you will have to accept that each group of people brings their own unique "atmosphere," and it's often not what you'd expect from looking at them... 

[Christine615]

I had that problem. I can easily sleep six in four beds (one queen, one full, two twins). The city allows me to host up to seven (two per bedroom plus one).

I changed from 4 to 5 to accommodate families with up to 3 kids. Thought that was fair. But it doesn't work that way because mostly adults are trying to book and seeing how cheap it would be per person. I starting charging $50 extra for every person over 4 people. But am now finding people who are looking for "one" person listings then mentioning after the fact they have more. The games people play.   (note those same people asked for late check-out then had people visit at 5:30pm which, for me, should have resulted in another day charge. So I'm back to four permanently.

How many people do you realistically want in your space? Set that number as the base then charge $75/night for each additional person for wear and tear. So if youre space will hold 6 charge extra for bodies over four people and offer a discount if warranted to a family. That will reduce having 6 unrelated people booking your space.

MAKE SURE the booking party invites all the other adults to Airbnb so they are shown on the reservation and ask for their full names. Make it clear no people are allowed in the apartment who are not on the reservation without prior consent.

[Christine615]

Update: I found people still gaming the system on guest count so I increased the price, set the rate for two people, then it’s $25/person/night after that. 

Bookings went up. Getting more 2 person couples. Larger groups are better quality.

Counterintuitive but hosting has been mostly drama free overall.