What tips would you give to a new host?

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Here in the Community Center, we are lucky to be surrounded by wonderful experienced hosts. Hosts who have been there, got the t-shirt and have an amazing amount of knowledge which they have picked up along the way.

I am sure, that many of hosts here would agree with me in saying that this experience and knowledge doesn't come over night and that it does take time, effort and lots of learning in the process. Plus, we all continue to learn new things every day!

In light of this, I thought together we could share some of our top tips to hosts who are just starting out, this could be aimed at those who are completely new to hosting or are new to Airbnb. If you are a new host and have some tips you think others would find helpful, please do share as well, we would love to hear it. 🙂

Looking forward to hearing and sharing your tips.

Enjoy!

Lizzie

[Anne278]

Hi, Im new to this and want to know what is expected. Do I have to feed my guests or just let them use the kitchen as they wish.  I picked up my guest from the railway station and told him where everything is, i.e. shops, etc and I can run him to the station when he needs. His english is very limited and he will be looking for work so I dont know how he will go. I find it hard to understand him. He seems very nice. Its his first time out of his home country, China. Can anyone give me some tips please? 

[Suzanne103]

Hi,what is the minimum breadfast should I provide to guest who booked for one month and I charged about 43% of the normal price.

and how ofen should I clean the room.

[Phyllis2]

I like the idea of not doing the same thing over and over.  I knocked myself out for one particular guest, and felt totally used and abused.  You can't get to know someone by emails.  Wait until you meet them and then have a variety of extras that you can offer that suit you and them better.  Maybe you will find that you don't want to give anything extra.  Keep that bottle of wine or box of chocolates or gift certificate for some guest that you want to come back.  We love hosting and have had 99% good experiences but expect to feel taken advantage of once in a while.  To some people your home is nothing more than a place they rented and they feel. They own it while there.  Others treat it like true guests.  You never can predict.

[Felicia11]

What can I do to make my guest happy so they and others return 

[Blagoje0]

@Lizzie

I started hosting this year, had 26 trips all 5 stars overall except one 4 stars ( I will remember her forever haha). Besides extra income, hosting makes me feel great when I see my guests enjoying my town and their stay at my place. I think that happy guests taking back home some great memories should be a goal to every good host. And you as a host have a big role in making their memories unforgettable and even become a part of them.

I will write a few, easy to do, suggestions how to make your guests feel exceptionally. Hope you find some of them useful.

- get a small blackboard and prior guests arrival write welcome note in their own language. Maybe even draw symbol of the city or country where they come from. Guests will be impressed with your attention.

- if guests leave your place clean be sure to tell them that! Guest will be very pleased and feel great that you noiced it.

- having a guest with a baby or maybe a pet? Leave baby bibs or baby rattle. Guest will be really suprised and overwhelmed that you remember their yungest one. Or maybe a pet cookies for their furry friend.

- during the stay of your guests always ask is everithing OK and do they need something. Guests will see you as careful and easily reachable host whom they can turn to at any time if needed.

- before guests arrival buy a souvenir of your city and place it out of the eye reach. On the check out day message them wishing safe back home and tell them to take a look at that "hidden place". It will create that WOW! effect and your guests will be amazed with your attention.

So put a smile on your face and open your hart and door to your next AIRBNB adventure!

[Ian-and-Charlene0]

Hi All,

We are not new to airbnb but new as hosts.

We are advertising a private bedroom with shared bathroom and living space.

For those that have shared bathrooms - how do you go about your normal daily routine while you have others in your 'home' needing to use the bathroom at the same time as you, etc?

I'm really nervous about our 1st guest in a few weeks time...

Thank you in advance 🙂

[Annie-and-Rob0]

Hey @Ian-and-Charlene0! We have two airbnb rooms and when both are rented out, they share this bathroom between the two rooms PLUS our cats have a litter box in there as well. Since this is your only bathroom (?), here are my tips for you:

1) Consider first what works best for you because if you aren't happy, your guests will sense it;

2) Make sure that the shared bathroom is very CLEARLY pointed out in the room description so as to minimize guest disappointment - and even then there are some "less bright" guests who just don't read and arrive saying they didn't know. Another airbnb superhost suggested to us to have the house rules thoroughly written and have a message at the bottom that they have to start their reservation request with, that lets you know they read your rules - The more clear you are, the more satisfying the experience for both hosts and guests;

3) Ask your guests to share their schedule with you so you know when they are most likely to need access to the bathroom.

You can always ask about their schedule before you accept their reservation and that way if it conflicts with yours, then you can either find an alternative or refuse the reservation.

Makes sense?

[Barb6]

In my first few messages to guests I ask if there are dietary restrictions or food allergies. I do this because I usually bake a treat for guests when they arrrive.

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

Find your niche! Advertise accordingly.

Ours is an "entire place" whole house rental in a quiet neighborhood of a town that is close to a big city. It's not in a resort location or tourist attraction location. Our listing comes up when people search for the big city. I became aware that guests who are new to Airbnb don't know how to use the site and sometimes don't realize our location may not be a good fit for their needs and or desires, even though we clarify the location in the listing. So be as clear as you can about the location and figure out the type of guest that it will appeal to. Prior to the stay, if you sense or become aware that the guest may do better with a diferent location, talk with them about it.

We decided from the start to make our listing family friendly and we cater to the needs of families with young children and infants. We listened to what our guests found helpful and adopted some of those ideas. Anticipate what a guest might find helpful. For example, on a very rainy day we anticipated the young parents of a toddler may be stumped what to do, so we visited them at the house with a list of "Rainy Day Places and Activities for Kids". We also provide necessities for parents of infants, such as odor-blocking plastic bags for used diapers and organic natural baby soap.

Our listing has attracted a wide variety of people. We became aware that our guest house is located less than a mile from our county court house and is on the bus line to that location. When two attorneys booked our spot while in town for a trial, I realized a new potential market. They had some suggestions for improvement for their business needs that I readily adopted. I also asked them to spread the word about our accomodation and location within their professional network.

We also discovered that there is a market for environmentally concious guests who appreciate natural cleaning products, energy conservation, and recycling. So we've made our house envrionmentally friendly. Some of our guests like to explore the great outdoors and appreciate having a mudroom with a washer/dryer and clothesline. We provide umbrellas for rainy days, travel size coolers, picnic blankets and separate towels for use outside.

These are just a few examples of how you can find your niche and cater to certain types of guests.

[Harry22]

Hey Airbnb hosts, started this list as an answer to a question but it turned up pretty big so im sharing with every one. Hope its helpful to some people and please upvote it if you liked it. 

It's also available as a thread here: https://community.airbnb.com/t5/New-Hosts/25-tips-to-get-booked/m-p/141233#M14496

Im working on v2.0 btw, so check back soon 🙂

Here's what I’ve found so far in order to promote my listings:

1. Build a complete listing, fill in all the available information and be honest, you will probably hurt your future reviews if you lie.
2. Get verified. If you are into serious business, provide as many verifications as you can (I think you can have as many as 7).
3. Fill in your profile, have a friendly picture (not one after a metal concert) and write a couple of nice and true things about yourself. A lot of people chose pictures where they are with their significant other, I guess it makes them look friendlier? – that could work too.
4. Have a competitive and descriptive title (ie. mention some upcoming event in the area) - keep in mind they show up in google, so you might get hitsfrom there. Also mention other selling facts, ie. “close to Subway station”.
5. Have a competitive price, easy and simple, check what is offered in your neighborhood and, if possible, beat the price of the similar listings that are your competition. Also use the extra charge per person option, have a lower price for 1 person then gradually increase for added guests. Will make your pricing fairer.
6. Upload many and nice pictures I have an average of 20 per listing, and they were all shot with a good camera and underwent some light editing. Current mobile phones also get great pictures but well, I went all the way. Always consider Airbnb Free Photography service which gets the job done and provides of an extra verification for your profile.
7. Fill in the pictures titles - have the potential guests spend more time on your listing. Check your main (first) picture, how it appears on multiple devices. It might be a great picture by its self but when cropped by the airbnb layout it may appear worse. Manually crop it or change it. Also, I think 3:4 landscape ratio is the best for Airbnb, it appears well in most devices (except android app that allows portrait view 4:3)
8. Make sure you offer the basic amenities (I found that spending 30$ on a steam iron and a hair blower was worth it)
9. Get as many "tickable amenities" as possible, available (ie. a CO detector might cost $10, its probably worth ticking)
10. Probably worth getting the business ready title (recently got it on one of my listing, can’t say how much it was worth it yet).
11. Start low. The lower (but fair) the price, the more bookings, the faster you register more trips, the faster you get reviews, the faster you look like a cool host on search results.
12. Start with low standards. Cheap cleaning fee, friendly cancelation policy, loose house rules etc.
13. Find a way to afford 1-night stays. Probably are not worth it as much as long stays but having your place available for one night will increase your impressions on search results
14. Be a good host! Airbnb works with ratings, the more 5star ratings you get the more Airbnb algorithm will like you. Good and many reviews will also attract a potential guest.
15. Ask for recommendations. Connect your Facebook account, see which ones of your friends have Airbnb accounts and ask them to write a couple of nice things about you. They will fill in the spot until you get some solid reviews.
16. Don’t cancel confirmed reservations. It does hurt your host rating.
17. Reply ASAP. Besides convincing Airbnb that you are an active host, I have found that replying within 4-5 minutes to a message surprises the guest and increases their liking towards you as well. Even if you don’t have something to say to your guest, write a quick “Thank you for your interest, I will come back to you with more info ASAP” within less than an hour of the original message.
18. Reach superhost status, it is supposed to place you under better order on search results, plus gives you a nice badge on your picture, guest have the option to search only superhost listings. There is a special page on your profile (Stats on desktop and Performance on mobile) that tells you how close you are to being a superhost.
19. Get wish-listed. Not really under your control, but ask friends and guests to add you to their wish-lists.
20. Allow Instant-Book. It is supposed to increase your search result rankings. I also believe it makes you stand out in the map view, attracting clicks from guests.
21. According to several posts/blogs around the web, regularly (daily) updating your calendar will make the Airbnb algorithm believe you are an active host and award you a better position. Same thing is rumored to happen if you log in every day and if you daily update the texts of your listings. I don’t know if there’s an official Airbnb confirmation on this but, well, it’s probably worth a couple of minutes of your day.
22. Be active on the community forums. Again, getting thumbs-ups is supposed to increase how much the Airbnb algorithm likes you.
23. Look for your listings regularly. I have found out that people sometimes cannot find my listings even in areas/searches when no other listing is available. I try to produce specific searches that would force Airbnb to find my listings and after a couple of times they usually appear to my friends too. That probably is my own idea/conspiracy theory but I’m just adding it here towards the end of the list. Also have people regularly visiting your listings by sharing them your direct links (like mines at the end of the post, under my signature) just to let Airbnb know that we are regularly checking. You can get the links by clicking the preview button on your listing management page.
24. Promote your listing through Google or Facebook. A cheap, well targeted google or Facebook campaign might get you some fast customers. The return of the investment will be immediate. You can also use more SEO tools, set up a website with unique links to your listings, spam your friends on FB, pay for some clicks probably, I don’t know if it’s worth it and I won’t and get into more detail.
25. Lastly you can also register with other similar sites competitive to Airbnb. The tools are provided to you in order to migrate listings and sync calendars but I have found that Airbnb is the easiest to use and probably attracts the coolest and politest guests of all.

That pretty much sums up what information I have gathered and tried during the past few months.

A nice round total of 25 tips to promote your listing.

I hope it’s not very overwhelming and that it is helpful for new hosts that want to get in the game!

Also i'd love to hear the opinion of some more experienced hosts. 

Please gimme the thumbs-up if you found this helpful

Regards,

Harry K.

[Lizzie]

Wowzer @Harry22! Thanks for sharing this again here in this thread. 🙂

[Donna136]

Thanks Harry - great list to work through!

[Angela289]

Hey Harry

I have recently listed and just accepted my first booking. I found your advice so helpful... just brilliant, I'm going to get busy...

thanks Angela

[Judith125]

Thanks for all the specific, practical tips. One question: What does "business ready" mean? You said this: 

"Probably worth getting the business ready title"

[Linda108]

Judith, Welcome to hosting.  It won't be long before your anxiety about having "strangers" in your home will become looking forward to meeting a new person.  Some will be more lovely than others of course.  Here's my tip for you, when you have a question, start with looking in the Help Center for articles about your question.  You can use search terms "business ready" and get very precise information and then some.  

When I started I didn't know about the host forum so I spent time researching all types of issues in the Help Center.  What I like about the host forum, is various opinions about how to handle a range of situations that come up.  If you do have a question for the host community, start your own discussion or conversation instead of tagging into an old discussion thread.  This allows more visability of your issue.  You will find community guides under "Discuss" that are very detailed help such as how to use the Community Center and how to contact Air BNB.  Good luck!!