@Ramon88 Here's my response as a host:
Question 1: How often do you use Airbnb, and do you rent a house or room, host, or both?
My listings are available 365 days a year. I rent out two entire homes. One sleeps up to 12 and the other up to 10. I prefer HA/VRBO or Luxuary Rentals when I rent homes for my personal use. The fee's are not as high as AirBnB's for the most part and the accomadations are more in line with what I am looking for. My 2 daughters 1 in still in college and 1 just completed her doctrine rent exclusively with AirBnB. They need smaller accomodates then I do for large group family rentals. It's works out cheaper with a larger stock of rentals for them to choose from then on HA/VRBO.
Question 2: (If you are a host) How much preparation does it require to make sure the room/house is ready for the guests, and name something special you do to make the stay of your guests as pleasant for them (and you) as possible?
As my rentals are for large groups it usually a 2 crew cleaning team and 4 hours to prepare, unless of course the previous renters really messed up the place. Pictures below give an sample/idea of what can happen and then it takes much longer to clean up. We leave a welcome basket and tailor it to the guests. Late night arrivals are usually hunrgy with no time to get to a store, so we give wine, cheese and meat trays, snacks for children, water bottles, iced tea, lemonaide, coffee, teas, hot chocolates, bread with peanut butter and several jellies/jams for sandwiches for hungry kids, breakfast for group for the first morning eggs, waffle/pancake mix, orange juice, fruit and granola bars usually. You get the idea I'm sure. We go above and beyond and we do not list this in our listing.
Question 3: Do you have any negative experiences with hosts or guests?
We've had a few. I have only put in a claim once for damage and stolen items. I was reimbursed for most of what I asked for. It's not always easy to get AIrBnB to give you reimbursement even from the security deposit, They do not actually collect it unlike HA/VRBO, so it's difficult for hosts to get any money from it if there are problems. For these reasons it always best if the host has their own commercial insurance in place. With larger homes the biggest issues are preventing unauthorized parties by the younger crowds, sneaking in guests they don't pay for, smoking in a non-smoking home, sneaking in an unauthorized pet(s) to a no pet property, leaving a huge mess or trashing the property and my biggest pet peeve is asking/demanding things clearly not listed in your listing as an option early check in or late check out are the two constant ones they ask.
My daughter renting have a few issue in Peru and the Amazon. Also had a bait and switch in Russia. Otherwise considering how much they rent I would say less than a 2% issue with problems with the rentals.
Question 4: Have neighbours ever complaned about noise, etc.?
My property has 6+ acres and the houses on each side 2+ or 3+ acres each and they work at my Wedding/Event Venue on my property also in addition to the rentals, so not an issue for me.
Question 5: Would you recommend Airbnb above hotels, or otherwise and why?
We cater to families and the military. We are 15-20 minutes to both SeaWorld and Lackland AFB and 25 minutes to Fort Sam Houston Base. Many familes see renting our homes as a huge savings on vacations. They make breakfast and dinner at the house, so they have only 1 meal to purchase or bring with while they are siteseeing or at SeaWorld. It's usually extended familes or 2 families, so they save a lot on what hotel rooms for 10-12 people would run them in addition to all the meals out in restuarants. It also makes it easier to afford more than just one family vacation all summer. The BMT (Basic Military Training) graduates families that come down for the graduations can bring their son or daughter back to the house for home cooked meals and relaxing for the first time in 7-8 weeks. If they stayed in a hotel, this would not be possible. We provide a valuable service over the hotels for our guests, but in a shared environment some of the hosting issues they have is that guests consider them hotels and that causes many hosts issues. They are not hotels, they are not maids and many new guests to the AirBnB shared spaces expect this.
Another thing to note in your report is that AirBnB's review rating system is not fair to hosts. The review system is just like Uber's a 5 * review is required, with 4 * or less AirBnB are sends warnings to the hosts that they may be delisted for poor preformance and not achieving AirBnB's high standards. The overall is the key to a SuperHosts status. The new review process is:
5 * Much better than expected
4 * A bit better than expected
3 * As expected.
So if your listing is accurate and you described it all correctly you get a 4 * or 3 * you can be delsited or suspended for it, not to mention lose your SuperHost status. So this is something from a hosts point of view you should also be aware of. Hope this helps some. Maybe a shared enviornment host will give you that side of things. Good luck on your report.
