Booking a private room and expecting the entire home

[Janet419]

I am getting a number of guests who check in and get shocked that the house is shared with the host even though the listing is for a private room. This leads to a number of cancellations and inconvenience to both ourselves and the guests. Is there a way of notifying guests that the booking is for a private room and not entire house to avoid this? Can airbnb clearly highlight this to guests during their booking process?

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

You just need to repeat your first line about sharing with the three of you in different parts of listing. First thing in House Rules,  neighborhood  description..again, in directions too. You can say someting along these lines: "A fiendly reminder: You share the place with the three of us: My husband and I and our baby"

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

I am curious: what are people saying when they arrive? This must be stressful.

[Sandra126]

It needs to be in the booking message: ''To make sure you have understood the listing: etc''. That way there are no surprises. Guests do NOT read listings (sometimes). They need to reply to you that they HAVE understood.

It doesn't matter what you write in the listing, they will not read/understand.

[Letti0]

@Janet419  I agree with @Sandra126  After the booking is confirm or in the inital request to book you need to ask them to confirm that they are aware this is not an entire house, but a private room in a shared home. They don't respond you can have AirBnB contact them to verify they understand this and are either okay with or to have them them cancel if this was not what they expected. 

[Mel101]

Hi Janet, 

I still can't tag people here.

I also rent a room in my home. I have only had one guest want the whole space, but they were aware that we live here, and sent an enquiry asking if they could just have the entire space anyway. I was uninterested in moving out, as you can imagine. 

Anyway, I think I avoid confusion by being clear that we live in the home in several places. 

First of all, the title of my listing is Private Room in the "village inside the city", just to reiterate it's not the whole house. 

I've captioned the rooms that will be shared as such in the photos.

Under the section called 'the space' I lead with mentioning that the guest can enjoy a private room in our home. 

Under the section 'Guest Acess' I reiterate which spaces we share, and how often we use them in the 'Guest Interaction' section.

My house rules also mention we're in the home, and that we get up to go to work on weekdays, but will be quiet in the mornings and expect the same from guests if they come home late. 

Finally, I always begin the first introduction with the phrase "Fred and I look forward to welcoming you to our home"

It might be a bit of overkill, but we all know how often people need to see something before it sinks in. You might want to consider mentioning a few more times which spaces in your home you can expect to be seen in. 

Good luck,

Mel

[Letti0]

@Mel101 if you are on a computer/laptop with a keyboard make sure mouse if off the area of the list of people and you can use the up down arrows to tag people, on the phone app forget it ;D

[Mel101]

Sadly, I'm on the app. Tagging works if no one has looked at it a bit funny...