Hosting Tip : Simulate Being a Guest

[Kurt-and-Kim0]

Hi Fellow Hosts,

Just a quick tip that may save you some time and get your placed booked more often.

First a little background...

We've been Super Hosts for many, many consequently months now and have enjoyed everything about our experience, save one bad rental very early on, but that's another story. After about a year with AirBNB and signing up for Instabook, I noticed our booking and inquiries stopped. I figured it could be season but then on a whim logged out of my account and searched AirBNB for listings in our (small) town. Odd, our listing wasn't showing up - like at all. Zero views of our property in any search results. I called AirBNB and sure enough they duplicated the issue. Yes, there was a technical problem with something being not set correctly (on their end). They "reset" my listing and our listind re-appeared. All good...until.

Two days ago a friend of ours called us and said she was trying to book our home for this upcoming summer and she couldn't pick any dates. Odd, we book 12 months out and hadn't made any changes to our listing's calendar. We even had a Summer booking already. Low and behold, yet another technical problem, somehow our listing was only available for check-ins starting on Sundays. Called AirBNB support and they were able to fix the issue quickly. Since this was fixed 2 days ago we've had 3 inquires for this summer - it would have been zero if our friend didn't contact us.

Lesson learned from both of these technical issues? Periodically, open tab in your browser in Incognito Mode, log out, use a separate browser that you aren't logged in to, or search from work and try to locate your property doing a search and then inquire on your own property (stop before submitting actual inquiry, of course). Simulate being a prospective customer. Can you find your property? Where in the results does it show up and why? Check with various filters set on and off: Instabook, SuperHost, # of nights, etc. 

Happy Hosting,

Kurt

[Linda108]

Great idea, .  Technical difficulties can happen with any system.  When I was a manager I always used the mantra:  Inspect what you expect 

[Emiel1]

@Kurt-and-Kim0,

It's also usefull when having complicating calender settings (like rulesets), to check if everything works as expected,, including the prices calculated.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Susan151]

I do an incognito search at least every two days, plus, as @Emiel1 suggests, anytime I create a New Reservation Rule, I check it by doing my own search. The Reservation Rules sometimes create the oddest results.

[Cathie19]

Already happening @Kurt-and-Kim0! 

Like @Susan151, I do regular checks on my listing, all the time. As it’s low season for me, I currently do this at least weekly. I regularly check my settings like @Emiel1 & have a belief that if I want things to be running smoothly, then I need to be the one core person who governs them. I filter and play with the system to see what is the best fit and options for the listing.

If you want to stay one step ahead of anything: anticipate and be proactive. You need to monitor, review and make changes for improvement. (Even if you have great helpers or cohosts). The buck stops with us, for we are the ones wanting the business, and the review is against us...

Without being cynical, things can go wrong when we habitualise our reliance on others, as well as technology in business. Don’t treat it as a chore or burden, just add it into your monitoring.

Off-topic  eg: Just like when raising your teenagers with their plans and habits.... you have to anticipate and don’t have routines and times that are set in stone. Your departure and arrival home times! Sometimes later, often earlier. Keeps them guessing......  LOL. 

Be positive, creative, unpredictable and proactive. 🌴 Have some fun!