Hey Lucie,
I think most hosts agree with you about Smart Pricing, but Instant Booking can be good, and if you get a key safe at the front of your property, with a combination, then your guests can access the key any time, and you don't need to do any physical hosting. I have never met any of my guests, and we still had a relationship by correspondence.
Now here's a good tip: You can register with Booking.com too, and sync your Airbnb calendar/diary with Booking.com and vice versa.
Booking.com charge 15% commission, but you can register 15% higher prices with their site, so that it cancels out, and gives you the opportunity to have those blank dates filled. Booking.com has a mandatory Instant Book, but any bookings will reflect on your Airbnb Calendar, so you don't have to worry. However, you MUST remember that when you set your price for 14 people, or your maximum number, then if the guest's group is 13 (or 1 less than your maximum), the price goes down by a substantial discount, or 12 or 11 etc (One less each time). So you MUST cancel that descending discount, or you'll be caught out as I was, and though I had 3 extra bookings almost immediately, the first one managed to use that silly discount thing to get a cheap booking. Oh, and make sure that your cleaning fee is automatically added to the Booking.com fee. You should phone Booking.com to arrange this, as the method is not that clear.
I'm not an actor, Lucie, but I am a jazz singer (Richard Marly) and I've sung in many countries in Asia, including the best jazz club that I've been to in my life, which was the Saxophone Pub in Monument Square, Bangkok, Thailand. Two, different world-class jazz bands EVERY night, SEVEN nights a week. And ALL Thai musicians! Totally mindblowing! Musical masters of jazz! Who'd 've thought it? If you think that you need to be American, English or European to have jazz in your soul, think again! I was also privileged to sing with The Big Band Theory, a big Filipino band, when I lived in Zhuhai, China. They were totally amazing, and their bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Floyd, was a miracle from Heaven! His flute and sax playing was out of this world!
My favourite song? Georgia On My Mind.
For those Americans amongst you all, here's a great patriotic songs that I wrote just for you guys: America!
I'm English, but the original music of the American National Anthem was written by an Englishman from Gloucestershire, England. Guess where I'm from, haha - Yes, the very same!
By the way, I'm looking for an investor in my property. You'll need $500,000 and my property's worth around $1.5 million.
Now I've proved it can earn $10,000 each month on average, I'm cutting off the plot to make another plot, and creating another property on it to rent out on Airbnb too. So it's a pretty interesting investment. The reason it's so successful, is that it's in the Georgian City of Bath, which is tourist popular every day of the year, and my house is right next door to the University of Bath, in a secret countryside setting. Of course, it has a great host too, lol, and a hot tub and games barn, big garden and loads of free parking, and the interior is big and bright and of a good quality. No dark hallways or corners, and no clutter with all-white bedding, and Super King Size Beds. 4pm Checkin and 10am Checkout.
So I can operate my business with just 30 minutes online every day, to handle the bookings, leaving me free to travel around the world! It's a hands-off business!
All the best to everyone,
Richard
Fieldgate
