Rookie mistakes and lucky flukes.

[Kevin1322]

Our rookie mistakes:

1. Not fine tuning the automatically blocked time before/after a booking. Didn't see this option before our listing went live, only found it later. Then realised we had virtually every day available fully booked throgh september, but left wonfering if we could have filled up the blocked dates. I bet we could have. 😞

2. Going to the store and buying  extra smoke detectors only to find out that Airbnb would have happily sent us one free. In fact a far better model with carbon monoxide detector (which we availed ourselves of as an upgrade to the existing ones I'd bought, thanks ABB!)

3. Underestimated the "hanging about" time wondering when or if the guests would arrive.

All of the above, of course, come under the category of "should have read/researched more".

Lucky flukes:

1. Set 20% off for the first three guests to get us going as suggested by ABB, and upped the price to still get what we wanted.

2. Managed to move our location pin to the proper place early in the game.

3. Didn't have space in the guest room for a wardrobe so put up a hanging rail, coincidentally above a moveable  small oil radiator.  Instant drying space for our hikers and bikers!

I'm sure there are lot of other mistakes we made (are still making). It's nice to share...….. any tips or gaffs of your own?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Our rookie mistakes:

1- didn't adjust the price for New year evening and got booking already in August for a regular price. Funny thing is they rated us 4* for value 😄 😄

2- it took us 2 years of hosting to adjust December weekend price 😄 it could hardly be named a rooky mistake, it is just plain stupid haha

3- didn't set a cleaning fee and extra guests fee before hitting the "publish" button and got a booking within minutes.

[Mike1034]

@Kevin1322  Great topic! Lately there are hosts who had to cancel guests booking due to several rookie mistakes. Some of the mistakes indeed are due to the default setting which Airbnb has or advocates

Top 10 rookie mistakes in the list according to my experience and posts I have read in the forum

1.  Most of them are related to pricing settings.

(1) Set Smart pricing on without set the minimum

(2) Accidentally click the price tip and used it without knowing

(3) Weekend and holiday price are not set up promptly

(4) Future dates are not properly blocked and guests book them low

(5) Took weekly and monthly discount from Airbnb suggestion which is over 25% at least

2. Canceled the bookings without knowing the penalty involved,

3. No house rules are set up except for the ones provided default by Airbnb

4. No security camera disclosure.

This is indeed very popular. Many hosts don't know it even if they have been hosts for years

5. Default to Instant Booking before they have seen bad guests and realized that it is more suitable for more experienced hosts. And there are hosts who are strongly against it.

6. Do not know Airbnb rating system well and think that overall star rating is an average of all sub categories

7. Misconception about a guest's review will not be shown if a host does not leave a review

8. Misconception about the host guarantee program to be an insurance for hosts.

9. Misconception about providing breakfast a must

10. Misconception about the Superhost evaluation and usefulness

[Sarah977]

@Kevin1322  You were probably wise to buy the smoke detectors- I've read posts here where hosts were still waiting for them to arrive 4 months after they'd been ordered 🙂

And to Mike's general list, I'd add setting up a listing and going live with it without having read through anything in the Help section of the site for hosts, without having set up a payment method or knowing how they'll get paid, or much of anything else.

[Susan1404]

@Sarah977  It took so long to get my smoke detector,  that when the package finally came and I opened it, I had to think for a minute because I just knew I hadn't ordered a smoke detector.  Not sure exactly how many months it took, but it was quite awhile.

[Sarah977]

@Susan1404  I can just imagine how long I'd have to wait for them to ship one to me in Mexico. I'd probably be 95 years old, years past hosting, and one of my great-great grandchildren would come excitedly running in with a package for me that just got delivered 🙂

[Beth80]

@Sarah977 @Susan1404 . Mine took almost 6 month to reach me here in the edge of Brazil. But I wasn't paying for a carbon monoxide detector when I don't really need it.

[Kevin1322]

@Sarah997  ours was here in a few days. I can only guess that being "late to the party" the fulfilment company wasn't too busy.

[Susan1404]

@Kevin1322my best rookie moment came when I first signed up.  I thought it would be at least a couple of weeks before I even had the first booking.  Got up the next day and thankfully had a question so I logged in.  There were 4 bookings overnight!  I promptly went into panic mode because I had much to do to feel comfortable hosting!

[Βασίλης-and-Ann0]

@Kevin1322  Hi. and @Sarah977  @Susan1404  @Mike1034  @Branka-and-Silvia0 

Well, where to start?  Although this is more of a gaffe, I suppose.

We were welcoming a lovely family of guests, our second, to our property when one of our garden cats sauntered up for a fuss.

On being asked her name, Vassilis answered " Oh, Lemon, because she's always slow to the party." There was a rather long silence and a slight change in atmosphere. The father of the group said "That's my daughter's name"  Vassilis backpedaled furiously with some tale of her having a bad leg that's why she was slow. All was soon forgiven and forgotten and in the end we received a 5* review.   Phew!

From then onwards , we've come to  quickly learn the vital and  oh so subtle art of diplomacy , ( she's now called "cat" )  named after that patron saint of hospitality givers , Basil Fawlty of "Fawlty Towers" fame.

So , please forgive me for being a bit of a lemon ( no offense to all you lemons out there) as I'm also nearly always late to the party, including this one.

[Sarah977]

@Βασίλης-and-Ann0  This isn't an Airbnb story, but your "gaffe" reminded me of another major gaffe story. My ex used to work as a chimney sweep and would do the work with his boss. His boss fancied himself quite charming and would always make conversation with the clients. One day they were at a house and the boss said to the female client  "Oh ho ho, I see you're about to have a new family member- when's the due date?" The client gave him a withering look and said "I'm not pregnant."