Sharing: One year anniversary of running Airbnb

[Huaai0]

Hello friends,

Time is going so fast and I have been running Airbnb for exactly one year now this month. 

I do not call myself a newbie anymore, and have been able to offer newbies tips and experiences.

Here are my new thoughts--

1) Do not romantisize Airbnb hosting. The more you host, the more problems will arise. Just because you have not run into a guest who does not turn off the stove after cooking doesn't mean you will never have the issue. Wait and see, and listen to your fellow hosts' stories.

2) If you have a secure, stable and dynamic source of income, better forget about Airbnb. Living a peaceful and worry-free life to yourself is more important than ruining the life of you and your family. If you still decide to continue like myself, you should be very specific in your listing description just so you won't let anyone into your house. 

3) Some people condemn racial profiling. I don't think racial or especially cultural profiling is totally without merit, but still, I don't think you should let racial or cultural sterotypes affect your personal desicions. That being said, I do not block guests from any specific country or cultural/ethnic background, but I'm aware of what I normally should expect of the guest based on the statistics that I have gained through hosting. 

4) Don't over trust a guest's previous reviews. Check their star ratings and read between the lines. Those reviews are all generic and positive, and I find the star ratings more accurate. I find that if a guest has had three reviews, all wonderful, but his star ratings are far from perfect. This means that hosts do not want to say bad words but deep in their hearts they do not think so highly of this guest!

5) News coverage about Airbnb on the Internet is mostly negative. Indeed, bad news is news, but there is way too much bad news. Recently an elderly couple running Airbnb in Van was murdered. Even though they were not murdered by their guest, people are associating the homocide with their Airbnb business, and some friends even ask me to be more careful! I think Airbnb should take measures to protect more of the hosts and should stop pushing hosts to lower their prices to get more business! Everytime I see that "lower your price to $20 then you get 10% more bookings," I just feel irritated! No **bleep**ing way, we are not money-driven animals! We know that cheap prices attract cheap guests and it is not good! 

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Huaai0:
We have just entered our third year of hosting and have had wonderful success with it both in terms of the number of great people we have met from all over the world and the financial rewards. Our three homes stay about 90%+ booked.

We have hosted over 1,000 people and I will be the first to tell you that not every guest is perfect. I have written reviews warning other hosts about a few guests. However, 99% of our guests are cordial, polite and appreciate what we offer.

Home sharing is a viable and fun way to earn extra income and meet wonderful prople, but it is not for everybody. Some people don't have the characteristics that comprise a great host. However our guests deserve to have as a great a host as the host expects to have as guests. If we as hosts cannot do that then it may be time to find something else to do.

I could be reading your post wrong, but is sounds like you are becoming frustrated. Perhaps you should celebrate your year by taking a trip yourself. Take some time off. Meet some fellow hosts and come back with a fresh perspective. And if this business is not for you, that's OK too.

[Huaai0]

@Tim-and-Holly0

Wow, you have hosted about 1,000 people and 99% are wonderful guests. So that should be 990 great guests and only 10 could be better. 

That's just amazing. I guess I'm not as lucky as you  are. I would say maybe 75% of my guests are good ones, and the other 25% could be better. 

Compared to those who have had guests who voilated house rules to the extent that they escalated the case to Airbnb and even police intervention, then I guess I'm lucky. 

I'm not sure what kind of guest body you have, but mine is very diverse and I host many guests who are unfamilar with many features in my house that are considered very common. Many of them are willing to learn, but some just ignore your instruction. I'm not home all the time, and so it is extremely important for guests to remember to lock the house door when leaving or entering the house. However, I recently hosted a guest who didn't lock the door at least 6 times (I was 100% sure of two times because for these two times he was the only one in my house and it couldn't have been anyone else), no matter how many messages I sent to him, and how many signs I put around the house. I became totally frustrated when I saw that he made the same mistake again and again after promising me that "it won't happen again." This led me to installing one keypad lock and one smart lock. When I tapped my credit card for the purchase and service, I just couldn't stop thinking when I would have spent enough on running this business. 

[Rene-and-Zac0]

@Huaai0 congratulations! Ive been hosting since April 2017. I think of my listing as a never ending project. I am dedicated to continually improving my listing. I’ve hosted over 50 groups since April 2017 and every single dime I earned I put righ5 back into the business. I’ve only had three guests act like an idiot. One left a review and the other two got charged for damage in the property. It really is a crazy journey. I never thought it would be this successful. In the beginning, I just hoped for a few visitors to help offset the cost of the second home. It has proven to be a winner and 2018 is solid through April already. I’m still trying to figure out how some host have it so easy and run their listings smooth as silk. Anyway, I’ve replaced all of the big ticket items in the house in 2017, so I’m really looking forward to ‘stacking some paper’ in 2018. ‘You know it’s hard out here for a host’ 

[Fred13]

@Huaai0You are in a whole different reality than say @Tim-and-Holly0. For starters, at your price point you are indeed drawing guests from a potentially 'rougher' lot, and consequently they have somewhat made you weary after a relatively short time. Unlike the oceans, human behavior is not flat.