Tips for long-term hosting

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

A few months ago our fellow community member Theresa (Florian and Theresa), who hosts in Germany, created a fantastic guide in the German Community Center sharing her 10 top tips for making long-term hosting successful.

Her tips range from platform settings to house rules and include advice around cleaning, plus her best scenario for long-term bookings. To quote Teresa’s words ‘You will get on so well with your guests, there won't be any closed doors in your accommodation’. 🙂

A blog article including all of Theresa's tips can be read here: Long-term stays

In the meantime, what about you? Do you offer long-term hosting? Do you prepare yourself any differently to when you host short-term guests and have you any other tips?

I can't wait to hear your tips and experiences.

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Matthew112]

Hi everyone! I have two bungalows I rent out as vacation rentals and both are on the same complex. I love long term rentals and with me being in southern Arizona I get snowbirds every year requesting stays. So far, 4 months has been the longest I have had a long term guest. He was a wonderful guest to have while visiting from Chicago and wanted to escape the winter there. He also was an elderly person at 80 years of age. He travels with his dog and stayed in our Pet Friendly bungalow paying an additional up charge fee for having the pet. So I would like to share with you all things I have learned having such a long term guest with a pet.

Housekeeping services for long term guest are not free other than having me coming in as often as you would like to change out the bedding and towels. So I offer my guests two choices. 1. You are welcome to do the housekeeping yourself and I will provide you with all the equipment and cleaning agents you need. Just let us know when. 2. We will come in and do the housekeeping on your request which includes top to bottom cleaning for a $35 fee which is due when you checkout at the end of your stay. Again, for fresh towels and bedding I don't charge for this. But for dusting, vacuuming, catching up on your dishes, cleaning out the refrigerator, cleaning the oven/stove, trash, mopping and so on.... I will charge. Also note; when a guest makes a reservation, I also charge a standard cleaning fee of $35 and this is not to be confused with any additional cleaning charges throughout the stay. That fee is the final cleaning fee of any guests who stays here. Too my surprise, most guest take me up on the extra housekeeping services because I have found they generally have a housekeeper at home and are use to it. 

I also leave available cleaning agents in each of my bungalows should during their stay a counter top needs cleaning off. Something gets spilled on the floor or whatever. But when we come in as housekeepers we also bring our own agents for cleaning.

I just started accepting corporate bookings and again, these services are offered and my corporate guests love this option too. Especially since the company they work for is paying for it. 

For pets who are also staying: I have pet clean up products available for "accidents" such as pet urine remover, old cleaning rags and leave those available in the bungalow and I also charge an additonal one time charge pet cleaning fee due at checkout. So far, it is working great. Another tip regarding pets. For any guest who is going to be a long term visitor (21 days or longer.) I require them to have a pet rider insurance policy which any insurance company they use can set them up on and it is very affordable on their end. Otherwise, you cannot bring your pet with you while staying here. Any person(s) who travel a lot with pets knows of this rider policy and generally already happens to have one. I ask for a copy of the policy to insure it is still valid and I know the source of the insurance company behind it should I ever have to file a claim for pet damage above $50. So far, I have never had to file a claim. But it brings me peace of mind. I also have restrictions on size and breeds of pets. So insurance companies will not insure certain breeds I have learned. I follow their recommendations regarding that. But for the record I allow up to two medium to small size breeds not to exceed 65 pounds combined. No cats are permitted. 

[Patzi0]

my husband is a veterinarian and we allow pets as we live and rent above the practice. We have been getting such a hard time lately thanks for the amazing tip on the insurance rider

[Alan-and-Susan0]

At that price ($35 for a bungalow apartment), you must be doing the cleaning yourself. In Chicago, a housecleaning service charges $80 minimum for a two bedroom apartment, which they refer to as "light" cleaning. Deep cleaning including: oven, refrigerator, laundry mopping hardwood floors, etc. is  $140 - $160. I charge $80 cleaning fee and hope to break even in the long run.  I do the cleaning myself for a weekend single guest, but hire a service, ($100+), when a long term and/or family leaves.

[Patzi0]

I definitely do things a bit different for long term guest as they always end up becoming part of the family.

I set out  a nicer bottle of wine and a fruit and cheese plate for them for when they arrive everyone loves it.

Then that first week as they are settle in I ib=nvite them over to have dinner with me and my husband.

Seems to set the tone for a family like experience and so far its worked out rather well. Patzi Nilsson East Aurora, NY

[Matthew112]

We love to play tour guide to our guests. We know all the off beaten paths to really wow our guests. Places no tourist would ever know about unless you lived here full time. Our guests just walk away going...... OMG! Incredible. We love turning these excursions into day trips with several stops along the way and we often treat our guests to lunch while on the outing. 

[Christine1]

Today, I saw 3 young out-of-towners in a huddle around a phone, as I was returning home. My guess; = Airbnb guests.

In the past any guests in my area were stay with me as I was an early adopter, but nowadays, there are other Airbnb venues which help service the demand. So that's good for travellers.

Anyway, we had short chat as they admired the dog, and I checked on where they were trying to go. Invited them in, while I dropped off my bags, mini tour of my home, then drove them to their accommodation, and picked them up later to take them on a mini tour through our section of the Blue Mountains National Park, followed by depositing them at the local Thai restaurant for dinner. My deed for the day.

I love being an Airbnb host, it's much more fun than lots of other things I could be doing, even if I did borrow someone else's guests!

I make myself laugh.

Best wishes to all.

[Helga0]

Lol, @Christine1, that's the most intense brand conviction I ever heard off: treats for other host's guests 😉

is the red bird on your veranda a parrot? A wild one?

[Christine1]

Yes, it's a wild bird. 

I had a rare night with no bookings, so....  Airbnb is fun.

[Tony-and-Liza0]

@Christine1, What a great story...borrowed someone's guests; you make me laugh too 🙂

[Martina143]

Hi there,

I actually need some advice. I am new to hosting and have received a request for a 3 month stay for our entire apartment (we live abroad). I checked out the guest profile but there wasn't any info there besides that he had a few verifications. I asked him about previous reviews and he said that he hasn't stayed anywhere before so this will be his first and therefore has no reviews (although he has been an Airbnb member since Feb 2015?). Am I just paranoid or are my reservations about accepting his request justified? Any advice on the matter owuld be helpful.

[Christine1]

Hi @Martina143, your reservations are justified.

For a situation like this you would be safer to accept a booking from an established guest with a track record and full verifications.

You are at particular risk if you are letting in a situation where the potential guest is aware that you will not be at the premises, and in fact that you will be away travelling.

All these things are risk factors and if you read reports and follow host forums you will see that it is exactly this combination of factors which provides an opportunity for things to go wrong.

You would need to have further information about the bona fides of this guest before proceding to a booking in order to reduce the risks to your situation.

Never be afraid to seek and gain the information you need to be certain, and never let the lure of a big booking seduce you into overcoming security screening and risk management.

Regards, Christine.

[Christine1]

Also @Martina143, it is not unusual for people to organise an Airbnb membership in a moment of enthusiasm, but then find they don't get to travel. So that could be the reason for no reviews.

Verifications such as social media profiles, emails and phone numbers are only useful as a backup to a gov issued id, such as Drivers licence, passports, etc. On their own they are of less or no value, since they are so easily set up and closed down.

Ask your potential guests to explain the reason for their travel and what activities they will be involved in. Is it work related and if so what association or event are they attending? Ask the guest to give you some information that you can cross check in order to confirm their bona fides. For a long stay of this nature, a guest should have no problem with providing ID to Airbnb or yourself. If this is not forthcoming, then refuse the request.

Start yourself off with guests who have prepared their profiles and established a clear ID. They are serious about cooperating with their hosts and providing up front reassurances about their identity. Over time you will develop strategies for communicating with enquirers to ensure their is a good match betweenguests and accommodation.

Regards, Christine.

[Martina143]

@Christine1Thank you for your insight, you've given me a lot to think about. The guest has 5 verifications on his profile including his ID but I cannot view any of it. He tried to send me a link to his Facebook and Linkdin account but Airbnb blocks this out so I can't access it. This is how it shows up on our conversation: My (SENSITIVE CONTENTS HIDDEN) profile: (URL HIDDEN) My linkedin profile: (URL HIDDEN). How can I access the links so that I can have a better idea of the guest as there is no info on his profile? TIA

[Christine1]

As a long term host I am familiar with the url situation you describe. As guests try to communicate this way

Both parties need to stop sending links to one another and simply write things such as "my name is joe blogs and I work at the permaculture institute, I will be working at the office in red square for 3 months in 2017. my team is contracted to do a job for mary smith revegetating the waterways. My manager is Robin Hood.

'None of this normal typing is blocked and you can look up things via social media, by simply using the phrase social media. But beware, all a social media account might give you is some idea of character, connections and interests, but this may not be valid or impact on their guest conduct. people who look way out there on the fringe may be excellent guests and visa versa.

Some of my best and most favourite guests were very young students who travelled as a groupd to a DEFCON, heavy metal style concert. I had to overcome my concerns about having heavy metal guests to allow them to book, and their visit resulted in some delightful memories and no regrets.

Don't muck around being overly creative with the booking tools, play by the rules and leave it at that. Once you start getting too creative and break site listing rules, you will find your guests asking for more creativity and accommodations than you are comfortable with.

If you are less experienced proceed with caution.

Regards, Christine.

[Judalon0]

Personally I am grateful Airbnb blocks outside contact until the booking is confirmed because in my 5 years hosting every situation where someone wants to sidestep Airbnb it is nothing but trouble. Mostly they say they want to come "LOOK" at the place before booking.... I want to say 'you're not buying the house', instead I explain that due to ABB blocking personal contact info I wouldn't begin to know how to get the address to them, but also I do not impose on my guests privacy so would only be able to allow them to see it between bookings, but I have very little down-time... or they really want to negotiate lower pricing and cutting ABB out, again not good for hosts to give up the protection of ABB. My experience has been the best guests follow the site rules and the worst guests are a lot of back and forth questions and demands.