What's not clear about this description?

[Cari3]

This is how I describe this listing:  "Our tiny hand-sculpted earth cottage is 7miles from the Portland airport, a 5-minute walk to a strip mall and restaurants. You’ll love this strictly 1-PERSON SPACE because of its rustic charm, quaint, quirky and artistic nature, and the garden. It was built with love, song and dance. It's only for solo travelers..."

So why oh why oh why have I had 5/5 of the last bookings/inquiries become about whether it can have 2 guests?  Isnt' it pretty obvious this is for 1-person only?

2 weeks ago had a guest book and inform me she was bringing her 2-year old son.  In addition to being a 1-person space only, our house rules are 'no infants' and 'no children' as we have an unprotected pond.

I also had one guest book a 5 day stay, and when I asked her the day before she was due to arrive is she had an arrival time, she answered me and then a few minutes later sent another note advising me that although she'd booked for 1 guest (the only way she can book) there would be two of them arriving.  When I informed her it's for a single space, she then tried to get airbnb to change it.  They called me because she wanted a refund and the airbnb support person said (quite clearly not having read our exchanges) that she'd tried to change it to 2 but as she wasn't able to the guest wanted a full refund.  

Is it too much to ask guests to even read a listing description?

[Helen427]

@Cari3 

It's obvious that you have a delightful property that they must deem to be "cosy" that they want to stay at your home. 

Maybe when Guests make an enquiry wanting to have 2 instead of one stay, you could  encourage them to take up the offer of one of your others equally as cool places on your property that does accomodate 2 people as they will have just as much as a great experience.

Wow about your tulips - I had a look at your listing, what colours / species of them do you have?

Is there a special reason why you have so many?
Are they also planted in a creative/ artistic manner as your artworks?

Maybe you could include a part of your fabulous solo traveler review comments 

under your photos so it helps to get the msg across.

All the Best

Central To All Home & Location, Auckland, New Zealand

[Cari3]

Well thank you Kiwi Helen for all your kind comments.  My listings are almost always full....but I hadn't thought of checking to see if any of my 2 space places are available (duh!) ....what a nice simple solution.  Thank you.  I plant so that my garden has 'waves' - by which I mean that I'll have a wave of daffodils and just as they're dying off, the tulips will start to bloom, then the azaleas and then the rhodedrons etc....as for why I have so many tulips - I planted a whole bunch and every year they multiply and as I'm a lazy gardener I just let them be and they stop the weeds from getting into my veggie gardens.  I really don't know much what species they are but some of them are giant and others are smaller and I have striped ones  and plain ones. 

[Leslie7]

Cari,you are definitely not alone with potential guests who do NOT read the listing. I just received a negative review with three stars (only my second one in four three years), and every single thing that she complained about was in the listing description. In addition to that I always message guests before I accept their reservations making sure that they read the listing and looked at the pictures carefully. I repeat in my message the fact that our cottage is a funky fixer-upper, and to confirm that they're aware of what to expect. Every once in a while someone will retract their request after receiving my message, which makes me know that they hadn't read the listing carefully, and I am so grateful that they didn't end up staying with us. Most of the time they say they're great with the rustic, basic accomodations we offer. But it is so frustrating when we do everything possible to let people know that we have a funky, older, tiny cottage with its own quirks, and then they leave a reveiw complaining about the fact that it's a funky, older, tiny cottage with its own quirks.

[Cari3]

If I had a wish it was that airbnb would give superhosts the benefit of the doubt anc retract poor reviews (only for superhosts) IF we can prove that what they complained about was actually described in our listing.  

[Rachel177]

@Cari3 your listings are so gorgeous! 

It's clear in the listing that the cottage is only for one person, sadly some people don't read that far. Or they're trying their luck & hoping you'll allow them to bring an additional person. Maybe you could change the listing title to Poseys Pozzi - Cob Garden Cottage perfect for solo travellers (or something similar, I know there is a character limit on titles). That may reduce the inquiries of people asking to add someone to the booking.

[Cari3]

Hi Rachel - sadly it won’t fit.  But what you said triggered another potential plan..... You know how airbnb allows you to add a cost for an extra person?  I think I’m going to add a $500 charge for an extra person. Ha!  That should put an end to this because if they one to sleep 2 people in a single bed and lie on top of each other and pay $500 extra, well good luck to them.  I’m also going to suggest to airbnb that in this section where we add this option they give us an actual box to check that says:  “NO EXTRA GUESTS ALLOWED”

[Suzanne302]

@Cari3  Maybe put "Solo Travelers Only" in the actual title?? I bet you'd still get people wanting to book for two! LOL!

People just don't read. I have in ALL CAPS in multiple places in my listing (including in the very top part of the description) that guests bringing a dog must get pre-approval and pay a $25 pet fee. One guy got mad because when I sent the request for the pet fee he thought I was trying to scam him by not disclosing the pet fee up front. He quickly paid once he realized he just didn't read.

After multiple messages and confirming a reservation from another guest I get, "I'm bringing dogs, fyi." What the heck? Thanks dude.

[Rachel177]

@Suzanne302 people definitely do not read. I've had a few guests turn up who are totally surprised that they're sharing the apartment with me! It's pretty clear from my listing title that it's a room, not a whole apartment.

[Cari3]

Rachel....I just had to laugh when I read this.  I had 4 airbnb’s....one of them is half of our house which we just partition off when we have guests.   They have their own entrance, bathroom, bedroom and sitting room.  Again, all clearly described including:  “ You will hear us and we will hear you.”  And included in the house rules we have :  “Quiet time between 10.30pm and 6.30 am” including a sign in the lounge repeating this which they can’t miss.  But the number of guests I’ve had to text at 3am to remind them that we’re trying to sleep tells me they don’t read listing descriptions, nor the house rules (there are 3 of them) nor even a notice!   So there you have it!

[Cari3]

Suzanne It really is about a lack of reading.  I had an inquiry from one guy and pointed out to him that it was a booking for 1 person only but he was talking about ‘we’.  Then he said well he really wanted to stay there and would maybe come without his wife and then join us with her later.  So I said in that case I would go ahead and approve the booking.  He replied saying something that again made me think he was still bringing his wife.  I once again went back to him and asked for clarification pointing out this was a 1-person space only which he never answered.  The day before he was about to arrive I asked him about his arrival time and he again answered saying he would be picking up his wife at the airport and then heading over because they were looking forward to his earthship experience.  Now an earthship is something totally different to a cob cottage, I’ve never had one, never advertised one and the picture of our cottage certainly  looks nothing like an earthship.  I pointed that out to him again and copied all the relevant parts of our conversation showing him the multiple times I’d mentioned this was a 1-person space only.  What the heck, go figure, thanks dude as you’d say.

[Marina910]

Hi, we have the same issue with people wanting us to accommodate children.. our description states clearly, our studio Shed is suitable for 2 adults only..no smokers, visitors or parties. Airbnb have inserted a request for customers to ask about accommodating children. I have failed to change this. We are also in a rural area... in order to off set down town expectations, on saying that there is a pub and restaurant only a mile away... one person complained about the isolation although we clearly provide information on local village and towns..  beggars belief, which bit of rural do they not get... lol. 

[Cari3]

I find it’s often people who want to stay cheap.  So they book ‘rural,’ ‘rustic’ etc.... because it’s so much cheaper and then complain about the very thing that made the listing cheaper than others they could have chosen.

[Marina910]

Hi, I’ve had three 4**** reviews for location, it sickens me that people can do this, it is very clear in both our map and description... They choose us to book, we’ve accepted them on the basis that they know what they are doing... 

[Cari3]

Marina....we have this as well.  We live over the river from Portland OR (7 miles) which is a very hot destination.  If my listings were in Portland they would probably fetch double the price.  I describe the problems with congested traffic into Portland....yet I regularly get a low rating for location because it’s not as convenient to Portland.