When Size Really Matters...

[Huma0]

I find this a bit frustrating, but it's the second time now that I've been downrated for accuracy in terms of the size of my home.

The first time was with a guest from Texas. I guess the houses there are huge. She felt that it looked much smaller than the photos (although these are verified by Airbnb and what you see in the photos is what you get). She also complained that the five minute walk to the underground station was far too strenuous.

Now it's just happened again. A very lovely guest who left a five star review still mentioned in her private feedback that the listing was inaccurate in terms of the size of the property.

I'm guessing this is a cultural issue, but my place is 2.5 times the average UK house (more than that for the average London one) and almost everyone who comes here thinks it's really large! The house is on four floors and while the bedrooms vary in size, the smallest one is still a good sized double (double four poster bed, two double wardrobes, desk, chest of drawers, bookcase and enough room to wak around all of these). The largest one is actually very big and has a four metre high ceiling. There is plenty of communal space, including good sized kitchen, dining area, living room, a bathroom the size of most double bedrooms in London (in addition to another shower room), front garden, back garden, roof terrace, big hallway the size of most people's living rooms here...

Most guests don't end up even using the whole place. The guest from Texas who complained only used her bedroom and the bathroom and never even ventured into the other areas so I'm not sure why she felt short of space!

Should I remove the references to the size of the rooms/property? Or, should I just ignore the occasional review from a guest who was disappointed by the size?

This is the bedroom the guest who just complained stayed in. I've put in two photos because the photographer couldn't get the whole room in one shot.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Huma0 ah those Americans, who wouldn't love them :)))

You know that huge in Europe is not huge in USA, in America everything is huge... to huge for us 🙂 Just change your title to "beautifull" or something like that,  to avoid such reviews in the future. 

🙂

[Huaai0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0@Huma0@Hollie6

It's not a big deal to live in a large ranch style house in North America. The thing is where you wanna live?  There are not many interesting cities to live in USA. I would have a studio in Manhatton than a huge house with a huge garden and a huge back yard in Iowa.

[Farah1]

@Huma0 I understand your frustration. Another thing that airbnb user (especially guests) need to keep in mind that we are (at least I am as a traditional airbnb hosts) renting a private bedroom in our house which means that the size of the bedroom is a residential bedroom size and not a hotel standard. Learning from experience that some people have ridiculous expectation, I start putting the room size in the listing. This still not guarantee that people won't complain as some people do not bother to read the listing thoroughly.

I have never really received complain regarding my rooms being too small or the house being too small, I have similar issue that I cannot change and I already do the best I can with providing a thorough information on my listing: location

No matter what, I always get annoyed when people rate me less than 5 stars for location especially they NEVER elaborate their reason.

So, I can suggest that you put the size of the room in the listing (I put room/unit size for all of my listings). Hopefully this will help as it is factual.

I read that you write "very large" in the listing, but again, people's opinion/definition about 'very large' can vary. I used to write "short commute to downtown Seattle" for my listing (it is!), I recently updated to 7 miles from downtown Seattle = fact. On my wedding day, it was the first nice day in the Summer, it took me almost 45mins to downtown with Uber which normally 7 miles from the house take 15mins to downtown. So, yea, traffic might affect the travel time (I thought this is common sense, but apparently it's not). So, I changed all the "10 mins to X" and "20 mins to Y" to the distance based on google maps.

[Huma0]

@Farah1 both guests mentioned above also gave me four stars for location. Although it is very frustrating and I, like many hosts, believe the star rating for location should be scrapped, I'm a bit more used to getting the occasional four star for this and it's the only rating I've got a three star for.

Accuracy, on the other hand, is almost always five stars. I try my best to be as accurate as possible, so it really annoys me when people mark me down for this.

However, I guess the size thing is a subjective matter and maybe I need to lower expectations in that area.

The guest from Texas was one of those people looking to complain about whatever she could. Although she was only 22, she was not very fit. She described the 5 minute walk as 10 minutes, but I guess that's how long it took her. Still, that's not exactly a marathon is it?

The other guest was not a complainer, but really rather nice. She gave me five stars overall and in the other categories, but four for accuracy (specifically mentioning the size of the property as her reason) and location. She was from Egypt and lived with her parents. I can only imagine they have a very large house as I got the impression they were wealthy. When I asked her who was looking after her cat, she answered, 'my driver'. Personally I don't know why a single traveller would need a bedroom larger than the one she was in, but I guess it depends on what you're used to!

[Rosa-JH0]

What a beautiful home. 

[Huma0]

@Rosa-JH0 Thank you so much!

[Hollie6]

I just looked at your listing and I think your home is beautiful and very spacious and I'm from the USA. Not Texas though! The bigger the better is the motto! The only thing I didn't understand is, are the bathrooms shared with other guest? Also the very last picture of the stairs with the paint on them....I think that brings the rest of your beautiful home down. Maybe you can sand the paint off or re-paint the stairs to make a huge impact, otherwise really a beautiful home and I would think that most people understand that homes in Europe are for the most part much smaller than here in the USA. I have found Americans to be the most picky out of any of my guests! Europeans and Asians are always so grateful and suprised at how much space they do get! Rarely complain!

[Huma0]

@Hollie6 thanks for your nice comments. RE the bathrooms, the boxes re ticked to say shared bathrooms rather than private, so I'm not sure why that wouldn't be obvious on the listings. I very rarely have guests who are confused about that point, but I'll have another look in case it isn't clearly shown.

The stairs are a contentious point. Having them refinished is not such a simple thing. I have got some quotes but we are looking at upwards of £5,000. Builders and other tradespeople are not cheap in London and even if you have the money, it's not that easy to book the good ones. Seems they have two much work.

People either love or hate the stairs (even I like them some days and hat them others) but, actually, the majority seem to love the character of them, including the Airbnb photographers who came round. In fact, I've had magazines do photo shoots here and the 'vintage' feel of the stairs is something they were particularly attracted to.  See below:

You will even see articles in interiors magazines telling you how to achieve such a look! I guess it's all a matter of personal taste...

[Hollie6]

Oh my goodness! I didn't know that about the stairs and I would certainly leave it if that is the trend! I wouldn't take my opinion on the bathrooms to seriously either because I've actually never just rented a room and I just looked at your listing breifly and I thought it was really beautiful!

Cheers!

Hollie

[Huma0]

@Hollie6 no offence taken. The stairs really are a love/hate affair. People either say, "Your stairs are great!" or "What are you going to do about THOSE stairs?"!

Most guests understand about the bathrooms, but I do get the odd guest who messages assuming they'll get a private one, so maybe I do need to make it clearer.

I do appreciate your feedback and nice comments!

[Hollie6]

I went and read your desricption and I think you make it very clear. I have seen people list a caption under the picture which is what I was looking at, but not everyone will see that either and I think most people who rent only rooms understand that. So I think your good!

I do alot of remodeling and flipping of propertys and I do alot of rustic touches. I also have the same problem as you that its really hard to find workers and when you do there really expensive so I've learned to do alot myself. Just a suggestion is to go ahead and keep that rustic look but maybe tame down the big obvious paint spot and I think you could do this with just a little sand paper and kind of blend it in a little so it doesn't stick out so much and if it takes to much down you could add back a little stain for blending. Hope that makes sense!

Hollie

[Huma0]

@Hollie6 yes I will give it a go. I thought I would go at the stairs myself with a handheld electric sander but was worried about the dust/mess and was waiting for a window with no guests. Fortunately, I have a lot of bookings so guest free days don't seem to happen. I will test out a bit by sanding by hand and see if it is effective. Thanks for the suggestion.

The part of the stairs that bothers me the most are a few treds that were replaced rather clumsily by the previous owners. They used scaffolding boards and pieced them together very roughly. They do not even have the character or charm of the Victorian, paint splattered ones. I thought about doing a bit of decoupage on them, which I've seen done well  in magazines and on blogs etc. Do you have any experience with this? I'm a bit scared to do it as I've also seen it done badly and I don't want it to look tacky.

[Hollie6]

I think that looks fantastic and is a great idea! I've done decoupage but never on stairs. I say go for it when you get time!

Thats great your so booked! I have the same problem! :))

[Huma0]

Thanks @Hollie6, yes I've already bought a faded floral style paper and some hard wearing, non-yellowing varnish to protect them. It's just a matter of finding a window of opportunity where the noise and dust from the sanding won't disturb guests. I'll be sure to post the results when I eventually get around to doing it!