Whole house or rooms within a house

Colleen14
Level 2
Durban, ZA

Whole house or rooms within a house

Clients are complaining that I am advertising my house as the entire house but I mainly rent out rooms as the guest house is run on a bed and breakfast basis. However if it is empty, I am happy for someone to have the entire house is they want.

14 Replies 14
Svenja1
Level 2
Chêne-Bougeries, Switzerland

Can you tell me what your actual question is?

When I search for Airbnb rooms/appartments/houses I would expect that the description clearly states what accomodation I am renting - shared room, entire house etc. Some guests don't like having other guests or the host around all the time as they want their privacy. So it should clearly say in the description what accomodation they are booking. Maybe you can add in the description that they can book the entire house if available and that they should make a special enquiry?

@Colleen14 if i want to rent one room from your ad, can I? 

 

I'm not sure but if i rent one room your ad will be closed for that dates, and you're loosing money if more guests want to come isnt?!

 

If you got 7 rooms, why not create 7 distinct ads?

Hi Nelson

Thank you for the enquiry.

I have run the guesthouse as a bed and breakfast for twenty years, and do not rely solely on Airbnb for my guests. When setting up my site it was very difficult to show that it is a house with three double rooms and one single room that can be rented out individually, or one can rent the whole house. Communicating with Airbnb is also not easy.

@Colleen14   Your listing is set up completely wrong. You need one listing per bedroom. You also no where in your description state that it is a shared environment. Technically If I rent for two or three people according to the way you are set up I get the whole house and AirBnB would back up on this. Your cancellation policy should be at least moderate and you need some rules. 

Gerry-And-Rashid0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

You are misleading people. You should create two listings. One for individual rooms and the other for the entire house. That way people know what they are booking.

Dear Gerry and Rashid

Sorry, I am old school, barely cope with technology, so putting the guesthouse on Airbnb was quite a stretch and now you are asking me to create another listing! Will give it a bash.

Trevor243
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Colleen14You need 1 listing per bedroom and a separate listing if you want to rent out the entire house.

 

If you struggle to get multiple listings set up, see if you can find someone to help you with the set up. It's easy once you know.

Dear Trevor

Thank you for your advice, I have set up separate listings as you suggested.

Have a great day. 

Herman2
Level 2
Hacienda Heights, CA

I just had the same problem.  I have a five bedroom guest house and I am renting only 3 rooms with a 400sq. foot lounge area all clustered together,  although they also have access to kitchen and family room outside of these cluster of rooms.  I have a room mate that has a separate room with his own private bathroom.  Some guests assumes that they are renting the whole house and surprised when they checked in.  They never check if they are renting the whole house or rooms in a house, I have not rented a room thru Airbnb so I don't know what kind of search yields a whole house versus rooms in the house.  I think Airbnb should have a separate search for guest that wanted a whole house all for themselves and at the same time give them an option to check for price difference with sharing with somebody.  It took me a while to find the perfect room mate so I can have a bed and breakfast at the same time. 

Dale80
Level 2
Durban North, South Africa

Glad to see I am not the only one pondering this dilemma.  Colleen I to have a property in Durban and was also wondering how to go about letting out the whole place vs individual rooms.  If I am understanding the gist of this conversation,  it appears that one would need to do individual listings for the individual rooms.  Then sync all the calenders to avoid double bookings.  Anyone else agree or have input in this regard.

 

How has the worked for you with the synced calendars 

Joel832
Level 1
San Diego, CA

I want to rent 3 out of 5 bedrooms as one listing. I live in the master bedroom and I keep one bedroom for my guests like when my kids come to visit.  If I list it as an entire house since they are getting all three bedrooms with private bathrooms do they expect me not to have the master bedroom?  Or do I list it as a private room and say they actually get three bedrooms and the whole house and not share it with other guests just me in the master bedroom.  I don't know how to best list this situation.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

You can't list it as a whole house if you live on the premises and have access to shared facilities such as living room, kitchen etc. @Joel832 

 

If you are offering three separate bedrooms with bathroom, then you could list them as three separate listings and link them together.

 

If you only want to let them together list as one while listing.

Zaw17
Level 2
Scottsdale, AZ

I really do not get how people/host gets confused on private vs entire home concept! It's freaking clear.

Entire home means the guests will have entire home and the host or anyone will not be there in any part of the home. Or else, It's private.