How to improve my low ratings?

[Christian3129]

Hello, my house is in the middle of the forest. Besides the garden I keep the house in good shape. It really is very okay. But also big and not very new anymore.

Last few years I upgraded all beds, bedrooms, extra shower, new painting of the walls, better heating facilities, new sofa, blankets to keep warm in winter. Extra wood per weekend. But what do you guess? Instead of higher ratings, i receive lower? I follow all the instructions AirBnB gives for bettering your ratings. But it does not help.

My reason: before I had groups of young guys coming for drinks and party. Now I have smaller groups of friends and families.

How do I deal with this change?

[Lorna170]

@Christian3129   I would start by changing the tone of your advertisement.  You make the house seem tired and in need of updating, so people react the same way and will say it is indeed tired and outdated.  Women (like me) are especially ready to criticize outdated homes with furnishings that came from the second-hand store.  Find better words to describe your property; I use Shabby Chic, Retro, 70s style, Time Warp, etc.  Play up the fact that they may feel like they are back in their youth.  If you are starting to attract families, talk about how the house is suitable for children to enjoy themselves indoors and outdoors.   The children's dorm is very attractive! Be positive in your advertising.  

Your guests have also commented about the cleaning -- perhaps you need to look at your space with new eyes and find out where the cleaning is not adequate.  A good friend with picky habits who has not seen the property may be able to help you with this.  Maybe too much furniture?

Update some of your pictures please.  I could not tell which beds I was looking at as each had the same covering.  Not everyone will look at the captions to know which bed they are looking at.  Make some easy changes.  Take a picture with the cover turned down, different pillow arrangements or add a tray with breakfast settings.  Update the picture of the kitchen if you have painted it black.

You also have a picture with all of the blinds in the room down.  Some might think you are trying to hide bad views, but you were probably trying to get a picture without sun glare.  

I hope you will understand my comments -- my cabin is from the 1930s and used to look like grandma had decorated. New curtains, bed coverings and leather furniture changed that feeling.  Happy renting!

[Christian3129]

thank you very much lorna that is very helpfull. I will follow your advise as a checklist and see how I can avance. Surely I will let you know 😉

[Gillian166]

agree with @Lorna170  except i'm not going to criticize quirky secondhand furniture, I love old stuff! old stuff that is clean, and interesting, not old stuff you got from the side of the road of course... 

🙂 def change all the wording that downplays your listing as rundown. 

Eg,

"We are guided by your tips on what you think we can improve on our home. We take your comments seriously and are happy to adopt proposals for implementation."
this can go in your guest manual or your "thanks for staying" message when they check out. 

[Mark116]

@Christian3129  Several reviews mention cleanliness, so you should figure out how to fix that.  Once a guest thinks the place is not clean that will color their views of everything else.  Your bathrooms look really nice, but you need better, brighter photos.  The living room does look tired, but you could probably improve that with some new throw pillows and some art on the walls.  Black wood ikea frames are still cheap and you could get a few of those, arrange them in groupings of 4, maybe print out some free botanical prints online, so it would be inexpensive.  Your photos overall are kind of dark.

I would also recommend maybe you stay in the space for a night and that might give you a feel for what else could be improved.  

Good luck.

[Christian3129]

thank you mark. We stay there regularly and am so used to the house. I feel totally comfortable, so the cleanliness surprises me. Could be different reason for anybody. Thing is, that with an overloaded agenda sometimes cutlery and some other easy to miss things could happen. That is the only thing I can think of.

[Christian3129]

Thank you @Mark116, the cleanliness is still my biggest miracle. But will surely try my best!

[Sudsrung0]

@Christian3129 

I wont go to hard on you but you need to Bin them photo's many people like the old fashioned look out in the country side, But there is no excuse for it not being clean, it's one of the most important things,

[Gillian166 · Accepted solution]

@Christian3129 
your property and sweet house look amazing from the outside! people should be so lucky to stay there. Your place is an absolute dream and in the right hands you could have something truly outstanding. 

but first....a bit of a large overhaul is needed.

photos need much improvement. only take daytime photos, with the blinds open, have the fire going on one of the photos.  perhaps add a few things on the table like a book and glass of wine. Remove repeated images. Your best photos are the drone shot and one of the living room with fireplace, put those first. I really love the washroom off the kids bathroom, this would be such a great feature if the whole house was styled well. @Huma0  check it out, original funky 60s? 70s? tiling. I'd personally lean into that colour palette of the mustards and botanic prints, it's very much in right now so easy to get decor, and there'll be plenty of 2nd hand stuff around too. 

"have you ever seen such a beautiful sofa?" this is a weird question because yes, I've seen better. 

The kitchen looks bare, if you supply a kettle and coffee maker, include a photo of it *unless they are old and ugly. No toaster? 

master bedroom, only one bedside table? only 2 pillows? the bed looks like a teenage boy made it, it is not welcoming at all. Is it actually 2 single beds pushed together?  You say you bought new linens,  I would have chosen neutral duvet covers. 

Not sure I'd use "dormitory" to describe the kid's space as it makes me think of school camp. Perhaps call it the kids rumpus room, or bunk room. That space does look great, but needs better photos cos it's giving me dungeon vibes. There's a typo on one of your photos where you spell "angle" as "anckle"

You haven't got a cohesive plan for the overall aesthetic of your house. 

So, go to Pinterest and type in "1970s  home decor" and get some decor ideas. Pick a look and then stick to it, this is how you create a cohesive look and you don't need to spend a lot of money! you can slowly upgrade the property each month, chose carefully. I'm sorry but the things you've spent money on are probably a waste as they don't help tell a story. That's why having a plan of the look you are trying to achieve is a good idea, so when you see something on sale, or searching on Marketplace, you know what to choose and what to ignore - knowing what NOT to buy is a big part of design, don't be tempted by cheap things that don't suit your place, pick a colour palette -  to be safe I'd chose a few colours and stick to those only, and not red btw, that's not a vibe. you have the sofa, that's fine, but no more red. As you can tell, I really love doing design on a budget, is there no one else in your family who loves doing renovations and styling to give you some tips? 

DESCRIPTION

I'm a firm believer in setting expectations accurately, and underpromising - over delivering, but you really are underpromising ! and lecturing guests before they arrive. Is this a cultural thing that is acceptable where you are?  My hubby is Dutch South African so i'm fine with this level of brutal frankness, but not all europeans are like that, and certainly not int'l guests. 

By the reviews you need to devote more time to cleaning. Who is doing the cleaning? obviously it's not good enough, and you can't seriously be telling people not be concerned about dust in the corners and then suggest they brought it in themselves. If you want to aim for parents with kids, they are going to expect your place to be clean. Previously your boy party groups didn't notice and didn't care, but if you're trying to aim for a different level of client (and eventually push your prices up) then you need to increase your standards. 

FIREPLACE
having just been through winter, there is no way I would ask guests to empty the fireplace. Perhaps in your part of the world people are used to doing this, but it's too messy a task to ask a guest to complete. 

DON'T BREAK THINGS?

This is really unfriendly. Guests do break things from time to time, that's going to happen, and you are implying here you'll charge someone for a broken coffee cup. I actually let guests know that a broken glass isn't an issue at all, it happens, we have all at one stage in our lives broken a glass. That way they won't feel the need to lie to me, nor feel they are walking on eggshells the whole time. Families with kids are bound to do some minor damage from time to time. Now if they break a window, sure they have to pay for that, but there's no need to write this into the description. Put it into your guest manual.

SPRUIKING FOR GOOD REVIEWS ... in the description? just, NO. take that out. Make a guest manual with all this stuff. 

Under "extra things to know" you can put:
electricity charging situation
firewood limitations
breakages policy
quirky old house has uneven surfaces and hard to clean nooks and crannies, etc. Rustic vintage home has unique challenges when it comes to cleaning but all efforts are made to do a thorough clean between guests. 

Well that's a start! You have an amazing property and I hope you come back and share any improvements you have made with us. 

[Christian3129]

Very helpfull @Gillian166 thank you. Even for the harsh advise. Text I just changed, must come online soon i guess.

Forgive my, as a Dutchy, my English writing might seem odd here and there.

Really when we started to give the house for rent some 8 years ago we quickly got into this soccer-team party weekends rollercoast. The house was detoriating by the weekend. Hurtfull. But bookings kept being great. Unbelievably many booking. All weekend, all holidays.......on and on no stop.

But COVID times gave us some time to reflect, we choose for smaller groups and we decided to make an effort to fix what was broken en to work step by step to make it a live-able house again. A place in which by now, I again am comfortable and happy to stay myself.

But despite our efforts the reviews went worse and worse. I did not understand. Surely some of the same groups of friends kept coming. So we started to discourage them in the add. And so the text ended up being a pamflet of frustration. A messy piece of cut and paste text. You were very right to reconsider the text.

In the meantime the bungalow part of the house got really nice. My wife choose to have no pictures and a antracite/black/grey feel. Beside one supercomfy sofa in red, the style of the furniture is adjusted to that. I am okay with how it looks now. But: pictures is my next focus. The pictures must also tell this story and they don't.

And then the last step, the 8000 square meters "garden" is slowly turning into a forest. That will be the 2023 project for sure.

[John5097]

Hi @Christian3129 

I read over your listing so might as well offer my suggestions. 

I think you are on the right track with your general description of it being somewhat antiquated but agree with the others and reviews that more effort should be put into cleaning. It does have hard floors which would be easier to clean. I also have hard floors and while any speck of dirt or dust will be more noticeable its easy to go around with a shop vac and vacuum every inch. 

The furniture seems to be prone to staining and dirt. At least from the pictures and reviews, it appears kind of dingy. I try not to have any fabric except some privacy curtains and bedding because its easier to clean and seems much cleaner and holds up.

I think its a very nice place but I've never seen ratings that low so may want to consider a renovation and resisting. You mentioned some key improvements so already so could also paint, add some outdoor furniture as that's the main feature, and something inside like some artwork that could even be budget friendly.

That's just my observation. I don't think its a good approach to say, "Ignore the dust, cobwebs, and cleanliness but give me a 5 star review. Some guest simply won't even read the listing that should already be more concise and to the point.

So my advice for what its worth.

-- get new sofas or covers that can be washed and look nice and clean

-- get shop vac with easy to clean and change filters and vacuum entire floor and cobwebs between guest .
-- consider adding outdoor sitting area, could just be lawn chairs. 

Overall bring it up and address all of the issues guest are reporting and commenting. Be more clear about the beds, even just list them and bedrooms. 

Look into resisting with renovations and upgrades. Sounds like you have already done a lot. I'm not sure its possible to recover from such low reviews... never seen a 3.9 for cleanliness but that's just my impressions from memory looking at it on a phone.  

    

[Christian3129]

thanks a lot.

all sofa's are younger then 2 years. Some have stains. But how on earth can I buy new sofa's everytime are unremovable? We even wash the covers of the sofa's every 6 months in a washing machine (they can be taken off).

I will definitely do that again. Thank you.

[Mark116]

@Christian3129  The living room does look dated and there isn't any cohesive 'style'...none of the couches really matches the other one.  I would also consider getting a larger rug in front of the red couch that picks up some of the colors.  Maybe add a tray or something to the coffee table so the scratches to the finish are not so noticeable.  

The 'master' bedroom as someone else noted looks more like a child's room.  Get some better wall art, make up the bed to look a little more finished and potentially change out the side tables so there are two and they match.

I'm curious on the star rating, did you get a couple of guests who really disliked the place and gave it 1 or 2 stars, or how did the rating come to be so low?

I have no idea what season(s) are your high season, but some perennial plantings around the house would increase the curb appeal from Spring to Fall.  Something that is native to the area and would be hardy and not need a lot of attention or watering.  Even possible some shrubs.  It would give the exterior a more cared for look.

I would also consider changing the window treatments in the future.

I agree with whoever said to take a photo with the fireplace going and the windows open and everything in bright light.