Laura’s Letter: What I learned staying with private-room hosts

[Laura_C]

May 20, 2019

Hi everyone,

Congratulations to all of you who achieved or maintained your Superhost status in the April assessment! The longer I’ve worked at Airbnb, the more I realize what an incredible accomplishment being a Superhost is. Thanks to all of you for providing wonderful experiences for guests around the world, and for setting the standard for hospitality for Airbnb.

As many of you know, my role at Airbnb is to look after the team that builds products, community, and resources for home hosts like you. When I joined Airbnb last July, one of my top priorities was to quickly immerse myself in the world of hosts and hosting—in particular, to learn more from some of our amazing hosts (and Superhosts!), gather some great tips from them, and bring those back to our host community (and our teams here at Airbnb). There’s nothing quite like firsthand experience, so as part of my journey, I decided to stay in a private room once a week. I have three small children at home, so it was a pretty big commitment, but it ended up being such a delightful experience in some fun and unexpected ways. I’m excited to tell you about what I’ve learned over the past few months.

Getting to meet Superhosts like you was one of the highlights of my recent adventures staying in private rooms. There are more than 161,000 Superhosts who share private rooms on Airbnb— that’s 29% of all Superhosts. And private-room listings are popular with guests, too. In 2018, tens of millions of bookings were in private rooms, which was a significant share of all bookings on Airbnb. Private-room hosts and listings are a really important part of our community.

I had 3 goals for my private-room stays

1. Experience variety (staying at listings with different price points, and different types of hosts: new, Plus, Superhosts, etc.)
2. Have personal interactions (I reached out to hosts ahead of time and invited them to chat with me more about their experiences, and share thoughts on how we can help them more)
3. Gather learnings (What was my experience as a guest? How can we support hosts more? What is the host doing brilliantly that other hosts can learn from?)

So, what did I learn? Well, the first big takeaway was that we need to do more to help you better set guest expectations (which can help with better reviews). This is something that’s really important for all hosts but absolutely crucial for private-room hosts, many of whom share a bathroom or kitchen with their guests. On our end, I think that starts with categorization. How can we better differentiate different types of listings on Airbnb (need a room in a castle, anyone?), especially as we begin to welcome more bed-and-breakfasts and boutique hotels alongside homes and rooms? How can we help you make it clear to guests that there are cats in the listing? (I am much more of a dog person than a cat person, but I have to admit that I made friends with many cats during my stays!)

Next, I learned many things about what can make a stay great from a guest’s perspective. I appreciated a lot of different things—clarity on where I could go and what I could use (shampoo? fridge space? through that random unmarked door?) was a big deal. Having some information from the host on who else was going to be in the house was also hugely reassuring. Knowing the hours of the other people in the household was also great so that I could be a respectful guest (I get up early, and always wanted to be thoughtful of not waking up everyone else in the house!).

In fact, many of you have already shared some wonderful tips for hosting a private-room listing here in the Community Center. (This thread really impressed me, and I enjoyed the comments on this article, too). I’d love to continue to hear from you on this subject, and I’d love to learn more about what we can do to help you as private-room hosts succeed. Please tell me your suggestions in the comments, below.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I was reminded again of what an incredible community of hosts we have. I met one host who started hosting so that she could have more flexibility to support her children with special needs, and another who took a big pay cut to follow their heart and work in the non-profit sector … hosting helped them have the financial flexibility they needed to make that move. I met one host who has developed extraordinary relationships with her guests (many of whom come back often to visit) and another who started hosting so that she could afford to keep her family’s home while her children went to college. I love that Airbnb is helping people around the world build wonderful connections and support their goals and passions in life.

Congratulations again to those of you who are Superhosts, whether you’re sharing the spare wing of a castle, an entire home, or an extra bedroom in your apartment. I hope to meet you on my next outing. Until then…

… Happy hosting!
Laura

[Melissa766]

And the bad thing is, you think Airbnb is collecting a refundable deposit in case and damage is done or you as a host feel the guest did not follow the house rules, come to find out no such deposit is collected and you don't have a leg to stand on. That's where I think Airbnb needs to take care of their Host and Super Host. I had guest that smoked pot in my cabin and it cost me more to have it clean than the cleaning fee I charged the guest. I'm just out that money.

[HeatherAndJohn0]

Agree

[Carmen802]

That is such a goood idea re the pictures/

[Michele147]

I rent out a private room within my home.  Five years now and nothing but good or even excellent reviews.  Unfortunately, I've just had the same experience as Mandi - guest said nothing about any problems during her stay, extended her stay twice, tried to get me to rent to her outside of Airbnb and then I had trouble getting rid of her.  She left me a scathing review which I'm in the process of trying to get Airbnb to remove.  She was unhappy that I wouldn't let her extend her stay any further - I had another booking! - and was pleading and begging to stay... If it was that bad, why did she want to stay??  Then, 10 days after she left, she contacts Airbnb wanting a refund!

For the protection of Airbnb and its hosts, this guest should be removed from the platform.  Not only is she a vindictive liar, she's going against Airbnb's policies.  She isn't being given the refund she has requested.  I don't have an answer to my problems with the review yet and her being removed from the platform.

Laura - to address your comments on listings for private rooms:  I am very clear in my listing about what is being offered - single bed, private bedroom and bathroom, use of kitchen as needed, bed linens etc etc.  However, we have no control over what people choose to read or not.  Very clear the nightmare guest didn't read any of it. She complained about the single bed - it's in the listing!  Complained about my cats - in the listing!  Complained about not been shown around the living room - living room is not available for guests and, you guessed it, it's in the listing!  And more...  And all this after I went out of my way to accomodate her as a last minute at 8:30pm.

Airbnb should be more willing to help hosts in situations like this.  From the comments here from other hosts with similar problems, it doesn't seem like Airbnb is very good in this 'Case Management' area.  I would definitely like to see an improvement here.  And I'm hoping for a positive resolution for my current situation.

[Deb44]

I am with you on this. My story could be your’s - I do have people complaining about something now & then and I always go back to my listing to see if I missed putting that in there...but I did.  They really don’t read the rules.  I had one very awful review from an older couple here to see relatives, and later, found out I was working with someone who knew him, said he was a bully as a kid, etc... I just didn’t responded to his review, and it went very far back into the nether-lands of reviews. I think people realize it was his own character he was smearing not mine, because 7 years of excellent reviews outweighs.  Sometimes, I am surprised at “oh, there’s a cat here” when my first rule is, “Don’t let the cat out, he’s sneaky” - I know they never even looked at the rules.  Some people treat us as late night hotel front desk personnel instead of realizing that this is our home, and they are the guests in my guest room. My newest shock: when a gal showed up at the Airport and expected me to pick her up ! I had no idea she wasn’t taking a taxi, Lyft or Uber. 

[Karma8]

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[Karma8]

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@Deb44 wrote:

I am with you on this. My story could be your’s - I do have people complaining about something now & then and I always go back to my listing to see if I missed putting that in there...but I did.  They really don’t read the rules.  I had one very awful review from an older couple here to see relatives, and later, found out I was working with someone who knew him, said he was a bully as a kid, etc... I just didn’t responded to his review, and it went very far back into the nether-lands of reviews. I think people realize it was his own character he was smearing not mine, because 7 years of excellent reviews outweighs.  Sometimes, I am surprised at “oh, there’s a cat here” when my first rule is, “Don’t let the cat out, he’s sneaky” - I know they never even looked at the rules.  Some people treat us as late night hotel front desk personnel instead of realizing that this is our home, and they are the guests in my guest room. My newest shock: when a gal showed up at the Airport and expected me to pick her up ! I had no idea she wasn’t taking a taxi, Lyft or Uber. 

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or how about the people that think you're their personal entertainment ... and expect you to talk to them for hours on end (yes, this has happened to me on more than one occasion) lol ... i love my guests and conversing with them, but i also have my own life and often work from home..they see me on my laptop working and still will go on and on...  maybe i need to add to my listing ***i'm not included with your stay*** HAHA!!

[MaryAnn33]

What an awful experience Michele!  Although I've had no such problems (so far), I do find that some guests have hardly read any of the information on my listing. I would have have thought that prospective guests would base their choice to book, on the listed information!  All the best!

[Stephanie1126]

I think that people who book from their phone just scroll through the photos, and book from that. I find that at least 1/2 don't read the rules, although I'm happy to say we haven't had any major issues. I do have the most important rules posted on both bedroom doors of my listing, and I think that gets read occasionally. And I do have a few notes throughout the Airbnb itself, placed directly where the guest needs to pay attention, ie "don't flush feminine products down toilet' etc. At some point you just have to trust that your guests will be considerate folks, and I can say that we have been very fortunate in that over our 2 1/2 years of hosting!

[Jeff763]

We totally agree 1 disgruntled guest who registered as 1 and proceeded to load up the Air bnb with her University friends was called on it by us and asked to pay more for the evening (which is clearly stated in our policy document) She abruptly left our Air bnb and left a horrible review claiming she couldn't find our Air bnb because we posted the wrong address (not true) and posted we incorrectly advertised that clients can't use one of our ammenities (not true) the hot tub was being serviced that day. Consequently our rating went down. After calling Air bnb with proof! via the email exchanges between us and the client, and further proof we do in fact offer our hot tub to clients, our rating changed. The reason given for not taking down her negative review was its called "intellectual property". What can be done about these clients who when don't get their own way go about attacking our businesses that we have invested our time and money into developing. They just go from Air bnb to Air bnb treating peoples homes with a sense of entitlement. 

[Sandy8]

I, too, would be in favor of a removal of a punitive review if it is an outlier among the other reviews.  Many hosts who have been hosting for a while realize that you cannot please everyone and there will be those who leave unsatisfactory reviews despite a situation that has been 5-star for others.

[Ernest-and-Irish0]

Next time drop by Grays, Essex, Engalnd, UK... we would host you in our lovely house.

[Lorna109]

 Hi Laura

Thanks for the feed back!

We have a huge house and when all the kids left it was too quiet and lonely.   I have loved every bit of hosting,  from meeting great people,  to cooking delicious meals.

Don't forget how hosting helps many people financially.   We live in South Africa and unimployment is a huge problem.   The ladies that work with us are paid a basic wage, plus per guest, as well as for the service they provide be it   cooking or laundry. or baby sitting.

Thanks for the great support.  Airbnb are an amazing company to work with!!

Come and visit us in South Africa,  bring your kids with, they will love it!

Warm regards

Lorna Sacks

[Ann-and-Geoff0]

hi Laura, thank you for your perspective. We've found it a great thing to spend the night in the Minty caravan (which is our Airbnb) with intent to see how it feels to be a guest. We like to initiate a nice repoire with the guests as soon as they book, so that they feel comfortable with us when they arrive. We also share the bathroom with our guests, but make it very clear that they are welcome to use it at any hour. Another bit is that we don't expect them to say"good bye", as much of the time the guests are on the go earlier than us. When you visit NZ come & stay with us too!

~ all the best,

Ann & Geoff [Surname hidden for safety reasons]

the Minty Caravan

Top of the S. Island 

Lower Moutere, NZ

[Laura_C]

Sounds like I have a tour of NZ coming up! How fun!! Great idea to stay in your listing ... you really notice little details.