Leaving ABB-- what is next?

[Laura2592]

After 3 years and about 200 total disparate stays with a variety of colorful guests, we recently had one who killed wildlife in the yard with a pellet gun and left them in a pile as well as spent casings both indoors and out, smoked indoors and left the windows open in January and then claimed the "AC" didn't work in the review and the space wouldn't get warm. There was a mess that looked like he was trying to redecorate my space (pulled down curtains and then said I didn't have any, moved the sofa and dining table, chairs) and the lingering smoke smell mixed with body odor was a pain to remove. This is the last straw which is making me seriously consider removing my listing from this platform. I have pulled back my calendar availability from 6 months to 3 and am mulling over if I should wipe my listing completely.

For those of you who have left or are considering leaving, what direction are you going in? We would not rent long term on this platform but might become landlords. Our area is hard to find short term lessors so I am contacting some realtors. We really don't want a 12 month lease as we prefer to use the space ourselves when we can. But we may go that way. We are also considering selling but have bookings into April so we couldn't do it immediately. 

What are your plans after ABB?

[Dimitar27]

Terrible story. I have nothing more to say...

I'm not living in a "green" country, many people are absolutely disrespectful to the environment, but I've never heard about anything even close to this

[Sue174]

@Laura2592 This is an interesting question, and after 7 years of hosting I am wondering myself. We own two properties. One is in Florida beside Mickey. The other is in Canada less than 45 minutes from my home. Obviously, I feel I have to continue using Air for the Florida property. There, we get 95% of our business from guests coming from far away. Logistically, I could never rent this directly myself. However, Air is becoming unattractive for our local property. If you are comfortable on social media sites, we found that the best renters were coming from Facebook Marketplace. I charge them an up-front $500 security deposit that they get back the day they check out. This has worked brilliantly and we’ve never had a single problem. As well, @Colleen253 is right. Bump up your prices. We did that. It actually worked. We get people who know the value of the space and are respectful of the rules. If they don’t want to pay, they stay somewhere else. Simple. Next year will be our second year at the new Canadian property and I’m seriously thinking of not using Air for the bookings. I might keep the listing so people can see the previous stellar reviews, however.