Off season = bad guests

[Roberta150]

I'm a Superhost and have entered into my first off-season.

What I've learned is due to the lower prices because of so many available listings, the guests I've had so far are mostly (not all) horrible compared to high-season, high-paying guests. They seem to have the same mindset of those who want a discount, which is a major red flag for a bad host experience.

I've gone in and blocked off Mon-Wed in January through mid-March when good shoulder-season guests start booking. And I raised my low and high prices to discourage cheap guests from booking the available days. I'm taking a break, and plan on using the time to get long-awaited projects done. For hosts who need the income, I'm so sorry: It's much better to have another source of income during the off-season and enjoy the time off from hosting rather than deal with rotten, cheap guests who may cost you more than the booking fee to let them stay.

You may also make the mistake I made by politely but firmly reminding a guest of the house rules that they were violating - yep, they retaliated with completely unfair star rankings in every category when normally I get all five-stars. Luckily the comment was "Great host!" and I have enough five-stars that theirs was diluted and doesn't affect what shows during a search by future guests - it still shows me as five-stars in all categories.

However, newer hosts with few reviews would be negatively impacted by such reviews which I am convinced are much more likely during the off-season.

[Cindy201]

Thank you so much for posting this! Absolutely my own experience in the past couple of low seasons and starting from this year, I've started to leave the listings empty rather than having unappreciative guests to trash my place and listings. A positive life free of negative people is way more important than money!