Strategy ideas for neighbours under construction.

[Leanne99]

Hi fellow hosts,

I have a big residential development block immediately next door to my property in the suburbs of Adelaide South Australia in a naturalised park setting.

It’s been vacant (and very quiet) for a long time but I’ve learnt that work is scheduled to start in the next few weeks on 15 town houses.

I’m anxious about taking bookings and the best way to communicate with guests about the potential for disruption.

One of the big issue is that I’m not sure what will be happening at the building site day to day so it might be fine for periods and disruptive for periods. I’ve met with the developer and builder and they’ve promised they’ll let me know about when different works will commence which will be helpful but realistically I won’t have necessarily much notice or fine detail at the day to day level.

I figure we need to inform guests through the listing description as well as when they book and also potentially offer discounts or promise of refunds.

Some will be impacted more than others as some of our guests are holidaying while others stay for work so may not even be at home during the day.

I worry that any mention of construction will just turn people off straight away regardless.

I’d love to tap into the group wisdom.

Have others considered or navigated this and suggest some good strategies? 

Thanks in anticipation,

Leanne

[Sarah977]

@Leanne99  I'd say bad idea to offer discounts or refunds. That just opens the door to guests claiming they were seriously disturbed when the noise may be minimal. It makes sense to offer to discount already booked guests, or offer them a full refund if they want to cancel now ( not the day before they are due to arrive) but not future ones.

Just put it front and center in your ad, and reiterate when guests book. If you use IB, turn it off so you have a chance to communicate with guests first.

Some guests are out and about all day and won't be bothered, and I assume construction will cease each day at a reasonable time as far as sleeping disturbance. There ate plenty of listings that are noisy, all the time, and they still get booked.

Buy a bag of earplugs and provide them to guests.

A friend in Canada who hosts had a similar situation. They were digging up about 6 blocks of streets to put in new sewer and water lines one summer. She never knew what days they'd be working in front of her house, or whether guests would have to park a block away from her house. She just messaged the already booked guests, explaining the situation and offering to refund their booking if they wanted to cancel ( no discount offers). Almost all the guests opted to keep their reservations.

[Pat271]

I’ve dealt with this a couple of times; once with a shopping center across the drive, followed shortly by a new boutique hotel on the other side of the boulevard.

Full disclosure is necessary, but can be mitigated by offering a “Construction discount”.  This kills 2 birds with one stone: it discloses the situation in a general manner, and the discount encouraged guests to book. I also put a paragraph in my listing, preceded by “IMPORTANT NOTE:” in caps. In the paragraph, I described the construction, what the guests may hear and see, and the approximate dates it will be ongoing. I got a lot of questions at the time wanting further details, some of them very specific, like “On a scale of 1 to 10, how loud is the noise?”.  I gladly provided these details and did not try to sugar coat anything. This is very important. If the construction was mentioned in reviews, it was along the lines of “There was construction noise, which I fully expected”, and I still got 5-star reviews. Expectations are everything in this business.

The worst part noise-wise was the blasting, which may or may not be relevant in your situation. It can make the whole ground shake and is pretty disruptive. Afterwards, the drilling is constant and quite annoying. If you can, go to your property occasionally to assess the degree of disruption, and notify your guests and change your listing paragraph accordingly.

A lot of the impact has to do with the kind of property you are hosting. If people book expecting to spend the majority of their time at the property, it obviously will have more impact on a guest’s trip than if they are out and about and basically only occupying property during nighttime hours. For me, construction hours were limited to daytime weekdays with an occasional Saturday.  Call the developer and/or your city offices to inquire about what the approved hours are for construction in your area, and put these in your listing paragraph.

In retrospect, I worried about bookings more than I needed to.  My bookings ended up not going down at all. Offering a discount up front is different from the guest asking for one out of the blue.  My guests during this period were of the appreciative sort.  Just make sure your guests are fully informed regarding what to expect.

[Angelica-Y-Jorge0]

@Leanne99 I agree that you have to make it prominent in your ad and advertising a construction discount is a great idea (it does not have to be a lot but really drives the point). 

I may suggest creating a really strong guest book with nearby tourist attractions or a scavenger hunt to get your guests out of the house during the day. 

[Nina75]

@Leanne99  My recommendation is to not bring it up and if a guest wants to cancel. Then let them cancel penalty free. I would also network with some local hosts in your area and maybe see if anyone has any opening if your guests complain. In my experience most of the guests are gone during the day.  I did have one instance where a guest had all of his friends cancel on him and all he did was stay at the apartment all day long he definitely complained about the construction but in 2 years of construction, he was the only one.

I use to have 7 houses on AirBnb If a guest would complain about one property id move them to a different property if I had one open. Look on the Airbnb map and see what houses are close to you and network with your neighbors.

If all of your neighbors are fully booked then the neighborhood must be an amazing neighborhood maybe you should just buy another house if you love hosting so much.

Also check your windows, I put some triple glazed windows on my property and you couldnt hear anything after that. 

[Leanne99]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

@Angelica-Y-Jorge0 @Sarah977 @Nina75 @Pat271 , you’ve given me some great ideas about how to proceed.

Thanks very much for taking the time to contribute your ideas.

I especially love @Angelica-Y-Jorge0  Jorge’s out-of-the-box (house?) thinking about encouraging people out of the house during the day with a scavenger hunt.

I’ll update here as things progress.

Best wishes,

Leanne

[Alexandra316]

@Leanne99 I had construction going on next to my house for about 4 months, and I have to be honest: I never disclosed anything and never had any problems. Most construction takes place during the day on weekdays when most people are out. My guests are long term due to Covid, and I didn't know it was starting and the owners didn't have an end date, so it just kind of was what it was. If you're in an urban or suburban neighbourhood, some noise is to be expected, and I wouldn't offer discounts. I think most people are understanding. 

[Dale711]

Hi @Leanne99 

@Nina75 advice are much appreciated 👏

I hope you can resolve the issues.

Happy Hosting 😊

[M199]

@Leanne99, @Dale711 , @Alexandra316 

Thanks everyone!  I  just found out the the township may be repaving the main road to our cottage. And also  on the other side, a new house is being built.  As well, our little small town has a detour through the main street.  I'm thinking that I should messages guests an FYI, just so that they are  not blindsided.  My thinking Is that if they know about it, they will be more accepting of the minor inconvenience.