When did you get your first booking?

[Quincy]

You've created your account, added photos, made a description, reviewed your house rules and lastly, set the price. 

You're waiting for that first notification from a potential guest, as minutes turn to hours that feel like weeks… Silence… What is going on? Why is it taking so long? Are my settings correct? 

PING! My very first booking! I was filled with joy, but also with nervousness as it would be my very first guests booking my place after all. 

"Hi Quincy, My wife and I are visiting Scotland for leisure, and it would be an absolute pleasure to stay at your place. Looking forward to seeing you! R." 

This was my experience when I started hosting. It took at least 5-7 days  2 days (correction) before my first booking was confirmed. It started quietly, and grew more and more over time! 

When did you get your first booking, and how did you prepare? Do you still remember the very first message your guests sent you? 

I look forward to hearing your stories!

Quincy

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Quincy I can't remember for sure but I think we got our first booking with a few days of listing. The booking was from an Airbnb host visiting from Australia (ah those were the days when you could travel internationally!). I do remember vividly the day before they were due to arrive as we fired up the hot water system for the first time and discovered the toilet filling with hot water. I managed to find the pipes I had inadvertently switched a few hours before their arrival - Of course they were a pig to access but a few scraped knuckles later we were good to go and haven't looked back since.

[Sybe]

That must've been quite a hassle, and in such short time before the first guest arrives @Mike-And-Jane0 ! It almost sounds like working with a ticking time bomb. 😜

Did the guest notice anything when they arrived?

[M199]

@Quincy 

Our reaction was "Wow".  It got my partner turned around real fast.  Btw those first booking guests were for Thanksgiving a gentleman and his girlfriend.  They came back for their second Thanksgiving stay in 2021.  The best was that they were married and came with their month old infant!

[Sybe]

That sounds so adorable @M199 ! Will you be keeping the Thanksgiving date this year open for them again? Maybe it'll become a tradition. 😃  🦃

[M199]

@Sybe 

Yes, if they book.  haven't heard yet.

[Kirsten266]

We delayed the finishing of our tiny house. That's why I put it ons Airbnb. To keep the pressure of finishing 😉

My first booking came after one day. Within 2 hours I got 3 bookings  and I got scared because the place wasn't finished yet. I turned down the computer en went to bed. Then I couldn't sleep ofcourse! In the middle of the night I made a list of everything we had to finish.  

Everything was finished in a couple of days. The first guest were honored to be the first 🙂

[Sybe]

@Kirsten266 You must be one of the people who works well under pressure! 😜  Did you at least manage to get some sleep after you had finished the list?

It's a great tip actually when you're working on big, sometimes overwhelming projects. Break it into little bite-sized pieces, sort them, and then tick off your list one by one. Everything is done before you know it!

[Kirsten266]

Yeah 4 hours 🤣 

[Dimitar27]

2-3 days after I setup my account. It was the easiest part, actually.

Before this:

-to make the apartment ready for guests (the longest part...almost 2 years, because I made everything alone)

-to register my LLC

-to make VAT registration

-to set up bank account

-to register in the municipality (tourist taxes are local)

...and other things that right now I can't remember. Starting a new business in my country takes between 1 and 6 months...in most cases. That's the "paper" part - registrations, permissions, licenses, etc.

[Christine615]

We got our first listing within 24 hours of going "live." The woman said she had been looking for a space with multiple separate bedrooms and I wasn't there the day before 🙂

We set it up for our mother-in-law and stayed there for a bit while she was in town so we could see what worked and what didn't work. She liked it so much she began shopping for additional items to equip it.

We wanted it comfortable for us. We make sure guests know it's our place, not an absentee investor investment. We had tenants downstairs who said guests were respectful. Now our daughter lives downstairs and it's been a win-win for everyone. We live around the corner but now have a co-host who can keep an eye on everything. Sometimes we get guests looking for that "generic" investor look but for the most part guests like that it feels like a home away from home.

The problem is that we also stay at Airbnb's and there's a drastic difference between the sterile investor set-ups and the ones that aren't quite perfect but feel loved and lived in.

It's been several years now and so far, so good.

[Sybe]

A home away from home, I love that @Christine615 ! It's so sweet that your mother-in-law even went shopping for extra items. Making your listing feel like a home can really give it a lot of personality. 

[Laurelle3]

Hi @Quincy we first heard of Airbnb in the Sunday paper under the travel section in 2014 and knowing we will be travelling in the UK we thought we would try it out. Previously used youth hostels and scouting accommodation and B&B's , so we were used to sharing bathrooms.

This was our first taste of Airbnb and meeting people in their homes. Airbnb styles offered have changed over the years and have improved for the better over the years.

Airbnb was always on our minds that we could do this one day and an opportunity arised when we sold our home and a move to the beachside location and building a 2nd cottage on the same property liveing in it while we renovated the main residence.

 I worked on getting the cottage ready for Airbnb when we moved out. Next it was working through the Airbnb electronic internet site. Ticking the boxes of what I was going to provide, writing a description of the cottage, location and what the local area offered. Taking photos on ipad with different lights with sunshine over many days at different times of the day. Reading tips from Airbnb for photos and getting as much information from Airbnb and reading other Airbnb properties being offered in our local area.

I worked on this for about a month, thinking that the cottage was ready for the Christmas school holidays and festive season and hoping to get a booking or 2.

I said to my husband, I am not going to bed untill the cottage was online. 1 am on the 28th November 2020 was our official link up with Airbnb and then went to bed. Husband woke me at 6am and said you have 6 bookings as I went on instant booking.

This was the beginning of our journey with Airbnb, along with Covid and many lockdowns. We only use Airbnb and they have provided us with many bookings over our first 12 months meeting people from all walks of life. So I have to say "thank you".

[Suzanne858]

I got my first booking in Sept 2017 for Labor Day weekend.  My business has doubled year.  I have added a second home to Airbnb too.  This has been great experience so far.

[Jennifer2682]

2009!  Brian Chesky was still just a gleam in his father's eye.  😉   It was a small little studio cottage that I listed on VRBO.  Back then, guests mailed me a check and I emailed them their confirmation.  For real!  

I sold that place in 2017 and built Nature House, which took about a year.  My first booking was in 2018.  The pipes under the kitchen sink blew out, but the guests were amazing about it.  Lol, we've made many improvements since then!  

[Tamie11]

Hi Quincy! Got my 1sy booking today! Guest will arrive Sunday