New Listing Review & Suggestions

Jen7023
Level 2
Carlisle, PA

New Listing Review & Suggestions

Hi!  We are new to the Airbnb community and this is our first listing.  We are so excited to begin hosting!!  Would love some review and welcome any suggestions to make our listing stand out more.  Thank you!

 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/567941700722453239?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=2384040e-b03a...

 

Cabin.png

 

5 Replies 5
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Jen7023  Your listing is beautiful and I can see you have put a lot of work into it. Your photos are great, and your description seems clear.

 

However, what you have there is going to be a  party magnet, so you are going to have to be very vigilant in vetting prospective guests. 

 

I do not think you can ask guests to pay the association via another website. That is against Airbnb poicy. In other words, your pricing should include that fee and you pay it to whoever you need to.

 

And you are trying to cram too many people in, which will add to the party house issue. I would suggest you remove the sofabed from the sleeping spaces listed and lower the guest count to 8. 

 

Once you start listing common living areas as sleeping options, guests get the idea that arriving with a few extra guests and air mattresses is no big deal.

 

You also need wording in your house rules- "No unregistered guests or visitors allowed on the property. Failure to comply will result in eviction with no refund."

 

I don't see any mention of exterior cameras. While I am not personally a fan of surrveillance, you absolutely need  them with a property like this and they must be disclosed in your listing info.

 

And I hope you have your own private short term rental insurance- you absolutely cannot rely on Airbnb to cover you for any damages.

 

At this point, your concern doesn't need to be how to stand out (it will stand out just because of how nice it is) , but how to secure your property from house trashers.

@Sarah977  Thank you for the awesome advice!  Honestly, I hadn't thought about creating the party house & that is definitely not what we are looking to have.  I'm going to be updating my listing today with a reduction in guest count and removing the sleeper sofa options.  We had been looking at it from a family friendly perspective that if two families, with children, wanted to go that there would be options available for them.

 

We do have short term rental insurance and will be adding cameras as well.  We have them and just need to install.

 

I really appreciate your feedback!!

@Jen7023  Yes, I can understand that for families with kids, which is probably the demographic you are aiming for more sleeping space is better. The thing is, there is no way to list the max guest count as XX number of adults and XX number of children (which would be a very useful feature for a lot of hosts). If you list for 10, then 10 adults can book.

 

What you can do, though, is mention somewhere in your ad that you can accomodate 2 extra children in addition to the maximum guest count, but that has to be approved first by the host, with whatever extra charge you want to add for the kids.

I’m going through the same problem.

 We just started listing our log cabin in the woods of New Hampshire at the end of January and since the very first guest we only get party groups. Some of them already gave us problem and a lot of work. They ended up paying extra $500 because of that but the money do not pay for your peace of mind.

 

https://abnb.me/Lpjbr0ZR1mb

@Rita2259  Your listing is not active. It isn't viewable and doesn't even appear on your  profile. Did you remove it?