Why don’t you start us off 
1 Like
For us, I think offering bikes to rent next year will help us.
Getting in others platforms big boost of income and booking.
Companies love that we have many single beds and not double beds
1 Like
I’m working on implementing 24-hour self check in, would love to hear how other people handle this but so far it is a great improvement for me… I’ve had quite a few guests arrive either while I’m at work or after I’m asleep at night, it has been convenient on both ends.
1 Like
Instant book and self check in seemed to help me. I get a number of same day or late in the day, arrive late at night bookings. I have one night stays of people who are passing through, not tourists who stay several nights.
1 Like
Well, it’s a smallish hack for small savings, but I used to leave towels for guests on their bed, now I put them in a drawer and they use half the number of towels they used before
9 Likes
Guest love to see the towels with a chocolate on it (what we do)
2 Likes
Airbnb is great, but I’m also dependent on advertising on other websites like Airbnb. Once you have a profile with Airbnb it’s fast and easy to copy the content to other vacation rental websites and by using the Airbnb multi calendar and ICAL tool I avoid double bookings.
I’m writing a little about my experience with other vacation rental sites here:
Other websites like Airbnb I’m recommending
I just invested in a Nespresso coffee machine and people seem love it.
Fresh flowers, coffee capsules, tea bags and some fruit / chocolate are always a wow-factor.
I provide a neatly wrapped welcome pack with a map, a list of recommended restaurants / shops / cafes in the area and a small piece of chocolate.
I’m giving my guests my HBO and Netflix password to watch movies, and the flat screen in the apartment has a google chrome cast device making it possible for guests to cast their own stuff as well. Entertainment seem to be important and especially younger people seem to love this option.
In the kitchen I always leave some sugar, salt, flour, spices, pasta, oil etc. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and a lot of people appreciate to have access to some basic ingredients, this way they don’t need to buy everything to cook.
1 Like
This is a great question - how to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
I give my guests a small questionnaire to my guests at check-out. They say that the fact that I serve breakfast was ‘very important’ to them choosing my place and ‘very important’ to them enjoying their stay.
Of course, that’s not possible, or convenient, for those who don’t share the home.
But what we can’t know is why guests DIDN’T choose our place. If it was a separate apartment, would we get more bookings? It seems like when I switched my place to ‘entire apartment’ it came up lower on the search. And most of my guests want to ‘live with an American’.
I have 70 5* bookings, let the 2-bedroom place out for $89 for three, $109 for 4 and $129 for 5, with a small cleaning fee - on moderate cancellation - super host, and IB, and I’m getting NO hits AT ALL for the fall. I had some bookings last year, but at a super-low price, as there was construction going on, and there was no shower in the guest area until January.
So - looking forward to hearing more tips for getting them in the door!!
3 Likes
I just installed a small key safe with a code outside my front door. Best. Thing. I .Ever. Did. Now all those “we are 30 minutes away”… “oops stuck in traffic, we are 2 hours away”… “Hey we are here where are you…?” messages are a thing of the past. Let yourselves in, make a cup of tea and I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast!
4 Likes
Yes, I have one too!
Key safes are the future man! It was always a drag trying to get guests to, firstly, communicate their arrival time and, secondly to stick to it. Now it’s just not an issue.
2 Likes
Do you have to change the password after every guest? If not, what’s to stop them from taking Netflix with them?
I wonder if it is necessary… ? Most people have their own accounts.
I like the chromecast (my sons have one) but be sure the unit doesn’t disappear from the room too!
One little hack I discovered was, if I started experiencing a slump, simply change the nightly rate by a couple of bucks. Something about doing that seems to jump start the inquiries. Has happened too many times to be a coincidence.
1 Like
@konacoconutz - That’s a good point, but I’ve provided Netflix more than a year to my guests and I have not had any problems so far. And in case my Netflix password disappears, I will know who took it and will be able to block / reset my account.
Not many people use my TV, but I have it already set up via my ROKU 3, don’t have to give them the password. Now, if they want to use my Amazon Prime to purchase something that doesn’t stream for free, they would need the password, and that password to make purchases via the ROKU is completely different than when I log into Amazon via computer or phone.
Here in the US, they only allow two to stream at a time, so you know the PW is in use if you get that error message.
Giving the password also allows them to get into your account details you know. Not to mention you are going to start seeing all their movie preferences!
What about just an account for guests? It’s only $8 something a month.
Speaking of that, does anyone feel like we should be partitioning our routers so that guests can not access our personal networks??
Read an article recently and asked my son, and he said oh Mom, that’s so last century to worry about. No one does data packet sniffing anymore. WTH? What’s that, my geeky son??? 
The netflix package I purchased, allows 4 users.
I pay $7.99 for two streaming?? I think that might be the old one and I am grandfathered in?
I pay $12.99, 4 users.
Here’s the story about the router security. Geeks, please comment. 