Private home and shared home?

Hey everyone!

I’m a new airbnb host and I’m really loving it so far. The people coming to our home have been wonderful and the whole experience has been really exciting.

My husband and I live in a house and our guests share the house with us. However, we both have jobs that includes a lot of traveling and for some weeks of the year we are not there. Still, we would like to have airbnb guest that can have the whole house in that period, so it will be a private home and not a shared home.

So my question is: does anyone have experience with putting your house listed as “entire home” for some periods and “shared home” for other periods in the calendar? Is that possible? I’ve tried researching quite a bit, but can’t find anything regarding this. Any advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

First of all I would have a long think about how you will manage your personal stuff being in the house. Where will you put everything for safekeeping?

On your question: My logic says to make two listings, one for a shared house and one for a private house. And just play with the calendars. You will have to be VERY precise with the calendars to avoid disaster double bookings.

I thinks it’s very difficult to have it in one listing, because the public for a private and a shared house is really distinct, and you won’t have any good means to communicate with potential guests about the house being shared or private for certain dates.

Then again, two listings will cause problems for people who want to stay in “mixed” periods. Let’s say, they arrive when you’re not at home, but on the third day of their stay, you arrive home.

You need two listings.

One for a whole place listing and one for a shared home.

Make sure your calendars are synced and that you lock away valuables in your personal bedroom and that you clear out your fridge/other areas in the kitchen when you aren’t there.

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The more I host, the more I’m convinced I wouldn’t rent out my entire personal home. Too many risks. Off-site hosting already has a lot of issues and if you weren’t there!?! The only way I would do it is if I was able to check the guests in personally as we were leaving and have someone I know and trust on hand to check as soon as they left and then no other bookings after that until I return.

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With you on that @Sarah_Warren. There are enough horror stories to make you think twice though @J_Wang hosts remotely very successfully.

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This one for example:

I wouldn’t be so successful if it weren’t for a wonderful cleaning duo who charge a lot, but it works because the place is on the expensive side and the cost doesn’t stand out so much.

The best thing is that it’s In a gated community that requires a pass with the guest’s name and car info. I have access online to write passes and also see the comings and goings of registered cars. Of course they can pile a bunch of people into the car but it hasn’t happened yet because I let them know the deal beforehand–that they’ll be passing through a border checkpoint! :slight_smile:

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Like others, I have two separate listings, one for the shared home, and one for the whole home. I only rent out the whole home if I will be out of town.

@Helsi

Yup! That’s exactly how I manage it!

Thanks so much for all of your replies! I really appriciate your advice. We’ll think long and hard about it.

Have you had a good experience with it?

Yeah, it works well enough, but you have to start with a listing with no reviews on it. It just takes some time to build it up.