I’ll add I was going to NYC on short notice so I just didn’t have all day to wait for replies. I am an instant book host. I don’t think it’s a matter of IB or not, it’s the whole experience and what kind of set up I have. I love IB. I rent out the guest room in my home but recently added an ensuite bathroom and separate entrance. I can lock the door that goes from the room into the rest of the house. I put a digital lock so guests can let themselves in if I’m asleep or not home. So, I can easily offer IB and have about doubled my bookings since I started instant booking. Once the guest gets here they very much get the “soul of airbnb.” I’ve shared beers and wine, music, breakfast (though it isn’t listed as an amenity), put their laundry in the dryer for them, invited them to my gatherings with friends and more. I’ve let them use a laptop and loaded Microsoft Office free trial onto it. I’ve babysat their dogs at no extra charge while they went out to dinner. My last 103 reviews are 5 star on all measures except “location.”
Kirsty Jane,
We have Instant Book turned on and we are very friendly to our guests. Most of our reviews say that the best thing about our listing is how welcoming we are.
The things we like about Instant Book are:
No dropping what you’re doing to accept bookings.
A lot of guests will only book places that have Instant Book. This especially applies to guests who make last minute plans and don’t have time to wait for a host to accept or decline.
Guests who use Instant Book are more likely to have read the listing.
Do you share the same property though (ie. spare room in your home) or Air an entire different property.
& @KKC
I Air the spare room in our home, I just don’t feel comfortable having IB on at the moment how it is set out on Air.
Kirsty Jane,
We rent out our spare bedroom. We share our house with our guests. We haven’t had any guests who made us feel unsafe, Instant Book or non Instant Book.
I don’t want to argue with you about IB. That’s currently how I feel about it. We are also living in different countries!
Cabinhost,
We’ve had more guests from mainland China than from any other country. We’ve noticed that there is more steam in the bathroom after showers than most other guests, but we’ve never had our bathroom floor soaked. Does anyone really have wood floors in bathrooms? Although, I think you can explain to guests how the shower works and ask them to contain the water, it is reasonable to expect surfaces in bathrooms to not be ruined by water. I am American and I don’t think, I know that drying dishes with a cloth spreads germs. Restaurants are prohibited by the health department from any method of dish drying other than air drying.
http://www.nfsmi.org/documentlibraryfiles/PDF/20120713093708.pdf
I have noticed that on this board posters think it’s reasonable to have their culture accommodated (electric kettles for English guests, clothes lines for European guests), but draw the line at accommodating other cultures. Personally, I very much believe in “When in Rome, do as the Romans”.
@Kirsty_Jane Yes, like EllenN I am living on the property and share the guest bedroom attached to the house. I’m certainty not trying to argue and I understand that not everyone has the set up I have. When people had to come through my house to get to their room, I didn’t have IB. Now they have their own entrance and I can lock the door that leads from their room into the house. I added a bathroom. I realize not everyone can remodel in this way. Also like EllenN I have not had a single bad experience with airbnb guests (over 110 now). I am not in a tourist area. It is a small room that only holds two people. There are many reason why I can do what others cannot. I’m just sharing my IB experience, not trying to make you defend your decision.
“Too old and to unhip”? Correct, this cool young woman has exercised her right to reject you as you not groovy and cool, you old fogy middle aged woman let’s be honest. And you don’t fit into cool young early 20"s nightclubs where all the young beautiful people hang. And she wants to host other young hipsters not her parents lol, and she has that right to reject you. Just being raw and honest truth and I’m a middle aged man too, an old fogy like you, I’m just being honest why you got rejected by this hot young stuff, and rejected from staying in her pad.
Yes, instant book would resolve the issue of any kind of discrimination. In my situation if instant book was required then I would have to drop Air or I would have to drop booking.com. Two instant booking sites don’t mix as they will result in a double booking sooner or later.
Even with booking.com I have to screen afterwards and then guests didn’t realize how much it would cost, or they didn’t read the max occupancy - so then I have to ask them to cancel the reservation so that my calendar can reopen. Since I rent out a whole home, instant book invites those who plan to bring more people to just book it. I weed out so many people now who inquire solely based on wanting to bring more than the max occupancy. Or they think it’s okay for their family of six to book, and then later they want to invite over their sister’s family.
A third of my guests would probably lose their booking fee if they had to cancel afterwards. I guess it the damned if you do, damned it you don’t.
I have one bathroom that has hardwood floors, and the other is tile. I havent personally had any Chinese guests and I have only had 2 guests that werent from the U.S. But it seems there have been a lot of posts of surfaces being drenched - in this forum and other forums with Air hosts.
So then I was curious and googled some things to try to understand about the soaking wet bathrooms. And that’s when I also read about how many put dishes away wet because even a clean dish towel is something they don’t consider sanitary.
I think even if they are shown the shower they would still need to understand that spilling water on the hardwood floors in the kitchen can’t just sit there. I don’t know what the answer is.
Visitors to Asia will encounter non western bathrooms. In My Korea hotel, my toilet and shower were in the same room! The shower was a hand held one. At first it looks funky but then i realized something like that could make the bathroom super easy to clean! Just spray it down!
Yes, I do filter on country.
I have a large B&B with several apartments and rooms. AirBnB is one of the channels I use to get guests.
Country of origin is a very important tool to filter my guests, I try to keep a good mix.
Our region is very popular by visitors from the Arabic region, from experience I know that Arabic guests are very high maintenance and require a lot of my time (lots of questions, continuous haggling, etc.). So if I already have two bookings of them in my building, any other request gets refused.
One of the reasons why I like AirBnB so much I threw out booking.com: I have control over who stays in my house.
I’ve had the flooded bathroom situation with guests from China too. And Korea. And a few other places! Like you say, they are used to a wet-room so don’t always get that it doesn’t work like that in other countries. Now I explain to each and every guest, no matter where they’re from, that they need to put the shower-curtain INSIDE the tub and that in this climate (UK) things take a long time to dry so they need to be aware about soaking the bathmat etc. Not had a major problem since.
The market seems to be saturated with hosts now - so I would certainly rather a host “discriminate” against me, and reject a booking request that accept me and be unfriendly. Likewise, I would like to be able to advertise for those that others may want to discriminate against, and gladly welcome, as long as they are respectful of my property and follow the rules. Otherwise, I do not care about race, age, or sexual orientation. I wish we had an option for the type guest we will welcome and accept or are looking for.
Yup! Effective cleaning. Wish we had that in the States.
Oh, man. Flooded bathrooms are a major pet peeve of mine. Thank god I have glass shower doors. The basin is another matter entirely. I’ve given up on trying to get people to understand that the bulk of the water should actually go INTO the basin. I simply go into the bathroom a few times a day to touch up (read: mop up) the bathroom to keep it presentable.
I wonder if they think there is a drain and think that they are helping you by hosing down the bathroom?
Ha ha! You are cracking me up as always.
While looking into energy saving options I found that water saving showerheads also spray less water to the side.
They save a lot of water and energy, and as a side effect also reduce the chance of flooding and moisture problems.
I am currenly testing with some 6l/min showerheads, to see if guests accept the loss of comfort.
The more I’ve hosted on Airbnb, the more I’ve realized that stereotypes and even generalizations are a poor version of the reality, and people are wonderfully diverse and different (and unpredictable) from every city/country/corner of the earth. It’s made me less prejudicious and a lot humbler.
PS: Apologies if resurrecting a long-dead thread is frowned upon, but thought I had to say this.