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Cleanliness is king. Make sure that the space you’re renting out is spotless. We’ve heard stories from guests who have stayed in places where they were afraid to put things onto the counter because it was so dirty. This is the surest way to get a negative review.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Give guests all the info they will need before or upon their arrival. This includes things like check-in and check-out time and where to pick up keys as well as wi-fi passwords, the layout of the house and house rules. Bonus points if you can provide guides on local restaurants, nearby grocery stores and cool tourist attractions.
The little things matter. We always put together a small welcome basket with bottled water, juice boxes, granola bars, fruit and muffins for our guests and every single guest we’ve had makes a comment on how nice our “treat boxes” are. It’s a small gesture that goes a long way.
Provide comfortable and nice bedding. Now is not the time to reuse your old college sheets that you’ve been saving for the last 10 years, in hopes of finding a use for them again. Invest in decent pillows and sheets that will have your guests sighing with pleasuring at the end of a long day rather than grimacing in disgust.
Put any quirks or things about your home or neighborhood on your listing that guests may not expect or like. Being upfront about these things will mean that guests are already aware and accept these quirks when booking and there’s less of a chance that they will leave a negative review because they weren’t prepared.
Anticipate your guests’ needs. Inquire as to the reason they’re staying. If they’re working in the area, offer them a bicycle so they can commute easily to work. If they’re here for a birthday or an anniversary, buy them a small cake or a box of chocolates. These are small but unexpected ways to really impress your guests and blow them away.
Stock your room with local city maps and tourist guides. You can collect these for free at most tourist kiosks in your city and it’s a welcoming and thoughtful gesture for your guests. Often these guides even have coupons and this will really impress your guests if you can help save them money and recommend something awesome for them to do.
Be friendly, welcoming and genuine. Yes you may be hosting on AirBnb because you want to make extra cash but no one wants to feel like they’re a means to an end. If you make your guests feel like they’re welcome in your home rather than an intruder, it will make their stay a pleasant one. It can be awkward staying in a stranger’s home but if you are warm and welcoming, guests will actually feel like guests.
Be available and responsive to communication from your guests. If you provided your email to your guests, make sure that you’re regularly checking your email in case issues come up with your guests. We recommend sharing your phone number with guests so they can easily reach you if they need anything. It is not okay to let your guests wait 12 hours before your respond to something they need while staying with you.
Respect privacy. If your guests seem like they want to keep to themselves, respect their need for privacy and don’t constantly knock on their door for company. This also means do not enter their room without permission or go through their things.
If you have any tips on being a great host please share them! These are just a few suggestions but there are innumerable more that will help you become the perfect AirBnb host.
These are amazing tips and I agree to following them all! I oftentimes feel that “my guests don’t like me” if they keep to themselves but you are absolutely right as it may just be a part of their experience and I should respect that. It has nothing to do with me.
I wrote this article of tips on how to maximize your Air B&B profile for monetization and profits. Would love for you to check it out and let me know if I missed anything!
I believe hosts are the ultimate local guide. I agree that you want to provide maps, local recommendations etc. I suggest using Favrit for that (guestbook.favritapp.com) as that will help your guests to carry those recommendations around easily. Favrit is a free app for you and for your guests, and the company will even help you get your profile set up and add your recommendations in case it would take you too long to put all the information in manually.
This reads like an airbnb article. Somehow I find this forum not the least bit like reality. Having strangers in your home is exhausting both physically and emotionally, sometimes bending over backwards is never good enough and the unpleasant guest enjoys the discomfort they bring into a home - yes, there really are emotionally unwell people out there folks. There are guests that will leave huge boogers on your shower wall, which you will have to personally go in and clean off each time they shower and hope the other guests sharing that bathroom didn’t see it, will clog your toilet with more feces than you could imagine possible and then after stirring it half heartedly with a plunger, set it down on your polished wooden floor for you to deal with. Sometimes guests will use your beautiful room and as a place to hole up and get drunk and have loud grunting and squealing sex all weekend, and you will find your antique textile collection was used to wipe up the, um, excretions, instead of the plentiful towels right there in the ensuite two steps away. Sometimes people will break your beautiful antique dining table while partying loudly and crazily with you upstairs, and claim the next morning when it is in two pieces set aside that they were having a quiet card game. Some guests will break your items, and then get angry claiming you shouldn’t have nice things in your home. Some guests will slam doors over and over so that you fear they will fly off the hinges, and stomp about so you feel like you’re in the midst of an argument, except, this is just how they are, and other guests are trying to sleep but not this weekend. Many guests will lie.
I wasn’t very clear in what I was reacting to. I am responding to the ‘treat boxes with all the snacks, muffins, bottled water and juice’, cakes for birthdays and other special events (every second person claims they come to my home for a special event by the way, and other things mentioned here the host is expected to do, such as lending bicycles.
All of these expenses add up and are time consuming. They take quite a lot of money from the bottom line, as hosts of small businesses like ours don’t have access to huge discounts like what is available in the hotel industry. Even lending bikes will end up being costly, as any bike owner knows that keeps their bikes in rideable condition. What people may not realize is that even hotels don’t make much money from the actual room rate. Most is made through extras. Valet, room service, restaurants, and other things that come when you have guests in beds that need things. It is a huge expense to wash all those piles of laundry, not to mention labor - and here we have businesses offering to do it for you eating further into the bottom line, implausible for most hosts, clean, and even provide the extra utilities guests use. Taxes. Breakfast! Good coffee (which in itself not gotten for a hotel rate is pricy too). All large expenses, making what seems to be great earnings to be not so great when you really sit down to do the math.
I find these articles annoying, inasmuch that they make it all seem like we should be giving guests the earth, and often for the cheap price that guests are always looking for. How about some articles that are based on reality for a change. Like, how much these things really cost to provide, in money and time, and whether or not the expectations are setting hosts up for long term burn out or failure.
Awesome post - the one thing I’d add is try using a virtual concierge to help answer your guests’ questions. PadPolish.com is a great one - free to use in US and UK.
Not to mention that many of us have to pay the sales and occupancy taxes off our bottom line, even if, in my case, listings in DC, a mile away, have taxes added after the rate - so they don’t have to pay the taxes from the nightly rate, or have to do what I do, which is collect the txes at check-in.
