I finally achieved the goal I set for myself back in 2020, lol. The pandemic slowed things down a bit. I’m glad though, I have no regrets about not going back to my 2019 pace.
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Congrats, KKC! With the number of bookings I get, I’ll be dead of old age long before I hit the 700 mark.
Did the number 700 hold some particular meaning for you, or just some random goal?
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Wow, that’s fantastic! I’m with Muddy, I’ll never see 700 reviews. If I do, I’ll probably be sucking my thumb in a corner! 
What is the star breakdown? 
I remember at 600 reviews there were 590 that were 5-star.
Just even 100’s. I was averaging 100 a year so sort of had a goal of 1000 by my 10th anniversary on Airbnb in May. Besides the pandemic I have many more days with repeat direct bookings.
Sadly Airbnb no longer breaks that down for me. In scrolling back to manually determine, I have three 4 star reviews from 2019 to present so I guess I have 687 5 star? I also have a one star and a 3 star if I recall accurately.
I’m now a member of the 700 Club! I bet you remember that joke as well. I thought I didn’t like the sound of the 600 Club, then being reminded it was the 700 club I didn’t like the sound of.
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I sure wish Airbnb broke down the star ratings. That’s one of the things that’s wrong with their review system- you have no idea if a host or guest has a 4.4 star rating because they get a lot of 4s or because someone tanked their 5 star rating with a 2* revenge review.
On other sites, like Amazon, you can see the rating breakdown, and read the corresponding reviews. Much more useful system.
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Congratulations! 2020202020
Congratulations.
I’m curious if guest booking pattern has changed for you after achieving 100, 500, 700 reviews.
For me, I get more advanced bookings than I used to after I hit 200 reviews but that could also be because covid isn’t a concern any more in travel plan disruptions.
I haven’t noticed any changes. I don’t think I have a business model that is much like other hosts here. For one, I love and prefer the one night stays. I call these guests travelers, not tourists. My favorite guest is the single person who arrives at 8-10 pm with a dog, and is out the next morning at 6-8 am. If I required longer bookings I’d be lucky to have 2-300 reviews now.
I’ve never gotten a lot of advanced bookings and am unlikely to given my target guest.
What I have always said is that the busier I am, the busier I am. I often close up for weeks at a time. When I reopen and open my calendar up a few months out I generally get bookings after a week or so and have a steady stream. For example, here are screen shots of my calendar this year. Hopefully you can see the tiny crossouts on the days I blocked by clicking on the picture.
Why do I block off so many days? Because I am traveling or too busy with my in home dog boarding business. The pandemic taught me that I feel a lot better if I don’t overwork.
Edit: I don’t know why it says Feb 3 times. That’s Jan-March.
Also 12 of 16 guests left reviews within the review window. All my guests for the past 2 weeks reviewed.
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Agreed. I cater to the classic tourist market segment.
I think the tourist market segment travel pattern has gone through a lot of change since I started hosting in fall of 2020.
I also cater to the tourist market, but my experience of changes is opposite to yours. I used to get longer bookings (a lot for my 2 week max) and guests booked well in advance. People used to have a one or two week vacation from work. They picked a destination and stayed there.
But since Covid, when many people started working from home and still do, I get way more 3-4 night bookings with more bookings made closer to the check-in dates.
These online workers seem to either find a cheap, often warm, area of the world, and stay there long term (Mexicans in Mexico City are ranting online and in newspapers about all the digital nomads who’ve taken over their neighborhoods) or move around a lot and don’t necessarily plan ahead much because they don’t have to. They can work from anywhere that has good Wifi, and like travelling around.
that’s quite interesting… are the guests you are getting remote workers?
I thought the whole remote work thing got scaled down significantly as employers recalled people to office. Many of the people who worked from office were probably jealous of all the fun the other people were having.
Congratulations, I just checked and am about halfway behind you with 325, so another few years…
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Some work online, some are just on vacay and have jobs they have to go home to. One guest who’s stayed 3 times now is a physiotherapist. You’d think that work would have to be hands-on, but she does one hour zoom sessions with her clients where she basically leads them in a series of exercises tailored for their issues, as if she’s a yoga instructor.
A lot of businesses that had their employees work from home during Covid lockdowns wondered why they were paying for all this office space, if their employees were being just as productive working from home.
My daughter’s employer, a financial management firm, gave some of their employees the choice to continue working from home, or come back to the office. My daughter chose to work from home. She’s very self-disciplined, puts in the same 8 hours she did at the office, and her family knows not to disturb her when her home office door is closed. But instead of commuting every morning, and coming home at 5, she can arrange her day however she wants. She can get up and work for 3 hours, go for a bike ride for an hour, go back to work for another 2 hrs, then bake a cake, or do dinner prep, or go food shopping, then go back to her desk for another 3 hours til dinnertime.
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Congratulations @KKC
We’re not even halfway to that target yet (although we are also host longer stays (3 day average) and don’t take one-nighters)
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You are waaay ahead of me, I started 2017 and am at 233 reviews. I’ve also slowed my pace, with 3 day minimums, a price hike, and a lot of blocking for my own travels.
Much less hectic to the point I am enjoying hosting again. My gross revenues are less but not much less.
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Congratulations!
I hit 200 reviews a few weeks ago. I started in 2015, so it took a long time to get here. I accept 1 night stays, but I’ve taken a lot of breaks for hosting when my children were born, I had a long-term tenant, and I didn’t host during the pandemic.
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I’m around there too at 313. And I guess that’s probably my final number since I’m not hosting any longer but I’m proud of my 313.
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I have over 900 reviews spread out over the 3 rooms in my shared home, over 13 years. Many of my guests in the last few years are multiple repeat guests, so the rate of reviews has slowed a bit, but I am grateful that I am not as much at the mercy of boomer entitlement or millennial disdain.
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“CONGRATULATIONS” @KKC 
That’s a very nice accomplishment! I, too, like one-night stays. I do this often when the season slows down, and like you, block out days when I need a rest, as unfortunately, it is very difficult for my cleaner to come during those last-minute bookings. I am disabled, so I rarely clean my own place unless my cleaner cannot come and I don’t have a family member around to help.
I block out days for needed rest and when I have my children visiting or friends that come to south Florida. That’s the beauty of having a STR rather than a tenant or LTR
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