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My first season of renting the guest bedroom in our home on Air worked out really well, and I’m thinking of ways to improve for the 2017 summer season. I’m considering adding the graphic that appears below to my listing. It’s the floor plan for the first floor of my house, and shows the guest space outlined in blue.
I’m looking for opinions as to whether you think this is good information or if it will actually turn guests off. I worry that they will think the room is too small, that they will worry about the 2nd door in the bathroom that leads to the hallway, that they’ll be concerned about the fact the guest room is right behind the garage (noise) and I don’t want to have to explain these potential “issues” away in my listing copy. So you all know though, the room is not big, but it’s big enough, the bathroom door to the hall is lockable and kept locked while guests are in the house, and we don’t use the garage when we have guests because yes, opening the garage door would wake the dead.
On the other hand, I often have people asking me questions about the layout of the house, mostly it seems because they worry about waking us up if they get in late, or they are concerned about impacting us with their stay. I answer their questions honestly, I’ve never had anyone not book given my answers to the best of my knowledge and I’ve never had any complaints once people were in the house.
I am new to hosting but would love to put a floor plan in my listing, I rent out the whole house though so it is a different scenario.
In your case it would really help the potential guest understand the space in advance as you can appreciate.
As you already have done a season why not try the graphic for a week or two and see if there is any effect on your bookings?
I actually find matching your listing narrative and this floor plan into a cohesive understanding of your home confusing, and I have read the listing more than once!
In the listing you mention the Den several times, but this floor plan doesn’t have a den. Your pictures show your living room [can tell because of the distinctive window] but your listing doesn’t include it as one of the shared spaces. You do say that guests are welcome to use the dining room, but there are no pictures of that room.
I actually think the floor plan is a good idea, but, you have to have the room names on the plan match the room names in your listing. I would add a set of second colored lines to mark the shared space, and I would indicate on the floor plan that the garage is not used for cars. Perhaps change garage to storage if in fact, you won’t be putting cars in there while you have guests. Another inconsistency is you mention a paved patio but the outdoor pictures show 2 chairs on grass.
Thanks so much for your input @anon67190644. You’re right. It hadn’t occurred to me yet that I’m using the rooms in the house differently than the floor plan might indicate. The room marked as a “living room” on the floor plan is actually my den, and that is the photo with the blue chair and the arched window.
I agree about adding a new color to outline the shared spaces.
There is a photo of my paved patio after the one of lounge chairs on the lawn, and I will change the order to people see the paved one first.
Again, thanks for your input. All the extra eyes in this forum are a huge help!
Many of the items you listed were things that occurred to me as well.
One other suggestion I might add is that, if you remove the cars from the garage anyway, consider allowing them to park their car there and enter through the door directly beside “their space” for more privacy (as long as you don’t have items in the garage that you’re worried about losing). Having their own entrance might be a real bonus to selling the space.
I show a layout of our home on our website. When I get questions about the space it’s an easy thing to direct them to that. It does allow the guest to fully see what they can expect. In the end it’s all a positive because, if someone has chosen to stay somewhere else because of it (none that I’m aware of) then it means they wouldn’t have been happy with the space, anyway. I’d rather just host guests that are very happy with full knowledge beforehand.
You make an excellent point about offering garage use. I honestly had never even considered that. It can’t be done until we buy a shed to stow the lawn mower, snow blower and other various crap in, but we need to do it anyway, so this is another reason to make it happen. Thanks!
P.S. I wonder if people would steal frozen food out of the freezer we have in there? LOL!
My freezer, the newer one, actually came with a lock! We have never used the lock but I suspect that this scenario is one that convinced the manufacturer to make it a feature of the appliance. It is possible that someone would riffle through your freezer. I would be more concerned about someone not paying attention and running into your freezer with their car.
I have a floorplan for our rental that’s 95% ready to upload and has been for more than a year
Thanks for the nudge - I must get it finished and uploaded. I sometimes think that in the place of verified photography, Airbnb should offer a floorplan service. We can all take decent photographs with our phones but a floorplan really helps potential guests to get a clear idea of the rental.
My mom had a lock on her chest freezer and this was in 1990. I think locks on freezers have been around a long time …I never understood why given it was in the house but it was commercial sized so maybe the idea was to protect stock. We were a huge family and a normal freezer wasn’t big enough. Interesting if locks are now featuring on family sized freezers (though there’s a high chance that a family sized freezer in the US is a commercially sized one here in the UK).
