Well, not everything has changed but this year we have had a LOT of guests who clearly don’t read our listing. We’ve now taken to responding to every enquiry and booking request with a business-like email bullet pointing everything that IS and IS NOT on offer. That seems to be doing the trick but it’s way more formal than we would like to be. Only today we had to field yet another booking from someone who thought they were renting the whole place. Before this year, this kind of issue would occur once in a while. Now it’s maybe 50% of our bookings. Has something changed with Airbnb? Did I miss a memo? I have to stress that we’ve had 5 years of things running very smoothly with almost all bookings.
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We get this all the time. We’ve done everything we can to let people know it is not a vacant house and even have ‘shared’ in the title and people still don’t understand. Sometimes they get angry and leave. Oh well.
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Same thing is happening with us, and I think it’s Airbnb’s fault. If you start surfing around the site as a guest, you’ll notice the word HOME in big letters everywhere. When you start looking at individual listings, it still kind of says HOME, unless you notice the smaller type that says PRIVATE ROOM. Lots of new users and vague marketing by Airbnb is what I think is causing this relatively new, or more pervasive, problem.
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Thanks Chloe. I had a hunch that something was going on. It’s been a real marked change this season (since April).
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We have had a lot more people since April who don’t understand our listing. The thing that baffles me is that some people don’t even read the title. They apparently just look at the price and pictures and book.
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I have a guest coming next week who messaged me today to ask if I have an exercise machine. I have to wonder if she thinks she is staying in a hotel or an apartment building with a gym.
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Yep – that’s about right!
Seems very common for whoever made the booking not to pass anything on to the other members of the party, including it seems directions.
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Yup. We’ve had a few guests ask about hairdryers upon arrival. We don’t list this as a convenience since a guest took the last one. Why should I keep buying hairdryers for folks?
We also had a review negatively commenting on the absence of a dishwasher. Again we don’t list it as a convenience because we don’t have one or want one.
Lastly, the washing machine is ‘out of action’ because I don’t want guests doing all their washing in our house, using the water and power, especially after a guest overloaded it leading to water damage and a new ceiling. So, guess what! It’s not listed as a convenience. Yet despite using Air’s facility to list what we have and DON’T have, guests can still criticise out of some sense of entitlement.
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I think a lot of that has to do with the idiotic way that Airbnb is displaying the amenities.
For a while it used to be just 1 long list - nothing sorted. With over 30 or 50 amenities a nightmare.
Now I see it is grouped together and thus somewhat easier. Still they never heard of sorting in alphabetical order …
Try it for yourself and then let me know:
Am I offering washer + dryer?
Am I offering a TV?
www.airbnb.com/rooms/186917744
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I was wondering if there were any local Airbnb host groups recently so I plugged my city name and “Airbnb” into Facebook, and lo’ and behold, my listing popped up. Has Airbnb always cross-posted our listings on Facebook this way?
I was also getting people with odd expectations, messaging stuff like, “can’t wait to come to your resort” or “can’t wait to stay at your little oasis”. I thought the cover picture of my swimming pool was possibly giving people the wrong idea, thinking we’re a hotel or something. Now I’m wondering if it’s Airbnb’s marketing at fault.
After 4.3 years things are pretty much the same here. The main difference I’ve noticed this summer is I’m getting more longer bookings; 3-4 nights instead of all one or two nighters. I don’t necessarily prefer the longer bookings so its a mixed bag for me.
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Hairdryers are available at the Salvation Army etc. They are practical to offer because travelling with them is both bulky and because electrical sources may vary.
I offer access to the washer and dryer plus the clothesline and dishwasher. I also show them my utility bill to prove how often people respect my home by using them during non peak hours!
We no longer allow people to use our washing machine or dryer. We’ve had too many people abuse it by doing laundry constantly and leaving their clothes in the washer or dryer so we can’t even use our own machine. It’s just easier to not allow use than to try to enforce boundaries. And there is also a laundromat five minutes away from our place so it works out.
My airbnb is very quiet. But kept very busy using other platforms. Rooms in dublin are going for € 19, which is crazy, you cant compete with that. Am not sure how the irish market is doing. Airbnb give details of every host to the tax man, this went down like a lead balloon. Rent a room is € 11,000 tax free but if they are airbnb, you pay 49%