AirBnBs I passed on for myself as a guest, and why

how would you know about this just from the listing?

we’ve got one, but travel time is a bitch and your dog has to do qt for 12 weeks…:sweat_smile: actually scratch that, the pool is a shared facility.

well, this is also a nice filter, cos anyone who prefers little dogs to big, and thinks big dogs are a problem, is not quite my person, just saying :wink:

I saw a listing recently where they specified a weight limit (for dogs, not humans), and then added “no dogs on furniture”. lol. i’ve never met a little dog that didn’t jump up on furniture.

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The dog is going to behave in exactly the same way as when it is at home.
I had a 55kg Alaskan Malamute who sat on the couch with my kids and shed like a snowstorm.

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Yep, that is why I don’t accept guest pets. Hosts who think “No dogs on the furniture” is something that will be respected are delusional. If the dog sleeps on furniture at home, it certainly will everywhere.

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I have this phrase in my listing but i’m not delusional. I send a 2pm message on day of check in letting them know there’s a large green quilt in the cupboard for pet use. And there’s also a large sheet with “dog sheet” written in sharpie on it. I don’t quite spell it out but reading between the lines is: put a sheet on the furniture before letting your dog jump up.

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Why don’t you spell it out?

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Cos when it comes to hoping humans will behave with common sense, i’m delusional. :rofl:

and also, I don’t want to actually say, “ok, let your dog jump on the sofa”. i’d rather they took extra care to make sure I can’t tell it happened. and so, the sheet is provided.

I think it’s far better to specify what you want.

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But why say no dogs on the furniture when you know that isn’t going to happen if that’s what the dog is used to? Why not just say “If your dog is accustomed to being on the couch or bed, use the provided dog sheet”?

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You’re kidding, right? They have to be disclosed. They have to be very specifically disclosed as to whether they’re actively recording video and/or audio, whether it’s being transmitted and what area they’re recording.

Gawd help the host who doesn’t disclose they’re recording a middle-age woman in a pool. They’re just begging to give away a free stay. :no_mouth:

Y’all been holding my rollerblades for 20 years now. Don’t know how dumb you think I am but there’s no chance you’re taking my dog too. :grin:

And it’s the least of the worry. As a dog friendly host and landlord, every single problem, both small and large (or a large amount of small problems :poop:) has come from little dogs. Under 20 lbs. I’ve thought of making a dogs only over 30 lbs rule. Still thinking about. Not going to feel bad about it either.

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yes I know, but we have 20 cameras on the farm and the ABB box isn’t big enough to list them all, where they face and other details. but you’ve made me revisit it because the way i’ve written it, it might look like there’s a camera over the pool, need to change that.

love it. I just have some wording that suggests little dogs might not feel so safe on a farm with possums and snakes and owls. hopefully that filters out some humans too.

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Okay I’m super curious about this: how do people feel about no self check-in? What does that connote for you?

We have an Airbnb listing where we indicate that we aim to be there to welcome people to the apartment but then we’ll leave them alone – but we also say in the listing that if the guest needs to check in at an odd time, we’ll provide them with detailed info about how to get to the apartment and let themselves in. (We have a smart lock so that part is easy, but what’s not so easy is finding the apartment, which is up a long driveway past a historic mansion – which always disappoints people when they realise that’s not where they’re staying! – to get to the historic boarding house behind it which is where our apartment is.)

So I have 2 reasons for preferring to check people in: 1) I want to make sure they don’t have trouble finding the place, and 2) I also want to make sure I’m getting what I’m expecting: namely, no children and no pets. (Don’t get me wrong, I love kids and I love pets, but our condo association has not approved us to have either children or pets in our STR, so if someone ignores our rules and brings their kid / dog and a neighbour sees that, I risk losing my ability to host.)

So when you say you don’t like no self check in (which, if I have my double negatives correct, means you want self check in) is that because you don’t like having to time your arrival in order to meet the host, or is it because you want your privacy? (I’m assuming your goal isn’t to break host rules, LOL.)

As I mentioned, I’m flexible about the self check in if it’s a timing issue. I either meet people when they want to arrive, or if I can’t do that, I enable them to get there on their own (with detailed instructions for how to go up the driveway, past the mansion… etc.). So I’m confident that I don’t disappoint guests with the check in experience (unless they’re the kind of guests who want to hide something in which case I don’t really care about disappointing them). But I’m wondering if my settings on Airbnb, where I say I meet the guests, might be turning off potential quality guests.

How do people decide between attracting guests with the promise of convenience and privacy vs. deterring guests who might look for self check-in stays as a way to sneak in extra guests, pets, etc.?

What you’re doing sounds ideal for your situation, especially if you explain your property is tricky to locate.

During the worse part of the Covid pandemic we stayed booked solid and I know that self check in was reassuring. When traveling we sought out places that minimized contact.

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A camera at the entrance (a Ring for example) can solve your need to see your guests and who/what they bring. Sending a video covering the path you show is how airbnb suggests - and there is a place in the guest’s app that easily lets them see the video (you can narrate it and be in it) so they can refer to this at the site and watch it before they even get to you.

The ‘good old days’ of airbnb, with folks staying in little Johnny’s bedroom when he is off to summer camp are long gone.

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How does the host upload a video and where does the Host do this?

I was unaware of this possibility.

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Based on my experience, it’s not gone. I stayed in an Airbnb in June that was very much the original Airbnb concept: shared space including bathroom, get in with an old fashioned key in a lock box by the front door, “don’t let the cats out, please” place.

I’m staying in another one in two weeks that’s the same with the exception of having more bathrooms and dogs, not cats. What’s changed is that the old model is now the minority. There’s so many more listings and home share is just a fraction.

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Possums , snakes and owls. Try rattlers, coyotes, hawks and owls! Neighbors min-pin taken…

“Dangerous animals on property” include Dobermans!

“And it’s the least of the worry. As a dog friendly host and landlord, every single problem, both small and large (or a large amount of small problems :poop:) has come from little dogs. Under 20 lbs. I’ve thought of making a dogs only over 30 lbs rule. Still thinking about. Not going to feel bad about it either.” YESSS!!! Thank you in advance!

should be at least 45#

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I’ve always found large dogs to be better behaved, more used to sleeping on their own beds on the floor, etc.

I’ve never seen so many small dogs as among the expat retired folks here in Mexico. Maybe it’s like that everywhere with retirees, but they all seem to dote over their ugly little yappers, and think everything they do is cute or acceptable, no matter how obnoxious.

One woman I know with three little white fluffies told me one day, “Of course, they’ve dug up all my flower gardens”, as if that’s just inevitable if you have a dog, and they can’t be trained not to do objectionable things.

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Large dogs have to behave. Littles just get picked up and carried away from anything that scares or disturbs them, which makes their future reactions worse.

We had a boxer mix, Butch, and a Chi Cocker mix, Angus, growing up. They were great buddies. Angus was rarely picked up and knew how to behave. Except he hated human babies.

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I’ve been a first, zero review, or few review (like first 5) guest several times, at “starter” or obviously discounted rates. I know it’s a risk, but it’s overall worked out well.

The best was a beautiful Creole cottage in New Orleans that I would never be able to justify paying the current rates for. The worst was a reno that had unfinished punch list items and some missing stuff – like no trash containers anywhere. I had to message for some fixes.

I only do this when I don’t have an urgent schedule and would have time and mental energy to take a rehousing, if needed, in stride.

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That makes sense. My travels are more along the line of “Time’s running faster than I am and I’m trying to outrun the devil.” I’m a risk taker in many regards but not in regards to new airbnb. LOL.