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I have been hosting for almost two years now. It’s a slow season so I lowered my pricing in half in hopes for more bookings and nicer reviews.
Well I rented out my entire house to 6 construction workers for $145 a night -super cheap.
I got a bad review about the house smelling like dog. -well there is a dog in the listing but this is the first time ever that anyone has mentioned it. In fact on Halloween someone told me that my house smelled great like essential oils.
Anyway two questions. 1. Does lowering the price of your listing generally reflect better reviews?
2. How can I get rid of or prevent dog smells?
-I do have the carpet professionally cleaned every other month.
We had a similiar situation with a ‘cat’ smell. The people were just trying to get there money back bc they found cheaper accommodations. We don’t have carpet, but that may be a good option.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get rid of dog smells in a carpeted house. We have all wood, tile and linoleum floors as carpets hold dirt and odors. Does your house have windows on all sides? The best thing you can do to get rid of odors is open all the windows as much as possible. If your pets have an accident, Anti Icky Poo is the best for removing the odor.
I hope this isn’t a dumb question, but is it necessary to have a carpet? I’m not a carpet fan. Perhaps consider a nice wooden floor instead. Or even tile. Much easier to clean.
The urine is in the carpet underpass, you will never get rid of it with carpet cleaning. Save your money on various products, pull up the carpet and get laminate installed. You may need to seal the wood underlay with Kilz as the urine will have soaked through.
OxyClean will entirely eliminate pet odors and not leave behind any perfume or deodorizing scent. So, yes, you can get rid of urine with carpet cleaning. If there’s been a pet accident on carpet, just soak the carpet with very hot water & OxyClean enough to get through to the pad, and even the wood beneath and just let it dry.
This will pass my mother in-law’s clean test. She takes the term Clean Freak to a whole new level, and she’s not fond of my two cats, to say the least. She looks at them as though they are on the same level as rats and thinks they are dirty, filthy creatures.
I have been renting out my vacation homes for almost 4 years now via Airbnb, on my own website and other sites. This year after the slow season I decided to see if lowering my prices would be beneficial and bring in more off season guests. I have noticed in only the last month of doing so I am getting guests that fill the rentals to capacity and leave it from fairly dirty to filthy. It appears to bring in different clientele and younger clientele which while not causing any destruction leave such a mess it requires double the cleaning time. These people are not respectful of the property and it now happens 50% of the time where it almost never happened before. Instead of raising the price back to my seasonal price I have added a charge for additional people over 2 to see if that helps and still attracts smaller parties who appreciate a lower rate.
Lowering my prices also makes me worry because earlier this summer I realized Airbnb insurance is worth squat when they would not cover accidental damages caused by a guest who left the water running in the bathtub and ruined the floors. Again it was an accident where the guest admitted but ultimately would not pay, therefore my pricing needs to hedge against damages. So I am not a big fan of lowering prices from my experience.
I also have pets and allow pets but agree no carpeting or rugs that can’t be thrown in the washer or thrown out if need be. Just my take on the effect of lowering prices.
It appears that most people here are assuming that the dog smell was from the dogs relieving themselves in the house. The original poster didn’t say that the dogs have relieved themselves in the house. I used to have English bulldogs who have oily skin. They smelled like dog. I assumed that this was the smell the original poster was referring to.
The Biocide just arrived today and I opened it up in the living room. The house smells like chlorine (kindof like a pool) but I can tell it’s eliminating the bad pet smells and working. I think this is a winner.
All houses have their own smell. That’s what makes them ‘home’. It’s usually hard to describe but if you’re blind, say, you’d know straightaway if you were in your grandmother’s place or your uncle’s or your crazy friend who has dogs and cooks vegan curry all the time. There is nothing wrong with smells. Smells are good. As long as the place is clean and well-maintained, all is well and personally I like to sniff the aroma of a new place. Smell is one of the senses that make you know whether you’re safe and/or comfortable or not. So a strong dog smell is not good. It’s unpleasant to those who are not used to it and can be overpowering, thus destroying all those nice smells underneath. But I’m biased. I’m not keen on dogs and their smell (and yes they do smell, no matter how much you protest!) so I wouldn’t book a place with dogs. Unless it was amazing. Or KarmaCasa because she is cool and has amazing throws on the bed.
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The Biocide just arrived today and I opened it up in the living room. The house smells like chlorine (kindof like a pool) but I can tell it’s eliminating the bad pet smells and working. I think this is a winner.
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I usually seal off the room the best I can and leave it overnight. It supposedly works better in the dark as any light will break down the active chlorine dioxide into salt & water quickly. The chlorine smell completely goes away once you’re finished with the treatment.
