Do the guest bother to read the listing at all?

[teg]

@dcmooney

yes, and I said "$5 off if you say “I read it!”. Only 1 taker in the last 6 months…

OOOOO that’s a good one! I should try it! (=

[teg]

@azreala

As a fun little experiment I put a sentence in the description that says ‘When making a request, please confirm you have read and will abide by all house rules’. I would say 2 out of 10 requests include the above pre-req, which has been on our listing for 3 years

I have a similar phrase in my listing too… 2/10 is good. I think I had about 1/20-30 who would say they’ve read the rules in their first message. Seriously.

[azreala]

We have raised our price to what is a slightly ridiculous number AND charge per person AND charge a cleaning AND don’t allow parties…So, we have been getting much more mature people, which is my only rationale as to why the number is so high

[Yana]

I dont understand why people are saying here that rules are not visible. It is right there to the left of screen, and you need to aknowledge you read them before you book.
Airbnb had a policy and its also written everywhere that if a guest acts against host’s rules, a host can cancel reservation without penalties and …keep the money! How is it possible that at the same time Airbnb is hiding rules from visibility??

[teg]

@Yana_Agapova

I dont understand why people are saying here that rules are not visible. It is right there to the left of screen, and you need to aknowledge you read them before you book.Airbnb had a policy and its also written everywhere that if a guest acts against host’s rules, a host can cancel reservation without penalties and …keep the money! How is it possible that at the same time Airbnb is hiding rules from visibility??

I don’t know what ‘rules’ you are talking about but I don’t think there is anywhere you need to acknowledge any rules. Nowadays, before I book anyone, I always just copy my house rules onto our conversation and ask the person to reply and agree to them rather than just asking if they read my rules. It forces them to look.

[Yana]

Ok just do this for me: go to anyone’s listing, click on request button, then you will see to the left of the screen grey colored square where it says “HOST’s” House Rules.
And the list of rules, the ones I am talking about, house rules.
Then it says on a bottom of her square in red : +See all house rules. This is what a guest should do, click on that and read ALL house rules.
Then, click on red button where it says CONTINUE.
It brings to a new page. Look again to the left of screen at the very bottom and it prompts you to check the box where you should agree to the HOUSE RULES and other things.

If you don’t check the box, it does not even let you book or inquire

[teg]

@Yana_Agapova

Ok just do this for me: go to anyone’s listing, click on request button, then you will see to the left of the screen grey colored square where it says “HOST’s” House Rules.And the list of rules, the ones I am talking about, house rules. Then it says on a bottom of her square in red : +See all house rules. This is what a guest should do, click on that and read ALL house rules. Then, click on red button where it says CONTINUE. It brings to a new page. Look again to the left of screen at the very bottom and it prompts you to check the box where you should agree to the HOUSE RULES and other things.

If you don’t check the box, it does not even let you book or inquire

Ahh I see. Yes you are correct. Now I see that, but some people don’t have rules, and checking one little box is easy to gloss over especially when it has I agree to A, B, and C. - that’s too much info for the guest to process. Even me! Hahaha. (=

“I agree to the House Rules, Cancellation Policy, and to the Guest Refund Policy. I also agree to pay the total amount shown, which includes Service Fees.”

[Yana]

I was basically responding to statement that Air makes house rules invisible.
People don’t read , it’s true. The extra step you are doing is always s goodidea

[hypertokyo]

I’ve also gotten silly questions, although not often.
The thing is, the Air interface (especially on smartphone/mobile) is heavily visual and people don’t feel a need to read the description before booking (that is also why a GREAT listing photo is crucial).
Here’s an idea; overlay this text on one of your first 3-4 photos -

$20 CASHBACK
Read listing for details!

And put this before the fold in your description - direct them to the House Rules with a link (many users don’t know where it is).
In the actual House Rules, you can always limit the offer to “May - June 2016, minimum 3 nights stay” or somesuch.

[Daniel_Vroman_Rustee]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: A guest reads the title, don’t put things that they’ve already filtered for (# bedrooms/ bathrooms, etc). Instead make it catchy and put amenities that sell: rooftop patio, free parking, view of X landmark, hot tub, etc. Also, I like to add bullet, catchy, sentence fragmets in the ‘About this listing’ section at the top. If a guest reads, this is where they’ll go first. Make it snappy, catchy, and thorough. Example:

• Walk and public transit score of 99!
• Hot tub
• Rooftop patio garden
• Private, gated entrance
• 0.5 miles from Main street
• Crime Grade of A+, extremely safe neighborhood

I love looking and improving peoples listings, send me your url and I’m happy to do this. My email is danielrusteen [at] gmail [dot] com

[Mo_In_TO]

@teg

I don’t believe you need to send a booking inquiry to ask questions. At the bottom of the listing where it shows the host, there is a button labeled “Contact Host” and you can send just messages through there.

No. Try it, you’ll see. You can’t send a message without specifying dates. I just double-checked. I had to log in first also.

cheers

[Maggieroni]

You used to be able to but not anymore. You must specify dates even for an inquiry. And the host gets those dreaded accept decline buttons or pre approve and it’s just a question! Sometimes I answer without choosing any option and I think that doesn’t affect your response rate. But who knows, this is still unchartered territory. I had the daughter of a guest who had already booked make an inquiry about their stay and she had to include dates just to ask a question outside of her moms account. So I answered and pre approved her for other dates effectively blocking my calendar for a day. But they were great guests so it’s ok. But the system is very Mickey Mouse!

[Daniel_Vroman_Rustee]

@Maggieroni Pre-approving a guest doesn’t block dates on your calendar. You should be good doing that. However, I recommend not pre-approving because what if you get an inquiry for twice the length as the pre-approval, but the pre-approved guest accepts before you can revoke it? If the guest wants to book, it’s just as easy without pre-approving them. I always tell the guest to send an request and I’ll be sure to accept it. Keep in mind, if a guest sends a reservation request, your calendar will be blocked in this instance.

[felixcat]

@Daniel_Vroman_Rustee

Make it snappy, catchy, and thorough. Example:- Walk and public transit score of 99!

Maybe Air should link up with WalkScore and publish those ratings with listings.

[faheem]

@Maggieroni

And the host gets those dreaded accept decline buttons or pre approve and it’s just a question! Sometimes I answer without choosing any option and I think that doesn’t affect your response rate.

I’ve now taken to asking inquirers whether they want me to pre-approve. I’ve yet to get a positive response. I think most people who inquire (at least in my neck of the woods) are just wandering past and kicking the tires.

[brook2adks]

I find walk score to be completely inaccurate for my area.

[felixcat]

@brook2adks

I find walk score to be completely inaccurate for my area.

My thoughts exactly when I saw the rating when we sold a house recently!

But…We need more metrics! sarcasm