Guests that are new to Airbnb

We have been hosting for about 2 years now and I am constantly finding first time airbnb’ers are so harsh when it comes to expectations. Am I alone here or does anyone else feel this way?
Any ideas to what I can do to ensure unrealistic expectations do not come knocking at my door?! We’ve been superhosts for the past 2 years so we’re doing something right but there’s always a guest or 2 each season that make you question some people’s children and if this hosting thing is really worth it…

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I have not noticed that first time guests have higher expectations. In fact, they don’t tell me what other hosts have done for them. Early in my hosting days, I had a family who believed that eating cold food was bad for digestion. They weren’t happy with the muffins I bake for breakfast because I expect the guests to warm them if they want them warm. These guests told me that they really liked their previous host who cooked them warm cereal every morning.

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Thanks for your input! I appreciate that :slight_smile:

I have found experienced airbnb guests appreciate the space and everything we offer for them alot more than new guests.

I’m personally finding new airbnb guests are not reading the listing/description and possibly just booking based on popularity and then when they get here for 1 night and find out laundry is only available to guests who are here for 4 or nights, they complain. I mean that’s just one example and a petty one IMO.

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It’s up to YOU to educate new AirBnb guests – explain things to them about how Air works, about how your space is, how it can differ widely from listing to listing, and that unlike a steel and chrome Hotel, all AirBnb listing are unique and different.

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I have the same problem, more and more new on the Air platform, do not read the listing, want to enter before or leave after the established schedules or directly do not notify their time of arrival or departure. Being in instant booking is a russian roulette, and it is also not useful to place as an exclusionary condition, that only guests recommended can do the booking directly, since many others that I receive with recommendation from other hosts, do the same and do not respond to the messages and the only way out is to contact Air.
Since a year ago I kept 3 listings in Air, I always made the greatest effort in communicating and educating new guests about the platform’s performance, but it is time consuming and the vast majority uses us as a more economical alternative to a hotel.

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Same here. In fact, a great number of the first-timers are very considerate.

Prolific airbnbers have sometimes appeared to either have more expectations or take certain things for granted. And that gets worse if they’re hosts, I’ve sometimes felt.

But again, this is a generalization, there’s all sorts of folk in all categories.

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@Astaire you’re absolutely right about generalizing and grouping everyone into one category. It’s someone’s hard not to, I’m starting to think my issue is non readers… Newbies booking without reading the listing and then realizing some amenities are for longer term guests and then being disappointed. I appreciate how Airbnb let’s you reply to reviews however on the app, those replies are not present and that annoys me!

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Like @KenH says, I guess the key is expectation management. Others have discussed this on this forum and I have experienced this as well, guests expecting something that’s explicitly mentioned as not available. And then rating you down for it.

I didn’t know this. It’s almost a defect. Needs to be added.

I’ve complained into deaf ears (I’m sure of it)!

We get many new people and most of the are great. Not all, most.

As always I agree with @KenH We learned it is up to us to recognize the new people and educate them on what we require. We include a few points in our welcome message when they book and a reminder the day of arrival.

Reinforce key points about your listing in your welcome message when your guest books.

Realising that certain amenities got me thinking …are you checking that a washing machine is available and then not making it available to all your guests?

I would be upset as a guest if that happened to me. I would not really care about you specifying that only 4 day guests get a load, if you put check on a washing machine then so it be - for all.

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It is checked off, however this has never been an issue in 2 years & it’s in the rules & description that long term guests are welcome to use the laundry (I wouldn’t want to un-check those items since long term guests NEED wash/dry options). When I’m a guest and booking, I always read through the listings so I know what I am getting and I guess I am finding more and more people are not doing that - I think moving forward I will include it in my welcome message.

One night guests that are travelling across the country, paying $40-50/night have some really crazy expectations if they think everything is a ‘have at er’. Even most poshy hotels in this city charge for laundry.

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The laundry thing is just one point that is more fresh and worth mentioning. It’s really not what urks me as a host for first time users but since it’s a new point I thought I would mention it.

You have the option to charge for laundry. I believe that if you have laundry checked as an amenity you should offer laundry regardless of the length of the stay. You can impose a per load charge to short term guests.

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I get a lot of first-time guests at my place. I find the vast majority of them to be very respectful and cautious about over-stepping boundaries, but I have of course hosted some people who have completely unrealistic expectations about what $30/night buys you within walking distance of public transportation in a major city.

My strategy is to avoid Instant Book and slow down the reservation process (i.e. ask lots of questions) until I’m sure the guest is aware of all the shortcomings of our space. Airbnb doesn’t really do much to train guests on how to find the best listing for their needs, so I take on this responsibility myself. It is definitely more work up front. But since I started to prioritize setting realistic expectations for potential guests prior to confirming their reservation, I have noticed that the people who do show up seem to be more satisfied.

I send the same introductory message in response to all reservation requests, with disclaimers about our space and questions about their priorities. By asking potential guests what is important to them, I can usually figure out if the things they care about most are strengths or weaknesses of our space. The one trend I have noticed is that people who only mention price as the reason they decided to book tend to have more unrealistic expectations than those who mention price in addition to some other feature (proximity to transportation, charming old building, etc)

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Well that’s exactly what we do, and what we said to them.

Guests who don’t read your house rules can be a pain. As can guests who expect something never promised. Just because they are only with you one night doesn’t mean they haven’t been traveling for a while beforehand so having a washer and dryer might be how they filtered their search. I’m not understanding why the length of stay makes a difference?

Maybe this is because we rent an entire unit, but our first-time users have been great since they enter the situation with great uncertainty and are so relieved to have a positive experience. The newbies clean up after themselves and the apt is consistently left in better shape since they don’t casually determine that the cleaner is coming and they’ve paid for that.

How do you go about educating your airbnb guests? We have 180 reviews on our suite and have a 4.9/5 rating, so it’s not bad by any means (just sometimes with a younger generation/new airbnb guests they tend to be the thorns in my side so to speak).