So, I have had 2 guests (out of 62) that has been surprised that they only rent a room and not the whole apartment, and one of them gave me a 4 star on communication because of that.
I thought it was obvious that guests chose either room or whole apartment and that I didnt had to explain that in the ad. Anyone else has had that experience?
I saw your link previously and I thought you rented the whole apartment. The title says apartment. You need to adjust the wording. Even if you make it clear later in the listing guests donât all read, especially booking on the app in a hurry or after the vacation has started.
I had a guest once who thought they got an entire place with use of the kitchen despite it just being room with bathroom. They were Italian so maybe it was a language issue.
5 Likes
You refer to it as âthe apartmentâ throughout the listing - other than a brief comment about not having access to one room it seems like you are advertising an entire home rental. Iâm surprised more of your guests have not commented/complained.
5 Likes
If I were booking your place, I too would think itâs the entire apartment. Firstly, the title says " a spacious apartment." Secondly, the first visual I see is of the living room and thirdly, as I read the introductory paragraph I see the word apartment twice. To be honest, Iâm surprised that out of so many guests, only two were expecting an apartment.
4 Likes
To get to my ad, you need to search for available options, and every option clearly says if its a room or a whole apartment:
âwhole apartmentâ or âyour own room in an apartmentâ
And once you click on my ad this is what you will see:
In red âYour own room in an apartmentâ, and in blue âShared bathroomâ
I think this should be enough and thats probably why 60 persons wasnt surprised at all.
What you think is not really relevant, unfortunately - itâs what the guest thinks that is going to influence their experience/review. Also, youâre assuming that people are filtering on type of listing - thatâs not always the case.
I think you should take the advice given here and change your description to explicitly state that guests are renting a room in the apartment.
12 Likes
I didnt filter on listing, only on dates and area.
It seems things are going well. You will occasionally get the 4 star reviewâŚmy kitchen Italians gave me one as well. I did change the wording in my listing after that.
You donât seem to be interested in changing anything on your end going forward and you canât change what already happened. Youâre just venting and we get that. Have a good weekend.
2 Likes
If youâre not interested in changing your wording, my only other suggestion would be to confirm with the guest before/after booking that they understand itâs a room with shared bath.
3 Likes
I will change the text, I was just curious on others experience. 
I only rent out during summer so I will update the text when it is time to alert the ad again beginning of spring.
I canât recall who said it first, but if something happens once (such as a guest not understanding check-in or parking instructions), itâs the guestâs fault, but if it happens repeatedly, then itâs something the host needs to change.
I think itâs pretty good advice. 
6 Likes
And the guest is right for rating you down. Your lucky because it could be worse.
They could cancel or request money back for the misleading description.
3 Likes
Did you see my post above with the images? It is impossible to book the apartment or to even reach the description of the apartment without meeting text that states that it is a room in an apartment.
I would just make it clear that its a private room with shared spaces. Why bother describing it as an apartment at all? Iâve gone through 50 guests so far and not a single one has misunderstood it. I put the room as cover picture, the first line of the cover description says its a room with shared spaces, the first line of the body description repeats it. The description âshared spacesâ is littered throughout the listing to prevent any misunderstandings.
1 Like
Uhm, I can see right there why they are surprised.
RR
1 Like
It is not an apartment its a room. Stop calling it what it is not and you will have better results.
RR
5 Likes
Indeed. I clicked on the link, reviewed the listing , didnât think it was a room. I would have misunderstood it as an apartment as well. Almost seems deliberate.
4 Likes
Well, just to join in the fun, I clicked to look at the listing too and like everyone else I thought it was a listing for an apartment. The title obviously says âapartmentâ and the first two sentences uses the word twice.
A central apartment only two short stops from the central station and Arlanda Express. Itâs 60 seconds walk from the metro to the apartment.
So @Daniel_Lin has a point. Is it deliberate?
3 Likes
I agree your listing does feel misleading @Anna. Make it clear in the title, photo titles and copy upfront that it is a room in an apartment.
1 Like
What you, Daniel Lin and RiverRock (deliberately ? 
) seems to miss is that you can not access the description without passing 2 places where it says that it is a room. The only place where there is a direct link to the ad is in this forum which is not a place to seek for guests.
I guess I wrote about the whole apartment as I thought that people that chose to stay in private homes instead of hotels is because they want something more than just a room. If they only wanted a room in central Stockholm there are plenty of hotels. It would also feel odd to write A central room only two short stops from the central station and Arlanda Express. Itâs 60 seconds walk from the metro to the room.
I rented it out 3 months last year, no one thought it was a whole apartment. I rented it out 3 months this summer and I had one guest in July who thought it was an apartment, but he didnt rented it by himself, his sister rented it for him which is why I didnt reacted. And then the second last guest in August also thought it was an apartment, so I have not even had a suspicion that this would be an issue.
But with 60 guests not thinking it was an apartment, I guess its relevant to ask me if I am trying to cheat my guests. It would also be a great idea for me as a single woman trying to fool my guests so that once they arrive I need to handle disappointed angry guests standing in my home. Sounds plausible. 