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I just watched a few episodes last night. I recognized Genevieve Gorder from the old “Trading Spaces” days. The Seattle houseboat flip was fun - it looked like an Airbnb “Plus” listing after they were done with it.
One piece of advice they gave was to put 10% of your nightly rate into a welcome spread - just for the first night. I hadn’t heard it quantified that way, but at least for those offering a more luxury style listing it seemed like good advice.
I don’t have a “luxury listing” but I do a couple of things that make a good impression. I’d give @jaquo credit for convincing me that I can spend an extra $2 for a stay and raise my price $4 a night; if they stay more nights I get a bigger advantage. If I had a $100 a night listing with people who booked an average of 3 nights I’d have no problem springing for $10-20 of snacks/wine/flowers for that psychological boost. If they are enjoying the snacks they are less likely to notice the dead fly on the windowsill. LOL.
I’m starting to think this is the source of my lower value ratings this year (which I was lamenting in an earlier post)
Guests in prior years were so much better about reading my house rules, which include an easter egg for wine or chocolate on arrival. At least 50% got the treat. This year only 2-3 groups out of dozens have done so; perhaps that wine & chocolate was helping my value ratings more than I realized!
I just watched a few episodes. Like you Allison, I found the 10% of your nightly rate interesting and confirms what I’m currently doing is not out of line. I also like the tip about removing the label on the water bottle so it didn’t look too commercial - also it makes my store brand water bottle look more upscale. I was disappointed that more easy tips like I saw in the houseboat flip weren’t done in the next couple of episodes. I did find the marketing ideas in the next couple of episodes very interesting as they show a path that allow you to go after business outside of Airbnb and other sites. Currently, I’m too lazy to do all the marketing they recommended with #s and websites, but in the future I will start to incorporate some of their ideas because it would be great not to be completely dependent on third party booking platform.
Ooh, I must watch this! Apropos of the water labels, I take the bagels OUT of the grocery store bag and put them in plain bakery plastic bags I got in bulk online, with a new plain white twisty tie. My daughter was watching me do this, very puzzled, and I explained that, for some odd psychological reason, it gives the feeling of higher end product, packed just for the individual guest.
This is genius. I feel like I need to staple the rules to their forehead’s upon arrival. Do you mention there may be an easter egg in the rules or hope that they read it. We are thinking of doing this and mentioning that there is an easter egg in the rules (that we print out) during the home tour.
I don’t keep it a secret AT ALL, but I think I’ve only given about 5 bottles of wine away this season out of 36 reservations.
Right in the top description, where it’s visible without clicking “more”, it says “Want to stay? Check out my house rules (click “read all rules”) to make sure we’re a good fit and get a SPECIAL TREAT on arrival!”
I ask in the first message for them to read the house rules and so many people don’t reply to that or, worse, say they read them and “everything sounds great”.
The lying bothers me.
I get it when it’s the Google End user license agreement that runs to 10 pages or whatever - I know I don’t read that stuff - but it’s like 8 bullet points to make sure you’re on the same page about staying in someone’s home.
Does anyone really hound guests until they agree to house rules?
Yes, his talk about SEO was interesting and clearly helpful if you wanted to draw more business directly to your site.
I also liked the point about removing labels so it looks less commercial. I do worry about lack of labels for those with allergies, etc… Water is pretty obvious, but I’ve put Cheerios and Corn chex in mason jars to look prettier. Most people would recognize those, but I’m just waiting for the day some litigious gluten sensitive person sues me 
Thanks for the tip! I just watched the first two episodes. Living in Seattle myself, I enjoyed the houseboat episode. Seattle houseboats are quite popular thanks to Sleepless in Seattle and are also often rundown like this houseboat was “before.”
Curiously, they didn’t show the bathroom on the makeover show, so I found the listing to see if they had one. The listing photos don’t show the bathroom either!
The listing says it is a marine toilet, which is to be expected in a houseboat, but it is curious they left it off the show and the professional listing.
I’d love to see the listings from the other episodes. I’m interested in seeing who succeeded in running a STR after being on a home renovation show, since so many don’t have the chops to host. I have a hard time seeing the woman in the second episode keeping her place clutter-free even with the assistance of a hosting-company.
I look forward to watching more episodes on fast forward!
My husband and I watched it for the first time last night amd said the same thing. And we were wondering where all her stuff went!
I thought it telling that she said “I’m gonna love living here” at the end. I get that she wanted to be there 6 months out of the year but … 
And, you know, I don’t think they showed that house bathroom either?
I also pour cereals into prettier containers. So that people know what each one is, I use small lucite frames that stand up, print out the name of the cereal (and indicate if it’s gluten free) and stand it in front of the container.
Yes, as I was watching the show, near the end, I turned to my husband and said, “Does it HAVE a bathroom?”
Not as such, but when they book/request/enquire, I have a set list of things for them to be aware of; it’s our home/cats/other guests/rural B&B/no kids. Basically anything/everything that people have complained about but which they should have read in our listing and HRs, and known before they booked. I then ask them to cancel or withdraw if we are not what they were expecting.
Actually, if it’s only kids, I just say no; please read listings in full before trying to book. I’ve really lost patience.
Thanks for sharing the listing. I read the description and I found it interesting that they have the following wording
" We do have to note: no parties, smoking, or candles aboard the houseboat in the private and quiet marina. These rules are strictly enforced and subject to a fine, please see house rules. No more than 8 people can be on the boat at one time."
They used the word “fine” a number of times in the description and quantify it with up to $250.00 plus additional $20/person. I actually like this terminology because my first thought - I won’t do that because they can fine me. Scared me straight, right off the bat!
I think most houseboats have marine toilets, but it would make me wonder if there were no bathroom. Some BOAT boat listings might ask you to use the marina toilet.
I’ve watched a few episodes now and noticed they haven’t shown anyone’s bathrooms yet.
Anyone have any luck finding the other listings from the show?
That is SO FUNNY. I did the exact same thing!
We have a Palm Springs home that I am almost 100% sure when they were speaking of the “comps” was in reference to our house ($1,000/night, unique architecture, Parker Hotel style furnishings). We even saw this house on the market prior to purchasing ours (over 1.5 years ago). Never saw it on Airbnb.
I have made it through the Brooklyn episode, which is my favorite so far. The owner, Gordy, had a lovely personality and his kids were really sweet. It was easy tofind his listing since it had a unique name. I was curious if he was still only charging $900 a night. It seems so! There are still no pictures of the bathrooms!
I bet that is your place! Someone in the Seattle host group said he hosted the producer when they were first scouting for locations. The STR community really isn’t all that big!
Oh my, I hope that nice Brooklyn guy hasn’t outed himself to the New York Office for Special Enforcement, who may come a knockin’ to check that he has a transient rental, not a residential, occupancy certificate and the requisite sprinker system, fire exits, etc. I don’t think NYC is wrong to have governmental concerns about shrinkage of affordable housing units being converted to STRs, but I think they’ve gone overboard in regulating primary residence owners who are doing this, and should moderate their approach for those types of properties. I haven’t watched, so maybe the owner’s got that all covered.