Model for art students?
Older fashion model?
Testing stairlifts ?
Saga holiday rep?
Come on people help @aliseaside out and give them some ideas for alternative income streams 
Argh. I hate thinking of people dependent on Airbnb income. I’ve been slow here and I wonder if the hurricane, even though it was 800 miles away, is affecting the number of road trippers. The I-10 which people take through El Paso goes through Houston all the way to FL. If I depended on Airbnb for income I’d be hurting this month.
Anyway, ideas for older folks…
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Sigh…
I think we will see a lot of effect from both hurricanes. I doubt Florida will be ready for this year’s winter season, nor a good deal of the Caribbean either.
Am just about to snooze for the winter. - how do I do that? i did it once and now can’t remember how I did it!
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Hosts --> Manage Listings --> Listing status --> popup menu “Snoozed”
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If the query is so poorly written that you can’t understand it, then I personally find it very off putting, and tend to ignore it after an initial response. Though those queries also tend not to be booking requests, so usually I don’t have to decline them.
And I’ve not really attempted to do statistics on what the final outcome would be given prior information, but my impression is that the better guests do write detailed, well-written introductory emails, but I’ve also had guests which didn’t write very good initial emails but were still fine. My very first guests didn’t leave a message on initial book at all (this has not happened again so far), wound up staying around a month in two different visits, and were on balance no worse than anyone else.
I just got an inquiry which reads:
Hello! Our flight is arriving at 11 am. Is it Ok to leave the baggage at your place when we arrive to the city? thank you!
This sort of thing isn’t ideal, but unfortunately isn’t uncommon either. I sent him my standard message, and answered the question, of course. As mentioned (twice) in my listing we don’t hold baggage, but do offer early check-in. This one, surprisingly, was a booking request.
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Hi All,
The burnout is real and can be super frustrating and debilitating! I’ve been an Airbnb Host for the past 3 years (Super Host for almost 2 years) and prior to that did homestay (which was horrible and has caused me to stop cooking for myself - or anyone else) and before that other forms of hosting international guests. For the past 2 years, I’ve chosen to only use the Airbnb platform because I find it to be the most efficient, the host customer service from Airbnb has been absolutely fantastic and I really appreciate the clarity. Okay - so clarity and guest/host expectations with bookings. Here’s what I’ve learned:
- My guests are getting a good deal for a clean room, in my (shared) home, with a friendly (and clearly modest) host.: 0 ) I’m helpful, I provide them with a host binder that lists things like the names and addresses and comments of things like the nearest grocery stores, restaurants, shops, walk-in medical clinics etc. etc. I don’t need to feed them/leave them presents (unless I particularly want to). They are happy and grateful to have someone offer friendly support and answer their questions in an unfamiliar city.
- With EVERY SINGLE booking request, I send the following response (whether they are new to Airbnb or not): "Hi ___, thank-you for your inquiry and information. I do ask everyone the following questions: 1.To please confirm that you’ve read a) my entire listing and b) all of the house rules and are aware that there is a friendly, indoor cat on the premises etc? Once I have heard back from you, I will be happy to accept your booking request."
So they read it and respond that everything’s great and have no problem with the rules or I never hear back and likely bullet dodged.
Also, I’m super strict and clear about:
- people having to clean up after themselves as there’s no maid service here,
- separating garbage, organics and recycling (we have a huge raccoon problem in the city),
- turning off all lights etc when leaving a room,
- laundry can only be done by the guests (who stay a minimum of 1 week) when the hydro rates go down (we have the highest cost of hydro of any city in North America).
- No people allowed in my home who aren’t registered guests.
- I also state in the rules that the house is quiet from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. “as people go to sleep early and get up early for work or school”
I realize that I"m able to be so picky because my home is located in a big city, in a prime location. However, my attitude has changed from “Oh, I’m so grateful that these people will stay in my home and will actually pay me, so I must bend over backwards to make them happy!” to 1. I have standards and I always trust my instincts (100% of the time when I’ve had a bad feeling about a booking, the guest has/have turned out to be very problematic, disregarding of rules, safety issues etc). 2. It’s much easier to “train” guests about my expectations as soon as they walk in the door. I’ve tried doing so the next day (if they arrive late) etc.
I show them everything from how to lock and unlock the door to (gets me every time) “please be sure to turn the doorknob when coming in or out of any door” - ridiculous, right? Not when the entire house shakes from someone slamming doors at all hours of the night. I show them how to separate garbage, show them how the shower works, explain to everyone that the used toilet paper goes into the toilet (not so in all countries depending on plumbing systems), that there are no drains in the floors and that “I’m worried about someone slipping on the tile floor if it’s wet” - not so much worried as annoyed to have to mop up after every single guest’s shower - so I leave a towel hanging on the rail and a mop for them to clean up after themselves.
Every single detail I show them when they arrive, generally means I won’t get messages asking about how to/where to…Also? I tell my guests that I turn my phone off when I go to sleep (actually I turn it off at 8 p.m. for my own sanity and am asleep by 10:30 p.m.) so if they text/message me at night, I will answer in the morning. Or that I’m at work Mon-Fri so if they have any questions, to message me on the Airbnb messaging and I can respond back on my break or at lunch. There is nowhere that says that hosts must be on call 24/7. I used to think I had to be as well. No way. No insurmountable problems or emergencies have arisen period.
In my email about check-in time (which I send immediately after the booking has been made, so that there’s no confusion) - I confirm with them as have a very short check-in time (6-8 p.m. because of my work schedule), however, I do try to be flexible wherever possible - but not at the expense of my other job (where I have have to get up very early).
I don’t provide any food/snacks/drinks. With SO many food allergies/sensitivities/various eating preferences, the few times I did have something, it ended up having ingredients the guests couldn’t eat/didn’t touch anyway.
So, with all of these super anal rules, you’d think that no one would book, right? Not so. Actually, I’m at 57 reviews, with 88% of them 5 star and the rest 4 stars.
I’d have to say that the BIGGEST saving grace for me with burnout has been the following: thanks to my (wonderful) accountant who said 'You’re going to need some write offs for next year’s taxes, so hire a cleaner maybe?" I HATE cleaning. I suck at it. I’d get up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to (resentfully) clean the bathrooms and kitchen and common areas and then go to work. I’m not a great cleaner and it didn’t help my cleaning ratings at all either. Now? I’ve found amazing cleaners who come in every two weeks (when I’m fully booked) and the place actually stays cleaner between cleanings. I get more sleep, sanity and a tax write off. Am SO grateful to be able to do so!
ALL of these things (none of which I did when I started off hosting) have stopped me from burning out and to not have to police every single guest. In fact, most guests say that they appreciate the clarity beforehand and are happy knowing that they’ll be able to sleep in a quiet house that’s not a party house.
Initially I’d been worried that I’d get less bookings, lower ratings etc., but not so. Quite the opposite, in fact. Also, like some of the others had mentioned, I do block off days for mental health/sanity (having a part-time job out of the house allows me that).
I also check to make sure I’m not undercharging on my cleaning fees and room rates every few weeks as these do add up. Anyway, my multi-chapter novel is now complete - I apologize fore the length! I really hope that sharing the things that I’ve learned to do and not to do will help someone else on here. It’s important that we help and support one another as it’s a complicated business! : 0 )
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This seems like a really small number of reviews for 3 years of hosting. What is your average guest stay length?
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Burn-out happens to the best of us for sure.
We don’t have a “season,” unfortunately, and we do everything ourselves (cleaning, yard work). Our first rental was a whole house and I think I like having the people in my home better because I don’t have to make the 20 minute drive both ways when they can’t figure out the tv or they have troubles going down the steep driveway.
Do take some time for yourself and consider hiring some of the work out. As a professional cleaner, I have a hard time letting someone else do the cleaning but I would have happily hired out the yard work at our whole house rental if we could have found someone that was willing (the yard was crazy steep). Maybe hire a bookkeeper and focus on what you do best. There’s a great new bookkeeping company called Vacation Rental Bookkeeping that caters just to short-term rental owners. Find ways to delegate the work if at all possible and make your business a little less stressful.
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@anon67190644, you’re right - it does. My minimum is 2 days and a good number of guests stay longer term (2 - 3 months). During the first little while of Airbnb hosting I also did some homestay (which had separate reviews on a different platform, so those would account for the remaining numbers). : 0)
I don’t think the number of reviews should be a reflection of anything. I’m at eight years hosting and about 110 reviews. Most guests just don’t review. They leave here, rush to the airport, drop of their car rental, take their flight back to the mainland and don’t think about me again. Unless they are like my recent guest, 
To the OP, I wanted to read your post but the lack of paragraph breaks gave me a headache. Can you add paragraph breaks so it’s not one big line block of copy.
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Sorry, @konacoconutz, I’m guessing that OP is me so did so - it’s my first (crazy long) post, so wasn’t sure if there. was a character limit! : 0 )
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True. Plus, many of us mostly have seasonal guests who stay 7-14 days. This year I hosted for 5 full months and I only got 15 reviews (out of 23 hosted trips). I’m on Airbnb for 6 years and have 90 reviews. Until this year however, Airbnb wasn’t the only platform I was using. I was cooperating with some local agencies and Wimdu always gave me 3-4 nice reservations per year. From what I can say, they’re out of the game. This year it was just Air, and exceptionally long stays.
Very true, I had only been hosting for 3 years, most of my reservations were in the May-September months. I’ve only got 69 reviews, but I’ve hosted over approx 110 guest stays.
(Which I know isn’t much, but my season is short, I work full time, and I used to block off time for family/friends to visit as well as just wanting to enjoy time between guest stays)
ABB currently really pushes guests to leave reviews (and private feedback of how hosts can improve), by sending them reminder emails. think they only started doing that in the past 2 years.
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Good answer! How often have we been surprised when checking out of a hotel with all their added fees?
She sounds exactly like the kind of guest I don’t need right now 
Apropos – Anyone else currently getting a huge banner ad for “Alcohol and Drug Rehab” on this forum site? Ha!
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Haha! I’m now mentally composing my own banner; " Non-Therapeutic Community for people with agoraphobia, associated acute anxiety and panic attacks, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, personality disorders, including passive-aggression issues, alcohol and drug addiction, hypochondriasis and dysfunctional families." Please stay away!
An interesting couple of weeks, at the very least. Cottage now snoozing for a week!
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