New Instant Book Settings

Honestly? Your place doesn’t come across as very friendly. I know house rules are important but they don’t mean shit if you can’t attract any guests to adhere to them in the first place. I think you need to edit your text a lot. There is too much negative stuff in there and it’s too long. I got bored reading about everything that is provided and what is not. Seriously, it’s very off-putting! Your reviews are good so take the cues from your guests and sell yourself and your place. Cut it all back! Sorry, this sounds very harsh. I’d be happy to give more feedback if you’d like.

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Occupany taxes didn’t just start in 2015 in Seattle. Legally they have always been required for rentals under 29 days. The difference now is Seattle negotiated with Air and the occupany tax is automatically added and collected as part of the guests overall booking price.

Carol, agree on the house rules from hell. Much of this can be stated so it’s not so negative. Do you really need to say No oversize vehicles? Some of it is redundant too, like the lost key. Also just by stating No Infants or Children and not ADA accessible, you are opening up yourself to a lawsuit. Read the thread posted someplace here where some nut was googling hosts at random with these rules and then filing suit!

I personally think the list of rules that appear publicly should be no,more than about six and should include the main ones. I also take great pains to state something so the N word (NO) is minimized.

For me it’s :

Only your approved and registered party allowed on property or in apartment.
Water conservation is appreciated and required. We are on a rainwater catchment tank.
Please take your trash with you upon checkout.
Please finish showering by 11:30pm as late showers wake us upstairs.
No smoking candles, coils or incense allowed anywhere on property.

And I have one or two ther basic rules. The other things I want them to know I put in the PDF document I send them.

Your list of rules sounds so draconian, i would remove half of them and take away all the extra charges. Remember technically all cash except tax must go through Airbnb. So if someone were to complain to them, There might be trouble.

I know you have excellent reviews and stars but if you are experiencing a lot of competition I would start with the list of house rules.

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The one rule that would stop me from renting is:

“You can bring take-out back to the house as long as you eat at the kitchen table, not in your room.”

That’s something a mother would say to a child. Not a host to an adult guest.

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Hi @cs2015,

Your listing looks nice, though there is certainly room to spruce things up. And your reviews are stellar. Obviously all your guests think you are super cool, which is probably why you continue to get bookings despite your best efforts (based on your house rules, at least) not to.

I think @konacoconutz has good advice, in the post two above from mine, starting with

I think it would certainly help to work on those, along the lines she has suggested. Though I’m not sure where she gets the magical number of six from.

In particular, I agree with

I think that kind of thing makes a bad impression. It makes the host look money grubbing and petty. I’d definitely remove them for now. I’d consider selectively restoring them if you have significant issues. I’m not sure if

is true. Extra services you provide the guests certainly don’t have to go through Airbnb, but if you are proposing to assess extra charges on the guests as part of their reservation, that’s a gray area, at least. You could take a look at the Rules of Service. You’re probably aware that Airbnb ignores its own rules when it feels like it, but it doesn’t mean they can’t make trouble for you if they want to. This might be a technical point that could only be resolved legally. But I think the more important issue to consider is how it make prospective guests feel.

I don’t know if your calendar is up to date, or if you are listing on other sites, but I don’t see any upcoming booking, which certainly indicates a problem. I think it’s worth considering listing on other sites, as well as creating your own web site. I’m considering it myself. Though it’s more work, and comes with its own complications.

I alo think the photos could also use a little work. If you own the property, there are certainly places which look like they could use a bit of improvement. For example 20/37 (“Steps to downstairs separate side entrance through gated backyard.”) You could paint those steps. Also, 11/37 (“Your room has 2 windows with external security bars facing the backyard.”) - clean the windows? 15/37 - you wrote “if you see the hot tub, sorry it is not functional at this time.” This is a bit of a side issue, but it is really not working, or do you just not want people to use it? If the former, it might be a selling point to get it working.

Also, you need more and clearer shots of the bathroom. Americans consider bathrooms very important, as you probably know. And they’re not alone in thinking this.

I’d also consider doing a little work on your profile pics. They could be better. Though I don’t know how important those are.

I hope none of this causes offense. Most of the above advice could be applied to my own listing, which has plenty of issues.

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Haah, Faheem… You are the math professor so I will let you pick a new magic number. Six is random… It just seems nice and even :smiley:

Hey @konacoconutz,

I don’t have a problem with your magic number. It’s as good a guideline as any. :slight_smile:

Government ID means you have given ABB a copy of your ID and they have that copy and have verified it. HOWEVER, I have IB on and about 60% of my renters have not initially had a government ID. I require it, so I tell them what the process is and they generally do it quickly and IB it. SO I know non-gID people are seeing my listing.

Again, bear in mind that this “verification” is done by machine, and means little or nothing. No sensible person would trust it. But it could have a deterrent effect on bad people.

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There’s been stories of people uploading false ID so definitely it’s wise to be careful in this area

The same thing is happening everywhere and it is going to destroy Abnb for those who both want the adventure and to make the money.
Get active with your city council. I think STR’s should only be allowed with an owner on premises wherher it is a bed or seperate apartment. abnb is putting commercial ventures in residential neighborhoods and the neighbors arent happy.

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I have talked to at least 3 of the people after they went through the gID process and they talked to an ABB person and fax or emailed a copy of it to that person. One of the guests was on line talking to the ABB person said the id was compared to the picture on the guest’s facebook account. Besides this puts the onus on ABB because they verified the gID so if they can’t find the person later to collect for repairs to their property is not my issue. I contacted an attorney about it and they recommended me requiring gID because other issues would be on ABB, also. So there’s that.

Something I noticed, are the public responses to some of your reviews. Many seem like personal responses that had nothing to do with what the guest said publicly. This maybe a little off-putting to potential guests. Use the private messaging system if you feel the need to share something with your past guests.

Also, I would refrain from scolding your guests about the check-out time and rules they may have broken in a public review response, especially when their review of you was all good. Do this privately or in your review of them, but never in a public response on what is basically your sales page.

The most disturbing/alarming thing I read was you mentioning your fear of bed bugs when the guest said nothing about this in his review. That was obviously from a side conversation. But the last thing a potential guests wants to read from a host is talk of bed bugs.

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Huh?? Airbnb does the “verified ID” to give hosts a “feeling” that they are safe. This goes along the lines of all the other false guarantees they give hosts. Airbnb does not verify if a guest is using a stolen credit card. I think others have posted that they also will not share the ID information of the guest, as it is considered “private” information - even if the host is considering pressing charges. Not sure why you assume that Air will cover all repairs if they can’t find the guest. Have you read all the stories of Air leaving the host holding the bag?

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This is a tangental topic, but related so I thought I would just add it to this existing thread.

Instant Booking has a number of settings and sub-settings. The first boolean is On or Off, with the following language Guests who meet your requirements and agree to your rules or No one. All guests must send reservation requests.

Under Additional requirements we can select Government-issued ID and/or Recommendation from other hosts. Faheem is quite dismissive of the government ID [though not sure why except it is an automated thing]. But you know, as I read this forum and the community.airbnb.com forum, it appears that many hosts give a thumbs up to guests that they hope will never return. And assuming that a guest only needs one thumbs-up, in spite of the plural of host in the label, is that any protection at all? Is it worth having this requirement?

At the moment, I have both items checked, but just pondering what benefit these two items actually provide.

Thoughts?

@anon67190644 Good point about hosts giving the thumbs up. I’m more annoyed by hosts who won’t give an honest review than I am about anything Airbnb does. Hosts and guests are “boots on the ground” so to speak and lack of honest reviewing is a real problem. I’ve had govt ID both on and off, I guess it’s better than nothing. I’ve had lots of first time users and so prefer not to have “recommended by hosts” on anyway.

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I don’t really care about “how it sounds” because after being a host for 2 years and hosting over 300+ guests in a house that I actually own and being the kind of person who has never been on any government benefit and is not a tax cheat, I find that not putting in rules attracts all the kinds of guests I can’t stand. Airbnb is COMPLETELY UNREGULATED. Hosts and guests who are intelligent will realize eventually what that means. Airbnb gives us a way to rent completely gross, unsafe spaces no person in their right mind would pay money for otherwise and most only do it to be frugal. I honestly do not want to host high-maintenance guests. You know, the ones who check-in early and late, the ones who want to cook, do laundry, expect you to be their tour guide. All I have are spare rooms in a relatively convenient location. I wash the sheets and towels and vacuum and live more neatly than I would if I was living alone. I google-background check every guest. I have had to evict a known ex drug felon who actually didn’t even receive a bad review for his behavior. I have had guests leave food all over the floor, do drugs, get wasted, camp at home, try to bring people back, be profane and obscene, steal, try to enter other rooms, go through things, etc. As a woman living alone I’d rather be harsh than be taken advantage of because when I started I was like Oh! Make my home your home! I gave people free trips to the airport. I stayed up til 2am when they said they’d be there at 7pm with no explanation. People lazed around and took their time checking-out. People ate all the food I had, didn’t recycle, parked SUVs after rolling over my lawn, it was just unbelievable! Is it any wonder that most hosts don’t live at home! Now that I have rules I never get drunks or drug addicts and people leave things spotless and it’s great.

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The wise guest and host should have a healthy fear of renting an Airbnb with bedbugs because they do in fact exist.

Yeah, it would be awesome if I lived in a brand new townhome and offered chauffeur services in a Mercedes, but I am an ordinary and need I say lazy and frugal homeowner. Isn’t it great that Airbnb doesn’t care if I am?! It would be awesome if all guests could be treated to the home of Martha Stewart for under $50/night.

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I have ended up being a freaked out “Tiger Mom” host anyway…I might as well be up front about it. I keep getting 20 year old guests running off into the night and I cannot HELP but worry about their safety. In fact, last night I had a guest arrive who wanted to go out to eat - its dark and stormy out - it’s Thanksgiving - all the normal places are closed. I drove him around town trying to find a place to eat but he did’t want to pay for any sit-down places so I just took him to Subway to buy food and bring it back to eat at my house. You might say, “OMG why didn’t you feed him yourself?” Well I offered him a frozen pizza (which is what I had myself on Thanksgiving) and he didn’t want it…