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This is just a vent post. Not looking for soundproofing advice at this time. I will make a separate post on that topic if and when I’m ready. Although commiseration is welcome.
I wrapped up hosting for the summer season. I might be back for Thanksgiving and New Year’s if the price is right, but otherwise may be a May through September host. I live in a city where our tourism really drops off in October. I’m an educator in a 9-month contract so I am mostly looking for a summer income supplement.
I’ve hosted off-and-on in my basement since 2015. I’m on the cheaper end of Seattle offerings because, you know, basement!
Good news: I got Superhost back. I lost it when I stopped hosting during covid. I’m currently at a 4.9 average, which is better than my pre-covid track record. I’ve generally found the quality of guests has gotten better, or maybe I’ve gotten better at setting expectations in the listing.
Bad news: after a summer of glowing reviews, I got three reviews mentioning the noise from overhead. (Yes, I say all over the listing that you’ll hear the host family upstairs.) I’ve noticed I’m general on the platform that guests will sometimes repeat the criticisms from the previous review (or say the thing from the previous review wasn’t an issue for them).
The last guest texted me it was too loud, and I apologized and offered to refund unused nights if she wanted to find a more suitable BnB. She completed the stay and she left a 3-star review describing the noise. Unfortunately this will be the last review of the season at the top of my listing!
I think it was fine in the summer because my kids slept in, but for the last few weeks they’ve been in school and getting up earlier. All the more reason I’m ready for a break!
As soon as they book (if on IB) or when they make a booking inquiry… there is an opportunity to manage expectations and filter out overly-fussy guests. We have a couple of former issues that evaporated when we started saying something like this (transposing your issue into our narrative):
To the guest:
Before we move ahead I want to make sure you clearly understand that there is a family living upstairs and that the house is not soundproof – guests will occasionally hear ordinary household sounds while staying here. This is factored into the pricing for this Airbnb property, which is at the low end of the scale.
Can you confirm you are comfortable with all this? If you are not comfortable with our setup and pricing and are seeking totally soundproof accommodations, we urge you to select a different Airbnb destination. On the other hand, if you are looking for a clean, comfortable budget-priced Airbnb stay, we look forward to hosting your upcoming visit to Seattle.
If circumstances warrant, you could also add a sentence offering assurance of “full refund if you wish to cancel and do so right away.”
Thank you for taking the time to reply! I do send a shorter version along the lines of, “To be clear, this is a basement apartment and I live upstairs with my family. Does this meet your needs?” This also helps me minimize the noise from downstairs too. My quiet hours are 11:00 p.m. through 6 a.m., so I don’t enjoy late night raucousness anymore than they enjoy me waking up early!
I may start making this message longer and tell guests I allow cancellations if they cancel in the same day. How soon do they need to cancel to also get the fees back from AirBnB? I think Air used to keep the fees in the olden days but I’ve lost track of some of the chances in recent years.
I used to use SmartBnB to send longer automated messages managing expectations. I need to look into Air’s automated messages as I haven’t explored this newer feature.
This doesn’t convey the noise factor, IMO. You are expecting guests to read “xx” and make the mental leap to “yy”.
You or I might, but obviously many guests don’t. You need to spell it out for them.
“Please be aware that this is a basement apartment and I live upstairs with my family. Therefore you will hear normal family sounds, footsteps, kids running around, etc. from above (my quiet hours are 11pm- 6am). If you book here, you are accepting the noise factor, and agreeing that it will not be cause for complaint, cancellation request, or a bad review.”
It’s in the listing several times that you will hear the family over head. But yes, guests don’t read the listing, so I need to say it in the booking message as well. This last guest was quiet, but the other recent guests who mentioned the noise were up late coming and going, having friends over, and listening to music until 5 a.m., so it was mutually a bad fit. (Quiet hours and no undisclosed extra guests are in the house rules, and I did review accordingly.)
Maybe suggest, re the noise factor, that your listing may best suit guests who are out most of the day, have noise cancelling headphones, or aren’t bothered by the sound. Sometimes suggesting which guests would be a good fit can help attract those guests. And provide earplugs if you don’t already. 6am is pretty early to get woken up for most people.
Have you ever just hung or slept in the rental to see just how loud it is? In one house my daughter lived, I slept in the basement when I came to visit. When my grandkids woke up and ran through the house, it sounded like a herd of elephants overhead, even though at that point neither of them would have weighed more than 50 pounds.
Yes I have slept in the BnB with my family upstairs. It has been insightful to make improvements. I agree 6 AM is early! I don’t mind if guests up that early, but this is part of why I’m mostly a post on summer and holidays, when my kids wake up more like 8 or 9:00. This experience has me rethinking if I want to host next September during the weeks that overlap between back to school and the end of the tourism season.
So another option (I live below my Airbnb and mostly I hear guests walking around) is that I have a professional sound machine, run a fan and also use an app on my phone. Maybe you can provide some of these options for your guest.
Ugh! We worry about this too! I bought a duplex that we’ll be eventually moving into the main floor, leaving the top floor as a rental. Worse yet, it’s a 1921 building so soundproofing will be tough. We can hear people upstairs when we’re downstairs, and assume it goes both ways, so we’ll have to figure out something eventually.
Message me your listing when you get a chance please! My husband and I need to return to Seattle (from Iowa) for medical appointments at some point, and I’d prefer to stay with hosts from here.
I realized when I was hosting an old apartment that disclosures can only go so far. Even if you disclose, that does not mean it will be result in five star reviews. We converted that apartment to a long term rental. The review system is not kind to imperfect setups, and pretty soon you stop getting bookings. It’s almost as if Airbnb is not a good fit for budget accommodations.
Interesting. Do others on here think Airb and B not suited to budget accommodation or ‘imperfection’ ? I’m going to be in this category when I open for folks. So this is of concern to me. Thank you
Underpromise, overdeliver. Advertise it as “noisy, happy home upstairs, budget basement downstairs” or “party on top, business on bottom” LOL.
I see plenty of places in high demand places that are in business with 4.5- 4.7’s. You’ll be fine and also if you open up dates last minute, like if the kids will be with “stompy walker”., then you can make a little extra here and there.
It depends on what level of imperfection there is and what your hosting goals are.
In my case, I use Airbnb primarily to make money. I don’t host for any other reason other people have such as meeting interesting people or they want something to do.
My perfect studio is not offered at budget rates because that would be a waste of my time. I offered an older apartment at budget rates but although people would say in the review that they were happy to find this budget option on an expensive island, the ratings were rarely five stars. Guests simply don’t understand the Airbnb algorithm and five-stars does not mean a five star hotel. My ranking tanked and I could not get enough bookings to make it worth the hassle. Long term renters see the property in person and don’t write any bad reviews.
maybe I simply don’t understand why anyone would offer a perfect property at budget rates… I’d maximize the revenue and jack up the rates as much as I can. Perhaps making money is not the main goal for many other hosts.
What is a “perfect property”? In my case, I have a budget-priced homeshare listing. It’s not dirt-cheap, but one of the least expensive room listing for what guests get. Which is a small but beautiful room and bathroom, with full use of my kitchen and outdoor spaces.
But it’s a 20 minute walk to town and the beach, and almost none of my guests have a car here.
And while a couple of my guests have said “You could charge more for this, you know”, my price point has always attracted exactly the kind of guests who are a good fit, I have never had a problem guest I had to contact Airbnb about, never had any damages, and who all have left 5 star reviews.
So why would I charge more? (I have upped the price by a few bucks every couple years as utilities and supplies go up in cost)
I try to offer a perfect property. My rates, of course have nothing to do with the quality of my property, as we all know, location, demand, and interest have everything to do with that.
When you look at what I offer, for example, compared to what I am charging - yes, it would make more In another location, etc. I think that’s the difference between me as a host and others Certainly, I want to make a profit, certainly I want to make more money, but more importantly, the experience I provide, and the satisfaction that I am providing that experience is the most important thing at this time in my life.
I think you missed my point. I could probably charge a bit more, but a bit more $ isn’t a smart trade-off for guests with higher expectations who complain about anything or leave less than 5 star reviews, IMO.
And then there are hosts who say that people who pay less leave bad reviews.
In my experience, I could not find a correlation between the review and the amount of money person paid. Some people are just glass half full type of people and leave a bad review even if they paid less.
I know. But that hasn’t been my experience at all. However, my listing is in the countryside, where guests have to walk 20 minutes to town, and I also market towards guests who want to be somewhere quiet, who like to read (no TV here), write, work on art, etc, so it attracts a certain type of guest.
Also only host 1 guest at a time and they tend to be non-fussy, self-sufficient seasoned travelers.
