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When I started Airbnb I had a full size futon bed with a good quality innerspring futon mattress, but still it was a futon. I upgraded to an acutal full size bed on a bedframe after a few months. Since then I’ve upgraded again to a Nest Bedding Mattress. In those upgrades I stuck with a full instead of a queen because it’s a small room. I could fit a queen but queen sheets also cost more. However I could also use the new sheets on the Airbnb bed and then start using them on my bed when they got old.
In the 400+ guests I have not had a single complaint, per se, about the bed. A few people have said a queen would be better. But at <$50 a night I’m not upgrading for just a couple of people. The fact that the bed is extremely comfortable makes a difference more than the size.
In your situation I would upgrade to a queen if it fits in the space and get a well-reviewed mattress. I’m sending you a PM.
When my current guests check out, I’ll measure the room and see if a queen would fit. Since a queen is 5-inches longer than a double, it might just be too much bed for the room. Right now you can walk comfortably around the bed on all sides.
The cost of the sheets is a deterrent, considering how fast my AirBnB sheets are worn out. I can’t use them on my own bed because I have a king (which would be WAY too big for the guest room).
In the mean time, I need to decide if I respond publicly to this review or not. I WANT guests to know we have a double so I’m glad she said so in the review, however the bed is NOT short.
True! It is hard to let inaccurate information go but soon it will be off the page. Instead of commenting, maybe I’ll edit my listing to put in parenthesis the dimensions of the bed.
I had my second baby last month and started hosting again last week to take advantage of the Christmas rush during an otherwise slow Seattle winter season. Too soon, you say? Perhaps so!
Things started off well. On December 15, our Seattle regulations finally went into effect (after a year or so of delays) and unregistered listings were culled by AirBnB. I haven’t seen the data on how many hosts we lost, but I saw a little jump in bookings and what I charged compared to the holiday season last year.
However, it is more stressful being an on-site host of a basement guest suite with two young children, and with a spouse (the stompy walker) who doesn’t share my enthusiasm for hosting. I’ve taken the suggestions here to improve my listing copy and make VERY CLEAR the potential for noise, and I’ve done some DYI soundproofing: new area rugs and soundproofing materials on doors. If I keep hosting, I may hire someone to install soundproofing material in the guestroom ceiling as well. I’m still weighing whether it is worth it. I don’t think I could charge more, but I’d get better reviews. I’m currently at 4.83 with 160-something reviews.
I have a guest right now who has been making requests that are reasonable enough individually, but they’re starting to add up. The chickens were too loud in the morning, so I left them locked up later today. The space heater was supposedly broken. When I offered to bring a new one, it turns out it wasn’t broken, it just heated up too slowly. When the guest woke up this morning, they told me the garage door and interior door were open. I noticed last night the guest didn’t close the garage door, but I just left it because there is nothing of value in the garage and maybe they wanted it open for some reason (smokers leave it open, for example). They must not have latched the interior door and it must have blown open. I asked the guest if they’d left the garage door open, and told them to shut the interior door hard to latch it, and said I checked the Nest camera and nobody had come in during the night.
I’m certain I’ll get a poor review at this point. After four years and 160+ reviews, I’m long overdue for my first truly scathing review. I’ve been lucky so far that my “negative” reviews have just been nitpicky in the written portion and never lower than 3-stars.
I don’t need any particular advice, though I wouldn’t mind hearing from hosts with children on how you juggle it all. I know some of you will tell me to quit hosting. I’ve been at this for four years now and don’t plan to quit, but have taken extended breaks before, and may be due for another. I primarily just wanted to vent and use this opportunity to update my “hosting journal” thread.
