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Hello all,
I would like to get a discussion going about on-site hosting.
What are the pros and cons of staying in your home?
How much does it affect our rate or rentability?
Has anyone gone back and forth between getting a hotel and on-site hosting?
What differences did you notice?
If you have any rources to recommend, please do share!
Thank you!
You start. We’re tired of people we don’t know interrogating us.
I’m an on-site host. Guests get half the house, I get the other. We mostly cross paths in the garden.
Pros:
Cons:
I can’t speak to the rest of your questions because I don’t vacate my house.
Anecdotally, it seems guests get irritated when the host leaves a lot of personal items in a whole-house listing. They’re used to sterile corporate-style rentals now. It would be annoying to remove personal items from bedrooms and clean out the fridge to the degree folks now expect.
On-site host here. Not only that, I’m male and three dogs live here too. I make sure that these facts are in the property description and I think that people who are uncomfortable with that, self-select out. I also have IB on. People of all sorts still stay with me including a number of single, female guests. My reviews are almost always good. The biggest benefit is that I’m always here. Haven’t been ripped off, haven’t had to deal with parties, and I always provide recommendations when asked. I get a bit overwhelmed mid-season (I have a working vineyard here. Wine is my day job) but, I’ve never had to struggle with a guest. Come off season, everything shuts down and I travel after harvest.
I share similar experience as @TheRock. I say it weeds out a certain segment while attracting a different one.
I list a separate guest house on the same property as my home. Being on site may discourage some looking for complete privacy / independence BUT it works to my advantage in that those that who do book are usually mature couples looking to relax. I’ve NEVER had a guest try to bring additional people, pets, or have a party.
I provide as much privacy or interaction as the guests want, but also play a concierge role (with suggestions of where to go, where to eat, etc) and also very available to address questions / issues.
I think home-share (listing a room within a home- not something I do) would be an entirely different segment, with its own set of attributes / challenges.
Ben - glad to have you aboard here at the forum.
As you know, we are all busy hosts here and we try our best to help out with and questions new (or potential) hosts might have. (We are also unpaid and often unloved, but that’s another story 
)
Although we’d like to answer your questions, they are so general that it would take a book.
So as most of us are busy sorting our guest issues, or managing same day turnovers or that eternal cleaning we don’t have a lot of time to answer such general stuff - however this forum is a wealth of knowledge (use the search function - it will reveal all).
I know! I’m so sorry for annoying you guys, but I have done a lot of research and havent found a think on this subject, and this questions really affects me personally because my parents are kicking me and my girlfriend out of my attached studio every time they airbnb the house, so I really want to be an onsite host and have to propose an argument for them to be convinced to let me do this. Me and my girlfriend are mature professionals (im just living at home because of crushing student loan debt), so it seems weird that my parents think we can’t be onsite hosts, but they are really stubborn. So thats what I am dealing with, I hope that helps.
Thank you! The detail you provided about STR insurance is really interesting!
i do both. I rent out my son;s bedroom and I have a separate house I rent out. I prefer not to interact with the guests. It depends upon your tolerance of people, because you’d get all kind.
I can’t bear to have a guest more than 3 days in my own house. I need my time off too. to be honest I don’t like to interact with my guests at all - with a very few exceptions. I am a very busy person and an introvert.
i prefer off site hosting, because I never get to see the guests, just send them instructions and go after them to clean and rate them. it’s easier to them also because they can come and go as they please, they can arrive after midnight. AT my house I dont allow check in after 11pm for example. Perhaps if the layout of the house were different, with a suite with a separate entrance or something, but like this, being just a room in the house we kind of are in each others face and that is tiring.
I suggest you to travel and stay in AIrbnbs; you’ll understand better what i’m talking about. Actually this is how i got to be a host, by being a guest first and then saying “i can do this”.
As for resources, there are tons of videos about airbnb hosting on youtube.
It’s always best to introduce yourself to strangers with a bit of info about yourself. That said @Allison_H, @TheRock and @HH_AZ are clearly not tired of people interrogating them. 
This is the kind of information you could include in your first message so that we can better answer your questions.
I’m an onsite host renting out my attached guest room for the past 5 years. It used to be a room in my house with shared spaces now it’s separate with it’s own entrance and the guests don’t come into my space at all. This hasn’t kept me from being successful as I have over 500 5 star reviews. I don’t think it affects my rate or rentability. That said it’s a small room, no kitchen or lounge space. I get a lot of last minute and one night guests passing through. I wouldn’t be able to go get a hotel and rent my house out unless the super bowl or something was here and it never will be. LOL.
No, never.
Uhm, so you want to stay in the studio with guests? Studio implies small…
RR
I would not host off-site if you paid me double. Too many chances for things to go pear-shaped! Most of the horror stories we see here are from off-site hosts.
“When the host’s away the Guests will play…” and break things… and stain things…and smoke in the non-smoking house… and flood the bathroom… and… and… and…
No, they get a full 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath house, and I stay in the attached studio by myself (as on site host).
Ahhh, thank you. For me it is sort of the opposite. We are renting out the whole house and I am staying in the attached studio as onsite host. I wonder how that would affect the rentability of the overall house.
Except that your parents do not want you there. Their house, their rules… I wonder why they don’t want you there? They know you better than anyone, what have you done?
Lol
Sorry, I could not help myself.
RR
There’s some value in being on-site since it discourages party/destruction mode, but it’s hard to put a number on it. If your parents are comfortable handing the whole house over to people from the internet it may not be a concern - they’re willing to forgo the security for better money.
Hi Ben
I’m a bay area resident/ host as well. Do a search about AirBB host bad stories and find some terrible guest parties an show it to your parents. It’s definitely an asset to have a host on site to discourage bad guest behavior. Good luck
Ben, this is the most compelling argument for your parents…I’m also an on-site host. I would ask you this – are YOU and your GF prepared to be hosts? It’s not an easy job and do your jobs enable you to be the concierge, clean-up, moderator, etc., etc., etc? Have you proven you have the skills to deal with people who will challenge the rules? It seems that you are mostly working this so you don’t have to leave. I’d come at it from the opposite side…what are you going to give your parents they aren’t getting now? Peace of mind? More money? Better reviews?