This is a losing battle. I honestly was hoping for a legit discussion, but I suppose the way I framed the question it was taken the wrong way… 
Need Air B&B to improve their site to reflect several things:
We have 3 bedrooms and a bathroom all on one floor but separate from the rest of the house (third floor).
Because it does not have a locked door separating it from the rest of the house, the only option is to show it as ONE room in a house clarifying that there are three rooms in the “fine print”.
As well, Guests select number of guests but cannot select number of beds.
All of this makes booking needlessly complicated. Air B&B needs to bring their site into the 21st century!
I understand your frustration Martha and can see how this would be confusing.
Have you tried reaching out to Airbnb to request this change?
I would never ask anyone who hasn’t hosted for marketing advice on optimising my listing.
As someone who is a ‘digital marketer’ you should know that if you want to carry out market research in order to better understand how you can promote your ‘services’.
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There is loads of research already out there - have a look at that
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Develop an online questionnaire and incentivise people to answer it.
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And this @DrewCrawford is why you shouldn’t be offering advice to hosts.
What ‘change’ are you suggesting @Martha reaches out to BNB about?
@Martha the easiest way around this is to put in a door with a lock.
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Plus put it on Mturk so at least hosts get a few quid for revealing their marketing information.
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For someone that describes themself as a “Warm & friendly” host…that wasn’t a very warm welcome Helen!
Why so negative? Geesh.
I suggested that Martha contact Airbnb about “bring[ing] their site into the 21st century” because the post had nothing to do with marketing, but was rather an operational issue. All she needs to do is simply create separation with a lock, like you mentioned. I felt that was a pretty self-explanatory and wasn’t my place to tell her.
And I’m not offering my marketing advice to anyone here. I’m only opening a discussion with the community here to hear about your successes and failures as hosts. I’m well aware of what information is out there and how to conduct market research. If you don’t want to contribute to the discussion topic, move along. No need for your negativity here 
Oh the irony… you come onto a forum for HOSTS, as a complete newbie, having never hosted and tell me, an established member and host, to move along.
Absolutely I am ‘warm and friendly’ to my guests - that’s why I have gained superhost status within three months of starting, have consistent five star star ratings and my guests remark on how lovely I am as a host.
I’m also warm and friendly to my family and friends and work colleagues where I head up communications for an international organisation.
I am rather less warm and friendly to the constant stream of BNB management companies, and individuals coming on here and punting their services, often under the guise of ‘research’ or ‘discussions’.
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@Helsi - Agreed. I could tell from the Subject Line we were being pitched to and with both hands. That’s what my mother would call a lot of nerve.
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@DrewCrawford
We do have a tendency to go off topic now and then. It is the nature of forums. Someone here may actually give you some answers to your questions. In the meantime…
@Martha
It’s not a bad idea to let Airbnb know about your dilemma or, if possible put a door up. Realize that all the rental sites have their quirks. None are perfect for everyone (or for that matter, anyone). We all have some issues about features that do not work for us. Thus the ‘work-around’.
A possible work-around:
Multiple listings for your space all for private rooms of 1, 2 and 3 bedrooms.
How you might set this up depends on how the rooms are set up. We would need more info to really help.
In deference to @DrewCrawford you might want to start a new topic for suggestions on how to do this.
@Martha I have mentioned this several times when on the phone with AirBNB but I don’t think that this is a priority for them. Shared home spaces are not the heart of AirBNB’s growth plan, I don’t think. The plus is, we get people who have truly read about the listing since they have to comb through a lot of stuff to find our gems.
No door, It is a stairwell to the third floor. Would wreck the look of the beautiful century home
What kind of advice is this? 
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Ugh. Another one of those “reaching out” people. What is wrong with the word “contact?” Is reaching out one of those phrases invented by people who count the words on their essays and they are trying to get to 250?
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I love having someone join yesterday, post an obviously commercial topic and then tell me to move along if I don’t want to contribute in the way they’d like to be contributed to. Then top it off with a personal insult about how I must also be a lousy host!
Please, Helsi is a very impressive professional woman with a lot to contribute to both the forum and to her guests. She personally helped me offline with a vexing professional issue. I couldn’t agree more with her assessment of your rather nonsensical post. I must be slow on the uptake, but I don’t exactly get what you are trying to sell here by “talking marketing.” Especially since you have no idea what it’s like to host since you haven’t even spent one day as a host.
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You know I hate that phrase. Them’s fightin words because I heard Bank of America say them to me endlessly while they also tried to reach out and steal my house from me for over a year and a half. Lying cheating thieves.
Ughhh. Boo hiss, reach out indeed!
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[quote=“DrewCrawford, post:1, topic:10000”]
So my questions for you all:
1.) What is the unique aspect of your listing that makes you stand out from the crowd? Your superpower is…
2.) What have you found to be the hardest part in marketing your listing? If you could wave a magic marketing wand to solve one problem, what would that problem be?
3.) Any other successes/failures you would like to share?
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The unique aspect of my listing is that I board dogs first, humans second. My superpower is the ability to have both a clean and a quiet listing anyway.
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I have no problems marketing my listing. I have good, accurate pictures, some taken by a professional photographer, and above average copy. I’ve been a superhost all but my first quarter and I have 97% five star reviews.
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Yes, I had one other failure. I failed the only time I tried to make a souffle. It was a flop.
I wish I had you as a teacher in high school. I was criticized by a couple of teachers for not making my essays “flowery” enough. I always got straight to the point. But they seemed to want more “description.” Thank goodness life goes on way past your Honors English teachers’ opinions…lol. BS was never my strong suit!
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Delete??? Just when it is getting good!? 
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Before making a soufflé, it is essential that you calibrate your oven. How do I know this? Oh, it was such a sad day. So many expensive ingredients wasted. Turns out the thermostat in our rental oven was totally broken, and the oven fascinated about 200 degrees in both directions. Took me years to get over this. When I make one now, the anxiety of that day, though over 30 years ago, comes flooding back.
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