Recommending Other Airbnbs in My Area

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When someone contacts us to book, only to find that we’re already full, they invariably ask me for a recommendation to a nearby Airbnb. There are plenty in our area, but I have knowledge of only two–one that one of our guests wouldn’t go back to because it wasn’t clean and the host was sort of creepy, and one that was recently closed when a nearby suburb outlawed all Airbnb. So nothing I can recommend.

People on Facebook also ask me for Airbnb recommendations in San Diego and Maine and Chicago and Germany. And other places.

I think people figure that all we Airbnb folk know each other.

I’m not missing anything, am I? There isn’t any way—other than this forum—that I could get to know other hosts, is there? (And, even at that, I don’t actually know where any of y’all are located.)

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There are other forums. There are also the Airbnb community forums and everyone posting there is an actual host with a link to their listing. Here anyone can join and some people who post here aren’t even Airbnb hosts.

Also as an fyi, I’m not recommending anyone for anything unless I’ve used them personally. Even if I know someone or have friends who host (and I do) I don’t want the responsibility. I’d be very careful about how I informed guests about other Airbnbs simply because if anything goes wrong people LOVE to have someone to blame.

Probably best for local networking are local facebook groups.

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How is it that “someone contacts us to book, only to find out we’re full” ?

Do you mean an Inquiry?

If you have dates booked, you will not even show up on a Search that includes those dates.

If someone asks, just tell them you aren’t familiar with any other Listings in your area.

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Interesting question. My husband and I go to a lot of theatre. We block those nights. However, if a previous guest asks us about a blocked night (they, of course, can’t tell if we’re blocked or full), we’ll unblock the room for them to reserve and then allow them to check themselves in. We don’t do that for new guests. Self check-in wouldn’t work for strangers in our house.

We have a lot of repeaters, many of whom have arrived on nights that we’re out.

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I recommend a place close to us. I haven’t stayed there but we once booked it for my in-laws. (Yes, we did a third party booking!) But I always tell people that although it’s cheaper than we are, we are so much better. :rofl:

I had a couple who had stayed with us once but had to stay at the other place the second time because we were booked. It was lovely when they came round to say hello. That was really nice of them.

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If my unit isn’t available, I will gladly refer them to one of the 5 hosts in my neighborhood with whom I’ve developed a relationship.

Originally there were 7 but 2 I’ve realized are persnickety hosts and the best guest in the world won’t be perfect enough so I don’t want any of us to go through that again

I’ve never stayed in their properties but I’ve heard both guest and host feedback and have narrowed the field of both guests and hosts for whom I will do a referral.

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