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I’m not your typical Airbnb guest. My exhaustive searches have always resulted in a good stay. I’m particular and Airbnb doesn’t make it as easy to find the kind of places that will be perfect for me. So my criteria don’t have to be taken to heart by every host. I’m reading every line of text, the entire profile, looking at all the pictures and captions and reading many reviews and response. With a host like my last host, a room in his house with 785 reviews at 4.96, I can probably safely skip a few reviews.
I don’t know what the answer is from houseplants but mine is you use a service like hospitable (used to be smartbnb). It can be set to automatically send a message to any question or inquiry you get. House plants may be referring to something else.
This is not my experience. A guest threatened me with a bad review. I reported her to Airbnb and she was not kicked off. Airbnb does not always care about enforcing TOS. They are selective about enforcing it when it suits them.
So I negotiated a cancellation with her for a refund. I lost some money but no damage was done to my reviews or property.
Exactly. The rating system is such that it favors high-priced listings. Because guests typically equate high-priced listings to luxury hotels (five stars). Something equivalent to a 3-star hotel gets a 3-star rating and gets pushed down in search rankings.
My higher-priced listings get much better reviews than the low-priced ones. I plan to convert my low price listings to higher-priced ones as that’s the way to be successful on Airbnb for me. It means more fees for them.
That is NOT what I was saying. I was saying good airbnbs get good ratings. And guests do not equate expensive = good. Yes, folks who are not ‘worldly’ may see a high price and think that the price signals the quality, but these folks are called, as we say in the hospitality business, 'marks, or 'fools…
I hear your bitterness and hear your consternation that folks are not ‘overlooking’ the shabby rugs etc and giving you good reviews ‘despite’ the ‘obvious’, but seriously, did you think that you would find commiseration amongst folks who work hard to make their airbnbs saleable and usable, in a wide range of types, places, and prices?
You have been advised many times already that it is up to YOU to please the guests, and how to do it.
Not my experience. I have a small private room, private bath listing, priced for budget travelers. The room and bathroom are rather unique and always squeaky clean, but there’s no bells and whistles. Guests share my kitchen with me. I’ve gotten consistent 5 star ratings.
And what’s this nonsense about having to hire “professionals”? First of all, hosts who have been running their Airbnbs for years are professionals.
No guest has ever tried to extort me, no guest has ever demanded a refund, no guest has ever caused damages or stolen anything. I have never had to contact Airbnb about an issue with a guest, not ever in almost 4 years of hosting.
And I have zero problem sending personal replies to inquiries within a few hours, max.
Your hosting experience and conclusions seem not to be the norm here.
I can’t say this. I’ve even chirped on this forum that especially summer 2021, I had some of the best guests ever. My problems have been minor compared to some of the horror stories out there. @muddy You are doing something right.
About response times—I’ve automated many responses (too many; I’m deleting some now) to be either pre-written or scheduled. If I take more than an hour to respond, my first words are “I apologize for my late response… followed by the real reason:
I was driving so for safety’s sake waited until I was stopped to respond.
I was assisting my 89 year old dad and he doesn’t take well to me “playing on that damn phone”.
Ive been thinking about this—do you have Airbnb communication preferences set up to send you a text when a guest messages you? If not, you may want to set it up. It helps.
My rental is very reasonably priced. I’m a mile from the ocean. I get good ratings.
I don’t do the text message as I use a different phone number than my cell number on Airbnb. I do have the app and I get notifications and then I select a saved reply from quick replies.
I wish I could separate the notifications from inquiries vs. confirmed guests. Right now I send a canned message that doesn’t address the inquiry and then archive the item so I don’t have to look at it again.
I would rather spend my time on the confirmed guests so I can increase my five star reviews and get more IB guests.
Is forwarding calls & messages an option so you can use same phone for both? Your service provider can tell you & help you set it up.
Please reconsider this. I always inquire first. Usually have a question or two. I don’t want to waste the host’s time & possibly increase their number of declinations if not necessary. By not taking inquiries seriously, you are missing out on wonderful guests like ME!
I’m sure I’m missing out on some conversions and wonderful guests. I used to respond sincerely, but most who inquired did not book so I had to rethink my strategy. I just get too many inquiries from people with no reviews, no identity verification, and their questions about pets and discounts are not a good fit for me.
I’d say it has more to do with the nature of my listing, and that I also only host 1 guest at a time. Also all my guests have left really nice, thoughtful reviews. Most also had used Airbnb several times before, some extensively. Also guests who travel solo tend to be self-sufficient, good communicators, and accustomed to adapting to many different situations.
I did put a lot of thought into writing up my listing description, the guest space is quite attractive, unique and comfy, if I do say so myself, and also market specifically towards the type of guests who will be a good fit here. Which is a strategy I think a lot of hosts miss- you can’t be everything to everyone, so identify your target market and speak to them.
Well, that’s a way to start down the slippery slope to bad review.
I’m wondering why you’re even in the business, since you seem to want to get great ratings with no work! and without paying for great cleaning. But then I never stay in Airs where it’s not a hands-on host if I can help it.
And 10% of the bad hosts make the other 90% look bad. We cannot lose sight of the fact that there are many hosts who have no business hosting.
Although I have had 99% good guests. I have had 2 of 10 of the hosts I have stayed with I would consider bad. 1 canceled an hour before check in trying to strongarm me for an extra 2 nights when my family was evacuated for a fire and the other was just disengaged and had a dirty listing
I decided to write to the author. (I hid my name and email address).
I actually agreed with many of his points but gave him a better explanation as to why these things happened.
I also took the time to explain how he can find good hosts and that I would be open to talk more. I also told him how hard the good hosts work to get great reviews and really care about the guests’ experience.
Anyway - I heard back from him and he said “Hi there, thanks for the email and the excellent feedback. It sounds like your property is exactly the kind that I seek out when renting an Airbnb — good reviews, “real” host, etc. The trouble is that there’s so much noise and junk on Airbnb these days that it’s hard to find hosts like you!” (So why didn’t he write that in his article?)
I’ll follow up with you if I write another article on the subject and want a host’s-eye view."
We’ll see.
Now I got to go get ready for a 2 foot Nor’Easter. I even let my guests check in a day early for free and told them to plan on hunkering down tomorrow. The real reason I’m letting them check in today is because they would never make it tomorrow.
He’s not trying to inform, he’s trying to sell clicks and generally speaking probably trying to slag Airbnb. According to his bio on NerdWallet he’s a travel rewards expert specializing in airline and hotel loyalty programs. Since Airbnb doesn’t have a rewards program he doesn’t like it. He briefly mentions this gripe in that article.
Simple: a guest who does not book with me cannot leave me a review.
People who book with me don’t send inquiries. Once they book, I’m happy to answer their questions but I don’t see the point of answering inquiries as over a thousand inquiries maybe ten have translated into bookings.
I actually love inquiries as every couple of inquiries I get for those dates, I eventually get an instant booking. So they are an indication of market demand. I often raise rates after the second inquiry.
So I love inquiries as a gauge for demand but not so that I can answer them. It’s a burden but I have turned it into a beneficial tool.
I think you are confusing an old condo with unclean. I mentioned in that thread it is clean but old. Two separate things.
Then I have some more studios that are new and I have no problems getting five-star review there.
I’d be embarrassed to admit that figure if it was me.
On the basis that you’ve a conversion rate in the region of 1% from inquiries suggests there is either something deeply flawed with the listing(s), or the host.
