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This goes with out saying but be sure the place is REALLY clean and uncluttered. I rent out the mother in law apartment in my basement and I make sure it is sparkly clean when each guest checks in. It take a bit of effort but in a full place listing that first impression goes a long way. My guests ohh and awe over how clean and nice the place is when they first walk in. The nice thing about the whole place listing is any mess/clutter after they check in is theirs - I don’t have to do ongoing cleaning of my personal space. I have huge respect for hosts who do room rentals - I’m cluttery and don’t think I could take that on! Also, limit the personal belongings or anything you really care about… In other words - I wish I would have known just how much time I would spend washing bedding/linens and that my lint roller would be a life saver!
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How cool it would be meeting all these people and being part of them having a good experience when they visit my city/neighborhood!
Did you mean to say under promised?
Yes!m, sorry! Hahah.
Natch, yo. Hahahahahha
Put a photo of your dogs - maybe sitting in a pretty part of the house you want to show off - on your page.
As for me, the most valuable thing I learned was to set limits - and always put my family (kids) needs before my guests.
If my guests are noisy after hours and keeping awake my kids who have school the next day, I knock on the door and tell them.
If they interrupt us during meals and push a map or cell phone on my face, I politely explain that I will help them when I finish lunch with my family, etc.
Here is a link to my listing. As you can see, we have photos of our dogs and a warning that if you don’t like dogs, this isn’t the listing for you.
I put a photo of my dogs up. Plus the safety pin symbol. There is no avoiding that we have dogs now. I had a guest recently who had completely unrealistic expectations and said he wanted “quiet” to work - but what he meant was "I want it quiet all the time, with no barking, and no noise, even in non-bedtime hours. On Sunday dinner night, my best friend and her mom bring their mini dachschunds. They yap, and the dinner is usually about 2 hours max including after dinner chat. This guy gave me an f’in death stare.
Ellen, I think I told you before. You Are practically within walking distance to Malcolm Avenue, where I used to live just after graduating from UCLA.
I see you have travelers palms! They are my nemesis here. I have to get a ladder and chainsaw to trim them here. A pox on whomever planted them here. Do you have the same issue?
Gorgeous kitchen, and 250 reviews, perfect stars. Impressive. I bet you could raise the rate by $5 and still be booked.
All the plants are my husband, Conrad’s, domain. He loves tropical plants as you can see. He said that we don’t have travelers palms. He loves them. He tried to grow some, but according to him they only grow in Hawaii. He thinks the birds of paradise are what looks like travelers palms. The year before we bought our house, we went to Costa Rica where Conrad fell in love with tropical plants. Now he visits his sister in Hawaii every year and comes back with new ideas of what he’d like to plant.
By the way, his sister just listed her guest house on Airbnb. Here’s a link to the listing.
Thank you very much for the compliments. Our rate is $70.00 per night until the current week. We reduce the rate to $55.00 for the current week. Lately, we’ve only been getting bookings at the $55.00 rate. On August 1, 2016, Airbnb started collecting the 14% Transient Occupancy Tax. I think this may have reduced bookings, but it’s a 14% raise for me.If you look at the similar listings at the bottom you can see that there are many hosts nearby who charge less than we do.
Something I have learned. Lowering your prices does not equal better reviews.
Find out if you have concierge in the building? Find out how tolerant is your neighbors towards you do airbnb. ( Avoid piss them off, because they will report you to council )
I have a list of questions that i include in my "thank you for booking’ message. I also tell them entrance codes can not be released until i have heard back from them…seems to do the trick! LOL
And btw one of the questions is "checkin time is 3-8PM. What is you approximate time of arrival’?
When we first started, we let guests push us around way too much. Letting people monopolize the kitchen/living area, break rules, making us feel unwelcome in our own home. Now we are more assertive and we lay down the law with rule breakers. I tell people immediately that they have to pay for extra people and to keep their dirty shoes off our white carpet!
Biggest headaches: people bringing extra people and trying to lie to get out of paying for them. Best excuse we’ve gotten is that this one family’s two children really count as one person and the Grandma is just a babysitter and doesn’t count as a person so they don’t have to pay for her either. Not happening.
I prefer ETA, estimated time of arrival.
Jess1 I prefer eta as well much simpler and I used to use eta but…wait for it…had too many guests especially foreign that messaged me back and said ‘what is eta’. Since changing to long version not one guest has had to ask.
Would be good if they learnt ETA.
It would also be good if Americans were to learn the 24 hour clock. (Or ‘military time’ as I believe they call it.) It’s some years ago now but I’ve had to learn not to use it since the days when I used to say ‘check in is at 16.00’ only to have people say ‘what time is that exactly/’