What's your biggest pain-point in hosting?

I am curious to find out what are your biggest pain-points as a host? I know there are lots of pros and cons for being a host and ROI has many variables like location and own/rent. But across all situations, what are your biggest pain-points that prevents you from hosting more aggressively.
For me there are two:

  1. Key Handover - My apartment building has key-fob entry, so I have to personally welcome the guests. During day this means coming back from work and sometimes guests are delayed so it can mean a long wait.
  2. Impromptu Travel - Last minute business or leisure trips can be a problem if you have bookings for that time and there is nobody to help you with the guests welcome and interaction.

Thanks

Neither of those bother me. What does? Cleaning the bathroom! Iā€™d like a bathroom-cleaning robot, please.

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For me it is just having time to turn the room over. I work about an hour away from home, so I often have to block a day between guests so I can clean the room after work.

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I can totally relate to that as some people have bad hygiene standards and donā€™t bother to clean the bathroom after use. I wish they had a Roomba for that also :slightly_smiling:

Have you explored if the cost of professional housekeeper is less than your daily room rate? It might make more sense to have someone clean for $50-$60 versus letting the room go empty. Assuming you are in a high demand area with high prices.

The GUESTS! HAHAHAHA

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Blood and other bodily fluids.

Beyond that, guests barging in earlier than checkin time.

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True - neither of which can be solved by a service or app :slight_smile:

Yes, that will totally gross anyone. Hope that is not as common a problem.

A few ladies have left copious amounts of blood on the towels and toilet seat.

A few kids have had overflowing diapers spill poo on the stair carpet and in the bed.

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Yikes! That is just unacceptable. I wonder if you used their deposit? Can we put a clause if the apartment is left in unacceptable condition then the guest will be charged extra?

As for the bloody messes, theyā€™re pretty easy to clean up. Itā€™s just unsightly and unsettling to find.

A run through the sanitize cycle cleans the towels and a shot of Lysol/Clorox and scrub cleans the seats.

As for the poo on the stairs and in the bed, I had to sue them in small claims court. They ruined a whole floorā€™s worth of carpet in the house by somehow managing to leave large stains in every room and then trying to scrub them up with a wire brush which destroyed the texture of the carpet and still didnā€™t clean the stains. It was a booking on the other big site, so there wasnā€™t a resolution center to go through. I do wonder if Air would have eaten the bill in that caseā€¦

Thanks! I am a new host, so such insights are very helpful. Lots to keep in mind, itā€™s like running a full-time business with all the headaches :slightly_smiling:

my biggest ā€˜pain-pointā€™ is that if I have 6 hrs to do 3hrs of prepping, Iā€™ll wait till thereā€™s 3hrs left.

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The other pain-point is assuming that 3hrs prepping is actually 3hrs prepping.
Always turns out to be at least 15mins more!

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I do that too. Crazy. Itā€™s still 3 hours whenever you do it and Iā€™m sure itā€™s better to get it out of the way (well, more logical anyway) but no matter how hard I tell myself that, I still leave itā€¦

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Reading this forum a few years ago scared me into thinking kids just leave trails of :poop: where ever they go. However, having a 1.5 year old now, I have to say the parents are probably being irresponsible if the poop is escaping the diaper and pants and getting all over a listing. Accidents happen but not to that degree!

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Ironing- solution iron on the bed
Hairs in the plug hole-solution close my eyes and scrap up with gloves and drop into a cleaning bag.
Poo - call my husband
Furniture getting scrapped-just got glass tops on bedroom furniture.
Taking chunks out of wooden floors-filler
I would hate to see the homes of some of my guests. I swear my kids are cleaner

My biggest pain point in hosting is the dishonesty. Lying to get more people in, Lying about ā€œmedical emergenciesā€ to get fewer days (We have a 3 day minimum), and having a ā€œsecurity Depositā€ that really isnt. All in all, AirBNB does not care about the host, just the guest. You need to get used to that.

Rusty

Could you raise your price a bit or increase your cleaning fee some so make longer stays relatively less expensive?