Why bookings have dropped dramatically:

24

Like others who have posted, I wouldn’t consider advertising our rentals as ‘chore free’.

Who would be attracted by that? Slobs, I imagine. And I want guests to leave the rentals in good condition - that’s what civilised human beings do.

And in the many years I’ve been doing this, 99.9% of my guests are civilised human beings.

I don’t give guests ‘chores’ to do, or give them a checkout list.

Does anyone else believe that hosts going into guests’ rentals is wrong? Airbnb does. Here’s a quote from the Airbnb site:

What we don’t allow
Physical intrusions: Hosts, guests, and those affiliated with them or working on their behalf must not access or attempt to access any private spaces without prior permission.

2 Likes
25

I’m not sure why you think entering the guests’ private space is acceptable “when they’re gone”. You are lucky that none of your guests have complained, but it is generally considered to be an invasion of privacy. And if a guest does complain to Airbnb about privacy issues, your listing will be instantly suspended-are you aware of that?.

That said, some hosts do things other hosts disagree with, but it works for them. However, as I mentioned, telling guests you go in every day may be one reason you aren’t getting bookings- it’s not just about guests who have accepted your routine and booked not complaining.

Guests are entitled to privacy when they book a place, not have the host entering daily to check on the place like an over-controlling mommy. Some guests may be quite messy during their stay, but tidy everything up before they leave. They shouldn’t have to keep everything tidy at all times because the host is checking, as if they were in the army.

Personally I would pass on a listing where the host entered the space I had booked on a daily basis while I was out. I would much prefer to wash my own dishes and can’t imagine ever squealing with delight that someone else was willing to wash them.

3 Likes
26

I suppose, though, that if this host makes her practices clear to guests in her listing info, and they accept that by booking, it could be argued that the guests have given permission. Just as by booking, they are accepting the cancellation policy and to abide by house rules.

However, I think Airbnb would still suspend the listing if a guest made a privacy complaint, and I find it an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

When I mentioned to one guest that I never enter the guest bedroom/bathroom when a guest is in residence, unless they ask me to for some reason, she said that she wouldn’t mind, that it’s my home and if I needed to go in, I should feel free to, but I don’t think the majority of guests have that attitude and it also feels wrong to me to enter the guest’s personal space, regardless of any Airbnb policies. They should be able to leave their dirty underwear laying on the floor or their sex toys out without thinking the host is going to observe that.

When my 18 year old granddaughter stayed for 3 weeks, sure- she’s a slob and I had to make sure she wasn’t dripping her extensive array of toiletry products all over or had food garbage in there, but a paying guest, never.

1 Like
27

Are you having a laugh?

What exactly are you implying I’m ‘getting away’ with?

Do you really think I hide my house rules and then on arrival spring out and say ‘gotcha’ to my unsuspecting guests - waving my house rules in their face - asking them to ‘shock horror’ put their unused food in the food bin in the kitchen .

Luckily my guests don’t agree with you @SleepingCoyote :grinning:

The vast majority of folks would not see washing up their own dishes or using recycling facilities provided as chores .

In six years of hosting I’ve never been busier .

2 Likes
28

Guests don’t like not getting a full refund when they cancel, either. Which is why Airbnb sends msgs urging hosts to consider refunding in contravention of their cancellation policies. They don’t like not getting the Airbnb fees back when they are due a full host refund, but I don’t see Airbnb refunding their service fees because guests don’t like it.

Airbnb wants hosts to do whatever it takes to keep bookings rolling in fast and furiously so they can rack up their service fees. That’s all they care about- it’s never based on what is good for guests or hosts.

There are about 12 “opportunities” on my dashboard that Airbnb wants me to employ, all of which they claim will get me more bookings (code for more service fees for Airbnb), and none of which I will ever do. I couldn’t give a FF how Airbnb staff think I should run my business.

None of my guests have ever complained about anything, I have 100% 5* reviews, and I don’t need to make rules or chore lists in order to get my guests to clean up after themselves. All I have to do is show them where the compost pail is, tell them that if they put food garbage in the bin it will attract cockroaches and ants, and 99% of them happily comply. They don’t consider cleaning up after themselves to be chores- they clean up after themselves because they are decent, respectful human beings. As you said yourself, common courtesy.

2 Likes
29

Yes. Prior permission, duh. Of course. I dove sneak in- here’s how guests view our service. I am so sorry you jumped to an insanely negative conclusion.

image
image1125×2436 372 KB

image
image1125×2436 332 KB

image
image1125×2436 337 KB

image
image1125×2436 341 KB

2 Likes
30

I think us assuming the best of people must be a Minnesota thing. I am so sorry your guests are so horrible. My fave review? “And she even cleaned our dishes!” Our guests are great, sorry yours are not. . Good luck to you all.

image
image1125×2436 372 KB

image
image1125×2436 337 KB

image
image1125×2436 341 KB

image
image1125×2436 332 KB

2 Likes
31

Excuse me? Where on earth did you get the notion that my guests are horrible? Or that I don’t think the best of people? A Minnesota thing? What a bizarre thing to say.

You really think that guests expecting some privacy makes them horrible guests?

I’ve never had a bad guest. I get wonderful, appreciative guests who I quite enjoy hosting and have solid 5* reviews. Nor have I ever had a guest wreck anything nor trash the place just because I don’t inspect their private space during their stay.

You started this thread distressed about a lack of bookings, and many hosts here have told you that they wouldn’t book a place where they were told that the host would enter their private space, and that it is, in fact, against Airbnb policy. Yet instead of considering that you might get more bookings if you changed that practice, you just double down on how great it is that you wash the guests’ dishes and that you control how guests are treating the so-called private space they booked by going in on a daily basis.

3 Likes
33

The word ‘chore’ might be causing some confusion.

There’s picking up after yourself – putting your dishes in the dishwasher, washing your pots and pans, separating trash from recycling, leaving things in the same place they were when you got there –

And then there are ‘chores’ at checkout (typically) like stripping the beds, bringing the trash to a bin 100 yards away, maybe throwing the towels in the washer, that kind of thing.

That’s @muddy’s point:

@SleepingCoyote was not advocating giving guests chores to do. As to giving chores @SleepingCoyote said:

Nor were you promoting giving guests chores. You were just opposed to promoting it as chore-free presumably because:

a) of the confusion between picking up after yourself vs doing the work of the cleaners/Host and
b) promoting it as ‘chore-free’ might attract the wrong guests or give them the wrong idea, and maybe because
c) the title of the listing and the words ‘up front’ on the listing as @Margi1 puts it, is super valuable ‘real estate.’ Many of us are looking for they key attributes of our listing to put there, maybe even words with SEO significance. For most of us ‘chore-free’ is not the essence of what we’re offering.

But reading @Margi1 's very expressive reviews (the cup runneth over) and her washing the dishes (it almost sounds like almost but not quite a maid service) suggest she is offering something most STR Hosts don’t offer, and that the orientation she welcomes her guests with is very effective, warm and inviting.

So, I understand why most of us wouldn’t promote our properties this way (see above) but I do understand why Margi does and I think it might well work for her, just as I think it wouldn’t work for most of us.

We always say that each listing is different. Margi’s approach reminds us that what might work for her might not work for us, or be something we want to try.

34

No one said that her washing the guest’s dishes was something a host shouldn’t do, nor that guests don’t appreciate it. As I mentioned, a host friend did the same for her in-home suite Airbnb, because, like Marg, there isn’t a kitchen sink in there. We all adjust our hosting practices to our circumstances, just as I offer to pick my guests up in town, because my house is hard to find and a 20 minute trudge with luggage down a dirt road isn’t what most people would enjoy.

What the majority of hosts here pointed out was that entering the guest’s private space to retrieve or put the dishes away, and to check if the guests are keeping it tidy isn’t considered to be acceptable practice. And it may very well be affecting her booking rate, even if the guests who do book leave glowing reviews.

3 Likes
37

Well that’s a big ‘Oops.’

I had written earlier:

→ So, yes, of course, this must be disclosed in the listing.

Having said that – and it’s crucial that she discloses this – her title might work for her, though not for most of us. Though to really help understand whether that title is best, it would be helpful to understand all that she does. For example, does she tidy up? What else does she do in addition to providing the coffee/snacks and doing the dishes?

By the way, how do you always know all that you do?! But, specifically here, how can you see her listing? What am I missing?

EDIT: OK. I see how you did it . . . this time! I Googled the name of the place (per her review). So I see the disclosure is not there. I notice also that the listing says it has a kitchenette; the amenity list includes ‘kitchen.’ Unless I missed it, there’s no words explaining that there is no kitchen sink. That’s a big omission. The language says that the dirty dishes are to be left on a table outside the door. No one would suspect from the listing (I understand she explains this in person) that the Host enters the unit to return the clean dishes.

2 Likes
40

@Margi1 Your posts and mine seem to have hit a nerve :grin: Good.

(Plus people are just cranky this time of year. )

But your comments are spot on. There are SO many articles about this here are just three:

Chore lists and cleaning fees are a problem for customers and no amount of fuming can deny it.

Again, if your guests don’t care, bully for you. Every market is unique.

The title of this thread is, “Why bookings have dropped dramatically” and discussion is about what hosts who are struggling can do to improve their bookings.

Hosts can’t lower inflation or get rid of a bear market, but they can tweak their listings to beat out their competition for the guests that are out there.

If your business has never been better, great, but that’s not really what this discussion is about.

We stayed at an AirBnB in Page, Az during the pandemic that hit us with a chore list on the inside of the front door. I did not know about it until then.

We were asked to strip the beds and put the sheets in the washer (they had 2 washers 2 dryers), add detergent and start the washer.

Then we put the towels in the other washer and started that too.

Then we were told to put dishes in dishwasher and start it. Take out the trash of course. Then send a text message to the housekeeper to tell her we had done this and were checking out. I can’t remember if there was a cleaning fee or not, but it was a 4 bedroom 3 bath house so I assume there probably was. Also, NerdWallet reports that 85% of properties in the USA have cleaning fees.

Meanwhile we have a long day of driving, have 2 dogs, and were eager to get on the road.

And you’ll love this, @muddy – after this stay I started searching listings for chore lists. When I didn’t find one, if I was still interested in the property, I would send a message to the host asking for the chore list, if any. If there were any unusual chores, such as stripping beds, I booked elsewhere.

As I’ve said before I don’t stay in AirBnBs unless I have a Superhost coupon to use up. Hotels are superior to AirBnBs at my price point ($90-$300/night).

(Except I just did this week, in Tucson, for 5 nights, to use up my $100 Superhost coupon.)

3 Likes
41

Glad you are in a hotel - it used to be the way we reviewed folks that thought that staying in my guest bedroom and acted like we were maids was their ‘entitlement’… ‘better suited to a hotel’, as if that made being solvenly or careless a condition of the guest experience…

1 Like
43

I’m not sure if you understand that I am not an advocate of chore lists like stripping beds and starting a load of wash, humping bags of garbage down an alleyway to the dumpster, etc. And I believe that hosts should always make any check-out expectations clear in their listing, so guests can pass on booking if they don’t like it.

I expect common courtesy, as you do, which means things like not leaving garbage strewn around the place, not leaving a pile of dirty dishes behind, not leaving wet towels in a mouldering pile on the floor, and wiping up a spill when it happens, not leaving it there to congeal or tracking it all over the house.
I have no chore list nor do I charge a cleaning fee, but I don’t fault hosts who do, as long as the expectations and fee is reasonable.

But I have read far too many posts from entitled guests who think that walking away leaving a mess behind them is acceptable, and that washing their own dirty dishes is “doing the host’s cleaning for them”. So I take market surveys of guests objecting to chore lists with a large grain of salt.

1 Like
44

I’m only following the discussion about why bookings have dropped dramatically, as in the title. There are many posts about this here.

I think when to enter a guest’s accommodation is a worthy topic but it should have its own thread.

1 Like
46

if its in your description and/or house rules, there is nothing against it. thankfully airbnb lets hosts manage their properties as they see fit and it is up to the host to communicate and cater to their guests according to their own market…

you seem to forget that a lot of airbnbs are still shared living spaces

48

I host a homeshare, sharing my kitchen with guests. I never enter the guest’s bedroom or bathroom during their stay. There were only two occasions when I did so- when a guest asked me to remove a spider from her room, and once when there was a sudden thunderstorm and I noticed the guest had left all her windows open. I tried to text her to tell her I was going to close the windows so she didn’t come home to a wet bed, but she was out at the beach and didn’t respond. But at least I courteously told her I was going in and why rather than simply considering it my right to do so. And I didn’t use it as an opportunity to poke around to see how she was treating the space- I was in and out in 30 seconds.

2 Likes
49

I couldn’t agree with you more. 1000%. The chores and the cleaning fees (especially the outrageous high fees) are symptoms of bad hosting.

This may shock you but I actually don’t have a problem with a host entering my guest premises when I am not there, without prior consent, assuming they have a legit reason of course and they aren’t thieves. As a host I would never do this–I would enter in an emergency, to protect life or property, but not otherwise–but as a guest it’s fine with me.

Why? Because I’ve literally stayed at more hotels than I can possibly remember for work. For years I had a suitcase I didn’t bother to put away, I traveled so much.

And so many times I have sent housekeeping or maintenance up to my room while I’m on my way to work. A time or two housekeeping walked right in while I was napping or working. Annoying for sure, but not something I felt outraged about.

But your point is well taken here.

There are infinite ways of being a bad host, and the guest is the final arbiter, really, of what that is.

2 Likes
51

@JJD, does TOS in the above stand for Terms of Service?

I just read the AirBnB Terms of Service and I cannot find where it says what @Margi1 does is a violation.

Legally, at least in states like New York, a short term rental is a license to occupy, not a leasehold. Consequently the licensee does not have the same rights as a tenant.

I don’t want to ask you to do work but honestly I can’t find anything in the TOS about it.

You’re clearly outraged by @Margi1 's behavior but as I have said, I am not. If her entry is not a violation of local law or of AirBnB rules the worst you could call it is rude.

2 Likes
53

Well thank you! It’s in the section called Our Community Policies, not Terms of Service.

If you’ve been a host for a long time, you may not realize that AirBnB tells you amazingly little when you sign up to be a host. Their website is a behemoth.

1 Like