I put the word in the listing title
(Name of area) suite by the sea.
Then in the first line I describe it. Never had anyone not get it.
Sometimes, even if you filter by ‘entire house’ Airbnb shows properties that are NOT an entire house. Some of them are separate units, i.e. a basement suite – but many of them mention times when the host would need to enter or that they have to come through the main front door before going up stairs to the “entire apartment”. To me, Airbnb should only put actual ENTIRE HOUSES under that choice, not suites attached to a house, etc. I think that is one thing that causes confusion.
I also get tired of them saying “five guests looked at your listing but chose places that were $17 (or $30) less” – I know my area and there are not entire properties that are that cheap. I find that misleading.
Judy
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I agree with you @JJCatfinder. When you are searching for a property, Airbnb doesn’t make it easy or clear how to search for what type of property, and if you didn’t know better, it would be easy to think that everything listed is “House”.
I also think it would save everyone a lot of time if listings were clearly marked as having a private or shared bath. A private bath is a big selling point. I get those same messages, telling me X number of people looked at my listing, but booked somewhere close by for X amount less. When I look at those listings, they all have shared bathrooms, yet their being compared to my private bath listing.
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I don’t envy Airbnb in their efforts to make this clearer!
How is a guest suite accessed off a common hallway (or shared yard) different from an apartment off a common hallway? Surely you would consider an apartment a “whole house/apartment”?
The real question is: Can you make breakfast in your underwear without fear of running into the host or other guests? If yes, it’s a whole listing. It’s their use of “house” that adds confusion.
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yes, drop the word suite, as it sounds like something is ‘complete’, another’s a few pages on the internet attempting to clarify ‘suit vs suite’.
I must admit, I’m not sure what a suite of rooms should comprise of, is it an every day US expression?
Suite means (1.) a set of connected rooms that form one unit (doesn’t seem to specifically suggest what room, ie, kitchen, may be left out)
Also, you list some of the amenities, and I instantly started to assume it was a kitchen: “mini fridge, microwave, mini oven/toaster and breakfast fixings”, and the ‘buffet area’ is a travel agent expression for kitchen perhaps? I know it’s not, but it paints a very ‘kitchen’ picture. 
I know what you mean. But there’s a box to check if the suite/apartment/basement/attic/whatever for ‘own entrance’ or ‘separate entrance’ which indicates (to me anyway!) that it’s a separate place and therefore an ‘entire house’. Or maybe I’m wrong and others are being fooled by the same thing?
When you search there are three choices up front under “home type.” Entire place, private room, shared room. I f you want to pick guest house or loft or villa you have to go to the filters. I just did a search and booking today and there is no filter for private or separate entrance. Yes, we as hosts have a box to check but Airbnb is not yet giving the guest that option.
I have a separate entrance and no shared spaces but I still list my place as just a private room because I know if I check mark entire place I’ll have droves of confused and disappointed guests. Even if I had a kitchenette and seating area, which I could add using the room next door I’d not be inclined to call it an entire place.
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We get this all the time. We edited our listing to say “Rooms in shared house” and state that we live there with our cat and our current group still didn’t understand that it’s not a vacant house. A lot of people don’t read at all, even the title. They only look at pictures and the price. People see the picture of our cat and for some reason think she just lives in a house all by herself!
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Maybe change the wording of the title to clarify that it is 2 rooms in a home.
My second photo of one cat, entitled Head Housekeeper etc, seems to have done the trick. People have now moved on to complaining that there are other guests staying in our B&B. I state this in the listing but have been left wondering how to take a photo to illustrate for the lazy-less-than-literate. Any ideas anyone???
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Different blow up dolls in the different rooms?
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These last people even went out of their way to tell us “No one is allergic to cats” but still thought she just lived there by herself without us.The only other way would be to message each party that books and tell them. Then let them cancel if they want to according to your cancellation policy. And don’t give them a refund for not reading!
Here is an idea to show that your house is shared.
Draw out a floorplan of your house.
Label each room.
airbnb room #1
airbnb room #2
airbnb room #3
Shared bathroom
Shared livingroom
Then, on listing #1, highlight the bedroom. Ditto on listing #2 & #3 - highlight the bedroom.
On the parts off limits, mark with //// slashes.
The attached image is a fancy one - it could be hand-drawn with a ruler, pen, and highlighter, & take a photo.
A very good idea indeed; thank you, although I am still laughing at the blow up dolls’ idea!
I’ve got more people in who arrived very late last night without arranging to do so, with a late arrival message of “My sister is sooo excited to meet the cats”, and then asking on arrival a) why no self check-in b) we didn’t know you live here. They are not very nice but thankfully leave this morning.
I’ve just been through my initial messages ( 7.30 am; they are still sleeping) which make it very clear that this is our home, that we live here but the son/booker can’t have shared anything with his parents/sister.
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So they thought the cat lived there alone??
Same thing happens to us all the time. I don’t know why people think a cat would live in a house all by itself.
Two cats; now known as The Complimentary Cats Anyone?
What drives me crazy in my area is that there are three towns within about 30 minutes of one another and AirBnB will change from one to the other without calling folks attention to it. That can happen pretty early on the search if it is a popular time and listings in the city with the event are limited. I recently spent over an hour messaging with two different groups about where I was located, how far to other city, etc. etc. which led to no booking for me.
I agree with RiverRock, you need to post pictures of only the guestrooms and not the entire house. Must people do not take the time to read, they just look at the pictures and the price. I have noticed that guests keep buying sugar, creamer, coffee etc. even though on my listing I indicate that I provide all those things. If they read the listing thoroughly, they would save some money!
My listing title is “Private entrance and bathroom @ 1-10 exit in ELP.” Since I know many guests don’t read more than the title and first paragraph and see the first five pictures that the app auto scrolls through I decided to ditch any clever, lovely language in my title and just use it to say three important things about my listing.