I can understand but I am still sad.
Yes, yes, and yes, and I may add, responsiveness and willingness to actually book a guest. Oh, and a regulatory atmosphere that doesnāt make a guest wonder if their airbnb will be shut down before they arrive.
No need to leave the forum. Itās likely you received an automatic notification from Tom (only because he is the forum owner). I donāt know that for sure. But a bunch of people did not flag your post. It is likely you received the notification due to an action I took. I will send you a PM and explain
Okay, B&B has traditionally stood for Bed and Breakfast. This is a unique business in which a house is converted to having uniquely decorated, usually ensuite guest rooms with names. The person, couple or family who run the B&B have separate quarters within the house that are not accessible by the guests. The kitchen is used by the owners to make a fancy breakfast for the guests, who are served at a particular time. Often coffee is available all day, and perhaps cookies or another snack laid out in the afternoon.
Airbnb is a business model that was started by some roommates who rented out floor space to guests using an airbed. To attach ābnbā at the end of the name of the business was just for fun, as it shows the vague meaning of a place to stay in someoneās home.
If what you wanted to do was join a business that had definite, strict ideas of exactly what each host should provide, this wasnāt it.
Same here! For some reason, the majority of our guests are super health conscious. (Maybe because we have in our listing that we are vegetarians). Guests always comment on how much they love the fresh fruit bowls or parfaits I do up. Sometimes however the Irish breads can get wasted, as most find them too heavy.
I complained that shmucks who give Airbnb a bad name are why I only have 70%.
I "bragged"about my high satisfaction rate from. Guests, if you want to call it bragging, so be it.
I explained my status. High ratings. Tons of rebooks, but nowhere near the occupancy levels I want. As for increasing my customer service model, I donāt believe thatās it.
I am positive there are two causes.
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many AirBnB hosts give us a public bad name. I can not tell you the dozens of examples Iāve heard.
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I am probably out of many peopleās price range who really just want a $25 a night room, not a $300 a night āresort like homeā. Iāve considered a price adjustment. But 24 days at $300 or 30 days at $200 doesnāt make me more money, and also risks more ālow budgetā elements. Need to find a happy medium. Can I be full time at $250? I donāt know.
Itās ridiculous to blame your problems on others, but take sole credit for your successes. I am tired of Airbnb hosts on this forum who blame other hosts for the public perception of Airbnb. Do people avoid the Four Seasons because Motel 6 doesnāt serve breakfast? Do people avoid Le Cirque because the food at McDonaldās tastes nasty? If Airbnb guests are intelligent they will realize that listings vary. They can figure out what a listing will be like by reading the listing including the reviews.
I donāt know, @EllenN - Iāve stayed in airbnbs that had great reviews and were nasty. My sister-in-law recently said āIāve had some horrible experiences with airbnb, so I didnāt review themā. I almost screamed āWHAT?! YOU HAVE TO REVIEW THE BAD ONES, TOOā. Iām sure there are many people who try airbnb a few times and then just slink away, never taking time to review the bad listings. I know that, after my experience with trying to book rooms in Oslo I would have walked away from airbnb and never come back.
While I may not expect the same quality of linens and amenities at a Motel 6 that I would at a much nicer place, I would expect the Motel 6 to be
- Clean, without hair and mildew in the shower, and gobs of cobwebs everywhere.
- Respond when I contact them and actually book me if they have advertised that rooms are available.
- Have at least a minimum of tourist/area info in the room
- At least have decent, clean sheets on the bed
- Allow me more than one towel per person. If I need more, I can get more from the front desk
- Have a working A/C if A/C is advertised. To NOT be 86f in the room.
- To not reek of mildew
- To not have horses that have mental issues that chase my kids around and try to eat my dinner.
You donāt often hear someone saying āIāve had some horrible experiences with Motel 6/Holiday Inn/HIltonā but we all know someone who has had a horrible experience with an airbnb.
Iāve stayed in relatively few airbnbs compared to others, but Iāve experienced all the above. And I did read all of the listing several times over and the reviews.
_Iām not saying that @Dru_Neiās problem with occupancy (I was at 90% for this past October) is because of other hostās providing poor quality experiences, we canāt deny that it is an issue. A friend just recently tried to book his trip through Ireland and had the same experience I had trying to book places in Norway - at least 50% of the listings contacted said the room wasnāt available though it was not blocked on their calendar, and in many cases, the listing continued to be open for those dates.
Even just shopping through listings is exhausting as we have to sift through dozens of unnecessary photos, poorly written, confusing verbiage, various details about check-in, even ābring your own sheetsā, etc. In my case I have to spell out that I have to collect their taxes in cash - what a pain.
Iām a bit confused by this discussion. Arenāt most of us suffering from a high level of competition these days as everyone and their dog is doing Air? So how do poor hosts affect your business? Surely if you have great reviews and provide a great place then your occupancy rate should increase because youāre better than the competition? @Dru_Nei, I would hazard a guess that youāre over-priced compared to new hosts who are getting started with low prices rather than āpublic perceptionā. Itās a business and you have to constantly adjust to remain ahead.
I donāt think itās reasonable to expect a very high occupancy rate, ie above 70% unless your location is in high demand.
Do you rent by the room, or do you rent the whole house? Did you ever say what you include in your breakfast?
For us if we want to offer breakfast we need to make a cleaning inspection by the city and itās expensive plus we have to pay extra taxes. We have a large shop oppen all day 500 meters from our place.
I believe that most hotels in the world would be VERY happy to have a yearly average occupancy of 70%. But OKā¦
If you think that your not-100%-occupancy-rate is the fault of other hosts on AirBnB, why donāt you use other methods to sell your product?
Use other platforms: Wimdu, MisterBnB, Booking, etc. ā¦
Make your own website and donāt pay any platform costs anymore.
Iāve just had a guy who was not shy about taking fruit. I appreciated it since I always have fruit on hand. Many times, I make a fruit salad for breakfast, depending on what else Iām making it, and everybody always eats that.
I donāt understand why there are pages of posts that have nothing to do with the topic of providing breakfast. Why donāt you start new topics for other complaints or suggestions. I donāt want to wade through it all looking for the on-topi posts, which might be helpful.
I think youāre going to have to get used to threads wandering off-topic on here and go with the flow. In my opinion, itās one of the things that makes this such a fantastic forum - no rigid draconian rules, just fair and careful moderation.
Apologies. I think Iām one of the worst people here for doing that.
No need to apologise to me, I love the meandering. Itās ChrisC that has the problem. Chris, I donāt use the search function on here much but Iām sure youāll find other threads about providing breakfast if you try it.
edit: hereās a big one (thread, that is). Be warned, though, it probably wanders off into discussions about curtains or salad or the latest movie or something.
It may well be that some forum members are annoyed more about questions that already have extensive topics than those who are irritated by people going off-topic.
Yes, thatās another thing! Itās inevitable though. Every forum has the same issue no matter what the core interest, the same issues keep coming up. Yet someone always comes up with some new take on it, whether itās useful or so ridiculous that regulars can have a grand old time shredding it to pieces