I'm an AirBnB host, AMA

[SlightlySleepy]

If you ever thought of using it but are unsure, or thought about becoming a host. Or, in fact, anything else, ask away.

Hi IABUQueen in answer to your questions:

1. Not odd, quite reasonable.

1. We don't clean rooms when guests have a longer stay but we have cleaners who come once a week and they will clean the rooms. We tell the guests the day before, we don't ask though, we tell. If they didn't want the cleaner, it would make me suspicious about what they're doing in there.

1. You can choose things like verified profiles, as you said. And you can also select to only have guests that are recommended by other hosts. I think by only allowing females, you've already hugely reduced a lot of the risks that women on their own might face. You might actually end up feeling safer by having another adult in the house. But really it's a decision that only you can make.

1. I haven't because nobody has ever offered. I would prefer it if they didn't ask but if i liked them i wouldn't be against it. My friend who is also a host has done it.

1. Yes, all downstairs rooms are available for guests to use, which is unusual for AirBnB. Guests almost never make use of our living room. Use of our kitchen is slightly more common, but still pretty rare. Usually guests arrive, sleep and go. They tend to have no interest in hanging around the house.

Thanks a lot for your answers. That’s quite helpful.

I have one experience of a guest prolonging their stay after booking just for two days. As I saw them as friendly I accepted. They wanted to avoid doing it through the website to avoid extra costs.

However they kept extending and extending without asking for permission and even though they were paying (my original price which was at a discount for the first two bookings), they would do it whenever they liked.

Things got tense between us as they assumed that if they pay they’re entitled to stay as long as they wish, not realizing I would like control over what Days my house is available.

So after one month of extending and feeling at home, roaming around the rooms and being loud, with no end in sight as they had no date decided, I had to tell them to leave. I did so very politely but it resulted in them being seriously offended and taking it personal.

Not sure I ever want to do that again. I think it’s worth the fee paid to airbnb to avoid such stress.

movinghouse or anyone else....we have had an offer accepted on a property that comes with an annex; separate to the house.The obvious thing to do is ABnB.Is it better to just let this and declare the income over £7K in self assessment, or would it be better (more tax efficient) to set it up as a business? Points about insurance etc noted. Any other tips greatly appreciated.

IABU Queen That sounds awful, you totally wouldn't have expected someone to act that way. It's good advice to do it all through AirBnB. Also that way, the non AIrBnB guests can't try to stay on the same night as the AIrBnB guests, because if it's all done through one site, there's only one calendar, so everyone knows where they stand and what days they are entitled to stay. Thanks for the warning!

thisisacrazyidea I thought that to do a self assessment you had to declare yourself as a business. Even if the 'business' is just you operating under your own name. So I think that your two options are actually the same thing.
If I was you, I would have a motion camera above the front door (and declare it somewhere in your listing), so you can monitor how many people are actually in your annex, since you won't actually be there. You don't want to find that a couple have booked, and then 10 of their friends turn up!

Hello,
I had a question re: air b N b.

Is it possible to do air b N b when you have kids in the house?
Mine are secondary school age, so not screaming toddlers or anything.
I'm in a good London location, transport wise and accessibility to central.

Good sized double room.

But, no en suite bathroom.
Thanks for any info!