To be nervous of Air BNB guests?

[Getyourjab]

We have decided to let out our 1 bed cottage on the Devon/Dorset border.
We have just finished the renovation (new kitchen/ bathroom/ carpets etc) and are ready for guests, but have missed the deadline for my planned advertising outlet-The Lady- so our ad won’t appear until the August issue.
We have 2 bookings so far for the whole Summer…
My OH is keen to put it on Air BNB but I’ve heard horror stories about letting via AirBNB, but maybe they’re the exception. Like everyone, we’d like people who have a lovely time but will respect the place, not steal or ruin the time, effort and money we’ve spent.

Are you great Air BNB guests? Or where else can we advertise before Augustvto find some great guests who will look after the place?

I have a number of years of hosting on Airbnb and can honestly say that the amount of problem guests has been fairly minimal. We had some students once who were a bit mucky and broke the shower head, and a chap who tramped dog poo up the stair carpet. The white bedding has to be reasonably regularly replaced due to fake tan mess. There was one group who were loud and smashed a load of bottles on the drive way. But these incidents have been years apart and on the whole everyone else has been fine. You need a good reliable cleaner.

We've just come back from a lovely AirBnB stay, and my mum insisted we give a quick clean everywhere before we left. So yes, not everyone is awful but then again I'm sure there are some horrors out there. Much like anything else!

@Frannyhy. You said

“Whether or not this was true or not I don’t particularly care. I just know that I don’t want this person in my house, so I told her she was a rude cunt and to find somewhere else!”

Nice back pedalling though.

You need to take the emotion out of it. It’s a business yes? So you need to maximise your exposure and if that’s by Airbnb then that’s how how will get most bookings.
To be honest, if your chosen medium of advertising is ‘The Lady’ you’ve already decided that you only want ‘naice’ people renting it. Most people do not read The Lady!!
I understand you don’t want it trashed , but most people are decent and will respect the property.
If you are going to rent it out to bring an income in you need to maximise the number of people that see it, end of. Otherwise only let it to people that you know, but limit your pool of income.

You're implying someone booking via Airbnb is less respectful than someone who reads The Lady. That's a bit snobby...

OP I am looking for something exactly like this for the last week in August so please let me know if you decide to list it anywhere as I would love to visit!

Most people are nice, can't you rate guests on Airbnb as well as accommodation?

I don't want to stay somewhere where the owner is emotional about it all. I expect to pay for the property to be clean when I arrive and cleaned after I leave. I won't clean much before I leave - that is for the person I'm playing the cleaning fee to! I obviously don't intend to break glasses etc etc but it happens and I expect things like that to be absorbed in the price.

I use air bnb all the time, and I always leave the place spick and span (in all honesty it's often cleaner than when I arrived)

Sorry, posted too soon....I meant to say being a small place you're only going to get couples - the type of places that might get trashed would be places big enough for groups.

@GalesThisMorning

I don't want to stay somewhere where the owner is emotional about it all. I expect to pay for the property to be clean when I arrive and cleaned after I leave. I won't clean much before I leave - that is for the person I'm playing the cleaning fee to! I obviously don't intend to break glasses etc etc but it happens and I expect things like that to be absorbed in the price.

Yes, who wants to get up early to make it “Spick and span”? Clean and tidy yes. Hoovered, polished, no

DH and I are looking to book somewhere around that time OP.

Send me a PM with details, photo's etc.

We are very respectful guests!

@Frannyhy

I am an airbnb host. The vast majority of my guests have been lovely people, and many of them come back time and time again.

Make sure you know what your boundaries are. If you don’t want kids or pets put it in your house rules. Guest are supposed to read them before they book, but the majority don’t. When you get a request to book, cut and paste your house rules in the thread and make them type that they agree.

Don’t only check your prospective guests’ reviews from other hosts, check to see what they have written about other properties. This can take a bit of digging, or there is an app called air review you can use with chrome. This will show reviews written by the prospective guest, as well as by their previous hosts.

This week I had a request to book from someone who I found had told a previous host in my town that her house needed a deep clean. Whether or not this was true or not I don’t particularly care. I just know that I don’t want this person in my house, so I told her she was a rude cunt and to find somewhere else!

Someone said a property they rented needed a deep clean and you don’t know if it’s true or not but she’s a rude cunt. You sound vile.

On air BnB, you can either allow instant booking, or people can request to book, which gives you time / opportunity to decide whether or not to host them

I doubt a 1 bed cottage will attract a party crowd. I'm sure it'll be fine, but you do need to detach a bit

Try www.cottages.com. We have used them for years - they have lots of lovely properties finished to a high standard - we always leave them very clean and tidy after staying. They are popular and book up well in advance too. Never used AirB&B...

Thanks for all your comments. We probably do need to detach a bit. It’s reassuring to hear that your experiences as guests and owners have generally been good.
Just looked on Classic Cottages- they take 20% commission! I need to research the going rate.

Agree you need to relax a bit. It will just cause you stress if you take it personally. We stayed in a place with a group of 7. We were tidy and respectful (work trip with the bosses so no partying). The host let themselves in in the middle of our 3 night stay and phoned me to complain that (a) there were clean tea mugs left on the draining board (host actually put the 5 clean mugs in the dishwasher and ran it!) and (b) one of the guests was sleeping on an airbed next to the bed instead of in the bed (not wanting to share a bed with a colleague). I explained this but they accused me of having extra undeclared people staying which was not true. There were various other minor niggles which were completely unreasonable too. Felt like I spent the whole trip trying to placate the loony hosts! Don't be like that!

We rent out a holiday apartment on airbnb. My husband does the bulk of the work but I know he's happy with airbnb and I don't think there's been a single customer he would refuse to host again. TBH it's doing far better than we ever expected. This is our third year and we're booked solid through to September, and we're getting bookings now for late Summer and Autumn.

If I was booking a holiday it would never occur to me to look in The Lady.

@Yoshinori no not “accommodation” she rented a room in someone’s HOME.

I’ve done this when I’ve been travelling both here and abroad. I’d never say someone’s HOME needed a deep clean in a public review.

True or not, she’s a rude cunt.

@Getyourjab
If you want to pm me my husband says he'd be happy to help with any queries you have.

My parents rent out a cottage, it's on AirBnB.

Generally guests are fine whatever booking platform they come from. Booking.com and AirBnB tend to give more shorter stays. There is always some wear and tear at some point.

Worst guests were a 'business' booking for a single essential worker through Booking.com during lockdown. Completely trashed the place, things hanging off the walls, all bedding destroyed. So many empty bottles. Neighbours reported a party of two teenage couples turned up.

No recourse through Booking.com, they'd used fake details so no way to identify them either. CFers left a quite negative review too and ruined their 10/10 rating.

So really I don't think any platform is better, it's more about the management effort you have to put in and the commission charged.

We used Airbnb when we holidayed in the U.K. You can review whoever stays in the property, so it works both ways.
I’d like to think we left the place as we found it, clean and tidy with all the rubbish put out.

Feel the need to add that we did get a good review back and 10% off future bookings.

Some of the posts on here are

Somehow I am reminded of the episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil trys to get a better class of customer.

@Frannyhy I think you will find you are the rude one not your potential guest.

@Demelza82

Why not make it easy for yourself and sell it to a local couple/first time buyer

FFS