Anyone else here an Airbnb host?

[EagleRay]

Wasn't sure whether to post here or in Travel or Self Employment!

I've just started - have got a few months off from normal job and decided to give it a go. The accommodation is the loft room of my house in a very popular part of the UK. Problem with living in a popular area is that there's already a lot of people doing the same thing so having to compete against more established places.

It feels like the hoover is permanently on am normally a total slattern but otherwise enjoying it!

Would be interested to hear from anyone else who's doing the same

I've looked at it and am tempted as we have a lovely spare room. How often do you have guests?

Well so far it's been the last 3 weekends, each staying one or two nights. Building up numbers slowly as you are less likely to get bookings when you have little or no reviews. Longer term, I really need to have the room occupied 50% of the time for it to be viable. I've got a second spare room which I'm going to start listing soon as well - need to redecorate it first though!

After this weekend, the next booking I have is for a whole month! That'll be interesting - not as intense as the short stayers but will still need to be on my toes.

Have you looked to see what other people in your area are doing in terms of what's already being listed? I was quite shocked at how many people in my neighbourhood are doing it, but thankfully have come up with a couple of unique selling points to make us stand out a bit. You can set up the booking calendar how you want so for example if you only fancy doing it at weekends or for a minimum of 2 nights per stay, you just adjust the calendar.

We're definitely more of a homestay than a formal b&b, but have still felt quite a bit of pressure to provide hotel standard facilities. Am now an expert duvet wrestler and collector of tourist leaflets

Good luck, we have run a B&b for the last 10 years, the duvet wrestling never gets easier. Do you provide breakfast and cooking facilities?

Yes I do provide provide breakfast - self service in the kitchen but fairly good choice of stuff. And they can scuttle back upstairs with a laden tray to eat it in their room if they find the sight and sounds of a 2 year old too much to deal with at 9am!

Other than that, no cooking facilities as everyone happy to eat out I think, but will let my long term guest who's coming soon use the kitchen I think.

How many rooms do you have available in your B&B?

We have three rooms which is plenty

Gosh yes! I already think about rooms now in terms of numbers of sets of bedlinen and towels

Maybe aim for a cheaper market.

I put my own town in and the only people doing it have beautiful houses and the prices were shocking.

There's a gap for that rung beneath I think.

What sort of prices were they charging Joan? I've grossed £58 this week. I used to earn that in an hour when I was working, but am having a lot more fun these days.

There's already quite a lot of people doing the lower budget stuff in my city - some places look quite nice but some are grim...

I'm going to lower the price on my room a bit in the short term I think, to get some more reviews in. It has its own lounge area too so is already great value for money so just need to find my market!

Having said that, the second room will be aimed at a lower budget market as it's smaller and the views aren't as good - there will be no mini bar and dressing gowns in there either!

Sounds like you are doing really well OP. Are you also on top of the tax/record keeping? That's what put me off doing it for more than a few weekends a year