Would you put your spare room on air bnb?

[EachandEveryone]

We are twenty minutes from Central London. My friend and I are sick of looking for flatmates and would quite like a break from living with other people! What do you think to letting out the spare bedroom?

When do you think the money will show. Nothing on airbnb yet.

When did they check in? Just thinking there might be different rules for longer bookings

I'm not sure how it works they came at 3pm yesterday. Do they have to go online and do something or is it all automatic?

I usually get paid 24 hours after arrival date, but we only have short bookings so not sure if it is different for longer bookings.

You will be paid automatically by which ever way you requested: Bank account or PayPal. You don't have to do anything to trigger it. AirBnB will send you an email to inform you that you have been paid. Your guests will have paid AirBnB when they booked and now AirBnb pass it on to you.

I don't know if PayPal is any different as we get paid by bank account, but when AirBnB write to tell you they are paying you the money does not appear for 5 to 7 days.

Yep, 24 hours after check in here too. I asked for payment via bank transfer to avoid PayPal fees but it usually takes 2-3 days less than the estimate they give to arrive in my bank account. Not sure if the same applies for a month long stay though and whether it all gets paid in one day. I guess it probably does. AirBnB should have done a test payment of 2 $cents into your account, has that arrived?

And yes, will def feedback re any revelations on the location front! I might post on the hosts forum and get people to read my listing but I guess if you can't actually compare the reality with the listing then people may not be able to say.

I've attached my PayPal account to it. Are the fees horrendous?

I don't know what the fees are but I figured I'd rather wait a couple of extra days for the money than pay any fees at all! Although I'm thinking of moving the AirBnB money into a separate bank account as I'm a bit spendy and I'm supposed to be sticking to a budget now I'm a SAHM and the AirBnB money tops my income back up to not far off it was whilst I was working (taking into account what DH gives me) and I should be spending it more wisely I think.

PayPal take a % but not sure how much.

I have all my airbnb and foreign students money go into a separate account. I have the cash card on me so if I'm short in my current account I do use it but generally I save it

My week long booking has been here a couple of days now and all going well. In order to disguise the chaos and my slight lack of interest currently in all things airbnb, we have let them use the kitchen when they want and also the second airbnb as a music room so that they can practice their performances (they are musicians performing at a local festival)

The two teenage girls are rather other-worldly - v intelligent and polite, and their lives are spent learning classical instruments, reading Tolstoy and just being generally v academically advanced.

Thankfully they had already left the house this morning when I started throwing up for England!

Mine have washed their own towels and sheets and apologised for any noise they may be making. I want to adopt them.

We had a 3 night booking starting tonight. She phoned this morning and left me a voicemail saying they have changed their minds because of the awful weather but aren't looking for a refund! Having looked at the AirBnB t&cs it seems that they would get the second two nights back in full if they cancelled but they haven't and I'm obviously not going to. Part of me thinks I should tell them to cancel it but part of me is happy to take the money for no effort.

Eagle, did you find out how far along you are?

I don't love the guests I have in now. A teenage boy, dad and uncle for 4 nights. Have barely seen them but yesterday evening they came in late and left the door unlocked. So I knocked on their door to remind them to lock it when they come in (it's in the guest guide both on the site and printed on paper in the room) and one of the men answered just in his pants. He didn't try to stand behind the door or be discreet about it. They are German so...is that culturally acceptable there?
Then the teen asked if he could take a shower right at the time that I put in the guide requesting they avoid the bathroom...meaning they haven't bothered to read the guide at all.

Question - when you give feedback do you consider that they might give you a reciprocal bad one if you give them one? I want to mention the need t read the guide and also that it's not generally acceptable to stand about in your pants when you're being hosted by a single woman who doesn't know you from Adam but I don't want a crap review in response!

Pigeon that's up to them to sort I guess! Don't bed over backwards to refund if they don't request it.

Obsidian, they can't give you a crap review in response because of how simultaneous the system is. If you're going to mention either thing at all then you have to mention it in the public bit of the review but be fairly lighthearted and cheery about it. Although from what I have read on the forums if you want to give someone a less than entirely positive public review but don't want them to give you a poor review then just don't review them. Although that rather flies in the face of AirBnB thinking to me as often a potential guest's reviews will affect whether you want to host them or not. It's a tricky one. I'm not sure I'd ever knock on a guest's door though. I'd just wait until I saw them in the main part of the house. I don't know how you do bathroom sharing. I'm not sure I could cope (our guest room is en-suite)!

I had to knock on their door - I don't see them at all! I could have text I suppose but I was anxious to make it clear about locking the door.
Sadly I only have one bathroom so we have to negotiate!

I can't say I'm impressed by the two showers each a day they are having! I'm peeing myself waiting!

And my semi naked Germans gave me a goddam 3 review! Despite their private feedback to me being 'cheap price' they gave me 3 for value and cleanliness and the bloody room is spotless as I just took everything out, painted, washed curtains etc and put in brand new beds! They had no feedback as new to airbnb so I'm assuming they rated me as if they were the bloody star ratings assessors for a bnb rather than an airbnb user. I'm cross!

How annoying. Mine have gone off to Manchester for two nights so I shouldn't complain about the showers really. They are making the most of being here.

Hello - Host Eagleray here, checking out her final guests of the year today!!

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly challenging - have survived first week in new job, and no more vomiting thanks to chomping on bits of toast and marmalade while I'm driving to work (timing is everything).

I had a scan just over a week ago and was found to be very early on in the pregnancy (which pretty much ties in with approx dates I'd managed to figure out). It's a bit of a waiting game now until the end of the week when I will have a follow-up scan and hopfully they will see something a bit more tangible.

It's a relief not to be having guests in the house and trying to keep on top of everything, but now I'm back doing the 9 to 5 and so already have that monday morning feeling now that the weekend is nearly over.

Obsidian - how very annoying re the 3* review! Some guests just are a nightmare and so hard to know what to do about them. My recent German guests weren't troublesome but god were they moany in their private feedback! Thankfully I subsequently had nice guests who talked constantly of coming back next year as soon as they had arrived here!

Woo glad to hear the pregnancy is going well! And nice to get rid of those guests I'm feeling under booked and hoping for some more bookings for October.

I've considered renting out our spare room, but where I live is mostly frequented by hen/stag parties, and the next room is inhabited by my non sleeping toddler and baby. Perhaps in a few years once they're older and sleeping

I've thought about renting out our house over the holidays (both me and DH are teachers) and we go off on our usual six week amble about staying with relatives and going on holiday- but worry about leaving it for so long and the inevitable cost of cleaning before we go and putting things in storage. Hmmm.

Does anyone know of a site where you can do international home swaps? The last air bnb host I stayed with told me about it, but Google has so many different sites I'm not sure which one is the best?

One person is really annoying me she keeps texting to say that airbnb are giving a different listed price to the one I've set. She's basically trying to avoid paying the cleaning fee by making me look like I don't know what I'm doing. She seriously thinks she can pay £18 for a perfect room in London. I wish there was a way to block her.

Oh, I need some advice now. My guests have text me to say they are cutting their month long stay by four days to go home earlier. What happens do I give them that money back?