Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Would you put your spare room on air bnb?

582 replies

EachandEveryone · 03/07/2015 15:23

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?

OP posts:
Roussette · 09/11/2015 19:13

Can I ask a question of any hosts on here?

We stayed at an airbnb for 2 nights a couple of months ago. We flew home and that night I left a good review. I gave all 5* and the only small thing I said on the private bit of reviewing (general public can't see this bit) was that, as it wasn't ensuite, it might be a good idea to have a night light on the stairway as it was up and down stairs to get to the loo in the night (and I imagined by DH falling down the stairs in the night as it was pitch black!) I stressed that it wasn't a major problem, just a small point. Apart from that I praised her up a lot. I was very kind as it was a tad stressful to be staying there with so many rules and notices, so I was very kind because we had a good time in this city.

She did not put a review up on me. I felt we were model guests (out all day from first thing until 11pm, I even bought slippers with me as no shoes in the house!). Why would a host not leave a review of a guest? I thought that it was a mutual thing and that the host couldn't get their review until they reviewed the guest, or vice versa. However, 2 weeks later, my 5* review is there on her property with nothing about me as a good guest. I too want to build up my good reviews as a guest and feel I would like to take my review of her down.

Any thoughts anyone? (apologies for hijacking!)

EagleRay · 09/11/2015 20:15

Rousette you are not hijacking at all! This thread is for everyone and points of view from a guest's perspective are particularly welcome. Like you, I was under the impression that only mutual reviews were published, but apparently this is not the case. Someone will be along soon to clarify I'm sure; meanwhile, I'm sorry you didn't get a review left for yourself. It sounds like you were lovely guests and we would all love to host you Smile

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 09/11/2015 20:28

Basically you get 14 days to review, once the period had passed you can't review. During the 14 days you won't see the other persons review until you both write one to prevent retaliatory reviews. If one party doesn't review the review goes live after 14 days. As a host I always review, I don't know why she wouldn't. It wouldn't have been your feedback because she wouldn't have seen it.

Roussette · 09/11/2015 20:43

Thank you EagleRay. I'm a big airbnb fan (as a guest) and I'm always conscious of the fact we are being welcomed into someone's home, and we are pretty easygoing! We've stayed in some fantastic houses and all hosts have been so welcoming - a couple really stand out (one was the sweetest lady who laid on this wonderful buffet breakfast, we weren't expecting anything, she was malaysian and there was every type of fruit you could imagine, her husband was a barista so it was nonstop proper coffee too!)

My only thought was ... we left this airbnb before the host was up on the last morning but as there was no breakfast (no problem) we wanted to get off to get something to eat before catching our train - perhaps she thought we were rude leaving without saying goodbye, but there was no sign of her at gone 9am and checkout was at 10! I was just a bit puzzled as to the lack of review for us as she appears to have reviewed her other guests. I wondered if there was an order for reviews, i.e. host should do it first... ho hum

Roussette · 09/11/2015 20:45

Thank you Obsidian, that explains why my review went up after a couple of weeks, seems a bit unfair in a way!

Pigeonpost · 09/11/2015 23:56

We got a phone call last night from a guest who stayed with us 3-4 weeks ago. She was calling to say that she'd tried to leave us a review but didn't realise she was outside the time limit and she would have given us a good review! Weird...

MummaVang · 14/11/2015 16:13

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

ilove · 17/11/2015 21:13

How can I see my star ratings please? I cannot see any way of either re-reading feedback or seeing what stars people have left other than an overall "x percent 5* ratings" which is really annoying!!!

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 17/11/2015 21:34

On your dashboard on the desktop site :)

ilove · 18/11/2015 11:40

Ohhhhhhhh, I'm on the app!!! Thankyou

ilove · 18/11/2015 11:45

I feel better now - 4.5 stars overall

lovestea · 21/11/2015 12:03

We had a really lovely guest this week and all went really well and she left us a great review.
However, we were marked down again on the dreaded 'location'. It makes no sense to me. We offer a single room and a double room. The double gets excellent stars for 'location', but the single nearly always gets marked down even though it's the room that looks over our lovely garden.
It's the one thing I can't do anything about!
How is everyone else doing?

Pigeonpost · 21/11/2015 14:01

The location thing is mega annoying. AirBnB advise you to contact the guests who have marked you down and ask how they think you could improve your listing. That said, I've asked two lots of guests and neither bothered to respond so I'm none the wiser! I'm going to an AirBnB Festive Event in a couple of weeks time though so if I can, I'll ask the question. It comes up a lot on the New Hosts forum and the general consensus is that it is pointless and should be scrapped but it would be interesting to find out the official line.

lovestea · 21/11/2015 14:41

Oooooh Pigeon, where is the AirBnB Festive Event? That sounds really interesting!

Pigeonpost · 21/11/2015 21:10

It's in the county we live in. All the local hosts I know got the same email inviting us to attend one of four different events across the country.

"Airbnb invites you to join us for the [county] meetups to celebrate hosting in [county] and say a big thank you to all those who have shared their homes in 2015. We will have a short presentation at 7pm followed by an evening of meeting fellow hosts, sharing tips and some festive fun"

A few of us are going along, looking forward to it, bit like a work Christmas party!

lovestea · 22/11/2015 00:18

Sounds great. A chance to meet other AirBnB hosts. I wish we had one here and could share common issues.
Tonight we have such a lovely couple in who have come to visit their daughter at university.
We have nearly a year under our belt now. All in all it has been really good. No complaints, just one dreadful guest and a few who have been a bit demanding. But we have really enjoyed meeting all our guests, making them welcome and being hosts. It has paid for our next holiday and some, and so very happy to carry on another year.

Pigeonpost · 22/11/2015 12:25

I'm really surprised they aren't more widespread. I had assumed they would be doing them all over the country. I'm going with a few others from our town who also do it. If I learn anything useful I will bring it back here to share!

Original poster
EachandEveryone · 06/12/2015 22:18

I haven't got one booking for January it's very quiet.

OP posts:
EagleRay · 06/12/2015 22:23

I've got no job after this coming week so will probably have to start up again in Jan. Dreading it tbh as house has been in chaos since I started work. Would only be able to do it for a month anyway as major building work starting in Feb

lovestea · 23/12/2015 16:34

I hope all is well with fellow AirBnB hosts and you are all having a quiet time over Christmas!

Can I ask if any of you have an email address for AirBnB in the UK? I don't want to phone them as this is a routine enquiry and not urgent.
I don't have Twitter or Facebook so cannot use that to contact them. I have Googled, but drawn a blank!
Thanks in advance

Pigeonpost · 28/12/2015 22:14

Hi Loves, I'm sure there is a way of contacting them via the desktop site isn't there? Is there not a contact us section? I do have an email for them which they used about the festive event which was [email protected] which rather outs which county I live in! Might be worth a shot?

I never reported back about the festive event, sorry! It was really good. Mix of existing hosts, wannabe hosts and a few guests. Started with a film about the history of AirBnB up to present day business which was really interesting and it made it feel like more than just an app on my phone. The event was hosted by the host relations lady for Cornwall and a chap whose job is basically marketing to new hosts. We were able to ask questions (didn't get any answer on the daft star rating for location issue thing). The best thing I got out of it was realising that I can request the free photography again. We will have redecorated the 'communal bits' by mid Jan and the guest room already looks way better than when the photographer first came out not long after we started in the summer just because we've styled the room quite a lot. Pics at the mo are just off my phone as I wanted them to be honest but they aren't as good as the pro ones.

Talked a bit about guest reviews and private feedback and made me feel a bit more gutsy about being more honest in feedback. I tend to internally seethe with guests when they arrive late or phone for directions having obviously not read the message I sent about not relying on sat nav but then 'bond' with them and wimp out of being as honest as I probably should. So the guests we had that weekend got an honest, fair but polite review and I felt better for it. After all, if they are a pain in the arse on check in for whatever reason then other hosts deserve to know.

I also decided to tighten up my house rules a bit to make a few things clearer. For example we charge extra for kids (other than babies in guest own travel cots) and in the summer I didn't make an issue out of a last minute guest who didn't pay for her kids as they were both under 5. Our listing said nothing about under 5's going free and she was taking the piss but I didn't challenge her on it. I've made my rules much clearer now so if anything like that happens again it's clear where I stand.

Not particularly ground breaking stuff but it was useful. We've had a quiet Dec. One family for two nights, one couple for one night and then a couple booked in for 3 nights over new year. I've quite enjoyed the downtime and not ironing bedding!!

lovestea · 29/12/2015 12:43

Hi Pigeon. Hope you had a great Christmas. Thank you re the AirBnb email address. There is a way of contacting them through the AirBnb dashboard, but it doesn't allow you just plain 'email' them as it has specific headings like 'contact us about a booking', and my question to them doesn't come under any of the headings there. They really don't make it that easy to contact them!
Your feedback is very helpful, thanks. Did the dreaded Location issue get talked about at all?

Pigeonpost · 29/12/2015 19:10

I did chat to the lady about location and really it just comes down to being watertight with your description. I thought mine was but I've been through and tweaked it a bit just to double confirm walking distances and leaving nothing to assumption. It's hard to know what else to do and the overwhelming conclusion was that sadly you can't account for idiots.

lovestea · 03/01/2016 23:19

Humm, anyone know the answer to this?
On the AirBnB Dashboard there used to be a green slider bar that told you the % of times you have fulfilled things like response rate, 5 star reviews, completed trips without cancelling, etc.
Well, now it seems to have gone. Has it for you?

Pigeonpost · 04/01/2016 22:04

This one? Mine is still there..

Would you put your spare room on air bnb?
Swipe left for the next trending thread