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?

Has anyone hosted on Vrumi? They're the 'workspace' of the sharing economy world. It's pretty similar but guests just book during the day so you get your space back in the evening. I've heard good reviews so far.

Never heard of it. Mind you we live in tourist-tastic rural south-west so not really our market.

I think it's a London thing abc, I doubt that anyone would want our place, but go for it if you are well placed to host.

I hope your ewww guest has long gone Hemlock! Sounds dire.

Thank you. He did leave last Sunday. The room is aired and cleaned and fragrant again :)

Hello - waddling in to say hello! Baby arriving in 7 days' time and house still a building site . My poor Airbnb rooms have been annihilated by the dust and look so awful - it's going to take s lot of work to get everything back to how it was.

It's been a very tough few months but we took some time out early March to take our first Airbnb holiday - a little cottage about 3 hours' drive away. It was really spacious and great value for money but God the mattress was uncomfortable! I put a lot of thought into bed comfort and glad I did that now as interesting being on the other side of the fence.

I found the feedback process quite arduous in terms of the level of detail and it made me feel quite intimidated about hosting again but needs must! (Later in year)

A few days after we got home I was hospitalised with swine flu and only been better last couple of weeks, recovering just in time to enjoy the sensation of my pelvis falling apart...

I had a call from Airbnb a couple of months ago to find out if I was returning to hosting and I told them about my break due to new baby. Then a couple of weeks later a parcel arrived out of the blue - inside was a babygro with Airbnb logo plus lots of other goodies, and a nice card! A really nice gesture

Hello Eagle! Lovely to hear from you. Sounds like you really have been through the mill. What a lovely gift from Airbnb, I had heard they send gifts but never 'known' anyone who has got them, how sweet! Best of luck with the imminent arrival. When is your building work due to be finished?

I had a lovely chat last week with one of the Airbnb Community Leaders for our region, lots of interesting stuff going on with Community based projects and trying to get hosts together. We have a little group here of local hosts (most who knew each other anyway) and we met up for a drink the other week plus there is an official Host Meet Up near here in a couple of weeks which should be good. Bookings are really starting to pick up here for the season. We're letting out our entire house over this bank hol weekend to a friend of a friend so will see how that goes before potentially doing it via Airbnb if/when we go away again. I'm supposed to be ironing bedding really, not MN'ing....

Hello Eagle. Good luck with the imminent arrival! What a lovely gift from Airbnb.

Our latest guest left a nice public review. But in the private bits said we were "a bit expensive for location" and "some what outside the city". We dropped the price at his request and the 'city' is pretty small. It takes me twenty five minutes to walk to work in the centre but I have arthritis and use a walking stick!
He also complained that he wasn't given a key and therefore had to structure his day around us. That was one day out of his five night stay, when both my husband and I were out at work and I didn't want a stranger in the house with our eleven year old daughter.

I'm glad I have this thread to whinge on!

Hemlock - I had a few whingers like that too! Some older (but not that old!) guests moaned about the long hilly walk to the house - um 10 mins from city centre and 3 minute moderate climb up my street!

Also had 'room too small' - loft room big enough to have its own lounge

Baby coming Tuesday. Toddler has chickenpox - hahaha!!! She's promised to recover in time so that we can put her back in childcare when I go into hospital we're fucked otherwise

Parts of kitchen now functioning which is terribly exciting, Pigeon. Worktops fitted earlier this week and now have sink/tap and a hob!!! Think dishwasher working too but too excited about sink still so will figure out dw another day. Down to last few days of building work - next week will get oven fitted, pantry shelves put in, paintwork finished and floor grouted. Biggest pain is bespoke drawer fronts not ready for another 2/3 weeks so can't store anything but that's fairly doable given everything else.

It's been a drastic overhaul - old kitchen was dark, damp, cluttered and walls were crumbling due to damp (it's basement). New kitchen is bright, stark, minimalist with references to the coast through large-scale artwork and mental light fittings. It was always our 'apology' room when hosting before and now hope it will make guests want to stay with us!

I'm very into photography and vintage textiles and have started putting things on the previously bare walls - house is over many floors, all used by guests so hoping to fill the walls with interesting things so that the walk to the shower room feels a bit like a visit to a gallery! Can you tell I don't get out much

Hello again! I lost this thread but used to be on it (different name)
I've been quiet ish over the winter but had a few longer (2 week) heavily discounted stays. Getting bookings for spring and summer now. No horror stories to report, I had one young couple who were lovely to be honest but like the pp above didn't shower! I had to wash the duvet and pillows after them. A couple of days ago I had an official letter delivered addressed to one of them and he's bloody been arrested for driving without a licence and gave my address for bail while they were here! The letter said he hadn't been to sign in at the police station - he's miles away now!

What a nightmare Vince. Our latest arrived yesterday and about twenty minutes later a large parcel came by courier for her . If it had come earlier in the day we'd have probably refused delivery.

I hate Airbnb's poxy star ratings. My host report for April told me off for having 'low ratings'. Down to 67% for overall experience because a couple of people put 4 stars instead of 5. It's bloody silly. Lots of people (my DH included) would never rate anything 5 stars unless it was literally out of this world over the top amazing. So my average is down 79% and I got Superhost last month. Boo. I don't think anyone actually cares about Superhost, Im not sure guests do and Airbnb guilt us hosts into thinking we should when it doesn't really matter. I get really cross when people mark down for location. They can see where it is on a bloody map. What do they expect us to do? Try booking somewhere which is the right location, grrrr.

I left my first 'this guest is more suited to a hotel stay' review this week. The miserable old cow hasn't reviewed me and hopefully she won't but she had issues with her verifications when booking for a one night stay with us and although I was super helpful and contacted the help centre on her behalf she was really pissy and unfriendly. First guest out of 55 odd who I have actively wished I could remove from the house.

PS Eagle, your house sounds amazing!! Maybe I'll come and stay in it once you are up and running again. Good luck with baby tomorrow, I hope the pox has gone!

I know, the low ratings warnings are horrible and it's usually someone marking 3* for location because they didn't check the map or read the description. I do wonder at
People who message asking how close I am to the sea, or to Brighton. Look at the map you turd, it's right there!
I've just reviewed a nice but annoying family. They opened my cupboards and helped them self to some honey, and took over my living room in the mornings which I don't expect. The listing says use of living room for eating meals but I came home on Saturday lunchtime to find them on the sofa covered in a duvet watching telly
I had to point out that exclusive use of an apartment would have cost twice what they paid and that taking 2 hours over breakfast is excessive.

JonSnow, they sound like arseholes! One where the phrase "this guest would be more suited to a hotel stay" is perfect in a review. I discovered this phrase on the community boards, covers all sorts without having to go into detail about their misdemeanours.

I'm sure I haven't had any 3 star ratings. I had one for value not long after we started but that is it. For Airbnb to call 4 stars "low" is just a bit shit I think. Although I don't trust the stats page as it seems to say one thing one day and another the next. The other week it said "congrats, your last 6 ratings for overall experience were 5 stars" and then the very next day it said "congrats, your last 2 ratings for overall experience were 5 stars". It just doesn't make any sense.

Thanks for this thread, I'm loving hearing everyone's experiences. We are hoping to move house and do some AirBnB in the new place but it's still early days.

Regarding the 5 stars rating, would you believe I have the same issue at work (big US company). When we do calls with customers, or presentations, we are rated, and work expects us to keep a 4.5 star average, which is very hard particularly when you work with people outside the US. Most UK/Europeans would think 5 stars means amazing, out of this world, while 3 means "fine" and 4 means "great". A 4 star rating should be seen as a better-than-acceptable score.

There's this incredible disparity in ratings between Airbnb and, say, Tripadvisor - there's some interesting articles out there on the culture of ratings on Airbnb.

I hate the way Airbnb is marketed as this slightly cuddly, fluffy, sharing economy thing but in reality it's a dashboard of 5 star ratings, statuses, feed backs and a slightly sour taste in the mouth as if you give your guests the moon on a stick they will still mention that you didn't live where they wanted you to live.

Am sat in my hospital cubicle - 3 hours until ELCS!!

Pigeon I will send you pics of kitchen when it's finished and yes we should do a holiday swap!!

And yes I've had a few 'would be more suited to a hotel', such as the 2 Korean teenage princesses who opened (but didn't necessarily use) every single one of the many and varied complimentary items I put in guests' rooms, then took over my kitchen but never washed up, then used their entire room as a bin, rather than using the bin itself

Airbnb are properly hammering the tv marketing at the moment aren't they? Crikey!

Hi, experienced AirBNB hosts, can I ask a few questions? We've let our room to student interns before through a local agency, which has worked really well. But we had a four-week void period, so I'm trying my hand at AirBNB for the first time.

We now have a planned let for a long weekend, the guest has good feedback and seems nice from communications. But I realised I don't know a few things about how Airbnb works - are we expected to provide towels? And if I haven't specified that meals are available, do we have to let them use the kitchen as a default?

Also, is there any advantage to charging a cleaning fee vs just including that in the rental price? When I'm renting, I always find the cleaning fee a bit annoying inasmuch as cleaning the place should really be included in the deal. But is there an advantage to the host in doing it that way?

There's probably lots of other things I haven't thought about, eek!

Hello! I would say that towels are a given. I would certainly expect them and we provide them. If you don't provide them make sure that it is very clear in the listing. Our listing and house rules are very clear about kitchen use in terms of what is permitted around family mealtimes. If you haven't specified that for this booking then you might need to wing it as the relevant terms will be those in place at the time of booking I think. The key to successful Airbnb is making it super super clear (even to idiots!) what you do and don't provide. Make sure your house rules are watertight. If it wasn't it in your house rules at the time of booking then you can't complain if a guest doesn't stick it it. I add stuff to mine all the time as I get more experienced.

Good luck!

I don't charge an extra cleaning fee, I take it as given. The advantage of charging it separately is it keeps your base price down in searches. But the guest will see it anyway in due course so I can't see that it serves any purpose.

Ah, thanks!

I don't think I put too much in the house rules, I prob didn't think too clearly about what should go in. Any suggestions? With our interns we've offered the use of the kitchen for cookign light meals around family mealtimes, including cupboard and fridge space, but I think for a long weekend booking they probalby aren't going to want to cook? But maybe I'm being optimistic, eek.

We generally haven't offered towels to our interns, as they always seem to bring their own. But not a prob to offer them. Maybe I should start browsing the House Rules on other listings to get some idea. Does having lots of rules put people off?

Hello everyone - baby safely arrived and is now 18 days old and eating her way through everything. House in chaos, not least because bloody building work still not finished

Hosting should be the last thing on my mind but am also mindful of the fact that we will need to make some money from it this year due to meagre maternity pay. Our biggest room is on the top floor of the house but it occurred to me that if we just let the smaller room on the ground floor, it cuts in half the amount of house the guests have access to, and so my cleaning workload will be halved. It also lets us keep one bathroom for ourselves which will be a godsend given the potty/toddler seat/nappy paraphernalia we have!

Meanwhile, have just spotted this www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/21/modern-tribes-airbnb-host

Anyone recognise themselves? Hmm thought as much Problem is that judging by the comments, everyone thinks this is what it's really like.

Although having said that, have seen a hilarious listing in nearby city which is v similar!

Hi Eagle, so glad all is well with you - apart from the chaos of the house, new baby and a toddler! Your idea sounds perfect for reducing the amount of work that goes into being an AirBnB host.

That Guardian article is a bit silly and ridiculous to be honest, but the comments are interesting.

I had someone try and book our room yesterday for his mother and sister, and after several exchanges about arrival time, luggage, etc, he then said he hoped I would be okay with him staying in the same room too, on the floor because he 'didn't mind roughing it'. Cheek! I declined.

I saw that article the other day Eagle, thought it was odd to say the least! Glad BabyEagle is settling in well, boo to tardy builders though!

I have got Airbnb rage tonight. Had two reviews so far this week. One was absolutely glowing with amazing private feedback too. Only gave me 4 stars though. Other was great publicly but whingeing privately about how the photos misrepresent the size of the en-suite and make it look bigger than it is (they are the sodding Airbnb verified professional ones!). Also complained about lack of floorspace with the single folding bed out. Despite the fact that it says in the flaming listing that use of that bed limits floor space (and it's obvious from the photos too). Also gave me 4 stars so now Airbnb is giving me yellow warnings about two consecutive less than 5 star reviews. It's bloody irritating. So I've gone against my better judgement and come up with a standard check out message to send to guests gushing about how lovely it was to meet them and how important reviews are and how Airbnb consider anything less than 5 stars to be an issue for the host. Wouldn't have resolved the latter guest but hopefully would have pushed the first one I mentioned to leave a 5 star review. It's not the Ritz. Fact. But the Ritz doesn't cost approx £50 a night including breakfast and homemade cream tea on arrival!! Grrrrrrrrrr

I'm feeling the rage with you Pigeon. My last guest was so complimentary about the house when she was here 'I would love to live here' type thing. Then she went and left me 3 stars for Location.
It's just a nonsense. I give a really accurate description of the street, the surrounding streets, the nearness to the city centre which is a lovely 15 minute walk, the bus stop at the top of the road, the fact that it is very quiet, and then I get 3 sodding stars.
Like you I think 4 stars is a good review, but AirBnB want 5. Despite getting a really good written review.
I am thinking about contacting AirBnB about it!