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?

I had a Matalan order come today bedding and towels all great quality and cheap!

I accepted it. He was verified, I misread that. I'm not sure my prices will be able to go up a huge amount to be honest (need to have another look at some local listings once we have a few more reviews under our belt). Our second booking is tonight and then our third is for 7 nights from Thurs. feels a bit scary to be committing to 7 nights but I guess it's easier on the prep front because I only need to get the room ready once.

I'm gutted that person cancelled the one night so I lost a booking for a month potentially.

Them's the breaks. Don't be gutted, something else will come along!

Can you check to see if the month long booking is still looking for somewhere?

I'm struggling a bit to get back into it after our holiday. Thankfully not got any guests til thurs but still tons of holiday stuff to be washed, 2 rooms to turn around and we're having a party here at the weekend too. Oh, and the washing machine's on its last legs and have started potty training DD plus am trying to get her sleeping problems sorted out while we have no guests...

My friend was looking for airbnb room in Reading/Maidstone/Henley area this week and perhaps on longer basis.
Nothing was available

We have also just put a listing on air bnb. As we are away a bit over the summer, we have put the whole house on, eek! Has anyone else done this?

We are going to lock our bedroom, as it is messy and full of our stuff, but the other 3 bedrooms will be available to guests. Just under 2 weeks til our first booking arrives and we go on hol so frantically redecorating at the mo!

Did you follow air bnb's price tips? Mine is low ish at the mo til we get some reviews.

Off to matalan this afternoon for towels etc, thank you to whoever recommended there.

Really interested to hear other people's experiences as hosts. Tempted to start offering a room while we are here. We have 2 small dc's though so our house is often quite hectic. Our spare room is nice though.. Much nicer than our bedroom! And we could do with the extra income.

Would be great for this thread to be moved somewhere more permanent.

I under priced my room but then I got a massive booking and realised how much i have lost out on! So , I've followed their guidelines now. Good luck at Matalan I got the stripey towels they have washed lovely

Each - I have found the pricing to be a bit of a game of tactics! My first booking was a month-long one, but it was for the following month, which gave me enough time to get some shorter term, more immediate bookings in, and therefore some reviews then a star rating. At that point I was able to bring the price up a bit to be in line with my 'competitors' and it also meant that while the room was occupied for the month I had reviews and a star rating which would attract bookings for dates after my month-long guest had left.

It's definitely a good idea to start with a very competitive price, but not let too many bookings take place at this price - either block the calendar for later dates, or price months individually.

Also, fiddling with prices and calendar regularly will help push your listing up the search results.

A friend of mine put her entire house on Airbnb at the end of last year and I've learnt a lot from her. Her success has been her downfall though - she has allowed one night bookings from the start, charges a very competitive price and no extra fees (cleaning, extra people etc). This means that she has been booked fairly solidly throughout the entire year from early on, mostly at prices she now feels are too cheap. On top of this, she lives an hour's drive away and faces several full house turnarounds each week as some guests stay only one night. She has lots of happy customers, but is worn out and shackled to future bookings now.

Sylviecat - I did consider doing this over this summer, but in the end we decided against it as it would have been too stressful. Will probably do it next year though once our kitchen has been replaced. Like you, we could lock up our own bedroom (lovely, with amazing views from the bed but just too much stuff to clear out) and that would leave 3 more bedrooms.

As for letting rooms while you are there - totally fine to do it with a hectic toddler-ridden house as long as you describe it as so!

I do hope people who rent out a whole house are declaring for tax, insuring properly and letting any mortgage company know.

Those letting out rooms in the house they live in can make use of the spare room tax exemption, but need to declare if they go over the threshold. The exemption has quite tight rules. The budget announced an increase in the exemption band from the next tax year.

Oh, people always seem to want a hairdryer by the way.

We're looking to let our whole house out next year over the Burghley weekend as we live ten minutes from it.

Melon - I'm still trying to sort out mine with my accountants - I already have an unrelated business, and was going to set up another one but could probably just do it under the rent a room scheme. I've googled insurance and it still seems quite vague for whole house rentals as Airbnb has grown so quickly but not all aspects of it have caught up.

You are right about the hairdryer - my guests get dressing gowns too

Thank you for the hairdryer tip. Hadn't thought of that. Any other random items guests seem to request?

Good point about the hairdryer, I actually have two so going to stick one in the room tomorrow after our current guest leaves. I increased on the AirBnB recommended price as bit as it suggested we start at £29 and others locally seemed to be quite a bit higher so I went in at £35 for one person plus £10 for others. Looking at local competitors, this still seems very low but I am "competing" with proper B&B's which do cooked breakfasts and don't have 3 kids... They charge £50-90 a room though so I think I might put prices up a bit once I have a couple more reviews under my belt.

What do people find is the conversion rate between booking enquiries and actual bookings? I'm not prepared to opt for Instant Book at the moment and respond to enquiries within a couple of hours tops, if not straight away but I had one enquiry for 2 nights over this weekend gone who seemed really keen and then vanished and then another from a couple who wanted to stay 7 nights from later this week which fitted in perfectly with our available dates but who have now dropped off the face of the earth. They had loads of great reviews too. I've never used AirBnb as a guest but do people make enquiries with several places and then choose one? I'm assuming that chasing people up to see if they want to confirm a booking is not the done thing as if they wanted to book then they would. I'm just wondering what draws people in to send lovely polite enquiries in the first place, get a lovely polite response back quickly and then not book. Part of me starts to feel aggrieved about 'losing' money but the rational part then reminds me that it was money I didn't have anyway and that the money we do get from confirmed bookings is simply bonus money and although we have lots to spend it one (fairly new house), we don't need it as income to get by on. Could really do with a booking for a few nights this weekend though as the ILs are descending for the next few weeks (not all at once!) thereby hampering our money making opportunities. I need to stop thinking about it like that I know...

I think my conversion rate between enquiries has been around 50%, with approximately half of the non-bookings being them, and the other half being me.

I suppose reasons for non-bookings for them include:

• they have made several enquiries at once
• they decide I'm too far from the centre
• they ask a question about the listing and then decide no once they have that information (which they could have got from the listing if they read it!). These include: configuration of beds, lack of en-suite etc.

My reasons for saying no to enquiries include:

• not enough information about guest (blank profile or too short a message)
• request for discount where it's not warranted (would never take a guest after refusing to give a discount as they will already be aggrieved, possibly)
• certain types of tourist who just want accom as cheap as possible and have no interest in one listing from the next (they're the ones who tend to cause issues when staying)

Around here, very few people do instant book - I don't think it's necessary unless you want constant traffic.

The good thing about enquiries is that until they actually book, the date in the calendar is still bookable by others. I had a recent booking enquiry that went on for weeks with endless questions which I always answered in detail with great care. I started getting very bored and then realised I definitely didn't want them to stay but wasn't sure what to do. And then overnight in came another booking for same dates which I agreed to and immediately ditched off the enquiry from the other party - it was a huge relief.

It's tricky with the relatives - I used to have my sister and her family come to stay each summer but I've had to make it clear this year that paying guests kind of have to come first (I'm the main breadwinner and the takings are paying the mortgage at the moment). I could let them stay in the bigger room and continue to let the smaller room but the behaviour of the kids cannot be guaranteed and I can't risk bad reviews...

We have two guest rooms that we let through AirBnB, a single and a double. We do not let them at the same time as we want our guests to have the privacy of a bathroom to themselves (single and double on the same floor with a bathroom in between).
We live in the South East in a very popular university city and could have 100% occupancy, but choose not to as we like to have a break from it occasionally.
We offer two nights minimal stay and four nights maximum stay as this suits us best.
Having just retired it is a great extra income and you can earn £4,250 before declaring it to the tax man. This rises to £7,500 next year.
Things I love about AirBnB: So many really lovely really interesting guests.
Things I don't love about AirBnB: The guests that want to arrive at 10am, that don't want to leave until 2pm, and the guests that want you to explain in minute detail how to get to your house (hello, Google maps!).
We have been doing this for a year now. Have found out a lot of do and don't s and have loved it!
We had one guest from hell, but that was out of over 100 bookings, and now we have superhost status which gives us a cute little badge and sod all else.
We have also used AirBnB as guests in France and it was brilliant!

Lovestea: any top do's and don'ts you'd like share with us newbies on the thread? We recently moved from a v popular university city in the South East, wonder if it is the same one? Our old house wasn't big enough to do it anyway but I bet it's popular there.

You can only use the rent a room exemption if it is in your own main residence and they share the main areas (i.e. it's not a self-contained granny annex or something), plus once you offer "services" it's not rent a room - it is dubious whether breakfast counts as a service but I think HMRC would say it does.

If you can't use the rent a room exemption you need to declare it all for tax. You don't need to set up a business you can just declare it as "other income", or self employed income if you prefer (though need to register self employed within three months if you're not already registered).

Household insurance is tricky. You'd probably find many won't insure.

It's also probably advisable to take out third party liability insurance in case anyone trips on your stairs and breaks their neck.

If you don't own your home you probably need the permission of the landlord.

Is this thread getting moved?

Hi rockybalboa, very happy to share!

I always give them a bottle of mineral water to start. Nothing wrong with our water, but it gives the guests something to refill the next day on their days out. It is always much appreciated and Aldi bottled water is your friend.

A good sized mirror is a must, plus a hairdryer.

Good quality large towels.

Once they have arrived we give our guests a key so they can come and go. It makes arrangements so much easier and AirBnB is based on trust and we have never had any trust issues.

We provide breakfast: Cereals, tea, coffee, toast, yogurt, fruit. Our bread and jam is homemade and much loved! We arrange a time for breakfast the night before.

We prefer guests not to cook in our kitchen and make this clear in our profile, but they can store things in our fridge and make their own sandwiches.

We also allow guests to make tea and coffee any time they like.

Clean, clean, clean! It's the thing that gets the most mark points on AirBnB and pushes you either up or down the rankings.

We started with what we thought was a reasonable price judging by local competition and it paid off. Start a little bit low and wait until you have some great reviews before upping the price a bit.

Spend some time in advance knowing your guests. Why are they coming? What do they need help with? Transport links. Be helpful. You get marked on communication.

The guests that want to arrive at 10am or leave at 3pm. No. Make it clear in the first exchange when you are available to be there for them and when you need the room vacated after their stay. We try to be flexible, but we also have our own stuff going on that means our days are not always so flexible.

When guests arrive I always offer them a tea or coffee. Some have been on a long journey and really appreciate this, and it's a chance to sound them out and see who they are.

Apart from the extra income we really have enjoyed having guests over the last year. They have been so so interesting and most of them are really nice.
I figure if you want to stay in a place where you don't have to talk to anyone you stay in a hotel.
AirBnB is different. We chat to our guests. We are interested in them. We like hearing their stories. We like making them welcome.
We have had guests now from over 40 countries. Some of them spoke English and the rest we had a fine old time sorting out what they and what we were talking about. Results: hilarious!

Hi Melonfool,

We checked with HMRC and breakfast is not classed as 'other services' and does not come under the rent a room scheme.
Our insurers are okay with us letting through AirBnB providing we are in the house while they are here. We are home owners. We are always in the house when our guests are.
AirBnB also have an insurance policy that covers accidental injury, but we have taken out our own as well.
It pays to be safe.

I understand air bnbs are homestays. But more people these days seem to charge hotel prices, so I understand why guests expectations would be higher.
I have done couchsurfing before, but stopped doing air bnb as it now seems full of people simply wanting the most they can get for a room, but without the professional approach of hotels.

lovestea - That is what airbnb was like at the beginning, it was staying with people who wanted to socialise and even show off the place they lived in. It has changed though and some air bnb people do not want to chat, simply to take your money and see as little as possible of you.

larant,
I can assure you that in a city that is mega popular (tourist and university) I do not charge hotel prices.
I charge what I see is fair. A comfortable room for the night with a bathroom and a really nice breakfast. This is AirBnB not Hotels.com.
Couchsurfing might be free but it is full of risks.
I don't do the professional approach of hotels, but I do do friendly advice, and maps that explain where to go, loads of helpful sharing on places to visit, things to see, great restaurants, museums, colleges, bus tours and walking tours.
I really try to help my guests get around and explore!