A Guide for Novice Airbnb Hosts

Make Extra Money By Becoming Airbnb Hosts

Majority of Airbnb hosts are rookies or first timers with no prior experience in the hospitality industry. As a new host, it is quite common to make mistakes at the early stage of your Airbnb host career— those mistakes can be easily avoided if you just think about what you are getting into first.

The Airbnb platform has done more to make the home-share model reliable, safe, and culturally acceptable and gratifying than any other service. Today, Airbnb is active in over 65,000 cities worldwide, with upward of 4 million listings.

Becoming an Airbnb host is no painless task, but once you decide to take the ‘big step’, you will understand that hosting for Airbnb can be an enjoyable experience, not to mention— a very rewarding one! When hosting on Airbnb, there are a few things you should keep in mind which we have shared in this article.

Tips to Become Successful Airbnb Hosts

Here are the top 15 tips that will help you to become a better Airbnb host—

Determine Your Airbnb Space

That being said, whatever forte you want to set up on Airbnb— whether it’s a private wing with its own entrance, a single room that shares a common bathroom, or your whole home while you go out for the weekend— you probably still need to invest something in your space.

Becoming an Airbnb host is a perfect way to find new renters and publicize to a larger community and audience. When becoming an Airbnb host, you have to make essential improvements to your space to make it a better fit for any Airbnb guest. You have to invest in a number of helpful amenities, some of which are extremely crucial for a pleasant Airbnb stay and experience, for instance — a keyless lock that makes check-in easier and comfortable, and others that basically help make the space more contented for longer-term guests stays, like a microwave, bridge, a separate furnished living area with Television, and others.

No matter whether you choose to rent just a room, or rent out your entire house, you will have to factor in the overheads of keeping that space with needs and requirements. Airbnb lists towels, clean sheets, and toilet paper as must-haves, but in order to achieve the top ratings, you have to go above and beyond those basics.

Take Fine and Clear Photos of Your Space

Blurry and dark pictures won’t attract people when they look for a place to stay even for just one night. Your pictures should be bright and of high quality, and ensure it fairly depicts the true essence of your Airbnb space. If you are not good at taking pictures, don’t worry— Airbnb offers this service for hosts, so you can contact them for assistance. They will help you make the most out of your Airbnb listing.

Respect the Hospitality Rules

Without any doubt, a clean, organized and well-maintained rental space is more likely to acquire positive reviews than an unclean and chaotic one! You should stock extra stuff for your potential guests like extra towels and linens. You never know what your guest can ask for. In the past few years, a number of new business and ventures have grown to offer additional services and amenities for busy Airbnb hosts.

Stay Organized

Make sure you keep your calendar as updated as possible.  As a guest, it is very annoying to get a cancellation when you feel you have come across the perfect place for a comfortable stay. Ensure to keep open only the days you are absolutely sure about any upcoming reservation request and your space is free for booking, and won’t be used by you or any other guest. The more you mishandle your calendar, the more likely you are to have poorer occupancy on Airbnb.

Be Candid

It can be idiocy to lie or overdo about your space, even a little bit! Although a little marketing says is essential to ‘sell’ your Airbnb listing, but do not tell tale about size, condition or number of people it can accommodate— comfortably! Mention whether you have a spare room available or not!

Make sure the provided photos accurately and truly exemplify your Airbnb space. If you try fooling guests by uploading fake pictures and descriptions, and not meeting their expectations— be ready for bad reviews.

Communication is the Key

To be successful in the hospitality industry, always be clear about what you expect from guests and about what they should expect from you. Take time to think and make a list of the possible things a guest can expect or ask from you.

Always be clear about what you are asking from guests and about what should they expect from you. Even before the guest arrives, things like having the Wi-Fi password ready, requiring to know about parking space, or even a local recommendation can be helpful. Make a list of all the possible need-to-know things potential guests will need. Also, make sure to be as clear and open as possible about your house rules and provide detailed instructions for anything you probably consider important like emergency contact numbers.

Provide Foreign Adaptors and Free Wi-Fi

In today’s time, who can imagine living a day without Internet? I guess…. nobody! Every guest wants and expects free Wi-Fi access for many reasons. Unless your Airbnb space is considered a ‘cut-me-off-from-the-world-haven’ kind of place, your Airbnb guests want access to the Internet.

Nowadays, international tourists are very common— so be ready with a few foreign adaptors for your guests. This can turn out to be a key selling point because many guests forget carrying adaptors with them or are concerned about whether their electronic stuff will work well or not. Don’t forget adding the foreign adaptors as an amenity on your Airbnb listing. Guests are definitely going to be glad about this gesture and it will assist you to get more positive reviews and ratings on Airbnb.

Add Character to Your Airbnb Space

Adding a personality with a personal touch of homeliness can make you stand out from your competitors. Look for the trend, get inspired by what the others hosts are doing, get those essentials, but remember to put your own twist on things. Keep it simple. Keep it original.

People prefer Airbnb just because of its pleasing experience. Welcome your guests with local tradition, a box of chocolate or traditional sweet from a local candy shop and make their stay worth remembering.

Fix Any Potential Risks

It is rightly said that ‘first impression is the last impression’ and the same goes to your space. If there are any wire hanging, water leakage or broken steps, get them fixed immediately, or else it may put a bad impression on your potential guests. Try your best to remove any potential hazard, or else you could put yourself at risk of danger claims when any guest is injured.  Also, be ready for any unexpected accidents with preventive measures.

Install A Keypad or Get A Lockbox

Synchronizing check-ins can be painful. If your guest is coming from another country, they might not have a working phone to inform you about the flight delay, or that the line in customs is long. Get a keypad lock or a lockbox— it will make your life much easier.

Engage with Your Guests

Good communication between a host and guest can be the key to a successful business and customer relation. There may be some guests who are reserved in nature, and do not want too much interaction from you, whilst there might be some guests looking for some good company. Being in the hospitality industry, it is important for you to understand what your guest wants from you, and how well you can provide it without crossing the limits of their privacy. Try to boast yourself as a good host, but it is also important to respect your guest’s personal space.

Make Sure Guests Read the Complete Listing

Usually, the majority of travelers or guests take a quick look at a few pictures and book the rental property without reading words mentioned in the listing. To ensure your potential Airbnb guests have a positive experience, it is extremely important that guests read the full listing because listing sometimes might include any possible deal-breakers that might upset some guests.

Have Extra Linens and Towels Ready to Roll

Airbnb turnovers can be nail-biters. At peak seasons or during weekends, if you have somebody checking out, and the same day another guest is arriving for a stay, having the place all set can come down to the line. Make sure you have enough sets of towels and linens ready to roll.

The only coolest thing you can do to make Airbnb moves easier and comfortable is to make sure you stock an adequate supply of clean towels and linens in the bullpen. You should keep one set for the guests arrived, one set ready to roll for quick turnover, and the third set for an emergency— in case anything goes wrong or an unexpected spot.

Find A Reliable Cleaner—for Professional Cleaning Services

If you are renting a spare room in your house on special occasions, this is probably a good strategy. But if you are looking to up both the quantity and quality of bookings, you really will need assistance.

Hiring cleaning services is an investment that instantly pays for itself. Having someone else ready to lend a hand ensures you can do check-ins and check-outs on the same day, instead of blocking out a day or so between. Airbnb also lets hosts charge a separate cleaning fee. Not having to clean amid potential guests also makes it much convenient and easier to host for long periods of time without experiencing breakdown and stress. The probabilities are pretty good that a professional service provider can simply do the job better than you can.

Turn On the Notifications, And Be Available 24 Hours

The utmost importance for Airbnb hosts is being able to respond quickly to messages and queries. If you don’t get back to a potential guest instantly, they will probably look elsewhere. The speedy response can be a key factor in customer satisfaction and positive reviews.

Use the Airbnb app to stay on top of things and make sure its alerts and notifications are turned on— even in silent mode. Respond back to the guest’s emails or messages without getting their messages buried in your overwhelmed email inbox. This is utterly vital to creating an awesome experience.

Use Smart Pricing— a tool to help hosts set the right price every day, automatically.

Airbnb Hosts— Few Things to Know

At ResiHut, we know that your property is your most vital asset. As a reliable home rental management company, we are able to care for your property for you, and maximize your return on investment. We also believe that travelling is an ultimate way to discover new cultures, meet new people and share experiences. So, as well as offering seamless management of your property asset(s), we also make sure that your potential guests have a memorable stay.

Please be aware that short-term rentals are dependent on local laws that offer who might rent their property and how such rentals may work.

An Airbnb security deposit is a set amount of money that is gathered from a guest to cover any damage to the property suffered during a stay. A security deposit may be essential because the Host Guarantee doesn’t look after Airbnb hosts against “reasonable wear and tear” to their assets. It is essentially only intended to protect against “rare cases of damage.” Consequently, Airbnb lets hosts to raise a security deposit to embrace minor breaks that don’t come under the Host Guarantee.

Airbnb Hosts— Why Choose ResiHut?

Whether you’re an old hand at the game or you’re new to the rental market, ResiHut makes it easier for you to make the extra money, without any extra effort. As a rental management service for home and Airbnb, we take the control of entire short-term rental process and proactively administer the performance of your house, keeping your tenancy high and your guests happy and relaxed.

ResiHut looks after every aspect of your property. We call it remote hosting. We offer a range of professional management services that provide you with complete peace of mind that your property is being profitably and professionally managed.

ResiHut has years of experience in the short-term rental industry, letting us tune our practices to get your listing higher up the search results. In the battle for revenue and occupancy, we help you deliver a five-star experience that your guests will remember.

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