~ This is an installment of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

Hi, I made a little present for my fellow Airbnb hosts out there! A set of Airbnb printables and templates for new and senior hosts! Free to download in PDF form below. I’ll explain what’s inside as well. The only rule is obviously, don’t reupload or resell!

FULL disclaimer, we stopped hosting due to the impending birth of our daughter last year Feb 2020 (right before the start of the pandemic.) I have PROOF! Lol

Anyways, we avoided pretty much all of the pandemic stuff with Airbnb because of our newborn daughter. (Otherwise, I would still be hosting 100% haha.)

But I wanted to make this because I still get some emails from hosts that need resources – and hey, my years and years of experience with multiple rentals aren’t dead! I had some time this afternoon so I took my old printouts from Airbnb and made them prettier. Now it’s yours to use! Have fun!

Got Some Space? – Rent out a spare room on Airbnb! This was my claim to fame. I made $71,000 on Airbnb last year while putting in just 12 hours a week. I’m not even joking when I say there are tons of hosts even more successful than I am.

Do you need printables for Airbnb?

Nah but it helps to have wifi information out and onto the wall. House rules, pet policies, check-in steps, missing valuables checklist…stuff like that out so guests can see it in front of them. You don’t need a frilly sign, just tape a note to the wall.

Although if it looks nicer, more people will read haha.

A lot (most) people don’t bother to read what you send them via Airbnb messenger. Can’t really blame them; when you’re traveling things are usually so hectic or exciting – so make it easier for them with these printable

More Airbnb Reads:

• What Every Host Should Know About Banning on Airbnb

Airbnb Printables: What’s Inside

One thing I didn’t include was a section for heating/cooling information AND laundry info. My house/Airbnbs needed them but it’s pretty specific to my Airbnbs. Leave a comment if you want those added, although I think most of that information should go into your check-in step-by-step section and the FAQ section.

If you find this content useful, click my ref link to BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

Don’t mind these small pictures, it’s just to give you a peek of the inside before you download the PDF.

For personal host uses only. Do not alter sell or reupload online without permission.

I don’t want to say it’s only for Airbnb because it’s absolutely not! You can use this template for your spare guest room, VRBO, Homeaway, etc.

Cover page! Put your address down again so they can double-check. Plus any landmarks in case they’re not totally sure if they’re at the right place.

Table of contents is pretty self explanatory haha.

Guest Wi-Fi is super important. Tape it to the walls right at the entrance or a visible place in the bedroom so guests aren’t starving for wifi.

Contact info in case they need to reach you. You should put in a preference for point of contact. I always tell my guests to message me on Airbnb (either website or through the app.)

FAQ is where you should answer things guests ask frequently. That will depend on your Airbnb so start an Airbnb first – get a feel of it – and within a month or two, you’ll know what those FAQ are going to be. I find it’s usually like laundry or kitchen or heating/cooling related. Guests like to be comfortable

House/bathroom/kitchen/misc rules are super important. You need to set clear rules for your guests. Be polite and firm at the same time. You should put house rules on your profile and inside your Airbnb portal for easy access but even then sometimes guests don’t see it so leaving a printable copy of the rules will help them (and help you!)

Pet policy is uniquely up to you. I took pets and nothing was really terrible. The only thing was the smell. But a quick 1-2 night stay with a pet for us was a great way to stand above other hosts. I would definitely not recommend hosting someone with a pet for like..30 days. (Bad experience there.)

Next is a sign to lead your guests straight to their room. You can laminate them and put them on the exterior of your house too. Print out multiple and follow the sign.

Then I have a few Entry access code printables. I recommend hosts to have their own electronic door code lock. A GOOD quality door code lock. For god sakes this is your house, don’t go cheap! Watch out for battery life too. Our lock cost $150 on sale I believe. It had a battery life of 3 years…ours lasted over 5 years hosting. A+! The prices have gone down recently (about $100) for our brand Schlage so if you’re hosting in the long term, invest in a Schlage.

If you find this content useful, click my ref link to BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

For your Airbnb guests themselves, I have a 1-page memo for Guests to use if they need to. They can jot down their goals for the trip, notes, and when their check-in and check-out date is on the mini calendar.

Clean up list...OK, the next big thing is if there’s any tidying up you want the guests to do before checking out. I didn’t know this but some guests even offered to clean up for me (make the beds etc.). OF course, I declined haha. I am the host, it’s my responsibility to clean up. But if your up to take the offer, tell your guests what sort of condition the room should be left in.

“Don’t Forget” checklist for valuables…it’s normal to find some things guests accidentally leave behind. I don’t encounter it often but occasionally, yes. Someone once left a $2,000+ engagement ring once in my Airbnb. They almost had a heart attack. Good thing we found it under the bed or it was going to be one awkward conversation! So save yourself and your guests by making sure they don’t leave anything behind. I made one list of the common valuables and a blank checklist for fill-in in case I missed something.

Check out process should be simple. But some guests do ask if there’s special instructions. If you have any put them here.

Return keys! If you’re giving guests a physical, it would be super helpful if you set a designated space for them to drop off the key. It has to be visible so guests don’t forget or lose the key somewhere after they’ve packed up. I would just tape a reminder of it as well on the front door so they don’t forget to return the key.

Coloring pages for guests…just because I have some 100% free coloring pages on my other website so you can take these for free. I had coloring mandalas in my guest rooms and you’ll be surprised how much my Airbnb guests loved them. It’s a good boredom killer and fun to unwind. Also, it’s cool to color and then another set of guests come to finish the color.

You can even have a guest art gallery for other guests!

GOD I MISS HOSTING AHHHHH

View/Download Your Airbnb Hosting Starter Printables

More Airbnb Reads:

• Answer These 25 Questions Before Hosting on Airbnb
• Sample Airbnb Template – Welcome Letters & Security Deposit

~ This is an installment of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

We sold our rental a few months back. I wrote out this entire list of pros and cons a few months before we decided to officially put our Airbnb rental property on the market. Selling a rental or any property is always a big decision. I encourage everyone to write down their own pros and cons lists. This exercise helped me figure it out by laying out all my concrete thoughts.

I was able to move forward with little regret. The personal answer was abundantly clear after playing Devil’s Advocate on both the pro and con list. The “sell” reasons were much more diverse since it concerned not just money but those around me. Thus selling our rental property is much more convincing to me on a personal level. The bottom line was hard to argue with.

7 Reasons Why The Rental Was A Good Idea

Besides the cash flow, there were other factors why we made the jump.

1. Bullish Longterm

Generally, once a big city “pops” it doesn’t “un-pop” until the entire industry dies. If you’re telling me e-commerce and cloud computing is a dying industry right now then…you’re nuts. We are at the baby phrase of things like this, especially in Seattle. It is where a lot of Silicon Valley exiters go. There is certainly more progress to be had and more growing pains ahead for cities with a robust tech sector.

2. Rapid Appreciation

As I’m writing this piece the local markets are still hot in the seller’s favor. All of the houses in our neighborhood has gone over 10% to 20% over asking from their market rate asking price. When you see numbers like that year after year, it’s almost too delicious to not take advantage of the leverage. Leverage is a beautiful thing if you can stomach it.

3. ‎Low-Interest Rate

The interest rate for our rental was around 4%. It’s historically low. I remember my friend told me her parents purchased their small house in the late 80s/early 90s and the interest rate back then was around 8 to 10%. That sounds like a gut punch to the deals we had in the last near decade. A quarter interest point change borrowed throughout 30 years can make a dramatic difference to the bottom line.

4. Stunning & Landmark Historic Neighborhood

Location, location, location. Finding a property like that, in that price range, in a neighborhood like that made our realtor reach out to shake my hand. She was impressed and I was satisfied with myself even though dealing with the seller’s agent was a nightmare and the property had a few unforeseen repairs at first.

The only homes that do not sell within the first 2 weeks in this market are the homes that are grossly overpriced and unresponsive to bids. It’s that simple.

? Related Reads:

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5. Low Inventory (in our asset class)

Besides the location score, we also landed a single family home which has the perk of “outdoor” space. Single-family properties are becoming rarer and rarer as builders and developers go for higher profit and build the ever so popular jointed townhomes. There’s also an abundance of skyscraper condos in the pipeline but not enough single family homes.

6. ‎Washington = Non-recourse State

No real estate investor wants to come to this but living in a non-recourse state can offer a lot of protection. Non-recourse basically means if you default on a property the bank can seize it but they can’t seize anything else that belongs to you. Even if the repossessed property doesn’t cover the value of the owed amount.

7. Waiting for Developers

The neighbors from a street away started getting calls and visits from local real estate developers and builders. They were kindly inquiring if anyone was willing to sell them their run-down property for a quick cash out. Some said yes, some said no but with how quickly the builders were moving, everything seemed like simply a matter of time.

Related Reads:

• How We Handled Our First Year as Homeowners (Home Maintenance & DIYs)
• 10 DIYs For The Most Common Insect & Pest Infestation (On The Cheap)
• 30 Tried-and-True Hacks To Lower Your Electricity Bill

~

11 Reasons Why We Decided to Sell The Rental

1. Plans Plans Plans

The first thing a person has to ask themselves is what are their long-term plans.

It’s important to keep in mind that plans change, needs change, people change. Especially young people (like myself) a few years back.

When we purchased our rental property 2 years ago it made the most sense in the universe. Our Airbnbs were doing really well and I had more time on my hands back then. I loved doing Airbnb at the time.

Naturally, when one business is doing well, you want to expand it and replicate it. In a way, our rental property was successful at replicating my Airbnbs. We did a great job with the location and low-maintenance prospect of it. Besides a few hiccups here and there during the 2 years we had it, it drew in a profit especially in the summer months that always exceeded my expectations.

Now I’m really bored with Airbnb which sounds strange to people who dream of being Airbnb hosts but trust me, it gets boring quickly.

That might be that youth thing though. I compare Airbnb hosting to something like owning a hamster or a goldfish if that makes sense. I end up wanting something much more challenging at the end of the day.

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• 4 Profound Things I Wish I Knew Before Growing Up
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• Top 5 Financial Mistakes I’ve Made In My Early 20s

2. Don’t Want to Be Landlords

There’s a smart ass out there going, “shouldn’t you know you didn’t want to be a landlord before you got a rental?”

Yes, but hindsight is always 20/20 and there’s always a “but” just to make life a little more convoluted. I honestly thought it was flexible because I could customize my listing to semi-long term stays like 2 weeks or a month. As a third option back up, being landlords didn’t look at bad at the time (they’ve passed new laws since then though.)

We knew we didn’t want to be landlords. BUT Airbnb was different. That was reason enough for me to spark a fuse. Short-term rentals had its own pros and cons. The pro is a much fatter cash flow in a large metropolitan city where cash flow is nearly impossible (or hellishly low) and enticed with the 15% YOY increases. The cons mostly had to do with the legality and insurance side of it which will be an issue starting next year in 2019.

The passion ran dry as soon as routine set in and I got bored. I was really into Airbnb and investing at the time but you know how 24-year-olds are sometimes…they don’t know what the heck they’re doing and I was one of those 24-year-olds. One day, I didn’t feel joy in it. It wasn’t worth it.

3. More Stress

This was a smaller fraction of why we decided to sell but it is worth noting. A rental can be stressful and if it’s an Airbnb rental, you can pretty much triple that stress.

I can say the vast majority of my guests were great and tried their best. We put a fire extinguisher right next to the stove and it was never used haha. Although I can tell you that at least 2+ of my Airbnb guests burnt pots and overflowed the oven. That was all small beans but it does add up in stress here and there.

If we were in a different financial situation as if we had debt, I would have powered through. But after we crossed over the first million mark there was less fire under my butt, so to speak, to put up with it.

4. Too Vested in Amazon

Real estate can be used as a diversification from stocks. It’s also a “real” asset that will always provide a service (keeping you dry, keeping you fed off the land etc.)

But our rental was not a diversification for us at all if you think about it. We already live here and have our primary residence here. We are still a little more bias (just a teeny bit) weighted in the tech sector – especially since Total Stock Market does have their own portion of tech already.

We sold when the second Amazon headquarters (Amazon HQ #2) was still making shockwaves in Seattle. Then closed right before Amazon halted all construction due to the controversial local company head tax (that was eventually repealed.) Seattle’s growth is not a miracle and we weren’t really diversified when we lived in Seattle, held tech stock, AND have another house in Seattle. Thinking back, that was kind of stupid of us to argue on the diversification front when there was none.

5. Keeping Us from FIRE

So I got bored really quick. And in comes the lure of a unique idea…the ‘jet set & go’ lifestyle as long as we kept our expenses and liabilities low. With all the talks about being location independent, I started getting a little jealous. To me, being location independent sounds like one of the most ‘boss’ things a person can say. I wanted in on that and I didn’t want to be tied down. We also started toying with the idea of moving when we never thought about it before.

 Related Reads:

• 16 Part-Time Jobs with Good Health Insurance and Benefits
• 6 Biggest Reasons Why Airbnb Is So Popular

6. Still Good Time to Cash Out

The rental provided about an extra $20,000 in cash flow while it was on Airbnb but it was not passive enough or realistic for the long term. We were lucky we got it in 2015 and not 2007. I cannot imagine that stress as a 24-year-old trying to deal with cashing out a decade ago. The temptation was how we would be able to get out with neither a small gain or a fair wash after realtor costs (which were quite a $$$ doozy).

Seattle’s market is still going strong. We closed that house when the buyer waived every single contingency and then put $60k on the table if they, for whatever reason, needed to walk away. That’s an enticing deal indeed on top of the full asking price they were offering.

If we couldn’t or were close to a wash, we would have kept it and gambled it for another year maybe? Maybe not? Sometimes selling a home is like pulling teeth but for us, it was effortless. Everything was already staged and the market was red-hot.

7. My Parents Plans

The situation with my parents is this:

My dad just officially retired a little earlier in the year. He lives with us.

My mom is a few years younger and is still working while living in San Francisco. She is working as a home care person. Her client is 100 years old. At that ripe old age, they can’t handle a new caretaker that doesn’t know their needs and continue fully.

My mom doesn’t want to leave her. She has been working for her for years and they’re quite good friends. She’s basically being paid to take care of a friend and hang out with her, keep her company, etc. She basically can’t leave her or move up to Seattle until her client passes away which can be today or tomorrow or a year or 10 years from now – we don’t know.

So the situation is messy and we have no set timeline because everything is set around…expiration. (How’s that for morbid, eh?)

So right now, my husband and I are simply in suspension and waiting to see what happens. It took us some time to realize that means having as little liabilities and ample room to pivot in uncertain situations like this. 

My parents will most likely need us to cosign for them or buy them a house in South Carolina and they didn’t tell me this until the last minute. Actually, I’m not even sure right now what is going on 100% because we have a huge language barrier between us. That’s another reason why we hit the eject button on the Airbnb rental now rather than later.

8. Supply Build Up

There is some oversupply in the pipeline from the stats reports I’ve downloaded and glanced through. These (mostly) Hong Kong builders estimate opening up a ton of condos and apartments between 2019 to 2021. Condos are a different class of assets but size wise, it’s similar enough to put a damper on our parade in the short term.

There is going to be downward pressure on rental demand (it’s already happening in early 2018) because the builders have been too heavily focused on building luxury high rises for the stereotypical highly paid “Amazon” worker. These people don’t think outside the box enough…

The oversupply in the pipeline would not have directly affected us but it will make our backup plan much less lucrative.

I don’t want to caught holding the bag when I can see it coming. Eventually, brighter days are ahead but I don’t feel like braving through the storm when we’re this close to financial independence and saying, “Screw it, I’m out of here!”

“That’s Interesting!“

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9. New “Unfriendly” Laws

This didn’t directly affect us either but was well aware of the new local laws favoring renter protection. One of the new laws that passed last summer no longer allow landlords to choose their qualified tenants. Landlords MUST go by the whoever qualified first, it doesn’t matter who else came after more qualified or more fitting.

The first qualifier gets it no matter who they are. :\

I was pretty uncomfortable with that as should any other real landlord. And people always like to sprinkle in scary, expensive eviction horror tales and I’ve heard my share. In the end, looking at that cap rate as a long-term rental and the potential trouble and stress involved, eeeh, no.

On another similar note: Airbnb is under-regulated and undertaxed. The city of Seattle has passed new tax and laws for all Airbnbs inside the city limits which means everything is up in the air regarding profits. Hey, at least we’re not San Francisco, New York, or Japan which has basically banned them completely.

Hubby and I will see what comes our way exactly in 2019, we’ll try it out, or just convert to a long-term rental downstairs since we have space. I personally plan to fully pivot by 2019 either way. I saw this coming and I’ve said in passing in my old Airbnb posts that this is something that was bound to happen.

10. Lot Size

Builders like big lots of land. More land usually means it’s cheaper to build and high density in a city like Seattle means…money. Our lot was a little smaller than a standard single family home which meant we were probably not the prime choice unless our next door neighbors also decided to take the developer’s offer, which I doubt because they were a couple of 70-year-olds and not keen to change. This puts us specifically at a disadvantage because we don’t have the best size lot alone.

11. Life “Math” Made No Sense

I did feel immense sadness when I was standing in our beautiful rental. I asked my husband if he really wanted to sell it because, after all, we picked it out. We made it better! It was perfect for what we needed it for and it was definitely popular with our guests and a popular neighborhood. But he nodded and I think he’s right (he’s almost always right, it’s hugely annoying!)

Emotions aside, the math made no sense. I don’t mean math as in numbers but I mean math as in “life math.”

OK, when you add up ALL of those huge, huge, big,  reasons I listed above and the fact that we didn’t need the money, the math stops making sense.

Nothing was working out with it as our future plans changed, personal aspirations changed, time devoted to it, the moment I found better things to do, etc.

 Relevant Reads:

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• Your Resource Guide To Finding Free (Or Cheap) Furniture

Conclusion

“You’re going to miss those gains.”

Ho, ho, ho, nope. Some people look back and say, “Oh I shouldn’t have sold at 60, it’s at 156 now” but I never understood that.

What does it matter? I don’t do that because those kinds of regrets aren’t really my thing. I regret words unspoken and love lost but I don’t commonly regret a few missing dollar gambles that could be gained. If I did do that a lot then that’s a telltale sign that something else in my life is wrong but I can’t admit it yet which is the bigger issue to address.

Plus my husband literally doesn’t care if I zombie out and drool into a cup all day as long as I’m happy so if it’s something I don’t want to do then I’m not doing it.

That’s another reason why being frugal is awesome. I don’t really want anything at the end of the day that is going to require me to sacrifice a large sum of money. I’m happy as a live clam in an aquarium if you just give me some food.

There’s nothing much in the world that I want so whatever money I make balanced with a high level of stress seems useless. Unfortunately, money can’t always buy person self-esteem or everlasting peace BUT it can make now tedious chores go away.

Basically: don’t need the money, not for the trouble anyway, don’t feel like doing it, fulfilled zero #deeplife goals, why the hell am I doing it then?? = buh-bye rental.

~

Found this article helpful? Check out our sister blog that has all topics related to making extra money and working from home.

~ This is an installment of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

Could I have guessed or gauged the popularity of Airbnb 2 years ago?

Not at all. Even I’m caught off guard at the growing popularity of Airbnb and the wide age and ethnic groups I get to host as well.

Earn some serious money and BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

It’s almost a household name now, both in the U.S. and internationally. I started on Airbnb believing I would pull in a 50% occupancy rate at best. My first 3 days on the platform produced no reservations (and even some weird inquiries). Things picked up after that and now as we are heading into another winter, I have dropped my expectations down coming off the summer rush but I’m still crossing my fingers for a solid month. At the end of the year, we’ll give a full earnings report as a part of our monthly family income reports. Then my husband can get the Airbnb tax post out before the start of tax season.

PSA: Airbnb is not passive income.

For Airbnb guest users, if you enjoyed my content – click my link to get $40 in Airbnb travel credit free when you make your first booking.

Here are a few hypotheses on why the Airbnb platform is now easily worth 30 billion dollars.

Related Reads:

• How We Handled Our First Year as Homeowners (Home Maintenance & DIYs)
• 10 DIYs For The Most Common Insect & Pest Infestation (On The Cheap)
• 30 Tried-and-True Hacks To Lower Your Electricity Bill

1. Free Market

What is art?

A 3 letter word.

The obvious (almost deadpan) answer why Airbnb is so popular is demand. The simple answer for us is because local demand exists. 

One of the most beautiful things about Airbnb is the conceptualization and execution of a free market. Airbnb reservation prices are often much lower than the local rates that a traditional hotel or motel demands to keep its books balanced. Airbnb just lets the simple ebbs and flows of supply vs demand set prices because the company itself holds no physical real estate to balance.

If Airbnbs becomes saturated then the prices will naturally become more competitive. The lower prices will eventually push hosts either to hold prices stable and lower expectations or change their direction of utilization. No hurt feelings; the free market is a beautiful thing.

Although there is more competition than ever on the AirBnB platform, strong hosts and hostesses are still getting a fair share of the growing pie. If you want a more detailed answer then yes, it is more complicated than just the basic principles of supply vs demand at play, although not by nearly as much.

2. Open Platform

Airbnb streamlined an outdated, inefficient industry and maximized the utilization of traditional homes across all user bases across the span of continents. Cool, huh?

Airbnb is a platform business that provides and guides an opportunity for trade between two groups. It is a non-linear form of business starting with its producers, aka hosts and hostesses. Anybody with an open room or free space can become a producer on Airbnb. It is a good way to provide extra income with minimal effort depending on the setup. Hosts give the platform variation. It is an idiot-proof way to advertise space because the platform has the traffic and user base to support it. Airbnb gives hosts an easy way to monetize a space that would otherwise be going to waste. The danger is obviously the legality of such an open platform longterm and the stability of Airbnb’s future…but we’ll leave that discussion for later.

3. Affordability

Sometimes you just need a place to crash. A small portion of my quick one-nighter stays are hospital-related where the appointments run late and people fear driving on the road back home tired. I notice Airbnbs around the local hospitals that purposefully offer lower rates for people staying there due to family tragedies and such. I think that is such a sweet thing to do. The hotels in that area can charge up to $100/night. In Seattle, one Airbnb family rents their space out for $10 (the minimum price required to host) for any parents or family of sick children because they’re right across the street from the hospital.

Plus let’s be realistic on the real reason of affordability: Airbnb can skirt around a lot of the fees and regulations that standard lodging business cannot. Since the company itself holds no inventory, it is purely a facilitator in the process of renting. 

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4. Uniqueness

Airbnb provides a free for all platform for all houses, condos, apartments, castles, houseboats, tree houses, barns, mansions, caves (caves!) – in any given city, all around the big wide world. Man, I’ve always wanted to rent out a party mansion! It’s probably not a good idea to buy one for fun but short term rental? Hmmm!

If you rent out a traditional hotel, the rooms are more or less than the same style for around the same price. With Airbnb, it’s a new experience and adventure always.

5. Humanness

If that’s your thing. If you’re into making connections with people from all around the world, it’s a great game! Hubby and I are introverts so we hide from our guests. Hubby sits on top of the stairs to avoid being seen haha. If you are our guests, don’t go in thinking you’ll be greeted with a hug and a kiss from grandma. If you are an introvert host, you can choose to hide from guests as we do. Long ago, I use to greet guests personally, but I rarely greet guests anymore as a personal preference; meeting people gives me social anxiety.

I get asked about horror stories a lot and yes there are some minor stories but the overwhelming majority of my Airbnb experiences have been pleasant. You are constantly reminded that the basis of the majority of humans is indeed good. If there’s a mistake, it is almost always a small misunderstanding of some kind. Oh-oh, we haven’t been robbed yet, not being robbed is always good.

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6. Diverse Locations

This is just logic. Hotels occupy a single large chunk of space usually clustered around the areas that have the most demand for tourist and business travelers. Moving away from those areas, it usually leaves motels that are often very expensive for what you get. They’re not usually as reputable and they’re often void of the family home feel.

I do not believe Airbnb is a killer to high-end luxury hotels located in downtown etc. but mid range and lower end lodgings? Absolutely.

There are homes everywhere and lots of people have that extra room open. A portion of my guests are simply visiting families in our neck of the woods. There is no reason for them to pay 5x as much to stay downtown if they’re visiting family or friends. The motels in our area are objectionable. Really…remember Seattle’s reputation as a former grunge town? Well, these are the grunge motels!

Hubby and I reside in the more run-down/suburban side of the town and even though we’re not close to any famous destination, we fill a necessary space and we offer an alternative to the local motels.

~ This is an installment of my Airbnb series. Browse all my Airbnb content here. ~

All in all, Airbnb is *for now* a solid win-win for both guests and the hosts. Why do you think Airbnb is so popular?

How To Host An Airbnb

Common Questions Every Host Should Already Know!

Hosting on Airbnb takes a lot of courage and some thick skin! Are you wondering how to host Airbnbs and having lots of unanswered questions?

You are essentially inviting people into your home with the power to critique. You will get your share of easy-going guests and you will also get your share of finicky ones that expect more. It’s all part of being a host. The platform is for homeowners and investors to turn their home into a side hustle. I notice a lot of hosts simply do not spend the time to offer good check-in directions. Last winter, we had an impromptu road trip from Seattle down to California. Although the drive was technically doable in one go, we wanted to enjoy the coast and unfortunately, we didn’t. It was a particularly bad winter so we had a helluva trip going down to warmer weather from snowy Oregon. We ended up taking scenic highway 101 and driving by these tiny trailer towns of no more than 56 people. The Airbnb we stayed in during that trip was “sufficient.”

~ This is part of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

I mean sufficient as in the hosts were nice and things were as described but there was probably 2 or…20 things the host should have addressed if they wanted to do this with full transparency. I understand most Airbnb hosts are not always serious since it’s just a side income to them after all. But if you are thinking of doing Airbnb long-term and aim for full occupancy then I would take a gander at the list before.

My Airbnb Mantra is this: these are your guests; this is your business. You are representing your home, your neighborhood, Airbnb and yourself.

You need to have the answers to these questions because, at one point or another, it will be brought up to you. My guests sometimes shoot me questions and I’m thinking to myself, “oh that’s an excellent question, I never thought about it but that would impact the reservation.”

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These things seem obvious but it took me a few tries to get a hang of hosting on Airbnb without any minor hiccups. Note to address details of the following:

1. Parking information.

Detailed, clear, concise information explaining the parking situation of your location. We had one Airbnb guest from Arizona receive a parking ticket because they did a horrible parking job next to our driveway and someone in the neighborhood saw it and tattled. They didn’t move it after my warning and then they got a ticket. The guests weren’t happy with me or the $46 dollar parking ticket.

My takeaway here is to warn guests gently and they can choose to take the warning or risk being fined.

2. Personal pet(s) information.

Any in-door pets under Airbnb must come with a disclaimer. We devote an entire paragraph on our listing to Grace. We mention her mannerisms, her breed, age, size, training and general personality so when guests see her they don’t feel frightened or too excited to see her.

There was one guest a few weeks ago that booked with us even though she was afraid of dogs. Whenever she entered the house she would wait in the hallway until Grace leaves. I have no idea why she booked with us – we gave disclaimer after disclaimer about having a dog and I even told her it was not a good idea to book with us! No issues from that guest though because of our disclaimers.

3. Do you charge pet boarding fees?

I hate fees, I really do. But I’m a proponent for pet boarding fees for the simple fact that pets are capable of doing a lot of damage or at the least lots of extra clean up. I have weight limits, training requirements and breed (coat) restrictions to protect my property. If a dog is well-trained, under 15 lbs and hypoallergenic then I don’t bother to charge a fee at all.

4. Wi-Fi information.

Stick it to the wall! It’s important!

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5. Heating instructions.

Even if it seems completely simple, write down the heating instructions anyway because what’s obvious to us might not be to others.

I ended up buying a bunch of space heaters for each room. Since living in the Pacific Northwest, I think hubby and I are more used to the “cold” compare to our tropical visitors from Hawaii and Singapore.

6. Location of the ventilation fan (it helps to mitigate mold).

We put a sticker on the outlet switch to distinguish ventilation fan from lights. Without that sticker, only about 50% of our guests actually use the vent fan which drives me crazy. That’s how you get mold guys and girls! Excessive moisture + small closed space = mold!

7. If there are locks in each bedroom.

If you are hosting for the long-term, I would put doorknobs with locks on every bedroom and keep the key hidden somewhere where it’s not obvious but you can tell guests where it is if they locked themselves out.

8. What is in the fridge that’s off-limits?

We don’t split a kitchen with our guests but when I was an Airbnb guest myself I was afraid of going into my host’s kitchen. There was no information besides “the kitchen is for you to use” on the listing and that’s just not enough to make me feel welcome. I didn’t know what was in the fridge, what we could use, which utensils we were allowed to touch etc. Super ambiguous!

9. Are snacks & refreshments provided?

Make sure you disclaimer you will not stand by any specific dietary restrictions and it’s just a little refreshment station with seasonal pickings (which brands of granola bars, cookies, chips etc).

I had a guest who ranted about me not stocking calorie-free & sugar-free options and I immediately thought to myself: are you serious? Where did I state that I stock a dietary full-service cafe for you?

10. Instructions for garbage & recycling.

Where are the locations of the trash bins? Which colored bin is for what? There are different customs for garbage so if an international guest put trash in the recycling, don’t freak out. They probably don’t know what they did.

For long-term Airbnb stays: what time and day of the week is trash pick up?

11. Location of the first aid kit & fire extinguisher.

This is critical. I put stars like this *** next to important information like first aids and extinguishers – and you should too!

12. What they should do with perishables and leftovers.

I tell my guests to leave their perishables. They’ll be on the road or get on an airplane – it’s more convenient for them to leave it and more convenient for us hosts to just dispose of it properly ourselves.

13. Do shoes come off when guest enter?

If you’re hosting, I strongly recommend having your guests remove their shoes. It’s just common sense. Walking in-doors with out-door shoes on is my biggest pet peeve. It is the first thing I address to guests in both my listings and my “things to note” tab.

14. Instructions for TV / Cable / Netflix.

Give very detailed instructions from which remote to use to turn on the TV and what to do from there to access Netflix etc. Airbnb has a smaller but stable older demographic who are technologically less receptive to the new stuff like Amazon FIRE TV. I gave my guests detailed instructions on how to access Netflix but I forgot to give them instructions on which remote to use to turn on the TV and which TV input to use. Whoops! Didn’t even think of that! So yeah, be precise and go through it as if you’re new to it yourself.

15. What is usable in the linen closet?

If you are home sharing, there will be cabinets and closets that will be shared. Our hallway has a linen closet. Most of the stuff in there are for guests to use. We have lots of extra blankets, towels, and pillows. I do have art & craft basket that is only mine. I leave that in the top shelf, out-of-the-way, so they have the free reign of everything on the lower shelves.

16. Rules for kitchen cleanliness?

My courtesy rule is for guests to clean up their personal mess in the kitchen (if they used any dishes/pots, utensils, etc). That way I can keep the cleaning fee low for everyone because not everybody uses the kitchen during their stay. I don’t feel right increasing the cleaning fee across the board for everyone if only 3 out of 10 guests didn’t wash their own pots and pans.

17. Any particular house quirks?

Every house has small quirks so think hard what’s something particular about your residence that others should know about. For example the freezer door of our refrigerator needs a hard pull with both hands in order for it to open – things like that I would let my guests know so they don’t have to yank off the entire door.

18. Any specific instructions for the bathroom?

Is there a set time in which you must occupy the bathroom (if it is shared?)

Does it take a few minutes to get hot water going?

Some of our guests confused the low flush toilet button with the high flush button so we ended up labeling all 3 bathrooms. It’s the small quirks of a home that you learn you should either fix or explain.

19. When is the start of the courtesy quiet hour?

We live in a townhouse with different floors so noise doesn’t bother us. There’s an entire middle floor that separates the bedrooms on the 1st floor and the 3rd floor. But we forgot about our next door neighbors who were in closer proximity to the first floor (commonly townhouses share a land lot with another town home.) After having a pair of rambunctious guests stay, my husband saw our neighbor on the bus and she told us she’s been hearing screaming and laughter late into the night. From then on, we started a courtesy quiet hour and alerted our neighbors to let us know if a guest violated those terms. So far, so good, and our neighbors are pretty cool.

20. What should guests do with the sheets on check-out day?

I tell my guests to not make the beds since I will be washing all the sheets & blankets anyway. If they want to go the extra mile, they can peel off the sheets (and some of my best guests do) although it’s not really necessary but appreciated.

21. When is check-in & check-out time?

Airbnb makes this visible on the listing but I still get guests asking me when check-in/check-out times will be. It can be confusing – we have had first-time users mistaken check-in for check-out, vice versa. It’s common for the Airbnb check-out times to be around 11 AM. The standard check-in time for Airbnb is around 2PM-3PM range. Mines are very slightly earlier and slightly later for the reason below…

22. Is an early/late check-in/check-out possible?

Always put your check-in slightly later than what you can afford and check-out time a little earlier than what you think should be. I get a lot of requests asking for an earlier check-in and later check-out and I hate saying no to my guests so I make sure I give myself ample time to clean if they do need to check-in early or run into car trouble and check-out later.

23. Who lives in the residence / how many people is it shared with?

Some guests understandably will not book an AirBnB if it’s shared with other guests. It goes back to feeling safe (like having bedroom locks).

When guests know and have researched the hosts but they have no information on the other guest, it’s fair to assume some hesitation.

That was one of my main concerns with hosts renting out individual rooms in a full rental to different people without direct host supervision. It’s the fear at the now higher chance an altercation or feud breaks out between two different guests and the host cannot be reached.

24. Disclaimer kiddos

My husband and I have no kiddos so I have no personal advice here. The only advice I have is to let your Airbnb guests know you have children and at what age and level of activity in the house. For the most part, I will say Airbnb guests are open-minded, friendly, understanding and adventurous.

25. How to properly lock the front door/entrance.

We enabled an auto locking feature to our front door. We told our guests to NOT “lock” the door and leave everything as is. Roughly 30% of our guests don’t read or believe us (?!) so they lock it themselves but that actually UNLOCKS the auto-locking so we wake up the next day and see that they left the door completely unlocked the entire night. Hahahaha, sigh!

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~ This is a part of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

If you find this content useful, click this link to BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

I try to be diverse in my observations as a host. If I didn’t truly enjoy hosting Airbnbs then I would have stopped a long time ago. I still think the concept is simply genius – just like car sharing. Although the main attraction will always be having someone else pay your mortgage, there are plenty of other fringe benefits to being a host as well. This segment is a general pointer but it also includes tales from my personal experience having been a full-time Airbnb host for 2 years now.

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10 Benefits of Hosting an Airbnb (Besides Money)

1) Meeting New People

Let me start off by saying Hubby and I are social hermits in everything that we do. Both of us scored highly as “INTJ/P” under the Myer Briggs personality test¹ with a near 100% score leveraging into I(ntroversion) instead of E(xtroversion). We do not host dinner parties or go anywhere or even make good eye conta…OK, this is sounding sad…we’re just introverts and there’s nothing wrong with that.

As a result of our introversion, Hubby and I choose to not meet or greet the majority of our Airbnb guests. It’s just social anxiety with a good tablespoon of pure lazy. Although we do not greet the majority of our guests, sometimes we still end up having these amazing chats with our guests from almost every walk of life and all different parts of the world.

Besides seeing our unused extra room bring in $60 a night without effort, the second most exciting thing was being about to host real travelers from all over the world. I’m an introvert and even I think that’s cool!

Within the first few months, we had visitors from the UK, Australia, Germany, Korea etc. and it was really cool to meet and talk with them.  On rare occasions, my husband and I end up having an hour long, heartfelt talks with our guests about our lives, our passions, our careers etc. Those Airbnb guest that we happen to run into were always a delight to talk to. It’s one of those things where you kind of go: “no way, me too! What a small world!”

It makes the world seem a little wider and makes our own world (and our mind) grow a little bigger too.

Did you know Hubby and I have both been pronouncing his last name wrong? Ha! We didn’t know how to pronounce our own last name! A French teacher stayed in our Airbnb and was like “oui-oui, monsieur Proooo-DOME.”

I’m giggling at the memory. Hubby and I exchanged looks at each other when we heard it from an actual French speaker. Whoops! It’s not “proud-homie?”

2) New Adventures

And as hermit-y, as we are, it’s really cool to have this kind of interaction delivered to your doorstep. Action packed and…oh thank goodness it’s rare, I’m not out-going.

I’ve gone out to eat with 2 guests who were kind enough to invite me out. I have never directly asked any of my guests but I do accept if they approach me first…because of food. The last girl that I went out with was a college student from China. She was staying with us for a week while she’s studying for her graduate school accounting exam. We hung out half the week eating out and talking about random stuff. During that time we would chat about real estate (her family was interested in buying a house in Seattle.) We went sightseeing and window shopping for houses after her exams until the weatherman played a trick on us.

Drizzle, my rump!

We were caught in a crazy, crazy rain and windstorm. I have never seen such a heavy downpour before in all of my life.

It didn’t help that we were also near a lake so the water flooded to our ankles.

We were completely soaked from top to bottom, holding hands, huddling together in the rain…singing Chinese Idol (like American Idol, her idea) while waiting for our Uber. 20 minutes later the Uber car finally arrives and I thought the Uber driver would take one look at us and drive away! But surprisingly not only did he let us in, the driver joined in on the singing too! Neat. I thought he was going to kick us out for being soaked.

It’s my favorite memory because it’s the most surreal, ridiculous thing that has happened to me as a host.

3) Opening Lines of Communication with Neighbors

I guess in a way this can be a con as well but since we started hosting, the lines of communication between us and our neighbors have improved. We didn’t talk or know our neighbors at all when we first moved in. There’s not much to talk about, all we had in common was the shared fence.

A small mishap (bad parking) with a naughty guest did eventually happen so I instructed the neighbors on both sides of us to let me know immediately if any guest disturbed their boundary (blocked their driveway/damaged a mailbox etc.) We haven’t had any issues yet and what we thought was an issue was actually a misunderstanding between that neighbor and another neighbor unrelated to us.

Last weekend we received an email from our next door neighbors asking if we had availability for her extended family who just got into town. It was an absolute win-win. Their family gets to stay next door and we get a booking.

Another neighbor we know down the block made a booking for his brother at our home just last week! It’s definitely good to be friends with your neighbors!

If you are opening an Airbnb and you have immediate neighbors (those that share a fence) then I would not hesitate to let them know about your Airbnb. I neglected to do this when we started on Airbnb and I regret it. I would just slip a note under their door or something if you’re afraid it would be awkward. Just as a disclaimer first of all but, hey, you never know when they need a place for their extended family to stay! –Wink wink–

4) Free Food

I’ve gotten free sushi, teriyaki, chocolates, chips, lots of ramens and even flan! My guests leave behind a lot of beer too, especially during the summertime. I probably scored $70 worth of beer last month alone. These are not just Budweiser or any of that Joe stuff. These are the local indie brews that go for $6-$10 a pop and some of them you would have to drive 40+ minutes down to the brewery for! Cheers!

5) Free Swag

Holy mother-! You get to dumpster dive in your own dumpster!

Our Airbnb guests have left behind fans, lawn chairs, clothes, USB cables, shoes etc. Just 2 days ago we had another set of guests leave behind another fan (so now we have 5 fans in total) and another set of lawn chairs as well. Portable fan and lawn chair set seems like an extremely common combo.

Sometimes guests leave behind loose things like glasses and headphones. Most things are not worth the trouble to mail back and the guests simply don’t care.

We end up with random articles of clothing too. Two of the jackets that I have were from guests (Germany I think?) who left them. They didn’t want to pay the international postage and they didn’t care. Most of what we pick up is donated to St. Vincent’s nearby.

We don’t throw anything away.

If they are not in tatters, it’s donated. Like I mentioned in the bus safety post, there are some really run-down people who could use anything and everything…

One time we had a guest who threw away half her clothes in our trash bin. I wish she could have just told us she’s leaving it instead of hiding it all in a black bag and hoping we wouldn’t notice it.

Tip #1:

It’s always good to check with your guests first unless you find it literally in your dumpster. You never really know the value of anything so shoot them a quick message to double-check. Once I found a pair of completely plain, simple black gloves that was probably worth $5 max. I told the guest that it would be $25 to ship internationally but to my surprised, she sent payment right away and begged me to ship it back to her. The gloves had sentimental value. I was happy to play the lost and found hero.

Tip #2:

After the guest has confirmed they do want the item returned and is willing to pay the postage then hosts can send a money request for the postage reimbursement within the AirBnB’s Resolution Center. To avoid coming off crude, if the postage is under $3, I don’t personally bother to request any money from guests but we do keep the receipt for tax purposes.

Keep the receipt! Take a photo of it as proof and upload it into the resolution center for both guests, tax purposes, and Airbnb’s track record.

6) Value Swap

Another great point about hosting different people from all walks of life is the trade value of each person. We have hosted therapists, historians, electrician, tax specialists and one doggy whisperer (I didn’t know that was a thing) who were happy to help us just because they were staying with us.

One of our guests, a former vet tech, trimmed my pet Bunny’s nails for free. If you are familiar with small animal vet clinics, that’s a $10 value! ? Now I’m hoping for a pro-bono masseuse and sushi chef. Mmm…

7) Learn Your Town

You can start loving the town you’re in by learning about your town. This fringe benefit is overlooked a lot. My Airbnb guests leave behind pamphlets and menus all the time and half of those things I didn’t know Seattle had. We learned that in Ballard (which has its roots as an old Scandinavian migrant town) they have free Swedish pancakes and other banquets at the Nordic museum/culture club every Sunday. Totally wish I knew about that before buying this house that’s so far from Ballard…free pancakes – every weekend! Aw!

Last year, we had the delight of hosting an (I swear to God…) renegade 80-year-old Japanese grandmother, driving her Dodge challenger, all the way up from California to Washington. She and her retired niece drove up to Seattle to condo hunt and to buy a special kind of black miso sea bass you can only get here. They also left Seattle with a lot of booze, a lot of booze.

They were really cool. What was odd to me was how perfect their English was. Heck, it was better than me and my husband’s. If I’m getting my Asian American history correctly, that means they were one of the first ever generations of Asians in America! Now that’s cool.

8) Home Detection & Maintenance

Airbnb guests are great inspectors for your home. They can give reports on your property that you wouldn’t even know before the problem gets worst. If the shower head is leaking, if there are early signs of an ant invasion, slow drainage in the tub, stuck window in a hallway – they’ll let you know.

It keeps us up to date with our property so everything is properly maintained and care for. It sounds like extra work but this is going to be must better for resale value later. We are keeping an eye out on the insulation and roof as well.

It’s better to be preventative now than treat later. We have 3 decks that is sealed and maintained even though we don’t personally use it. My husband does inspections of the house siding for cracks because we want our home to look nice from the outside and prevent moisture from getting in.

9) Extra Incentive to Clean House

I am not a good housekeeper. Never have been, never will be. Not in the genes. My room looks like a bomb set off and I’m not ashamed of it. Nope. I’m scrawny with barely 100 lbs on me, my batteries don’t last that long before nappy time.

l would like to refer back to my defense:

“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” ― Albert Einstein

I must, therefore, be a genius. But my husband thinks Airbnb has been great for the house (i.e. me having to clean it.) I vacuum every other day (stupid Grace and her shedding) and keep at least 3 out of 4 of our bedrooms in top pristine and de-cluttered conditions. The entry-way is swept and mopped; the bathroom mirrors are wiped and polished. I’m tired just from talking about it.

Now I will admit…the ambiance of a room is better when you can see the floor..?

10) Stop Anytime

I don’t picture us stopping or wanting to stop anytime soon. But I do want to mention this for other hosts or hosts-to-be that this can be a quick gig. If there’s an emergency or the property will no longer be available, you can just stop hosting pretty much any time. Hosts can also block out what segments of the calendar that is not available to be rented out. There are settings to set requirements like minimum booked nights (this is a new feature, they didn’t have this when I started) and you can even add that in as a seasonal clause (also a new feature).

It’s really easy to de-list or deactivate a listing too with a few clicks. You are responsible for all the confirmed bookings but other than that, it’s incredibly flexible.

~

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~ This is part of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

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Airbnb Guests Love:

Separate Entrances

For reasons beyond me, guests LOVE separate entrances. What’s so good about a separate door to come in? A seasoned host is more than used to people coming in and out. We live on a separate floor and the only entrance is on the first floor which means we don’t and can’t track guests movements. Since we don’t track guests, we’re forced to build up trust over time. At the end of the day, Airbnb is really a trust game and so far trust is definitely winning.

TFG’s family lives in a townhouse which I think is the second to perfect option for an Airbnb. Those converted MIL suite/basements are probably the biggest money-maker though! If you have a sizable backyard and some funds, build a tiny house for Airbnb and watch the $ roll in.

Oooh, I think I just answered my own question! A lot of guests love separate entrances because of the privacy.

Local Menus and PAMPHLETS

Go hunting for take-out menus or go as far as dropping your guests a message to leave useful tourist information stuff behind.

My genius piggy brain told me to go menu hunting all over my neighborhood. I collected a bunch of take-out menus (for myself initially) from nearby and then I figured it would be a nice gesture for hungry, geographically confused guests to have them instead. That got the ball rolling. My guests saw the menus and contributed their own menus, activity pamphlets and tour maps from their own Seattle adventures. I now have 3 copies of “The History of Seattle” tour guide-book, in Chinese! My guests think I left all those useful things but it was mostly just the guests before them. Other people’s work for my credit, boo-yeah! ?

Driveway Parking

This is a big deal if you live in a large metropolitan city. A private parking spot is worth its weight in gold…OK, not really but it’s a neat amenity to have! Airbnb guests love driveway parking and they are willing to pay a higher price for it which means more green in the pocket.

We live car-free for the fringe benefit of essentially renting out our garage and driveway instead of housing a depreciating hunk of metal that runs on old dinosaurs bones. Roughly 15% of our guests leave rave reviews specifying having driveway parking out of all the other amenities (like ambiance, cleanliness, linen quality, mattress quality etc.) About 95% of those who raved about our driveway amenity leaves us a 5-star review.

Labeled Things

Guests LOVE labels on things. It’s just a considerate gesture to tack on a dot sticker or a laminated label on things like light switches and dials. I held back for over a year because I didn’t want stickers on my own walls and light switches but the moment I put them up I got great responses immediately!

After a while, I became used to the labels I put up and I regretted not labeling sooner for the convenience of my guests. I didn’t even consider it until I was an Airbnb guest myself and I thought to myself “it would be nice if the host marked things. I don’t want to accidentally break anything.”

Full-Length Mirrors

When I started Airbnb I did not include a full-length mirror in any of the rooms. It crossed my mind but I didn’t follow through. I thought it wasn’t that important because we had a giant mirror in the bathroom already. I opted-in for a light up vanity mirror instead. The feedback (all from female guests by the way) was to have a full-length mirror. I went on Craig’s List and purchased a second-hand full-length mirror for the room. I would recommend all hosts to buy at least one full-length mirror.

Homemade Anything

Baking homemade muffins, biscuits, cookies – pretty much anything homemade makes guests happy. I was surprised by the responses from guests. Chocolate is probably the most beloved flavor, if and when my husband decides to bake. Hubby’s a magnificent baker, unlike that wrenched wife who just eats! Just make sure you have a sanitized kitchen and a food prep license before doughing out the yum. You can also consider ordering baked goods from local bakeries in bulk – that’s what we do most of the time.

Snack Anything

From 2016 to 2017, I saw a 15% price decline caused by local competition and an introduction of Airbnb’s Smart Pricing. I thought of experimenting with cost-cutting measures starting from the snack tray.

When I started I poured in $5-10 worth of treats (chips, cookies, candy bars, power bars) between every single new turnover. After awhile I notice some guest never touch it and some guests took the entire bowl. I left out 20 something packs of Larabars for a two-night stay with two ladies. The Larabars were all gone by the time they left. There were no wrappers so I’m assuming it was to-go. No offense to the Larabar makers but those gluten-free hipster bars taste miserable! I was more surprised anyone wanted to take them!

For a short while, I took away snacks completely just to experiment. What I learned: don’t take it away completely if you don’t have to. I’m not saying most guests even care but there is usually the “one” guest that will throw a tirade when there’s nothing to eat or drink upon their arrival. I end up feeling bad. And losing points over a few bucks of candy is silly so I brought it back (with a lesser degree of generosity.)

I think it’s pretty bad if another host does not offer snack or beverages. Most of the Airbnbs I and my husband stayed at had no snacks but none of them took it as seriously as I do or aimed for 100% occupancy like I do.

Snacks are not mandatory but I feel like it’s almost rude not to. Guests are very weary travelers, it’s inhumane if you don’t give them something to eat or drink!

Don’t get me wrong, I AM a jerk sometimes. I have a Santa shaped cookie jar. The cookie jar is seamless. To unknowing guests, it just looks like a charming ceramic Kriss Kringle. If guests read my listing before they booked (or after when I sent over the information with the door code), they would know the Santa head comes off and Santa’s belly is filled with really great snacks.

Everything inside is up for grabs, as is all the soda, juice and beer in the mini fridge…which I hide in the closet. ?

Cheers for headless Santa, cheers for delicious body cavity of Santa!

Airbnb Guests Hate:

Reading

Most of my guests are on some sort of a vacation and it’s hard to read when you’re on vacation since there are a million things going on. New place, new plans, travel fatigue, all kinds of stuff. Although I do really wish some guests would spend 2 minutes to read, it’s a miracle if more than 80% of them actually do.

I embed the door entry code of all three properties into the really important notes so my guests are forced to find it to learn the important things like how to lock the front door and how to find the fire extinguishers before gaining entry into our house. It’s for their safety & protection as well as my own.

A print out of the house manual on the bed of the Airbnb guest room works great too. I had another host do that for us when we were traveling. That’s a really smart idea since the first place guests usually go after arrival is the bed. Just make sure to laminate the pages. We used loose sheets of plain paper and they were crumbled and/or stained pretty fast.

Fridge Sounds

I always wondered why guests kept unplugged the mini fridge in the rooms. My husband and I got into a fight one time (this was a while ago over something I can’t remember) but he was in the dog house. I made him sleep in the guest room that was empty at the time. He then told me he knew why people unplugged it: at night when all else was quiet it was like a motor jack hammer in the room! Ooooups!

Don’t cheap out on the mini fridge like we did! Get a high-quality fridge and pay attention to the reviews about motor noise. This is so overlooked. We ended up putting a towel on the table that the mini fridge sits on to cancel out the noise. It does OK that way.

Slow Drainage

We never showered in the downstairs bathroom before. We were unaware of the clog in the downstairs bathtub from years of build up. There were complaints about slow drainage from our guests. We purchased an auger from Home Depot and took out the gunk ourselves. We also brought the zip-it (also from Home Depot) to maintain the drains in-between.

Remember – if there’s any trace left from earlier guests, your current guests will not appreciate it. Any strands of hair left in the tub is a valid complaint in the eyes of guests. Guests are iffy about bathrooms (I would be too) so if you are low on time focus on the bedroom and bathroom. You can get away with the living room, the outdoor deck space and even the kitchen depending on the guest but not the bathroom.

Old Porcelain Throne

Continuing from my last point, the bathroom is super important. Having a clean toilet matters – that is not surprising. However, a lot of guests want the PERFECT toilet. It can’t just be polished and clean but there should be some sort of scented item nearby like scented reeds or air fresheners. It’s definitely better if the loo is modern in design. No one wants a toilet that looks like it has been the resting place of a thousand butts for 20 years.

After hosting for a few months and seeing not exactly complaints but more like “meh” reactions about our 17-year-old porcelain throne, we decided to splurge on fancy low-flow toilets. The feedback for the bathroom improved almost immediately even though there weren’t any issues with the toilet itself besides the age and design.

Spiders

To a lot of foreign travelers and seasoned apartment dwellers, the common house spider is a big no-no. For homeowners like us, we know it’s best to not bother them if we see them. House spiders are beneficial, they can kill other insects.

We live in the evergreen state. There are a breathtaking amount of 100 ft evergreens surrounding everything. It’s just a part of living with nature. We’re submersed into a forest like neighborhood and you can bank that there’s a lot, a lot, a lot of spiders and insects around us. The annoyingly delightful birds that wake me up in the mornings have to eat right?

That’s exactly what Hubby thinks spiders could do to him ^

Everyone has a difference tolerance to insects. As a host…well, there’s not much I can do. I also don’t believe in killing spiders. I let them on their way because (and this sounds corny) but spiders are living things. For the most part, they’re completely harmless. If they don’t have a problem with me – I don’t have a problem with them. That’s the same philosophy I used to survive high school.

Bonus: Wasps…

Spiders are not a big deal. We did have a mud dauber invasion last summer, that was terrible. I have hosted guests from France, Sweden, Hawaii, Japan, Korea, China, Latin America, Australia…pretty much every continent on Earth…any way, it doesn’t matter where you’re from, mud daubers are DEADLY looking and that’s universal.

Related: DIY or Pro? How we solved common household problems.

Mud daubers are a type of wasp – less angry but just as ugly. They’re totally harmless if undisturbed but it scared the living daylights out of my guests (and me too) because they are gigantic and ugly as anything. We sought out a pest inspector who was useless and charged us $200 an hour for an inconclusive inspection totaling 20 minutes of work…great. The mud daubers eventually went away after 1 week or so on their own, great!

Have you been an Airbnb guest? Do you have anything to add? Have you been a host? What would you add to the list?

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Annnnnnnnnd we’re back! Hi!

The home sharing online revolutionary Airbnb has transformed our lives. The entire Airbnb sham-bang has been a wild ride. I’ll continue with the things that should be addressed, but that’s not in-depth enough to deserve its own post.

If this is content useful, click my link to BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

Hosting on Airbnb

~ This is an installment of my Airbnb series. Check out part one or browse all my Airbnb content ~

Tips ON Writing A Good Airbnb Listing

The best tip for filling out your Airbnb profile is, to be honest and transparent about everything. The photos should be taken in good lighting and if you do not have a professional DSLR camera, a regular smart phone camera will do just fine. None of my photos are professionally taken so I don’t think it’s a deal breaker. There are editing apps (LINE camera was what I used) that can brighten up the photos.

There should be around 400-500 words to describe your Airbnb in the description boxes. This does not include the house rule or the house manual. I have about 400-something words for my house rules and my house manuals each. I have more rules and restrictions than your typical host so you don’t have to stretch it to 400+ words. It just makes me more comfortable when I’m thorough with my home. In a way, if it’s too long, guests won’t read it. But any less you should add in more detail to show that you are a serious and responsible host. Any more than 800 words I don’t think guests will be too keen on reading it while they’re traveling on the road.

The most important thing is just to disclose everything. It really pays to be transparent. You want to garner better reviews. Better reviews generally lead to more bookings.

• Use line breaks on your profile so it’s easier to read
• Use bullets and numbers so it’s easy to skim
• List the entire content of the room & amenities (because guests will ask about work desks or if they have to bring their own towels etc.)
• Nothing personal (age, marital status etc) that will not impact the actual stay. Guests want to know about the room. Hosts have their own profile to fill out so only do it there.
• Fill out both the house manual and house rules because guests tend to read just one.
• Address all house quirks and pet peeves. If the fridge door requires two hands to open or there’s a backup key for the front door, address it under “things to note.”

I don’t live near _____, should I still try out Airbnb?

The lovely Danielle asked this question. I do get this one a lot from people (even my own guests too.)

Everyone’s location is different and travel trends change all the time but I’m still going to give a conclusive, YES you can! Most people overlook the other possibilities of Airbnb. It’s not just a rest stop for guests. It can be a solitude mountain cabin or old country getaway.

It’s important to have a niche. You are competing with Travelodge and Midwestern that are, well, they’re boring. They are rest stops. You want to offer an experience. If you want to have fun with Airbnb then you should have a niche and a theme. Don’t underestimate how adventurous Airbnb guests can be. My Airbnb is very tamed but if I could to do it all over again, I would have shot for more interesting decor. Maybe old Hollywood glam?

Read about our Christmas Airbnb adventure coming up

If you think your location isn’t good enough just because it’s not in the center of the action – nope! It just means less competition and higher potential profit to mortgage ratio. We are at the edge of Seattle so when I started Airbnb I thought I was going to be lucky if I had 50% occupancy. I can snooze the year away and still set myself on a 90% occupancy.

It’s good to be near a busy roadway. You have to remember: cars are still a huge player in the way people travel. Often we would get travelers who fly in and rent a car then drive up north on I-5 to Vancouver and then back down to Seattle again, so they stay with us twice!

There’s also the occasional guests who are staying with us because they have family nearby without a room for them to crash. We also get guests who are attending weddings nearby too. People are always moving around and there’s always something going on.

What Should a New Airbnb Host Expect?

When we first opened our Airbnb I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t have any family or friends who were hosting. I checked out the other listings in Seattle and checked out some super hosts nearby for examples on what to write (you should do this too). Expect some trial and error for the first 6 months, at least.

When I started, I forgot to give instructions for our heating system and guests complained thinking there was no heat. Ugh, that was so dumb. You never stop learning really. There are always new situations that come up. We had a guest who needed emergency check-in because they had their car broken into on the drive up to Seattle. We had to help check their luggage and clothes for broken shards of glass before we could put it into the washing machine.

Another embarrassing thing was….so I’m a girl, and it has never occurred to me to clean the underside of the toilet seat. I mean, why would I? I’m a chick.  I forgot the toilet seat even goes up. So it was really gross under the seat (vomit, urine…mystery stuff…) from months of neglect before a guest finally came up and informed me about it. I make my poor husband do the toilets now, I am a bad toilet person.

Can you have pets and still be a host?

Yes! But it might lessen your range because some guests are allergic to fur (more cats than dogs from my experience). Although most of the time it’s not a deal breaker. I believe finding a pet free Airbnb is quite difficult up here. Seattleites love dogs and cats. We still have bookings from guests who are semi-allergic to dogs. They take a Benadryl and deal with it. Different strokes for different folks!

Private pupper security 1st class…refusing to let go of hubby’s winter sock.

But a bouncy pounce-y dog is probably a no-no for guests. Grace our dog is not the “OH HOOMAN I LOVE YOU” type. She has been abused as a pup before we rescued her so she is afraid of humans. Grace is a natural guard dog. If an ax murderer came into the house, Grace can hear and sound the alarm the moment they cross the proverbial comfort zone. She has amazing hearing (look at ’em ears!) and she hears when a guest nears our driveway long before we do. She’s just too chicken to actually go up to them. She hides at the top of the stairs and observes from afar. She will bark once and then run away. It’s hilarious.

I tell all of my guests that Grace is the breed that sheds a lot. Sometimes her fur gets into the laundry and sticks onto the fresh linens, most guests understand. Be transparent about all the pets you have. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hamster or a turtle you should let your guests know! Disclaimer everything! 

What is the difference between a shared home and an entire rental?

The biggest difference is going to be taxed. Otherwise renting out an entire home is like renting out a single room but with less supervision. Guests expect a higher standard of cleanliness for an entire rental.

In a shared home, guests are pretty understanding that there will be normal clutter. I have a roll of tape on the table too fat to fit into our utility drawer. There are Chinese candy wrappers out too that I want to save since I don’t know the candy and I want to keep a copy to find it again. We have two weeks worth of recycling that needs to go out (ordering too much stuff from Amazon…again!)

Airbnb guests in our shared residence have never deducted points on clutter. Never ever at all. Surprises me every time, ha! Our guest rooms are always pristine but if someone’s living room was as cluttered as mine, I would probably think to take off points… I would be like “uh, lady, the rooms are awesome but there are more candy wrappers here than a preschool.”

Our vacation rental has little to no clutter. My theme was minimalism (you can guess why $$). I clean up pretty thoroughly but the guest who rent an entire rental are pickier. You will hear complaints about regular dust on the TV and drinking glasses being mismatched.

For Airbnb guest users, if you found this useful, click my referral link, to get free $40 in Airbnb travel credit on your first booking.

What are the biggest seasonal differences on Airbnb?

Summertime is amazing if you want to see the money flow in. I don’t have to answer any half-assed inquires or worry about last-minute cancellations. I don’t have to worry about occupancy – there’s always somebody looking in July.  But from my experience, winter guests are a lot more easy-going. They’re just very casual about everything and it’s more fun as a host when guests put their trust in you to do your thing. Maybe it’s the weather, who knows. Winter guests take instructions better for the most part.

I have a monthly rating scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being the slowest and 5 being the busiest:

January: 2
February: 2.5
March: 5
April: 6
May: 8
June: 10
July: 10
August: 10
September: 5
October: 2
November: 1.5
December: 3

Summertime guests tend to be more impatient. After guests confirm a booking, I reach out and tell each guest that I will be sending out the check-in information in the early mornings on the date of their arrival (unless they specifically answer me otherwise.) No one says boo about otherwise!!! But for some reason, summertime guests will message me 2-3 days before in a panic wondering how they’re going to check in when they can check in and if they need to buy towels or detergent etc. Reading and traveling is not a popular pairing.

Why not just do a traditional long-term rental?

To me, a house can become an asset when the rent can cover the mortgage. Our first house (because we killed off 60% of it in a year) can return a profit as a long-term rental. Airbnb for our entire rental breaks even still after the mortgage and the utilities. There’s also a rental glut in Seattle so we’re trying to bypass that by offering short-term solutions instead.

A traditional rental will bring in less than an Airbnb but it is an idea I’ve entertained. Renting out our entire rental long-term will bring in $500-$800 less a month. According to our excel sheet, a traditional rental will break even only after 12 years at this current rate (assuming 98% occupancy). There was some data we found that stated most landlords do not break even with their mortgage until about 15 years in with a traditional rental.

If someday, we ever decide to breed or travel ourselves, then yes, definitely!

Are you An Airbnb co-host?

Airbnb recently launched a co-host program in some cities (like Seattle) for people who want to be a host but don’t have the time for it. I signed up to be a co-host but I haven’t had any bites yet (not that I was expecting any, it’s quite new.) Airbnb lets you set a certain # mile radius where you’re available to co-host. You will also have to decide on what percentage of the total reservation and/or any cleaning fees you want to take. The percentage is a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 20% of the total reservation cost. You can also set a fixed fee for each Airbnb listing that you prepare.

How is Airbnb’s support line?

Being a superhost means the call representatives are much more likely to take your side on an issue compared to a guest with less to no credibility. You hold some trust and value in their eyes so they treat you better than a regular host. The wait time is supposedly shorter for a superhost but I have not found that to be true at all. I think someone said, “they don’t talk to superhosts like a dead-eyed idiot. They talk to superhosts like a living dead-eyed idiot!”

Hahaha all kidding aside, I actually really like Airbnb’s support. Although the on-hold time has gotten longer, the service is always top-notch. Great phone manners, no one transfers me and I never had to escalate pass a phone call. Airbnb’s phone service is much more responsive than what I’ve experienced with Comcast or AT&T.

Have your proof of identity ready; know your email address on the account and know the last 4 digits of your bank account on the account as well.

After every call, they will send you a customized email with follow-up instructions and/or a complete summary of the resolution. Great touch!

How do you coordinate with guests?

There was once 4 options to message your guests but now after the latest Airbnb update, there is only 3. They took away the texting/SMS option which was my second favorite. The 3 options now are direct messages via Airbnb, e-mail, and calling. Calling each guest is beyond awkward, I’ve only done it in emergencies. I have no idea who they are or what they’re doing. Roughly 15% of my guests don’t speak very good English either. Airbnb messenger is the best way to communicate – it’s a good record keeper if you do open up a case.

The official check-in message should be no more than 300 words. I would pick out the most important house rules and bring it up again before I hand over the door code and WiFi information. Leave the important things near the top of the message but leave necessary things (door code and WiFi passwords) in the middle or towards the end of the message. Template all common messages to save time. End all templates with a polite thank you followed by your name, phone number, and e-mail.

How long do you spend managing your properties, tenants, screening, etc.?

Mr. SMM asked this question and it’s definitely less than when I first started. Airbnb has continued to update their mobile app and they added features like easy-view calendars and templates. You can also take and send photos directly from the app itself now. For a slowpoke like me, it’s about 1-2 hours to clean a dirty room (including laundry time) and 20 minutes a day of socializing and answering guest inquiries on my phone.

Security & Safety Tips

• Not many gusts (and hosts too) know this but a host is not allowed to send their address inside the Airbnb messenger. Airbnb will auto-censor sensitive information if it’s detected to protect you. All confirmed guests will have your address automatically loaded onto their itinerary (in the ‘reservations’ tab) the moment the booking is confirmed. Do not give out your home address to any guest who has not confirmed booking!
• Buy an electronic door lock with a keypad to simplify the check-in process if you don’t want to always greet guests. I do not meet or greet 90%+ of my incoming guests. The electronic lock must have an auto-lock function – don’t count on guests to remember to lock up! Have a back up manual combination lock box to store the physical key for when the electronic keypad batteries dies.
• Stock a full first-aid kit in each bathroom and a sewing kit too. Inform all guests where the fire extinguishers are in case of fire emergencies. We have a closet with our earthquake kit that includes a hand-cranked radio, flashlight, dehydrated rations, water, purification tablets etc. If our guests are stuck with us during a bad earthquake I want to be able to cover everyone’s safety (because, man, think of how the bad the reviews would be if we didn’t! ?)

Snacks

• Provide breakfast (we have muffins) and some basic form of cereal. Do not provide milk. It will just go bad.
• Make sure in the house rules you address that there will be no special dietary restrictions in the snacks. There are guests who ask if we have gluten-free, sugar-less, free-range kale whatever. If I have a pet peeve, it’s this one. We’re not a restaurant. There are 100 guests before and 100 guests after who doesn’t have any dietary restrictions.
• Always buy in bulk (wholesale clubs & using Amazon’s camelcamelcamel tracking with S&S.)

If this is content useful, click my link to BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

For Airbnb guest users, if you found this useful, click my referral link, to get free $40 in Airbnb travel credit on your first booking.

Wow, still here?!?!?! I think I’m done with the mock Q&A now questions? Hosting on Airbnb can be a very profitable path if a host does it right. Remember you can’t please every guest hosting on Airbnb. An 80% positive feedback score is more than suffice for a good host. Keep price in line with value and seasonality as well. We will discuss more of this in the next post. Stay tuned.

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[ReviewDisclaimer]

I’ve hesitated for a long time to write this because, no joke, I’ve been hosting for so long I sort of forgot home sharing was a ‘thing.’ I finally sat myself down to write a how to host Airbnb / introductory Q&A. This is a “shot in the dark” for me to write because I am not sure what is interesting to readers and non-hosts. I have been doing it literally everyday for 2 years. I have 350 reviews and over 405 completed trips which means I’ve hosted over 2,000 individuals in total. It’s so routine for me so I can’t judge what’s good content anymore. Hopefully something grabs at you guys and I’m providing some value. This is my Airbnb hosting story!

If you found this content useful, click my referral link to BECOME A HOST and start your side hustle today!

For Airbnb guest users, if you found this useful, click my referral link, to get free $40 in Airbnb travel credit on your first booking.

~ This is part one of my Airbnb series. Check out all my Airbnb content or skip forward to part two. ~

I separated some topics out into different Airbnb posts in queue and I’ll add that onto the Airbnb glossary later. For now, I’ll do a general personal Q&A story of how I started on Airbnb below. Some topics deserve a post in it of itself. The taxes get complicated and Jared (hubby) will devote an entire post to that demon later on. I can do a quick introductory Q&A cover now to help set the scene.

*5 hours later*

“Oh fudge. I wrote 67 pages. Who is going to read this babble?”

Part 1: How to Host Airbnb

Where do you live?

We live in Seattle. It’s the birthplace of Amazon, Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft towards the Eastside. 

We get a decent amount of rain between October and February. We are fantastic dog lovers up in the Pacific Northwest – so much so we import abandoned dogs from the warmer states like California and Texas (which is how we got our pupper.)

Mejari in Wallingford (it’s a Mexican restaurant that serves decent sushi…bland everything else.)

Korean and Ethiopian food is amazing here but the Mexican food is decent at best and Chinese food here is just plain sad. There’s yummy coffee to go with the rain and a lot of techies (my husband being one of them.) The tech sector has propagated this grungy, sleepy American city into a rapidly gentrifying urban hub. It’s a strong alternative for those stuck in the overcrowded Silicon Valley (like I was.)

The Pacific Northwest is probably going to be the greenest place you’ll ever see. And as far as I know, there are no sparkly teenage vampires or kinky billionaires here.

What kind of Airbnbs do you have?

Our primary residence is a stand-alone townhouse. It’s legally a single family residence like any regular house but in the design of a 3 story behemoth. Our primary residence has 4x bedrooms (we rent out 3 out of 4), 2.5x baths, living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, private office, and 3 outdoor decks.

Unlike most townhouses that’s being built in Seattle, our house has no shared walls. That’s why we fell in love with it. It has all the pros of a townhouse (views, price, modern) but lesser of the cons (stairs, neighbors, lot.) We have a good-sized backyard and our own lot of land. I don’t ever want to share a physical wall with the neighbors. And I definitely do not want to consult with anyone but my husband about the maintenance of our roof and cedar sidings.

A stand-alone townhouse is perfect for home sharing. We rent out the entire first floor of our townhouse residence since it has 2 beds and 1 full bath of it’s very own. We also rent out our 3rd private bedroom upstairs. Lastly, we rent out an entire vacation house as well. We pretty much covered all the bases of rental options on Airbnb.

People (including my guests) think I’m either crazy to let complete strangers in my home or I’m a rich real estate mogul. Either of those things are true.

First of all: I have done it for 2 years and nothing horrible has happened to us or any of our properties yet. knock on wood
Second of all: We have just 3 Airbnbs listings in total. We have 2x ‘private room’ listings and 1x ‘entire place’

Nothing P. Diddy about that!

Where are your Airbnbs?

Our primary residence is in a quiet, unpretentious residential neighborhood. You will immediately notice the majestic evergreens sprinkled throughout our neighborhood. It looks like we’re living in a converted forest. It is a strong working class neighborhood nearby two different highways that grants quick access to everything Seattle has to offer.

When we purchased our first house it didn’t occur to us how lucky it is to be close to I-5 for Airbnb. I-5 is the main interstate highway running along the West Coast of the United States. By pure chance we landed in the best place for Airbnb travelers heading up to Canada and/or California. We really lucked out with our location heading into this so blindly. We purposefully focused on similar characteristics for our 2nd rental as well.

Our 2nd rental property is a full-time vacation rental. It’s a small condo sized cottage in one of the most beautiful and affluent neighborhoods in Seattle. It has 2 bedrooms and 1 full bath in a neighborhood that oddly parallels the Marina in San Francisco…the amount of yoga studios that propagate next to frozen yogurt shops…ramble ramble.

How much money do you make with Airbnb?

An average Airbnb year brings in about $50K across all 3 listings (plus some non-monetary benefits). Of course that number for anyone else will vary wildly depending on the local demand, occupancy and amenities. I aim for full occupancy so I turn on Airbnb’s smart pricing feature for some of my dates. More details on that crazy science in a separate post.

My occupancy rate for my first year was 100% and for my second year it’s looking to be 98% because (I theorize) smart pricing (introduced after I began hosting) has put a downward pressure on the initial perceived market value. Airbnb wants to undercut competitors by making prices aggregate closer to the market average and take off the guess-work for hosts. I will discuss the impact of smart pricing in-depth later.

There has also been an influx of Airbnbs as well which has pulled the market price down by 15% from when I started in 2015. I don’t mind though – I still really enjoy being a host. Not to mention Airbnb has their own insurance and you don’t have to worry about the ugly legal stuff like with traditional rentals.

The biggest hurdle is seasonal. Airbnb winters are rough. My earnings are 50% less in the slowest winter month (November) compare to the busiest summer month (June.) There is just no way you will earn anywhere as close as you do in the summer time. Now keep in mind we are in Seattle where the winters can be cold but it rarely snows. It could be better or worst elsewhere.

Do you have rules for your home? Do guests respect it?

I have more restrictions than your typical host. I display all the house rules and house manual out with 100% transparency. If there is a communication mishap then I immediately know that the guests did not take the time out to read.

I stick to my house rules and I make it clear in both the introductory message as well as my official reply that I expect all guests to read and know them. I want my guests to know how to lock the front door and where we keep the fire extinguishers. Naturally a small percentage of guests feel a bit unwelcome by this but in order to protect my property and their own safety, I think it’s more than worth it. 

I make it very clear in my primary residential Airbnb listing that I do not allow guest up onto the 2nd or 3rd floor without permission first. There is no kitchen access with my Airbnb. I give each room a mini fridge, microwave and kettle. There are a ton of local eateries nearby as well that I don’t feel bad about leaving out the kitchen from my home. Since the kitchen is off-limits, I no longer charge a cleaning fee. For travelers who are not looking to cook or stay longer than a couple of days, they can save money staying with me. More on that later as well.

Also…our living room is usually a mess so I just want to save myself the embarrassment!

Were you scared when you started On Airbnb?

Yes! It was awkward at first. We purchased the home in August and it wasn’t until February that I finally decided to put our house on Airbnb. I so, so, so regret not listing it sooner! By being scared – I lost at least $10,000 in opportunity cost. AH the idiocy! My husband and I didn’t use 70% of our house because we were so used to living in a small 500 SQ downtown apartment that we never used any other room besides our own bedroom and maybe the office…for 6 months! What a complete waste! So my advice is to do your research and just do it.

After a full year on Airbnb and becoming more comfortable with the ‘strangers in the house’ thing…we decided to dun dun dunnnn rent out the 3rd floor bedroom as well. That’s literally right across the hall from us. Even crazier? The bathroom is jointed and shared! Jack and Jill style!

There’s a huge comfort difference between renting out the first floor and the 3rd most intimate floor. It took my husband a year to agree to renting out the upper floor bedroom despite the fact that we had zero use for it.

Thankfully, we have had no problems what so ever. In fact, we had a guest who informed us that our plumbing had been leaking. A slow drip…for days before we noticed! Everything in there was soaked! Phew, thank goodness someone caught it before it got really bad. Our 3rd floor bedroom has brought us more friends than the 1st floor guests that we never see. I have met some incredible guests and it’s been a much more positive experience than what we both expected.

Why do you do Airbnb?

What kind of question is this? 

Before we even started home shopping I wanted to do Airbnb. I knew then that a house was a huge liability so if we didn’t plan to rent it out then we would have purchased something much smaller.  I was 22 and my husband was 27. Liabilities are scary at that age! If it wasn’t for Airbnb we would have just brought a small cottage.

Actually, I didn’t rent out the 3rd bedroom for money. I noticed that there were guests that rented out our entire 1st floor for $70 a night just to sleep! I felt bad about that and I thought, heck, if they just a need to crash then we should rent out our spare bedroom and put it under market price. We don’t need it and it would be a nice thing to do. We initially planned that room…for…what are those things called? Neonates? ? Well, I am a coward so it’ll be a long while before I get up the courage for that.

How Much Time Does It Take TO CLEAN?

It depends on the duration of the stay, the quality of the guests and my schedule for the day. It takes me a couple of hours on average to clean two bedrooms. I have 4 bedrooms (including the 2nd rental) in total and that is why I consider Airbnbs full-time work. Busing back and forth to our rental is an hour long trip each way. Some days when I have triple turnovers (all three sets of guests are leaving and new guests are coming within a few hours) I call in the Calvary (dad) for help.

Any particular “nightmare” guests Stories?

I can pull a few nightmares from my magical thinking box but I will probably need to leave that for another post too. The majority of my guests have been really sweet though! I have a theory on how to weed out the bad-bads.

What did you Have to concede for Airbnb?

Privacy is a big one to a lot of people but because of how our townhouse is designed, I don’t notice much of a difference. Sure, there was that one time when I was talking to a carton of chocolate flavored ice cream and two guests walked in on me but…it was the ice cream’s fault for being so undelicious. (Never buy generic ice cream if you can afford better, it’s gross.)

For Airbnb guest users, if you found this useful, click my referral link, to get free $40 in Airbnb travel credit on your first booking.

We share our master bathroom with strangers and hosting Airbnbs can be more time-consuming than one would think. There are 100 micro tasks a multi-listing host has to juggle. You need to get use to serving people. In they are cold you need to bring out the space heaters. If they are too hot, you have to offer a fan. We live car free so we could rent out our driveway. Parking is scarce in Seattle and Airbnb guests love easy parking.

Cleaning up is a lot of manual work and we live in a townhouse which means there is a lot of stair climbing…perfect! Everyday is a leg day!!!

This is the first part of how to host Airbnb. Part two is linked below. More stuff later, when I’m not sleep deprived. Feel free to ask any questions or clarification. I’m running on nothing but goldfish crackers so bear with me.

~ This is part one of my Airbnb series. Check out all my Airbnb content or continue on to part two. ~

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