How To Be a Great Airbnb Host

1. Document Everything

Before hosting – Take pictures of every square inch of your house. Create an itinerary and categorise everything. Specific details you will look back on later, paint chips, holes, wear and tear, it will give you a base-line to compare damage to.

After – Go through the itinerary you created. Some of the key things on my itinerary in the past are: towels, check each wall for holes/nicks, check the mattress, document any new scratches in the wood floor, check couches for stains/things that got underneath, definitely check the carpet by room for stains, and much more. This allows you to truly document the wear and tear in your property vs the damage and plan accordingly to address each.

2. Install a Masterlock Key Safe -Automate the check-in process

In my personal experience, I have found that many the guests like to be left without a check-in process. You don’t want to be waking up at 7 am in the morning or going at 8 pm at night to ensure you can great your guests with a set of keys.

The best way to do this is by using a Masterlock key safe which is a simple process. All you need to do is provide a 4-digit code to guests the night before. They simply come to your property and input the code and the key is there to use. Easier for you and more convenient for them.

3. Go Above and Beyond as an Airbnb host

To ensure you get great feedback go above and beyond for your guests as an airbnb host. I recently went to Edinburgh Fringe festival and the airbnb host there was fantastic. He left a bottle of wine and some shortbread for us, with a personalised note telling us where to go and eat. We thought this was fantastic and something we always remember.

4. ALWAYS Ask For Reviews & Feedback

Here is the exact message I send to every guest after they check-out, “I always aim to ensure my guests have a fantastic stay. This property is my small business and a review goes a long way for us! If I could ask you kindly if you enjoyed your stay could you write a short review of your stay? These reviews help us gain a better reputation. Thank you very much.

5. Make it a personal response

It easy for airbnb hosts to go into auto-pilot and send the same generic response to possible guests. Good communication is key to being an attractive host. Don’t start a conversation with a generic response. A good example to respond to the conversation, Hey, thanks for enquiring, how are you? This normally transcends into a conversation and more people booking the property.

6. Experience Airbnb Yourself

The best way to appreciate Airbnb is to go out and experience it yourself. Book a trip to a different country. I recently stayed in Italy and I can say it was one of the best trips I have had. The apartment was clean, in a great location and finally, the host was great.

7. Stand out

When a potential guest sends a booking request. When someone sends you a request, they are likely looking at multiple other properties like yours. They send multiple hosts requests, they get excited about their trip but then they wait to hear back from all the hosts, plus get feedback from those taking the trip with them.

Tell them good places to go, your favourite locations, the more detail you can give them the better. Also, if they want to book a block booking give them a slight discount maybe 5%. In my experience, by doing this they will certainly want to re-book with you again.