Attracting the best guests.

1. Be Personable

 A common mistake I see with new hosts is using a logo as their Airbnb profile picture, and a business name instead of their own name. I get where it comes from – new hosts often have imposter syndrome, and hiding your name and face behind a branded business presence feels like guests will take you more seriously. 

But put yourself in the guests' shoes. How much more likely would you be to complain about a late check in at a Hilton than if you were checking into some little mom and pop owned bed and breakfast in a sleepy beach town? Don't make your guests feel like you are some “soulless, corporate, faceless giant”. Show your face, use your name, share a picture of yourself in your house manual with the story of your place, use phrases like “our home” in your description, and remind people that there is an actual human being that loves and cares about this home! My Home Manual template already has a page included for you to personalize your listing, and the copy writing uses this suggested language!

2. Don't Offer Discounts

Now this one is tempting, I know. Especially when the guest seems so sweet and the dates they are inquiring about would fill that awkward gap in your calendar just perfectly. But I am telling you loud and clear, it is never worth it to offer discounts! I swear, 9 out of 10 times the guests who get a discount, end up being the worst! From leaving trash behind, staining things, causing damages, bringing unapproved pets or smoking, or just complaining in attempt to get further discounts or refunds… it all comes with the territory. It makes sense. Anyone asking for a discount is already telling you upfront that they do not respect the value of your home, or your time in getting it ready for them.

I have three exceptions to this. I do offer a 10% military discount, a 10% discount if the guest books 7 nights or more, and I have a handful of amazing guests that return for an annual trip every year and we always work something out for them. The difference here is that these discounts are already communicated upfront, and offered from my end. These guests appreciate the offer and approach it with gratitude, not the attitude that they were entitled to it.

So, if a guest does ask you for a discount, please copy and paste this response which I use every time:

“Hi _______, thanks so much for reaching out about our home! We do not offer discounts during our peak season.”

If it's off-season, use this:

“Hi _______, thanks so much for reaching out about our home! The current rate you see is already the lowest we are able to go for these dates.”

You'd be surprised how many times with these responses I still get the booking at full price, and the guest usually says something like “No worries, we'll book anyway! Just figured I'd ask." I never have issues with these guests.

3. Set Expectations

This one goes both ways. Set expectations about what guests can expect from you, and make sure guests also know what you expect from them. 

There is more to this than just your written communication! Every item in your home communicates expectations. Don't want parties? Maybe rethink the tiki bar, surround sound speaker system, and pool table. Don't want people cooking huge feasts and making a giant mess in the kitchen? Don't supply so many pots, pans, kitchen appliances, and utensils.

Here's a small example from my own Airbnbs. Our dishwasher takes 2.5 hours to run, so if a guest doesn't start it before they check out, my cleaner ends up having to wash dishes by hand or the cycle won't finish in time for the next guests. We very clearly state in the checkout instructions how important it is to start the dishwasher, but sometimes we had guests start it and still leave more dishes in the sink! Turns out the dishwasher was too full to add the entire load. So, we scaled down our dish collection and now only provide enough that we know can all fit in the dishwasher.

I also stopped providing Tupperware. Guests would commonly forget leftovers in the fridge, and my cleaner would walk in to find the cycle already running, so she'd have to toss food and wash Tupperware by hand. Now we provide Ziplocs for guests to store leftovers, and if they leave them in the fridge, my cleaner can just toss it. Instead of getting mad at guests or leaving a bad review, we learned to remove the items that were causing inefficiencies. Problem solved!

And there you have it! Three action items you can take today to repel bad guests.