As the renovation reaches its end our thoughts turned to our next plan, getting our home AirBnB ready. Whilst this is our family home and my heart goes in my mouth sometimes at the thought of it, I’m happy to be listing our home on Air BnB for others to enjoy. Financially its a good move but also I’m not embarrassed to admit to being proud of the space and think its lovely, so why not share it?
I’m no stranger to having others staying in my home when I’m not there, (as we’ve house swapped for years with total strangers), this is a bit different. It’s more of a risk and naturally when you’ve poured energy into a space you don’t want it to get wrecked. So here are a few of the safe guarding and hosting tips I’ve followed to ensure we get the best experience from hosting on AirBnB.
- Instant book is off, I review and pre-approve every booking. I swap messages with anyone interested in booking and expect to see a profile photo and will pour over their previous reviews. I would be wary accepting a booking from someone with no profile photo. I want to know who is in their booking party and don’t accept young single sex group bookings – as I don’t want stag or hen parties here.
- I set a security deposit of £500, I don’t receive this, its held by Air B for 14 days after someone checks out incase of any damages. I also charge a cleaning fee to cover the cost of the house being cleaned after they have left.
- We won’t be doing self check in, I will hand over the keys to every guest (looking them in the whites of their eyes for signs of trouble!) and plus I can quickly show someone how to turn on the induction hob, where to find the bin etc
- I’ve set up auto scheduled messages which saves me admin time of re-writing the same thing but these are helpful for politely reminding guests of check out times etc.
- I provide a house manual that is available to booked guests and gives tons of useful information about the house appliances and the local area, it also references that this is a family home so sets the tone around my expectations as a host.
- We’ve got a secure lock box where essential items such as our passports and banking information will go. It’s great for security and is hidden away.
- All drawers are cleared and anything I’m sentimental / precious about will be out of view.
- I use large plastic boxes where I quickly place personal framed photos that are normally on display away, the boxes make it easy for me to lift and move items in the house so it becomes less ‘personal’ to strangers.
- A set of clear and simple house rules are detailed in our listing, its clear that the house is no smoking / no pets etc
- We’ve set a two night minimum stay, this naturally bumps the prices up to sufficiently put off someone planning a rave !
I’m going to leave a lovely welcome pack for our guests and will ensure they have a five star stay as much as is within my control. So sometime after May 2022 I’ll let you know how I got on!
