Post by High Priestess on May 30, 2016 21:51:57 GMT
Dorine shared on London HOsts Community Hub Jan 2015
www.airbnb.com/groups/content/content-102779
New to hosting
We had our first AirBnB guest but since then our views have vanished,
prompting me to register with other sites to keep guests coming, any advice for new hosts?
12 comments
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Peter
Petera year ago
I have lots of advice for you (and others). First, get a proper welcoming picture of yourself. There are many guests who would be put off by the large cuddly toy - however much we like cuddly toys we do go to stay with real hosts.
Secondly, your listing doesn't make sense to me. You describe this as your family home (which says to me "this listing is for when we go away and let out our home") but your calendar shows 100% availability which suggests that you are letting a property commercially as a short-term holiday let. Many guests would not understand what you are doing and as a result choose somewhere else where it is clear what the host-guest relationship is.
Finally, if you are just starting off, price low, treat early guests really nicely (welcome drinks or breakfast things etc) and get in some good early reviews. Then you can put your prices up a bit.
Reply Like 3 likes
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Perhaps honesty is not the best policy in regards to our London flat arrangement, although it is our London home, we do a lot of tech conferences and events in London hence the giant fox, Mozilla firefox browser's mascot pic but our main house is in Canterbury so its quick to travel to our work and passion; I take on board what floats the boat of engineers and my community of Geeks might not for the average consumer, so thank you for pointing it out. The main issue is however deeper rooted I think as there are practically no views, 5 in December vs. another site 78
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Gordon
Gordona year ago
I agree with Peter's comments. And there will be few tourists (especially at this time of year) who will be looking for something in Catford.
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Kenny
Kennya year ago
£45 for a cleaning fee is very very high. Sure it might cost you this, but perhaps you need to absorb some of it into your rates. Per-guest fees of £20 are offputting too, as is the weird requirement for a secondary signed contract if staying beyond a week. I think you could also make the listing sound more friendly.
Reply Like 1 like
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Thanks Kenny, nice and actionable feedback the contract thing we added as we got spooked by long stay guests who might not be willing to leave, a recent topic in the papers. We really cannot afford to lose the use of the flat for ourselves and those working with us (we do a lot of community stuff and the flat is one of our key resources to make things happen at low cost). It's an uncomfortable position as AirBnB have no power to remove a person and without an agreement you can't get them out without going through the proper eviction process I believe, we took the few it was better to be safe than really sorry
How would you suggest I might make it more friendly?
Reply Like
Tara
Taraa year ago
I agree with Peter about the profile photo, it's quite off-putting.
You need more and better photos (request an Airbnb professional photographer), also photos oriented the right way! You need to explain the bedroom set up - you say it sleeps six, but you also say there are six beds? Or are there actually three double beds? Anyway, you need more than one sentence to describe the place!
The 'Guest Access' section should be about what stuff guest's can use, e.g. dishwasher, Oyster cards, etc. Check out other hosts' listings to see what we say in the various sections.
I suspect the problem with page views is that there aren't many larger tourist families/groups who'd be interested in staying in Catford, (or shopping in Lewisham or visiting a giant Sainsbury's). I know it's only a short-ish train journey but on a map search result it looks very far from the centre. Also, could be expensive in train fares (£7.20 for a day return to Charing X? For six adults that'd add £43 to the daily cost, so your place would cost them £142 per night not £99). And how is Camden 15-30 minutes' journey?!
You'd probably have more page views and success letting individual rooms to young budget traveller couples. Though, again, you need to factor in the extra cost of travel to central London if they're tourists. Alternatively, there may be a market for solo business travellers who specifically want your area.
Reply Like 2 replies
Tara
Taraa year ago
P.S. Spelling: it's Charing X (not Charring); St Pancras (not St Pancreas), kitchen-diner (not dinner).
Tara
Taraa year ago
I just did a search of Catford, a week in late January, sleeping 6. Got 12 results (including your listing), only 5 out of 12 have reviews (the one with the most reviews had only 5, for the whole of 2014). Same dates, private room, sleeping 2. Got 16 results, and 11 out of 16 have reviews. Which suggests that letting individual rooms will get you more bookings.
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Hi Tara, Thanks for all the feedback plus the proof reading awesome stuff! I was also surprised that Camden was from Catford only half an hour away, we did some shopping there just before Xmas, usually takes me that and some from Elephant and Castle by tude at that time of the year. Sainsbury is a shopping experience or nightmare! but on a more practical note when we went to San Francisco, shopping for food was a nightmare, the larger supermarkets where all a taxi ride away, I wanted to visit Walmart! Never made it
And to the fox pic love it or hate it, you wont forget it in a hurry, extreme like or dislike = memorable even if for the wrong reason but I will see if I can dig out a sanitised version of myself
Reply Like 1 reply
Tara
Taraa year ago
Well, Catford to Charing X by train is a minimum of 20 minutes, so there is no possible way that your guests could get to Camden in 15 minutes. It's misleading to say 15-30 minutes.
nicky
nickya year ago
It all looks nice but turn the photos the right way up. I would seriously not say 'pet friendly'. You don't want dogs cocking their legs on your furniture or cats pooing under the bed because they're away from their normal surroundings. The word 'pet friendly' makes me think of damp dog smell
Reply Like 1 like
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
lol Nicky thanks for the visual cue we and our friends bring our pets with us it's very common on the continent, never had a problem, don't think people would bring a cat poor thing would be scared to death, although I have meet a couple that walk on a leash so there is always the exception
Reply Like 1 like
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Tara, thanks for your feedback
Reply Like
Julia
Juliaa year ago
I would agree with others on the fox picture,personally I wouldn't stay in any airbnb when I could not see what the host looked like in the same way I do not take guess who do not have their photo in their profile.
Reply Like 1 like
Kenny
Kennya year ago
I see you got lots of great advice from around the community...... and have ignored absolutely all of it! Oh well.
www.airbnb.com/groups/content/content-102779
New to hosting
We had our first AirBnB guest but since then our views have vanished,
prompting me to register with other sites to keep guests coming, any advice for new hosts?
12 comments
Follow
Like
Peter
Petera year ago
I have lots of advice for you (and others). First, get a proper welcoming picture of yourself. There are many guests who would be put off by the large cuddly toy - however much we like cuddly toys we do go to stay with real hosts.
Secondly, your listing doesn't make sense to me. You describe this as your family home (which says to me "this listing is for when we go away and let out our home") but your calendar shows 100% availability which suggests that you are letting a property commercially as a short-term holiday let. Many guests would not understand what you are doing and as a result choose somewhere else where it is clear what the host-guest relationship is.
Finally, if you are just starting off, price low, treat early guests really nicely (welcome drinks or breakfast things etc) and get in some good early reviews. Then you can put your prices up a bit.
Reply Like 3 likes
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Perhaps honesty is not the best policy in regards to our London flat arrangement, although it is our London home, we do a lot of tech conferences and events in London hence the giant fox, Mozilla firefox browser's mascot pic but our main house is in Canterbury so its quick to travel to our work and passion; I take on board what floats the boat of engineers and my community of Geeks might not for the average consumer, so thank you for pointing it out. The main issue is however deeper rooted I think as there are practically no views, 5 in December vs. another site 78
Reply Like
Gordon
Gordona year ago
I agree with Peter's comments. And there will be few tourists (especially at this time of year) who will be looking for something in Catford.
Reply Like
Kenny
Kennya year ago
£45 for a cleaning fee is very very high. Sure it might cost you this, but perhaps you need to absorb some of it into your rates. Per-guest fees of £20 are offputting too, as is the weird requirement for a secondary signed contract if staying beyond a week. I think you could also make the listing sound more friendly.
Reply Like 1 like
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Thanks Kenny, nice and actionable feedback the contract thing we added as we got spooked by long stay guests who might not be willing to leave, a recent topic in the papers. We really cannot afford to lose the use of the flat for ourselves and those working with us (we do a lot of community stuff and the flat is one of our key resources to make things happen at low cost). It's an uncomfortable position as AirBnB have no power to remove a person and without an agreement you can't get them out without going through the proper eviction process I believe, we took the few it was better to be safe than really sorry
How would you suggest I might make it more friendly?
Reply Like
Tara
Taraa year ago
I agree with Peter about the profile photo, it's quite off-putting.
You need more and better photos (request an Airbnb professional photographer), also photos oriented the right way! You need to explain the bedroom set up - you say it sleeps six, but you also say there are six beds? Or are there actually three double beds? Anyway, you need more than one sentence to describe the place!
The 'Guest Access' section should be about what stuff guest's can use, e.g. dishwasher, Oyster cards, etc. Check out other hosts' listings to see what we say in the various sections.
I suspect the problem with page views is that there aren't many larger tourist families/groups who'd be interested in staying in Catford, (or shopping in Lewisham or visiting a giant Sainsbury's). I know it's only a short-ish train journey but on a map search result it looks very far from the centre. Also, could be expensive in train fares (£7.20 for a day return to Charing X? For six adults that'd add £43 to the daily cost, so your place would cost them £142 per night not £99). And how is Camden 15-30 minutes' journey?!
You'd probably have more page views and success letting individual rooms to young budget traveller couples. Though, again, you need to factor in the extra cost of travel to central London if they're tourists. Alternatively, there may be a market for solo business travellers who specifically want your area.
Reply Like 2 replies
Tara
Taraa year ago
P.S. Spelling: it's Charing X (not Charring); St Pancras (not St Pancreas), kitchen-diner (not dinner).
Tara
Taraa year ago
I just did a search of Catford, a week in late January, sleeping 6. Got 12 results (including your listing), only 5 out of 12 have reviews (the one with the most reviews had only 5, for the whole of 2014). Same dates, private room, sleeping 2. Got 16 results, and 11 out of 16 have reviews. Which suggests that letting individual rooms will get you more bookings.
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Hi Tara, Thanks for all the feedback plus the proof reading awesome stuff! I was also surprised that Camden was from Catford only half an hour away, we did some shopping there just before Xmas, usually takes me that and some from Elephant and Castle by tude at that time of the year. Sainsbury is a shopping experience or nightmare! but on a more practical note when we went to San Francisco, shopping for food was a nightmare, the larger supermarkets where all a taxi ride away, I wanted to visit Walmart! Never made it
And to the fox pic love it or hate it, you wont forget it in a hurry, extreme like or dislike = memorable even if for the wrong reason but I will see if I can dig out a sanitised version of myself
Reply Like 1 reply
Tara
Taraa year ago
Well, Catford to Charing X by train is a minimum of 20 minutes, so there is no possible way that your guests could get to Camden in 15 minutes. It's misleading to say 15-30 minutes.
nicky
nickya year ago
It all looks nice but turn the photos the right way up. I would seriously not say 'pet friendly'. You don't want dogs cocking their legs on your furniture or cats pooing under the bed because they're away from their normal surroundings. The word 'pet friendly' makes me think of damp dog smell
Reply Like 1 like
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
lol Nicky thanks for the visual cue we and our friends bring our pets with us it's very common on the continent, never had a problem, don't think people would bring a cat poor thing would be scared to death, although I have meet a couple that walk on a leash so there is always the exception
Reply Like 1 like
Dorine
Dorinea year ago
Tara, thanks for your feedback
Reply Like
Julia
Juliaa year ago
I would agree with others on the fox picture,personally I wouldn't stay in any airbnb when I could not see what the host looked like in the same way I do not take guess who do not have their photo in their profile.
Reply Like 1 like
Kenny
Kennya year ago
I see you got lots of great advice from around the community...... and have ignored absolutely all of it! Oh well.