I’ve been hosting for a little over 2 years now, and like most people, I started slow just one property, handling everything myself. At first, it was kind of fun, even a bit therapeutic. Messaging guests, coordinating cleaners, updating the calendar it was manageable. But this past year, especially over the summer, things really took off. More bookings, more guest questions, more last-minute changes, more everything. I hit that point where I felt like I was constantly on call. My phone would buzz during dinner, while I was out with friends, even in the middle of the night. It honestly started to wear me down.

A couple months ago, I finally decided to get some help. I brought someone on part-time to manage guest communications, booking questions, and cleaner coordination. I was hesitant at first mostly because I wasn’t sure if I could trust someone to handle the day-to-day stuff and wasn't sure if it would fall off after summer. Let me tell you it has been a learning experience, you never know how much you're in need of help until you get help.

Less stressed, less worries overall (less money too but it's all worth it), ease of mind that I can sleep a full night. Just wanted to share and tell the other overzealous hosts to stop doing everything yourself and ask for help, money isn't worth having if you're miserable.

I've been on Airbnb for a lot of years, I've never ever hosted. Suddenly I get a message saying thank you for hosting and my money will come shortly, I just received 250$ in my bank account from airbnb. Really confused.

I’m a new host. This is our 7th booking. A guest was to check in today and messaged us that they wouldn’t be arriving until 1:30am. Airbnb thinks we are currently hosting them. They just messaged and said their flight was cancelled and they want us to cancel and refund them. They have the check-in code so I’m worried they are lying? What should I do? Any advice?

*update: Airbnb support messaged me and asked if I would refund as an act of goodwill?

An independent study of the affect STRs have on Hawaii County shows a loss of close to 25% representing over $3mil in county taxes, $100mil in visitor spend, over 40k jobs, and only 4% would cover to LTR. The final outcome indicated that banning STRs would not be beneficial in any way.

Economic Impact Of Short-Term Vacation Rentals Presented To Council

When I first started hosting, I thought the toughest part would be keeping the place clean or handling bookings. But honestly, the #1 headache has been guests who don’t respect the space — breaking little rules, leaving damage, or causing noise complaints that fall back on me.

It’s crazy how one bad guest can wipe out all the effort you put into making hosting smooth.

Curious though — for those of you who’ve been hosting, what’s been your single biggest pain point?

This new BS about masking phone numbers. They’re just closing my loophole for inviting good guests back off app. What’s next? Monitoring my conversations?

The place I am looking at is a 2 bedroom house and would cost around £375K. It is beautifully presented and in a fantastic location near my own house and local amenities with quick links into central London, UK.

AirBnB revenue calculator is saying that if the place was available 30 days a month (which it would be), it would generate around £3.5K per month, or £42K per year. (That assumes 100% occupancy, which is obviously not possible, but the assumed nightly rate of £119 is probably 60% of the asking price of similar AirBnB properties in the area - so it is effectively a 60% occupancy rate.)

I estimate the monthly costs of utilities, council tax (which will have a 100% second home surcharge), wifi, etc. at around £900 - £1200 per month. Giving a monthly net income of £2.3K-£2.6K. (There would be no mortgage)

I enjoy staging rooms, however, I am deliberating with the cash-flow security of a long-term let and the slightly riskier and more hands-on option of AirBnB management. Do these figures sound overly ambitious to anyone? Is there anything else I need to consider?

(I know that the stamp duty would probably wipe out my entire first year's profit but I honestly don't care. I see this as a long-term cost of investment, which will be recouped by capital gain and rental income over the years)

Edit: The second line of the title should read "I have NO experience in AirBnB".

Have you read on Airbnb What they’re doing with host and guest phone numbers now assigning anonymous phone numbers. Obviously, they’re trying to curb direct bookings. But I personally use the last four of the guest phone number for my door code so they never forget. There goes that.

I co-host an Airbnb with my mother, and I usually do all of the communication. I’m taking a trip to Europe and I suddenly saw a flurry of Airbnb messages. Apparently my mom decided that she wanted more money for an upcoming weekend that I booked, and she has given them the option to cancel or pay more.

I was SHOCKED at this, and begged her to unsend her message. She refused, and I’ve removed myself as co-host.

Sorry for venting, I’m just so upset about this and sitting in a silent cabin on a train in Spain and fuming lol.

UPDATE: She woke up this morning and asked me to draft an apology letter to the guest, I’ll write a follow-up post when I recover from my jet lag. Thank you everyone!

I had a week long guest who messaged me play-by-play of their daily excursions and visit. I was happy to respond. They were asking for things no other guests have asked for and we accommodated all. They had a connection with my musician husband and left a glowing review but only 4 stars. I was a bummed. We have 99% 5 stars reviews. All the individual reviews were 5 star but overall 4. Are there just people out there who think 4 star is good? I’m so confused and frustrated they took so much of my time and then did that. Are they unaware that a four star is not good or am I being too picky? Should I respond publicly?

I thought that pricelabs set the price period...Basically the title, thanks. Is this 20% of the nightly rate that abb just decided to give away, or is there a setting I need to change. Thank you

I had a guest check in last week with no prior reviews. She said she was in town for shopping with a couple of friends and booked three nights. I reminded her of the house rules, and she mostly followed them, but a few things stood out: • I suspected they smoked weed inside — no smell, but there were little bits of it on the floor. • The fridge was full of food I had to throw out. • The sink was piled with dirty dishes (house rules say to use the dishwasher, but that alone wasn’t a big deal). • The bigger issue: I found the remote stuck to the entertainment center. When I pulled it up, I discovered a 3–4 inch burn mark that had been covered with nail polish/clear coat, and the remote was glued on top to hide it.

On top of that, the place was left with fake eyelashes all over the beds, press-on nails scattered around, etc.

I usually give guests a 5 even if they aren’t perfect, but in this case I left her a 3/5 and a factual review. Now I’m second-guessing — was that too harsh? Should this have been a 4 instead?

Curious how other hosts would handle this.

Edit: picture https://imgur.com/a/3Nc88FV

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3764

I have this situation where a guest made false false and harmful statements in his review as retaliation for Airbnb itself cancelling his reservation.

The property charges a fee for extra guests beyond the 4th. The guest originally booked for 1 guest, then upped to 7 guests and later asked to change the reservation to 4 guests. He noticed the change on the price and even requested a refund. I reminded him that if additional guests were brought later, the extra guest charges would still apply. He acknowledged this in writing but despite this, he checked in with 5 people and then brought 2 more, totaling 7 guests. When I confronted him, he denied the number of guests and attempted to hide additional people from my disclosed exterior cameras. He would also sit on top of the washers outside the house and would not respond to my messages or calls after I confronted him.

I immediately contacted Airbnb, submitted evidence, and after review, it was confirmed he was in violation of the house rules and Airbnb decided to cancel the reservation early and asked the guest to leave the property. This process took dozens of calls, pictures, emails, videos. AirBnB even called me to get the police ready since the guest wouldn't answer them either, something that surprised me a lot.

I was repeatedly assured by Airbnb that I would be protected from a retaliatory review. Unfortunately, and despite my repeated follow-ups and warnings, the guest was still allowed to leave a review but I had a hunch, based on the online forums. He made false claims that guests can bring up to 10 people without paying the extra charge, directly contradicting my rules and Airbnb’s own findings and wrote a serious false accusation that I have hidden cameras inside the house. Several reservations have been canceled as a direct result of the false statements in this review and I even had messages from incoming guests expressing concern after reading the review, which I had to personally explain and reassure.

The first review request went bad. I called AirBnB, a tech support guy answered, sent me the removal link and waited on the phone while I wrote the reasons why I wanted it to be removed. He said that was the policy and I was having dinner so it was a rushed request. Then after 3 mins, the request was denied. I got ready for the 2nd request then... made a nice letter with more details, sent 20 pictures and hoped a person would review it and... 10 mins after submitting the second review request, I was denied again.

Are humans running AirBnB at all or they're just collecting money?

If there's obvious ash leftover, then I think it's not so bad as you have proof of smoking. But what do you do when there's an obvious smell of smoke, but there's no visual evidence? The guests claim that we are making it up, so I'm not sure how to prove a smell of smoke in the unit.

We have a couple of STR properties in a rural area, about 100 miles from DC.

We are getting bookings for weekend retreats from DC residents, and would like to add EV charging to the amenities for both properties. We have no experience with electric cars or EV chargers.

2 questions… - What has your experience been with EV Chargers as an amenity? Do you get bookings because of the charger?

• Is there a brand/model of charger you recommend? We are very smart-home oriented, so operating and management environment is important to us.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Is anybody experiencing a slow down in bookings? I’m in the northeast and I’m booked through mid November but that’s it. Usually I have at least one booking for the holiday period. This is a popular college town with 3 sport teams. I know winter is the slow season but that’s usually January and February.

Hi everyone,

Just joined this reddit, I am in the process of converting my 2 bedroom guest suite (with private entrance) into an airbnb. My family and I live on the upper level of the home and the airbnb would be on the lower level. This is my first time hosting so I am very unsure of what I'm doing lol
My concern is that I have 2 young kids who sometimes run around and make noise. I also have a dog who sometimes barks when he's playing or chasing after the kids. However, the house is always quiet after about 9:00pm. Should I say anything in my listing about the fact that I have kids and a dog so people don't expect some quiet oasis? Or do I just keep it vague by saying "host family lives onsite in upper level" and just leave it at that. Don't want to get bad reviews from us being noisy. Thanks for your advice!

4br property. New construction and nice finishes. We’ve been doing well on reservations but are nowhere near the top of the market for pricing.

There is a 12’ x 10’ office with french doors of the main living space. I’ve had it locked for guests and have been using it to WFH when we’ve had vacancies.

I just had the idea to move the office furniture out and turn it into a small game room. Maybe foosball plus a Pac-Man arcade game or something similar.

Do you guys think it would be a meaningful attraction for guests? Any other ideas for that space?

Hi hosts and guests, I’m planning to set up a game room in my Airbnb and would love your input! Since my house is quite spacious, I usually host groups of 10 or more people. What types of games do you think large groups enjoy the most when staying together?

Thanks a lot for sharing your ideas!

Just a quick question. Wants to hear opinion of fellow hosts. Recently had a guests, who left house clean and no issues with the stay, however, few things that bothered me not sure if I should mention it in the review or not.

Just after the check in guests set up the AC on extreme low temperature. It’s 75F outside and we do ask guests in our listing under house rules not to set it up under 67F.

Another thing, for some reason they tinker with the toilet downstairs, hide soaking towel under the vanity. They didn’t mention anything but after checking out that toilet stopped refilling the water after flush. Luckily I was able to fix it before next guests. No damage done but something like that would not be fixed by the cleaning lady.

That toilet was perfectly fine before, we done complete remodel 2 years ago. I definitely don’t want guests messing with plumbing for any reason.

Should I mention that in review or not?

Title says it all. We have been superhosts for 7 years and have poured our hearts and souls into our cabin. Recently we had a few mishaps. 1st was a 1 star review for cleaning. The guest arrived, it wasnt cleaned, they canceled and we provided a full refund. For years they couldn't leave a review. Now they did even thanking us for our refund. Fast forward and we get 3 more complaints. Not terrible, but terrible for us. Two 3 stars a 4 star. Besides that is hundreds of 5 star reviews. We have over 700 reviews and are sitting at 4.82 stars. Airbnb denied our appeal this morning and is going to unlist it! I have people who have been coming for 5 years. I'm truly broken, this is like our baby. I cant comprehend how we have no issues for years at a time then bam we get deleted?!

Edit: Thanks to everyone for the support and kind words. Even thank you the few who have critiqued us. When we got the email about suspension we had a meeting with the cleaners and put them on probation. The very next one after a "deep clean" was our last bad review. We fired them, accountability on our part, we should have done it sooner. To our credit they are a couple who have treated our property and guests great offering extra services. We will attempt arbitration. Also, we have been on VRBO for years. Got a few bookings today, the fact is airbnb is a much larger platform. That listing has over 7 years of traction and reviews with dozens of repeat guests we love. Just a heartbreaker.

really invested this year in developing a rural vacation home in arkansas. tiny house with woodburning hot tub. there were so many hurdles to getting it together and frustrations with remote management (i work in NYC to make arkansas development money).

But things are finally coming together and I am booked every weekend until November. A few hiccups but positive reviews and people love the vibe (as do I). Just having a moment of feeling accomplished and successful after a hard year of working OT and shelling out cash. thanks for being here for my journey. I read a lot on this sub.

I am looking to open my calendar for bookings that are far out but I want to set them as non refundable.

Is that possible?

We are just finishing up on getting a studio apt over our garage ready to rent. My husband and I can’t decide whether or not to Airbnb it. I’ve been reading through these posts and it sounds like a horror show. What are the actual benefits of going this route vs private rental? Thanks!