Unless it’s covered in your insurance.
Using Airbnb is not covered by most insurance companies, and they will drop you if they find out you are doing it, so lawsuits are a huge risk.
This is why it’s important for hosts to have legitimate STR insurance.
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The best thing is to ask your insurance company, not hide the fact that you’re renting via Airbnb. When I worked in finance, I had clients who had claims denied because of circumstances that had they known they would have cancelled coverage. I was surprised that my insurance company, Safeco, said that it was fine that I’m renting via Airbnb. This is the same company that threatened to cancel my policy because one of my dogs is a pit bull mix.
Try this company - it was not as expensive as I feared. However, I know your situation is different since you have a farm as well. I have enjoyed my experience with these people.
Cami Dennis
ISU –TRC Insurance
(425) 366-8244 direct phone & fax
(877) 637-1858 x103 toll free
Hi @MissTowa,
Still nothing much going on here. But I got two last minute bookings in October, both from French people. The second is here now. Otherwise my October calendar would have looked really empty. I’d really prefer not to operate in just-in-time mode, but there it is.
I suspect this has as much to do with placement in search as anything, as I have said elsewhere. People can’t book what they can’t see. Check to see what your placement is. @jaquo has also suggested advertising on social media, and listing on other sites is definitely worth doing. I haven’t really done either of these yet, but plan to.
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Great news to hear you got some bookings come in! I called a number I found somewhere on this forum and got to speak to a real human and she told me it is seasonal and nothing to do with my profile. I should have asked her where I rank in terms of placement.
Social Media: This is my day job so I have a geo-targeted ad to run on Facebook and Instagram that has had well over 124,106 impressions in a week and it has increased the number of clicks on my listing; it has not lead to any new bookings sadly.
Instagram ad: https://www.instagram.com/p/BLW5FTAD9c6/
Hi @MissTowa,
Sorry to hear that the social media this isn’t making any magic happen. Maybe give it some time? How expensive are these ads?
I see the top host in Toronto has two reportedly cute cats. And indifferent photos. Maybe cats are the secret? Though, as everyone knows, cute cats make everything better.
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The total budget is only $30 so I’m spending about $5 a day to get a lot of people SEEING the listing on both Facebook and Instagram. I am going to do it again next week to see if time is the key ingredient.
Cats huh? We welcome dogs and that was a huge hit in the first year. books photo shoot with puppies
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I think the idea would be to have ones own pets. I admit to some bias, since I consider myself a cat person, though I’ve never had the pleasure of close acquaintance with one. I did have a cute little toy poodle for some years when growing up. But I’m now allergic to both cats and dogs, so pets are now only a theoretical possibility.
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The guests love our 11 year old Bichon-Poodle mix dog. Old and young alike, they all end up giving him a lot of free attention and he just adores it!
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Thank goodness your guests aren’t charging you for paying attention to your dog! 
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The things is, Faheem, that you can’t simply add your listing to social media and expect it to get attention. When you think about it, I imagine that 75% of hosts are regularly bunging their listings up on Facebook - and boring their ‘friends’ with it. (And social media is so much more than Facebook 
)
No, what you have to do is get an article about your listing in a travel or lifestyle online magazine. Then it’s not you promoting your listing, it’s more a case of ‘look what a travel magazine wrote about my place’.
I’ve mentioned before that when I have gaps to fill, I promote one of my articles and this doesn’t seem like blatant self-promotion. And if the article is by a third party, it implies that the third party has been your guest and is speaking from experience. Another idea is an article such as ‘Top 5 Things to Do in Mumbai’ or similar which seems to be non-promotional and informative - but has your listing details in the article.
You have to think your way around the problem 
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Hi @jaquo,
Thanks for the clarifications. I’d have a hard time writing an article called ‘Top 5 Things to Do in Mumbai’. Now, ‘Top 5 Reasons to Leave Mumbai’, that would be a doddle.
But if I can think of anything interesting to say about my home, I’ll try to write a short blurb about it. Ironically, there’s probably quite a lot of interesting things about it, but things like history and records aren’t exactly my families strong suit.
You really should be teaching a course on this stuff. I’d take it.
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Don’t worry Faheem, just looking at my to-do list here, there’s an item called ‘write about Faheem’s place’.
You crack me up @faheem. I dare you to take on this assignment: Walk the 1 mile to your visitor center, and ask the nice people what the top 5 things are to do in your area. Then bring back all the brochures you can get your hands on…lol.
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OMG. Actual walking? (Shudders.)
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Faheem, what @cabinhost suggests is a very good idea though with one caveat. From your description of the area outside the walls of your compound, I would be concerned whether walking to or back from the visitor center would be safe for you.
Perhaps you could take one of those jitney cabs that I see in Indian movies.
I just saw a wonderful non-Bollywood (yesss!) movie, “Amal” featuring those mini-vehicles. Very efficient through traffic.
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I know…that’s why I called it a “challenge.” - lol. Maybe we should create the Airhosts’ 30 day challenge for all of us. 
It might take me 30 days to figure out how to insert a king duvet by myself with no help! - burrito method style
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This is a site where you can run a report for free. The developer of the site, Pierre @smartbnb.io, posts here on occasion and is quite helpful I’ve checked out the free report so I can assure you it’s not a malware link or something insidious.
See this post and the thread it is in for more information.
Worried about the lack of inquiries/reservations - #41 by smartbnb.io - Airbnb hosts forum
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