@Violetta49 Another odd thought came to mind; during the ‘best of times’ is also the best time to do try to make more money (offense), than just doing ok, before things do change. Saving in many ways is a defensive position. Perhaps as one improves one’s place, it also gives one new reason to be able to charge more. 
3 Likes
Fred, thank you! Our season starts in October and goes true April. Advises including yours on this board are priceless. I will post developments as I go.
@Violetta49, thank you. I built it myself, but I do web stuff for a living. Not a web designer, exactly, but I manage a large law firm intranet and I’ve strung a few HTML tags together before.
@cabinhost All civil service systems have a pay scale and no, you don’t ask for a raise. Same in the military, you get promoted a “grade.” For teachers it’s mostly based on years of service but some states have some kind of programs so you can get more, or bonuses based on certain things. Maybe it’s different in FL but US Federal jobs are very secure and so are TX teacher jobs. There will sometimes be cuts due to budget constraints but really they are pretty rare. The potential for higher pay is much better in the private sector but the job security is good in government.
1 Like
I work at the county level as a nurse…I make significantly less of a salary than I would in the private sector. Went in an interview last year after being contacted by a head hunter…salary would have increased by at the very least $15K, not including bonuses. Admittedly, I have acquired certifications that are in hot demand right now, and the demand will grow like crazy. However, 'government" type jobs usually offer some great benefits. For instance, if I can somehow stay at my job 20 more months, retire the day I turn 55, I get to take my health insurance with me. That will offer me so much freedom! I will still have to work full time, but I can be choosy and change jobs as I want to because I won’t be chasing health insurance. The pension I will start receiving will only be enough to support my health insurance and my mortgage, I’ll inly have 13 yrs of service credit at age 55. But my plan is to work FT at a job that pays me more than I currently make, so that pension can be put into a proper retirement fund. Although making it another 20 months sometimes seems impossible, work days are long, hours of charting off the clock and mandatory weekend rotations that give me only 6 days off each month. My job is secure for the time being, but many municipalities have closed their home cares nursing agencies, too difficult to find nurses willing to work for the reduced pay, not to mention the insurance reimbursements have significantly decreased, making less profit.
2 Likes
I think that is the problem with the whole AirBnB thing.
Renting part of your house is nothing new, in my region, people have been doing that since the start of tourism more than 100 years ago. But it was as an extra, and peoples lives did not depend on it.
Then you have the hotels and pensions owners, they do this as a living, and have all the licences and requirements for it. I am one of them. We know we have very short periods to make the money, and have to wait out the low periods.
Now there is the AirBnB bubble. People jump in blindly, and make themselves depended from a company like AirBnB.
There is nothing better than customers that depend on you, they will do anything to get their stuff. AirBnB knows this and keeps pushing hosts. Either by luring hosts into the quicksand of being a “superhost”, and or by forcing IB on others.
And then there is the newbie boost. A typical example. Make the new hosts taste the money. Once they are depended take away the boost, and they will jump trough burning hoops to get their next booking.
My advice:
- Do not rent out your place too cheap. You need to save up money for maintenance and slower times.
- Do not stick to AirBnB as your single channel. Use every place possible to list.
- Make yourself independent from channels, and try to get people trough direct bookings:
- Print business cards, and give them to your guests, tell them to book directly next time.
- Tell guests that if they have friends that want to come, to book directly with you.
- Make a very simple website. Stop advertising your AirBnB listing, start advertising your site.
- During peak season, block off AirBnB and get as much direct bookings as possible. People will find you, outside AirBnB.
There is no reason to keep going trough AirBnB, their host protection program is a joke. It is a pacifier for hosts, to keep them calm. If there is a real problem chances are slim they will do anything for you.
9 Likes
Excellent points and advice.
I’ve only had one claim ($10 pet fee) via the resolution center and they paid it. I’m sure the more costly the claim the more difficult to get it paid. I’ve also wondered if how many claims you have affects your payout, i.e., in 2 years I’ve had zero claims, it’s only $10 so they quickly click approve. I don’t have a vacation rental I have one night pit stops so I’m afraid I’ll have to stick with Airbnb. You may be right about it creating a bubble or it may have created a new thing. Without ABB, I never would have thought to put out a “Zimmer Frei” flag and get listed in a tour book. And many many people never would have thought of staying in a strangers home without it.
1 Like
Chris it’s a very good explanation, you obviously know the industry.
I started as little extra, but money was so good and my situation changed . I would have to get a job at that time in addition to our small business to get by. With Air I didn’t have to.
Now it’s back to normal but with room rentals feels so much more secure as I can save now.
I can not say I depend on that income and won’t survive but if I stop having it I will not be a happy camper.
I understood long ago that I can’t just rely on Airbnb. Though I am happy how this platform works. I got few of my guests through Craig’s list and they were excellent. I was renting through booking.com and Expedia and it was not good.
I just did my FB page.
Hi Chris,
Good post. We should all print it out and stick it on our monitors as a reminder.
Also, why should you work for nothing?
1 Like
I am not talking about the resolution centre.
I mean the host protection program. AirBnB claims to pay the cost when a guest trashes your place.
Unless you are able to get some exposure in the media, AirBnB will do nothing for you.
Yes, AirBnB is a good starting point.
But at some point you need to be able to stand on your own two feet, en get independent from AirBnB and others.
The good thing is that you get to set your own rules, and own policies.
A few weeks ago I had a guest that wanted to cancel due to a medical issue. He had made a down payment, and asked for his money back.
AirBnB would have given him your money back.
I told him that I could not give him back the down payment, but that we could move the booking to an other date. We found a possibility 4 weeks later. Guest still got his holliday, and I still got my money.
For me AirBnB is a good channel to get exposure and fill the gaps.
I get a lot of bookings outside the peak seasons, and in the gaps I have. But I am not giving my peak seasons to AirBnB, way too much risk.
6 Likes
Everyone here should have a security deposit in place!
2 Likes
Chris, I wish I read this a year ago.
Your advise is the BEST advise ever, and I only wish as I said I wish I read it last year, but it is never to late. I am printing a copy and it will stay as a reminder. THANK YOU!!!
3 Likes
Simple and great advice too!
Thank you!
1 Like
Great post! I would say that in my case, specially “Airbnb glitches” is the one that makes me think of what you said. The system is very unstable, full of bugs and lack of customer support that don’t know how to solve your problem. Some of the issues you might face could let you out of business. One of my latest issues (currently not solved) is that the system is substracting stars from the ones that people left in my reviews. So, for instance, suppose I have 100 5-stars reviews, the next one who leaves me a 5-stars review put that count into 99. This is crazy and I have shared many screenshots with customer support. The problem started at the end of April and no one gave me any solution yet
2 Likes
There is no reason to keep going trough AirBnB, their host protection program is a joke. It is a pacifier for hosts, to keep them calm. If there is a real problem chances are slim they will do anything for you.
@Chris I agree with every point you make. Many of my repeat Air guest now just book direct with me. I didn’t even seek them out. They simply texted me and asked and I said “Sure.” Same with some VRBO people, too.
I have updated my Green Cottage and I use (although not lately) a service called RightSignature.com which allows my guests to sign contracts digitally. If you have online banking with a service like QuickPay or PayPal you can bill online. Plus, there are inexpensive plug-ins to Google mail that can create email templates for you.
There really are other options besides Airbnb and I maintain what I said before which is I wouldn’t be surprised if AirBnB moves their business model away from the peer-to-peer rental business considering the lawsuits they face.
2 Likes
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve actually been working on making contracts and this should be very helpful.
2 Likes
I really love your cottage and website. Very inspiring – I will take a look at RightSig for my direct bookings, thanks!
1 Like
Oh, the glitches! I currently have one where I am trying to book a guest via special offer (this is his fourth time with me and he is staying 8 nights) and the special offer keeps changing the dates I enter. So, he can’t accept because the days are wrong. We are trying it, again, because I REALLY DON’T want to call Air’s CS.
Ugh, that stinks. Make sure he has your contact info and have him direct book with you next time so he still gets a discount but you get paid the difference in the fees Air makes!
2 Likes
I might even try that this time. I found that if you send your phone number in three different messages, along with random words, it goes through.
1 Like