All Forum Posts by: Carolyn Fuller

My ratings & reviews improved substantially when I went from providing quality chocolate & fresh flowers to providing croissant from a local bakery. Expenses went down and ratings / reviews went up.

I did the switch after staying in an Airbnb that provided both flowers and local bakery goodies. My husband & I really appreciated the bakery goods, not only because they were tasty but because they left the address for us so we could continue delighting in the offerings. We didn't even notice the amazing fresh flower arrangement for almost 24 hours!  

I immediately got home and created a laminated note about the unique local bakery, which bakes the best croissant I have ever tasted, including the croissant I had in Paris, just around the corner of the Airbnb listing. I leave the laminated note plus the croissant and no flowers.

Local goodies win out over anything else you can provide.

Yep. I have a 2-person unit with a glass top dining table and it has worked well.

I think this question is dependent upon location. I would do the work of manually looking through other listings in your area. You don't know for sure exactly what their occupancy rates are but you can certainly get a feel for it by seeing what future dates are open. Also, just compare your listing with the competitor listings. Are your prices a lot higher? If so, are your amenities worth the extra price? I'm constantly juggling the rates for my Airbnb listings based on what my competitors are charging. 

As for my MTR listing, I have 100% occupancy on it but I have a very easy target MTR market of visiting scholars. 

The unit is within blocks of Harvard University and a billion other universities are within a few miles. I advertise via Sabbatical Homes and Harvard Off-Campus Housing and insist my leases begin on Sep 1, Jan 1 or Jun 1 and end on Dec 31, May 31 or Aug 31. 

It is pretty easy to keep it fully occupied but it does mean I turn away a ton of people who want a lease that doesn't quite fit my requirements. 

Reliable, thorough housecleaning services can be challenging to find. Once I found a super reliable and thorough cleaning crew, I made sure I let them know I value their services. During the covid shutdown, I paid my cleaning crew 50% of what they would have been paid before the shutdown. When I have last minute cancellations, I still pay them. When I have last minute needs, they go out of their way to accommodate me.

Fascinating history. I remember the period when rentals on Cape Cod and the Islands were weekly Sat - Sat. At the time, we spent our vacations camping and hiking so we never actually booked a beach vacation home. By the time, we started renting beach vacation homes, the weekly Sat - Sat routine was no longer the norm. Towels, linens and paper goods were all supplied. 

I totally get how historical customs are slow to change and I can't imagine how difficult it was to find a cleaning crew with that kind of competition. 

There is only one vacation destination I have ever visited that typically did not supply everything a hotel would supply and that was near Chincoteague Island. 

I was stunned that none of the Airbnbs around Chincoteague Island supplied linens or towels. I would not have booked there but we really wanted to visit the island and I hate most hotels. I just checked and, at least some of the places near Chincoteague Island, are now supplying linens and making a big deal of it in their descriptions. 

Personally, I think you'd do a lot better supplying the linens, towels, toilet paper, paper towels... All the basic essentials. They are called essentials for a reason.

 Zelle, Venmo, apartments.com etc all require both parties to have US bank accounts. You can't use these apps for international transactions. PayPal is the only commonly used app in this country that handles transfers between countries and it is quite expensive.

I've chosen wise.com for my international exchanges. If you’d like more information on the best ways to send money internationally, check out this article:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/best-ways-to-wire-money-internationally

If your MTRs are near a university, you should also list on sabbaticalhomes.com

I use wise.com to send money internationally, much cheaper than PayPal...

 I don't. I wish I did. I no longer use either Facebook or Craigslist for advertising my units. I'm fortunate that my listings leased via apartments.com and SabbaticalHomes.com