All Forum Posts by: James R.

Hello Everyone,

I'm looking into purchasing a remote noise monitoring device.

Any suggestions?  

Thanks in advance. 

Hi Christina.  Thank you for your question and for your compliment.  Our Frequent Users of Airbnb or VRBO discount was launched one year ago and because Airbnb is heavily based on reviews of both guests and hosts, we set the bar higher.  VRBO does not really rely on reviews of guests.  Most users of VRBO have one single 5-star review, thus our threshold is lower.  Most - 90% of VRBO requests, do not get the discount, but to be fair, we offer the discount on both platforms.

Believe it or not, we get requests from Airbnb users with upwards of 40+ 5-star reviews.  They like the fact that we reward frequent users of the platform. 

In our market (New Orleans) cemetery tours are very popular.  Our rental is near a very famous one, so we added a free cemetery tour to our listing, if a guest books one month in advance.  This has actually increased our bookings.  Guests love the tour.  Yours-truly gets to conduct it and we always get rave reviews about it.  

We also look for guests with previous 5-star reviews, of course.  We offer a discount to frequent uses of Airbnb (15+ 5-star reviews) and VRBO (5+ 5-star reviews).  Almost 60% percent of our bookings are with guests with 15+ previous 5-star reviews on Airbnb.  

In a highly competitive tourist market like New Orleans, I update my photos weekly.  The competition is fierce, so simply rearranging photos, swapping some in and out tells the algorithm that you're an "active" host and you'll be more visible on the platforms.  This is not only my experience, but when you call VRBO or Airbnb customer service, they will tell you the same thing.  

UPDATE:  After 4 days of back and forth with Airbnb CS, they finally decided to do the right thing and issue my payout for a reservation that a guest cancelled in the amount of $1,333.75.  They said that they were going to honor my cancellation policy.  

Really?  Like that was optional?  I guess so, unless the host digs their heels in and demands that Airbnb do the right thing.  

On another note, I had a lengthy conversation with VRBO last night while we both looked at one of my listings and came up some ways to improve it.  Rearrange photos, change payment from one to two payments, etc.  Easy things, but they trigger the algorithm.  Every time I call VRBO CS and ask for listing assistance, a booking follows in the next day or two. 

There is a difference between a repair cost and a total replacement cost.  They are not the same and should be treated differently.  A repair cost is a 100% reimbursement no brainer.  A replacement cost should factor in depreciation.

Airbnb knows exactly what they are doing when the scam hosts by not paying 100% for repair costs.  Every dollar that they short change a host for a repair is a dollar in their pocket. 

A sage person who responds often on this forum said, "Airbnb insurance is a profit center for them".  He knows what he is talking about and he is spot on.  

It's great to get other's feedback about Airbnb.  I don't know why our experience has been so lousy.  We've only made maybe 10 - 15 claims in 12 years.  

In 2022, we had guests with dogs that scratched the floors (repeated scratching of the floor that they do, when they want to go outside) in front of the patio doors.  The guests stayed for a month and did not monitor this activity.  When they left, they said that the floors were already like that.  This is a million dollar property.  I sent pictures of the floor before and after.  The guests refused to pay.  Airbnb took over a month to provide reimbursement of a receipt for $500.  Airbnb reimbursed $495.00 (?)  Why not the remaining $5.00?  Just weird.  Other cases have been similar where Airbnb does not payout the amount of the receipt.  

Our rating across all properties is 4.5 too.  We really do everything for our guests.  

I've been a "Superhost", whatever that means for 12 years on Airbnb.  

I've been meeting all of my goals by being very active with my listings.  I guess that you could call me a 'professional host'.  

The "Set it and forget it" mentality, I think, will limit your listing big time.

I do all of the pricing across multiple listings.  I change or rearrange photos weekly.  I listen to all of the Webinars that Airbnb invites me to.  Airbnb claims that setting up a "photo tour" on your listing will increase bookings by 6 percent, for example.  

The algorithm has a setting that when you change anything on your listing, you move up higher in the ranking.  So, get busy on your listings.  Pictures are great, but don't make them unrealistic or you will get "listing was not accurate" in your review.

I was 50/50 Airbnb/VRBO, then Airbnb inquiries came like wildfire, like Airbnb knew that I was engaging with VRBO.  I took the Airbnb bookings and now I'm around 80/20 Airbnb/VRBO.

Based on a recent bad experience that I had with Airbnb (it's a separate thread out here), I called VRBO and asked them how I can get more booking requests from VRBO.  They could not be more excited to help. 

Even calling Airbnb or VRBO CS and telling them that you just looked for your listing and could not find it, will boost your algorithm ranking somehow.  How do I know?  I don't know exactly for sure, but after I call Airbnb CS and have them search for my listing, I get a booking request in the next day or two.  So, it's just my supposition.  

I work from home and my hours are very flexible, so I can do all these "busy" activities on my listings.  They yield results, but I understand a lot of other people have jobs where they cannot spend so much time on their listings.  Long-winded post, but I hope that this helps others.  

Has anyone else submitted receipts to Airbnb for damages, let's say for $200 and they come back and say that they approved reimbursement for $150?  That's bs.  If the receipt says what it cost to do the repairs, that amount should be reimbursed.  

On another note, we recently had an epic snowstorm in New Orleans, where we own a property.   Our guests' flights were cancelled.  Airbnb cancelled the reservation the day before our guests' arrival, after we explicitly told them that we would not budge on our STRICT cancellation policy. 

To my knowledge, guests also have trip insurance.  Airbnb is supposed to take the hit, in the case of a natural disaster or storm etc.  The booking payout was for $1495.00.  After SIX phone calls (because you always have to speak with someone different each time) Airbnb CS sent an email saying that they "are only able to reimburse us $900.00"  WTH?  

I know that Airbnb keeps getting greedier and greedier, but this is in violation of our cancellation policy.  

Has anyone else experienced this kind of mistreatment?  If so, does anyone know of a lawyer, who can sort this out with a quick phone call to Airbnb?  

One of the easiest things that you can do to "talk" to the algorithm is search your property and heart it.  Tell everyone you know, (make it easy and text them the link to your property) to heart it.  This tells the algorithm that people are interested in booking your property, even if they don't book it.  Also, tell them to scroll through ALL of the photos to the end and leave the page open for 15 minutes.  The algorithm measures interest by these activities and pushes your listing higher to the top.

Also, go into the Airbnb page Insights, Performance, Views to track your page views.  When you see an uptick in views, you are very close to getting your first booking.  If you don't get a booking (views go up and down everyday) lower your nightly price a bit more.  For example, people look to book about one month out, so for January you might not get any bookings.  Focus your nightly pricing on February and continue to work your pricing one month out.  Also, under Insights you can see your conversion rate.