All Forum Posts by: Scott K.

 I'd strongly caution you to ever say something like that through airbnbs messaging. They could find that message, ban you, and you'd never be able to make another account. Not worth the risk! 

I've been running strs in the Poconos area for 5 years now, one of the hottest markets in the US.

I no longer tell people it's easy money. I tell them it's a full time job, housing prices have doubled, and competition is so high that I've seen houses come onto the market 2 years ago, rent for 2 years, now they're trying to sell and ditch them. 

I used to make a good living without any real knowledge or effort. My houses looked like prison cells. I didn't have to hire an interior decorator or a professional photographer, I didn't have to make bedrooms look different from each other, I didn't need a hot tub, or pool table, or arcade machines. 

I see people struggling to enter the market now and I wish them the best, but they're facing people like me who have evolved dramatically and spent the last 5 years perfecting their craft. Unless they can quit their day job and devote themselves to it, it's not going to be pretty!

This new Airbnb AI party blocker is potentially costing me thousands of dollars. I've spoken to two groups now over the past few months who said they couldn't book my property because Airbnb rejected them when they're staying with children, grandparents, and extended family.

I have larger 6 bedroom homes. I'm being unfairly targeted by this dumb@ss system that simply says "oh too many people! Can't let you bother the neighbors" 

IVE called Airbnb support but they say they are powerless to step in and override it. 

I Have no clue what to tell these potential guests how to get around this block. They clearly aren't partying, I don't allow excessive guest counts, and I require guests to be over 25 years old. What else could I be doing? 

 Funny how people love to hate on new things and fear what they are ignorant of... My tesla is 5 years old and goes 270 miles on a charge. Every 30 mins on the highway there's a supercharger with a rest stop that in twenty minutes gives me another 140 miles of range if needed. 

I've begun installing chargers at my properties, costs about $1k. You can do things like buy a splitter to the dryer 14-50 plug and have them use that if nearby. Or just install the nema 14-50 plug outside and they'll bring their own charger adapter. I've had a few guests ask for it specifically, I wouldn't be surprised if Airbnb begins adding a filter for it in the future. 

Frankly it's like any luxury amenity in your str. If you have the money, and want to provide every imaginable feature to your guests, do it. I only run high end airbnbs so every little feature I can imagine I like to add to gain an advantage over my competitors. Should you install one over say a similarly priced amenity? Probably not. It's probably one of the least used amenities you could tack on. 

Doing better than we ever have in 3 years. Sold one of my airbnbs due to Township regulations, made 2x on the price after 3 years. My other 3 are booked out 2 months. Just bought a 4th. It really helped us when we redecorated all our properties and added hot tubs this year. 

At least in my area, Poconos of Pennsylvania, the competition is 4x what it was 3 years ago. Before I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't have to interior decorate, I didn't have to have my cleaning practices perfect, I didn't have to know how to deal with customers. I just put a house up for rent, and made a killing. Now I see tons of competitors selling their homes, or converting to Long term rentals, or lowering prices by 2x, 3x just to get people in a few days a week. It's a total nightmare unless you know what you're doing, and you've put in the work to be a better host. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it anymore to people. To put it simply, it used to be a part-time job, now it's a full-time job for the same amount of money.

This honestly seems like an awful way to be a host.

Your guest has problems so you say 'well here's the door buddy, if you leave, i'll refund you for the nights you don't stay, otherwise, shut up and deal with the problems and we wont pay you a dime'

I understand your perspective, because as a host you think 'oh well i dont owe him jack, if he leaves halfway through a stay, i dont even owe him a partial refund' which is TRUE, however, that is NOT how guests think.

Most guests think they are entitled to a refund if they leave early. I'm not defending their position, just saying I've encountered this a few times.

Your message should address this and be more tactful. This is what I would write:

"Hi *name*, I realize you're experiencing a sub-par experience with us, I've talked it over with my co-owner siblings and we've decided that in this case we want to make a special exception for you. We understand that you have been very frustrated by the issues you encountered. Since these issues are not typical of guests that stay with us, we wanted to offer you this: If you and your guests choose to leave later tonight (take all the time you need) we will refund you for the nights that you don't use on your booking. If you choose to stay with us in spite of the problems, please understand we cannot offer a refund as our cancellation policy does not allow us to. However we would be able to *INSERT FIX HERE (such as sending handyman, etc.)* in the morning. If we are unable to address all your concerns we would be able to offer you compensation of $XXX for the inconvenience. I wish there was more we could do, but as airbnb hosts our tools are limited in what we can offer guests who experience problems. It is clear our past guests damaged X, Y, Z and we apologize that we did not catch it in time to fix it for you. I will be discussing this with our cleaners once you leave so we can better handle future problems for guests and ensure this never happens again."

Writing more shows we care as hosts, it shows we put in effort and thought about this long and hard. Writing that we will prevent this in the future makes guests feel like they don't have to leave a bad review, because we've fixed the problem already. Giving them a few options gives the guests a feeling that they are in control and determine the outcome. Writing that we are limited by our cancellation policy puts the onus on the rules in place by our business, not our personal opinion so they won't argue with us. etc. etc.

Just my 2 cents on how I handle stuff.

It sounds like you didn't do your research or you would have forseen this coming (airbnb is extremely month to month, and december is known for high traffic since its a holiday month for many people)

I'd recommend you 1. do some actual research on your market, see which months do better than others so you have better expectations.
2. post your listing here so we can offer tailored, targeted advice
3. Lower your prices so you begin getting booked out.
4. Look at your competitors and see if they're A. simply better than you B. not booked either or C. cheaper than you.

Some tips I've learned over the years hosting 6+ bedroom properties with 5 hour turnovers.

You must have multiple sets of linens/towels. Preferably 3.

Gas dryers >>> electric dryers.

Highest capacity, newest washer/dryer you can get.

For my next project with 9 bedrooms I'm considering getting 2 washers, 2 dryers.

I can't say about your area, but in my area the HOAs who have banned STRs, their homes have increased by a normal amount these past 3 years, roughly 10%, maybe as high as 15%.

The HOAs who have 'not' banned STRs, have seen their values double in 3 years.

Double.