AirBnB Owners - How's Business?

[Anonymous]

There are some super overpriced places on the eastern shore. Now that people can fly and aren’t working from home as much or going to school virtually those prices are going to need to come down.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had a place in Shenandoah County since 2009. I don’t rent it out. During COVID every house on the market in my area (some that had been on the market forever and were complete dumps) were bought and turned into Airbnb’s. The short term rental market in that area is oversaturated. Now that the world has reopened I’ve noticed the ones near my place are empty more than not. OP you should check Airbnb and VRBO for your competition. Last time I checked my area there were over 100 rentals available. Not enough demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been an Airbnb user for 6-7 years. I used to use it monthly, now I’ve used it twice in the past 12 months - once for a new place I’ll never stay at again, and once for my old faithful beach condo with a great owner. I’ve been full-time remote for 8 years, so the Covid/WFH situation did not influence me. Here’s my complaints and why I’m back in hotels:

1. Cleaning lists. I pay you a cleaning fee, don’t ask me to sweep, trash, laundry, etc.
2. Beds. These are not your personal homes/guest rooms anymore and it shows in the rickety bed frames and 8 inch foam mattress from Amazon.
3. Furniture in general. It’s not even ikea quality anymore, it’s the cheapest Walmart/Amazon college apt stuff now.
4. Check in/check out is inconvenient. Not that hotel hours are perfect, but at least I can drop my bag and get my bearings for the afternoon.
5. Stocking of the room/unit. Do I need coffee? Coffee filters? What size? Toilet paper? Hand soap? I don’t want to do it.

Yes this! Let me know what's provided. Don't say "well stocked". TELL ME what's there and what I need to bring.

[Anonymous]

The tables have turned, you can rent a nice hotel that someone will clean and not be crushed with rules and fees.

Also, some of the places are way overpriced and when you get there, you can tell the owner hasn't been there to take inventory of things like kitchen items, towels etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The tables have turned, you can rent a nice hotel that someone will clean and not be crushed with rules and fees.

Also, some of the places are way overpriced and when you get there, you can tell the owner hasn't been there to take inventory of things like kitchen items, towels etc.

Yes, and it's not fun to start the vacation by contacting the owner to tell them everything that is broken or missing in their house, or discovering some defect on day 5 and feeling you'll be on the hook for something you didn't even do. I don't like that many places don't have enough smoke detectors or carbon monoxide monitors, so I have to bring them myself. Remote places tend to have satellite wifi connections, and the last couple of places, that has been terrible and the tv, netflix and internet doesn't work many hours of the day. I also dislike when kitchens are stocked with old flaking teflon pans and chipped plates and dull knives.

I've been living next to a house being run as a short term rental without the owner's permission. Tracking that listing, I've learned about fake host names, fake photos and fake reviews, so am now a doubting Thomas and would rather put my trust in Marriott or Hilton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I appreciate all the insight.

We have a $100 cleaning fee that includes sheets and towels, don't charge any other fees, don't have any creepy cameras that spy on our guests, have no requirements for check-out other than guests taking out the kitchen and bathroom trash, and include all linens plus the basics like coffee, soap, shampoo, etc.

But it sounds like overall a lot of people have been turned off of AirBnB generally, and that, plus the state of the economy, is probably hurting us. Oh well...time to lower prices and loosen up the cancellation policy.

If your pricing is comparable to nearby hotels then I don't want to pay an additional $100 cleaning fee on top of Airbnb's other high fees. I also don't want to be responsible for taking the trash out on vacation and would expect things like linens, coffee, soap, and shampoo to be included in even the most basic of lodging. For what it's worth, I'm another former avid Airbnb user who is burned out after bad experiences with crazy lists of rules, increasing fees, and being unable to check in on time. I'm also a solo traveler who just sleeps in the accommodations and is very clean so would be most airbnb owners ideal guest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The tables have turned, you can rent a nice hotel that someone will clean and not be crushed with rules and fees.

Also, some of the places are way overpriced and when you get there, you can tell the owner hasn't been there to take inventory of things like kitchen items, towels etc.

THIS. This sums it up. AirBnb used to be a great alternative to hotels- cheaper, more convenient, etc. Now the "benefits" (bigger space, lower price, etc.) just aren't worth the hassle of not knowing what you're getting, having to pay exorbitant fees, scams, lack of cleaning, crappy furniture or unclean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a little burnt out of AirBnBs to be honest. We have stayed in some lovely places, that weren’t cheap, only to arrive and have a binder waiting for us with dos and don’ts and a mile long checkout list that must be followed explicitly.

I appreciate information on the area or tips for things in the house. What gets me is tiny things that are required to be done. Or not having extra toilet paper, beyond a roll or paper towels. I feel like some owners were so booked they didn’t need to up their game to entice visitors.

This is us too. We were die hard AirBnBers especially with having 4 kids (hotel rooms are dicey) but we’ve gotten burned lately. Reviews either aren’t honest or anything less than 100% glowing is being suppressed.

[Anonymous]

I’m looking at hotels for my upcoming vacations. I know the cost per night up front and it always includes cleaning.

[Anonymous]

For me, as a long-time Air BNB user, the main thing that happened during the pandemic is that lots of properties that were previously great got used HARD for 2+ years. And that hard use shows in two ways.

1) Some places are now really run-down - crappy/broken furniture, broken appliances, stains, etc.

2) Other places have implemented way over the top rules (don't steal the spices, etc) to try to keep (terrible) renters under control or at bay.

It makes the whole thing less appealing even though, all else equal, I much prefer the accommodations of an AirBNB cabin/cottage to a hotel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We own a house that we rent through AirBnB and through the resort where the house is located. There is a cleaning fee and the only thing we ask or the HOA asks is that the trash is put out and that the beds are stripped. Is that too much cleaning? We've only owned the place a year and we were booked all summer and we have a fair amount of reservations for the fall/winter. The place is only 3 hours away so we use it a few times during the winter and a bit in the summer too.

For us it depends on the type of trip we are taking. For our ski trips, we prefer a place with a kitchen. There is no need to go out for breakfast every day. We usually do ski in/out so we even go back for lunch some days. When we travel to a city we usually prefer a hotel. When we are doing a family vacation, we do an AirBnB for the convenience with the munchkin.

Honestly, if there's a cleaning fee that's more than, say, $20, then I wouldn't expect to be required to do anything prior to checkout. Why should I strip the beds and put out the trash when I'm also paying for someone to do that?

[Anonymous]

I had an AirBnB host cancel on me the night I was going to check when I was traveling in Europe with my kids over Easter weekend. Everything in the city was booked and AirBnB customer service was USELESS in helping us find alternate accommodations (if you search back in this forum, you will find my post about it). That experience has made me very wary of every using AirBnB again.

[Anonymous]

To the OP, I think one problem for you is that you are in an industry where there are some problematic players. It's like being an honest used car dealer when customers may have been burnt buying used cars in the past.

[Anonymous]

Extra fees are ridiculous and the cleaning requirements are a job in itself. I’m on vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I own two AirBnB's, one in the Shenandoah and one on the Eastern Shore. For most of the last 18 months, I have had guests non-stop, even through the dead of winter. But all of a sudden, it's crickets. I've got only about one third of my November dates full, and search traffic for my places is way down.

I'm trying to figure out what is going on - have people stopped traveling? Is less work-from-home affecting business? Did AirBnB change an algorithm somewhere? Have people stopped using AirBnB and moved to another platform? Or are my places suddenly not that interesting?

Do you live near either of these? Who comes by to fix things if the renter has a problem with plumbing etc if you can't be two places at once?