AirBnB Owners - How's Business?

[Anonymous]

What annoys me about many kitchens at vacation rentals is that the cupboards are stuffed full of grandma's cast off crockery and casserole dishes and there's nowhere to put my food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I live in Bethesda, so if it is a real emergency I can be in either place in three hours. But for the most part, i don't have to be there. If we have a plumbing problem, I call an emergency plumber and they come. If something spills on the carpet, I call the carpet cleaning company. Dishwasher breaks? I call the appliance repair company. For the most part, I can get things fixed within an afternoon - and the once or twice that something has happened, I have refunded guests for the day.

[Anonymous]

Summer 2020 and 2021 were our best ever. People wanted a "staycation" in our state because they couldn't really go anywhere and we're on a lake.
We're back to business as usual now - and very seasonal.
The last poster's comment about no place to put food - I needed to hear that. Thank you. I'll clean out more cupboards.

We actually stay in our VRBO - it's our lake home - and so we want nice beds and amenities. I think that's why we get repeat visitors OFF the platform. My wifi password is savebookdirect.
It's VRBO that added the fees. WE started paying a flat $499 a year and now they take that PLUS extra dumba$$ fees and whatever. I wasn't going to pay them so passed them on to guests. I think it's exorbitant. But, if someone wants to book my place, go for it. They do.

[Anonymous]

hotels are so gross, you wound't believe how old the stuff is and the substandard cleaning. A good airbnb and host is miles ahead and don't get me started on those local vacation rental places those are awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hotels are so gross, you wound't believe how old the stuff is and the substandard cleaning. A good airbnb and host is miles ahead and don't get me started on those local vacation rental places those are awful.

hotels are known quantities with (usually) transparent fees. this is what people want. they want to know that when they pay X amount, they will get what they paid for and if there is a problem there is some onsite they can address it with and get it resolved. and they go on on vacation to relax, not to have to then clean the place they have paid for. having a kitchen i can use isn't worth it to me.

[Anonymous]

I found a nice airbnb in Savannah that I liked. The cancellation policy was 30 days notice prior to checkin.

I ended up staying at luxury Perry Lane Hotel that had a 24 hour cancellation policy.

[Anonymous]

Here's what's happening - I have three ski trips booked for the next 4 months (Banff, Jackson Hole, SLC) outside the Mid-Atlantic region. I have a few hundred thousand airline miles and I'm finally using them (and only paying 20-25K miles per RT).

We booked a ski house in Maine using a very highly rated and local management company that seems to have a lock on their market. Nothing but universally high and exceptional reviews of this company, no separate line items for cleaning or management fees. It's all included in the bottom line price. Even better, this place is probably half the price of staying in Vermont for Xmas week.

So yeah, the market suddenly got A LOT more competitive. You're now competing with Europe, NYC, Hawaii, and the West Coast for travel dollars. Japan just re-opened. Hotels are doing lots of discount offers and have fully flexible booking policies.

Now add in a recessionary environment.

Time to loosen up your policies and lower prices. That's capitalism, baby.

[Anonymous]

So yeah, the market suddenly got A LOT more competitive.

in some areas. Not ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hotels are so gross, you wound't believe how old the stuff is and the substandard cleaning. A good airbnb and host is miles ahead and don't get me started on those local vacation rental places those are awful.

hotels are known quantities with (usually) transparent fees. this is what people want. they want to know that when they pay X amount, they will get what they paid for and if there is a problem there is some onsite they can address it with and get it resolved. and they go on on vacation to relax, not to have to then clean the place they have paid for. having a kitchen i can use isn't worth it to me.

unless its an all inclusive we wont touch a hotel, they aren't worth it

[Anonymous]

We are still going strong with guests. Fewer international guests though. Washington DC Airbnb owner.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I agree with many other posters. The magic of AirBnb seems gone and boy did I LOVE it towards to start. Our youngest kid is now 3 and she officially drops naps we'll stop doing Airbnb.

[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.

So here's the thing - if you're really asking. If you're charging me a cleaning fee, presumably someone is coming in and cleaning right? So why am I taking out the trash? Why am I stripping the beds, running the dishwasher, putting towels in the washer, etc.? I mean - I'm on vacation. It got to be too much. And then I'd go in and half the time they weren't ready for me on check in time, and the "cleaning" wasn't done and now I have to go around and spot clean to feel comfortable.

Not to mention the extra fees, and the cameras. Oh the cameras! So anytime I'm in a "common" (very loosely defined) area, you have a camera watching me and recording all my conversations. It's very weird and uncomfortable for me.

I used to use them all the time - they were cheaper and nicer and I liked the kitchen option. I've since started renting hotel rooms with a kitchenette. No more exorbitant fees and cheaper.

[Anonymous]

I saw something that like 50% of existing airbnb listings have come online *since 2020*. Seems like so many people have rushed into the short-term-rental business and that in turn has led to increasing expenses for renters and degrading hospitality quality. At this point I wouldn't stay in an airbnb in a city where hotels are plentiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So here's the thing - if you're really asking. If you're charging me a cleaning fee, presumably someone is coming in and cleaning right? So why am I taking out the trash? Why am I stripping the beds, running the dishwasher, putting towels in the washer, etc.? I mean - I'm on vacation. It got to be too much. And then I'd go in and half the time they weren't ready for me on check in time, and the "cleaning" wasn't done and now I have to go around and spot clean to feel comfortable.

Not to mention the extra fees, and the cameras. Oh the cameras! So anytime I'm in a "common" (very loosely defined) area, you have a camera watching me and recording all my conversations. It's very weird and uncomfortable for me.

I used to use them all the time - they were cheaper and nicer and I liked the kitchen option. I've since started renting hotel rooms with a kitchenette. No more exorbitant fees and cheaper.

I'm sorry but the cleaning companies set the prices and I can guarantee you our cleaners are much more thorough then any hotel one. We require you to leave used towels and beds out so they know which to replace. As for trash we never make guests take it out. Dishes we just say run the last load. We also never have issues w/ checkin/checkout since we've contracted a turnaround time. you might have gotten by bad airbnb hosts. Also the reviews really make sure that we do the best for our guests where as a hotel they don't do anything because you can't individually review them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

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