The Six Core Qualities Your Airbnb Turnover Assistant Must Have (Plus, An Announcement!)

Whether you work in the corporate world or you have a freelance/entrepreneur lifestyle, you’re probably familiar with having or hiring assistants (personal, virtual or otherwise).

Finding help in the form of assistants is one of the most efficient ways to maximize your business by helping you focus on what’s most important: growing your business.

Your assistants help you expand your reach by letting you do what you do best, while they receive a proper wage to help you do the tasks that take your time away from what you want to be focusing on.

In the world of vacation rentals and Airbnb, the equivalent to this much-needed form of help is finding an awesome turnover assistant!

Your success, freedom and profitability through Airbnb is directly affected by the quality of work your turnover assistant does.

I’m going to bold and repeat that:

Your success, freedom and profitability through Airbnb is directly affected by the quality of work your turnover assistant does.

If you’re ready to uplevel your hosting by hiring an awesome turnover assistant, you’re in luck! Because…

Drumroll please…

I’m writing an eBook that will show you the full-spectrum ins and outs of finding, training, hiring, managing and keeping your turnover assistant—with bonus tips on taxes, how to do a space clearing, and how to find additional assistance beyond your first assistant!

 

The first 25 people to pre-order it below will receive it for $8.99 (the lowest price it will be available)! (Update Sept. 30: Pre-order copies are now sold out.)

book button 1 secure copy

Who This Book Is For

♥ If you want to Airbnb your apartment while you have the freedom to travel or work/play from wherever you want, this book is definitely for you.

♦ If you want to Airbnb more than one property (and don’t want to spend your time driving back and forth between the two of them with cleaning supplies and spare sheet sets in your car) you most certainly need this book!

♣ If you want your guests to have reverence for your place while having a blast in your city, but don’t want your freedom to be compromised, this book is totally for you!

♠ If you want to travel for more than 3 days at a time while having the ability to host more than 1 set of guests, this book is so for you!

Who This Book is Not For

× If you don’t want to make more money through Airbnb and don’t ever desire to travel for longer than 2-3 days while making more money while you’re gone—and/or you don’t mind being fully responsible for the cleaning, presentation, laundry, chores, replacements, etc… perhaps this book isn’t for you.

≠ Also, if you’re using Airbnb from the soulless perspective of having 40+ properties that you neither care about nor maintain, this book (and this site) is definitely not for you. ;)

All right! Let’s get to the six qualities your awesome, rockstar Airbnb turnover person will have!

Here is one of the most important things to remember: You are not looking for a cleaner.

I repeat: You are not looking for a cleaner. You are also not just looking for a “stager,” or someone who stages spaces by putting everything back exactly where it belongs for presentation.

You want someone who can do a great job cleaning and staging, and you want someone who is going to create an experience for your guests.

We want someone flexible, reliable, responsive, honest, detail-oriented and communicative. You might also want them to be outgoing or friendly or into animals, but these are the six core qualities we want our turnover person to have.

If they lack even one of these qualities, they could cost us thousands of dollars and days of wasted time and energy!

1) Not flexible? They won’t have the free schedule necessary to do turnovers at varying times. Though 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. will be our ideal window, we’ll want to allow for guests to check-in early, and we want a cleaner who will let guests drop their bags early without having a fit.

2) Not reliable? They might not show up to do a turnover for a guest, in which case… BOOM explosions.

3) Not responsive? They won’t be there to respond when we get a last-minute request, costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars. When a guest has a problem (perhaps a light bulb has gone out, or they’ve run out of toilet paper), if your cleaner is your go-to person to fix things, he needs to be able to respond promptly.

4) Not honest? This one’s a no-brainer. When someone breaks something or if something goes missing, you want to trust that it definitely wasn’t your assistant. You also want your assistant to be able to tell you when she/he was late, or how many extra hours they had to work, etc.

5) Not detail-oriented? They’ll miss the arrangement of flowers that’s been misplaced awkwardly on a bookshelf, or not dust hard-to-see areas (that guests ALWAYS find).

6) Not communicative? Different from responsive, being non-communicative may mean that she doesn’t mention that she found glass on the floor, or a peculiar smell thinking it would go away by the time the guest arrived (and it doesn’t), or doesn’t clarify if she’s unsure if she’s supposed to replace the paper towels or not.

This post barely scratches the surface—and honestly, I’m so excited with how much there is to share with you!

The book will be filled with hundreds of valuable tips for finding, keeping and managing your awesome turnover assistant.

Will you be one of the first 25 people to learn these techniques to quadruple your Airbnb income?

book button 2 buy book

Our pre-orderers will receive the book on Oct. 2. All orders after Sept. 30 will receive the book on Oct. 5.

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

Quick Time-Saving Airbnb Tip: The “Saved Messages” Feature

Often, Airbnb hosts have to type the same messages over and over again. As an Abundant Host, of course, you personalize each one… but there are some sentences we just can’t help but repeat.

Airbnb has a solution for this (in the phone app, at least), that not many people know about! Here, I’ll tell you how to use it and save yourself tons of time re-typing the same things (and you can even stop opening a different app like Notes or Evernote where you might already be copying and pasting your oft-sent messages).

Here’s how to do it:

When you’re responding to a message in the Airbnb phone app (where “Write message…” appears in grey), you’ll notice a little conversation bubble with a “+” sign in the middle. This is how you’ll insert saved messages, once you have them.

To start, the next time you get a request, write out a common first message you send often. When you’re all done, before you hit “Send,” tap and hold down the message box.

After the normal options (Copy, Select, Select All, Paste…), you’ll see a “Save” option at the very end. Tap that, and you’ll notice that little conversation bubble with a “+” sign is now usable!

The next time you want to insert this message, tap it.

This is what it will look like when you’ve saved multiple messages (minus my blatant branding ;)):

quick time saving airbnb saved message tip

Scroll through and select which one you want, and voila! You’re done.

The even cooler part? Airbnb is smart enough to know you’ll be sending your saved message to a different name—so it will change the name for you if you’ve written it in a context it understands (after “Hi [NAME]!” for example, where [NAME] is the name of the guest in the message you originally saved). So neat!

(For more quick and clean tips, sign up for The Abundant Host newsletter!)

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

Personal Items: Hide Them or Show Them Off? (The New Host’s Dilemma)

airbnb new hosts personal items hide them show them off

When people hear how much I make hosting on Airbnb (this August, for example, I’m making $4,500 in 21 days, in a place I get to live in by myself for a week and travel the world for the other three weeks) they often want to become hosts.

And if they’re in a similar situation as me—living in a one-bedroom and wanting to rent it when they travel—they often ask me:

“Where will I put all my personal stuff when my guests come? Shouldn’t I remove it all? No one wants to see that…”

The answer is so much no no no!

Many new hosts start off thinking their place needs to be sparse with no hint of personality. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

If your place is a bro’s football haven—do it up!

If your place is a sacred goddess cavern—light those candles for the photos, woman!

You’ll attract people like you—and since you’re an Abundant Host who reveres their place, isn’t that exactly what you want?

Leave bits of yourself around. Make sure your energy is in your place.

The biggest way I do this is my book collection, and I constantly get compliments on it. I have guests that delight in everything from my cheesy romance novels to my earmarked copy of the Bhagavad Gita. And it’s beautiful to know they’re having a fabulous time exploring them.

Of course, I’m not saying you should leave your dirty bathrobe around. And avoid the sense of clutter. But please, feel free to leave pictures of your family on the fridge, or put up New Yorker cartoons you find humorous over your desk.

Be you—this is the #1 biggest tip I can offer you to attract the kinds of guests you want staying in your place. You get back what you put out—so put out something curated, personal and lovely.

(Want more? This is one of my “Top 5 Most Common Host Mistakes,” which you can get for FREE here.)

Happy hosting!

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

Don’t Blindly Trust Airbnb’s Pricing Recommendations! Here’s What to Do Instead

As I was perusing my Airbnb pricing recommendations this morning, I noticed that for the weekend of Aug. 14 – 16, 2015 in my city, Airbnb suggested I bump my $282/night price all the way down to $140.

 

airbnb pricing recommendations

Ok, I thought, maybe I’ll have to lower it…

But wait.

I had just gotten a request at the $282 price and declined it because I wasn’t sure my cleaner could come.

Why was I getting requests for $282 per night if it was more than double what Airbnb recommended?

I had a feeling that their estimation wasn’t right, so I did a little research to verify my intuition.

Here’s what I did (and what you can do in a matter of minutes!):

  1. Open an Incognito window in Chrome.
  2. Go to Airbnb and search your city for the dates in question.
  3. Voila! Your very own real-life research is right before your eyes.
As for me, in a city with more than 1,000 Airbnb rentals, only 4 were available with the “entire home” designation.

Four!

I’d done this kind of incognito research before Airbnb released its pricing recommendation feature to figure out what to charge, but I’d never seen this happen!

So, as I recommend in my “Don’t Block Your Calendar Even When You Think You Should” post, I raised the price to $335/night to make it so that likely no one would request.

But of course they did, I accepted, and I decided to do the turnover myself because it was completely worth it. :)

With this calculation, Airbnb’s recommendation would have cost me a total of $390.

My advice? Definitely take a look at Airbnb’s pricing recommendations—then listen to your own feelings and do your own intelligent research.

Bottom line: Your intuition + research + knowledge of your city is much more useful to you than Airbnb’s pricing recommendations.

Quick Word of Caution: You can definitely lose Value points when you charge more during events and high-traffic weekends. Make sure you treat your guests to flowers, special treats and other extra amenities when they’re paying a higher price to stay in your place!

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

The 5 Most Valuable Websites and Resources for Airbnb Hosts

The 5 Most Valuable Websites and Resources for Airbnb Hosts

Airbnb is now closing in on a valuation of $20 billion. Founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb lets users rent out anything from bedrooms to houses to igloos to airplanes, and it operates in 34,000 cities in 190 countries.

And yet, the information market for helping Airbnb hosts is relatively slim.

There are only a handful of forums (often thinly populated) and websites (often thin on quality content) dedicated to showing people best practices for hosting that are heart-driven and focus on providing high-quality, intentional experiences.

Here, I’ve compiled a list of sites that meet five requirements:
  1. they showcase original writing and advice that can’t be found elsewhere
  2. they are inspirational, authentic or connection-based
  3. they offer incredible value in their free resources/posts (whether or not they also sell a product)
  4. they are sites dedicated exclusively to helping hosts, not one-off pieces on big websites
  5. they aren’t the blog of a paid tool or app intended merely to drive traffic toward the product

Of course, this isn’t all there is. The sharing economy is a huge market; Rachel Botsman, author of “What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption,” says the consumer peer-to-peer rental market alone is worth $26 billion. And websites like Airbnb are only growing and proliferating.

As such, there are a handful of other sites for hosts out there that boast lots of short posts and filler content. Do a quick search and I’m sure you can find these.

If you’re looking for quality advice, these five resources merit your coffee-shop browsing time and meticulous note-taking.

The Abundant Host

theabundanthost.com | @theabundanthost

If Elizabeth Gilbert started a blog about Airbnb hosting, The Abundant Host would be it. Written anonymously by a “creative, mindful, location-independent entrepreneur living an international lifestyle,” The Abundant Host offers actionable and heartfelt advice, including in-depth interviews with fellow bloggers and product-makers in the industry.

Rooted in the perspective that real human connection is what Airbnb is about, themes like attracting your ideal high-paying guests, putting personality into your listing to increase bookings, and simple strategies to get five-star reviews are her most common topics.

She offers one-on-one consulting help, but gives plenty of free, unique and thoughtful advice on her blog. She also participates in Fiverr, letting hosts ask her anything for $5.

(Note: If you haven’t realized what website you’re on, I must disclose that I’m bit biased toward this one. ;))

1 Chic Retreat

1chicretreat.com | @1chicretreat

Mercedes Brennan shows Airbnb hosts (and vacation rental owners) how to use interior design strategies to make their listings stand out from the crowd. She’s got exquisite taste, her blog is beautiful, and her content is hefty; she interviews people in the industry at length and writes powerful essays to help people increase their bookings.

Mercedes has a masters degree in Interior Architecture from UCLA/Cal Poly, where she focused on both residential and hospitality design. She offers interior design consulting as well as regular free tips and advice on her blog.

Get Paid for Your Pad

getpaidforyourpad.com | @getpaidforurpad

Jasper Ribbers and Huzefa Kapadia started their site in 2014. Where they really stand out is their free podcast, on which they interview everyone under the sun about Airbnb: superhosts, lawyers and founders of companies and tools (often paid) that help hosts fine-tune their experience.

Jasper also travels full-time while managing online businesses, and is better known in the blogging community as The Traveling Dutchman.

You can read the first chapter of their book “Get Paid for Your Pad” for free, and their blog is full of tips on hosting as well as showcasing interesting and unique listings all over the world.

Vacation Rental Marketing Blog

vacationrentalmarketingblog.com | @bookmorenights

Matt Landau is a vacation rental expert. While he doesn’t focus exclusively on Airbnb, his information to help vacation rental owners is solid, proven and well-researched.

As a writer and online marketer, Matt teaches owners and managers how to generate more bookings. He has offered vacation rentals in the historic district of Panama City for six years.

Matt offers a paid insider Vacation Rental community, but provides plenty of free tips on his blog. Particularly if you’re looking to start a website for your listing, his Makeover Session series is for you.

Letting People In

lettingpeoplein.com | @typeaseattle

Rochelle Short wrote this definitive narrative nonfiction book on Airbnb hosting with soul in July 2014.

After she started hosting on Airbnb after a terrible breakup, Airbnb gave her “a financial lifeline while her new freelance career got off the ground – and was the perfect distraction from her romantic woes.”

She forged a life for herself fluffing pillows and sharing stories with people from all corners of the world – and, as she puts it, “as the economy and her finances recovered, so did her heart.”

“Letting People In” is one of the only book-length tales of how Airbnb can shape a host’s life for the better and highlights Airbnb’s emphasis on community and making people feel at home anywhere.

If you’re a new host, I highly recommend curling up with this book and especially checking out the more recent, free writing on her blog.

Other links that don’t fit the above criteria but come straight from the horse’s mouth:

Airbnb’s Top 10 Hosting Tips: airbnb.com/support/article/926
Airbnb’s DIY Amenities Tips for Hosts: blog.airbnb.com/amenities-diy-hosting-tips
Airbnb’s customer support Twitter account: @airbnbhelp

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

Why Décor Matters in Your Airbnb: An Interview with Mercedes Brennan of 1 Chic Retreat

I’m so honored to bring you this exclusive interview with the wonderful Mercedes Brennan of 1 Chic Retreat. Mercedes helps vacation rental owners/hosts increase their bookings by using interior design strategies to make their home stand out from the crowd—plus, she’s a damn good writer, which we at The Abundant Host very much appreciate!

The Abundant Host: Mercedes, you help Airbnb hosts by acting as their vacation rental interior designer. What are the first things you look for when you enter a home to do an initial review?

Mercedes: As soon as I walk into a vacation rental for the first time, I look for an instant feeling of “welcome.” As soon as the door is opened, guests should be greeted with amenities that make them feel three things:

  1. Excited to be there
  2. Appreciated
  3. At ease in the home

I completely agree. How do you accomplish this?

First of all, presenting a hand-written message on either a greeting card or chalkboard, will make your guests feel instantly appreciated and excited to begin their stay with you, especially if you include their names. Providing gifts upon arrival is a great way to make your guests feel instantly appreciated. Flowers, for example, have been scientifically proven to boost serotonin levels (the feel good hormone) in people that receive them, so by all means take advantage of that and have a freshly arranged vase ready when they walk in the door. Other gourmet goodies, such as handmade cookies, local coffee, a bottle of wine, or a jar of artisanal honey will go a long way in earning goodwill.

A handsome manual, explaining all details of how the home works, should be placed in a prominent location, such as a shelf in the entrance. Knowing where the manual is will put guests at ease. They will know where to go if they need the Wifi password or instructions on how to use the laundry machine, etc. I personally favor a wall mounted organizer, with a special slot, for the manual, such as this one:

wallorganizer

As we’ve already discussed personally, I adore your blog, 1 Chic Retreat. I think it’s one of the few blogs out there that speaks with heart and soul on the subject of vacation rentals. How has your blog helped your business?

Thank you! That means a lot to me. I think of 1 Chic Retreat as my business instead of something that generates business. Sure, I do get clients from my subscriber tribe, but my main focus is to teach vacation rental owners how to use smart, inexpensive interior design strategies to book more people into their vacation rental, convert more folks into repeat guests, and get more 5-star reviews. All on their own. Design is teachable and I love empowering people to do it themselves.

Later this year, I plan to launch an online course giving owners a proven, step-by-step design formula for creating a vacation rental that guests wait in line to book—in precise detail. It will show them exactly what to do every step of the way, right down to how to create the most impactful first impression to furniture layout to how to make a bed—all without spending a fortune.

Awesome. Do you currently host on Airbnb? If so, what’s one of the most serendipitous experiences you’ve had hosting?

I don’t currently host on Airbnb because I no longer own a vacation rental. And—get this—I no longer own one because serendipitously, a guest liked our vacation rental so much that they made my husband and me an offer we couldn’t refuse and we sold it!

I loved owning a home stay and am currently looking for another one. If any of your lovely readers has one to sell, let me know!

I will! Ok, here’s a doozy: What’s one piece of advice you offer to clients that you yourself have trouble taking?

I always advise—always—that owners have sharp knives in their kitchens. Many guests rent home stays for the sole purpose of being able to cook and having good quality, well-maintained knives are awesome. I tell hosts to invest in a good steel and use it at least quarterly. Even better, hire a knife sharpener to come in and do the job on a regular schedule.

That being said, I made stroganoff tonight with the same dull chef knife I always do. I think I need to start thinking of myself as a guest, right?

Ha! :) Yes, I hate when a place I stay in doesn’t have sharp knives, or worse, has no knives at all—it really affects the experience. I recently wrote a piece about an Airbnb I stayed in that “had no soul.” Where do you think the line is between a place that is filled with personal belongings and a place that is so sparse it feels sterile? How can people dance gracefully along that line?

Good question and one that I encounter a lot. It seems that people either go one way or the other, and there’s not a lot of in-between. The important thing to remember is that guests typically want a tiny bit of “host” in every home stay, otherwise it starts to feel like a hotel. Furthermore, if owners leave a subtle footprint, guests tend to be more respectful of the home.

For example, one tasteful family photo—no posing, please—mounted on a wall along with meaningful artwork (no big box store art), describes the host to the guests. There is a very tiny bond formed; that bond is important for good reviews down the road, as well as repeat bookings. Adding character to a vacation rental, through books, artistic photos, sketches, interesting pottery, is a great way to make a home stay feel personal. Such arrangements emit a boutique feel to the home, which in turn makes the guest feel appreciated. Always remember your guests are seeking an experience, not just a bed to sleep in.

I agree 100%. Mercedes, what does it mean to you to be an Abundant Host?

To give is to receive. By that I mean, if you make your guests feel really special, giving them an experience they won’t forget, they will reward you with repeat bookings and gushing guest reviews.

What’s one small, quick actionable thing hosts could do right now to make their hosting experience better?

Put supremely soft, white sheets on the beds with two pillows for each guest. People prefer white sheets because they seem cleaner and crisper, more professional. And the softer the better. Invest in high thread count sheets. You’ll get paid back with abundant guest reviews.

Isn’t Mercedes lovely? I think she’s lovely. :) For more décor tips and strategies, head over to Mercedes’ blog at 1 Chic Retreat.

Have a comment for us? Tweet to us here: @TheAbundant Host + @1ChicRetreat

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

The Secret to Consistently Attracting Your Ideal Airbnb Guests

I know what stops people from hosting on Airbnb.

Your friends tell you that you can make bank. You can make more than your rent! You can travel more! You can afford more things! You can you can you can…

And yet, you don’t start hosting. Why?

Because there is a disconnect between the people paying you (and staying in your bed) and you.

How will you know who these people are? How will you know they won’t trash your place? Steal your stuff?

“Oh, Airbnb has a million dollar guarantee,” friends reply. “And I’ve never had any problems.”

Right, ok. But what if you don’t want to go through that legal hassle? What if you don’t want to find out if there will be problems? What if you don’t want someone doing XYZ in your house?

But, what if you were guaranteed to attract your ideal guest—someone just like you?

Someone who respects your space, who respects your privacy, who enjoys and takes pleasure in your surroundings. Someone you might even be friends with.

I’ve implemented the following strategies with a 100% success rate for over a year. Here are my best tips for attracting the kind of guests you want in your space.

Don’t make your space fit for everyone.

From starting a business to choosing where to go to eat, we do this all the time. We are finding our niche, we are finding our crew. We are attracting the people we want to be around by going where they are found, by representing who we are.

Why would we not do this for our Airbnb listings?

I make my listing a little Goddess sanctuary. I have sage, incense, candles, flowing things, spiritual art, etc. No frat boy is going to want to stay there. None ever has.

The people I get requests from fall under a few different categories, but they are always: my age or older, clean, intentional, exploratory, and generous—and many leave me thoughtful gifts they know I’d like (and they know what I like because of what’s in my description/house).

Be explicit with drawing boundaries in your listing.

I write in my listing that it is not fit for anyone under 21. Why?

I store a few bottles of quality liquor and wine in my cabinets and fridge, with a simple note on them not to drink them (see how to influence how your guests behave in your space). No one has ever touched it. But, I do not want to risk anyone under 21 drinking in my house, and I do not want to facilitate that.

Am I missing out on a market because of this? Maybe some Spring breakers? Sure, I am. But I believe that market gets replaced by the people that I want to stay at my place.

Design your place for you, not for your guest.

A friend of mine just got his first one-bedroom apartment and was planning on renting it out on Airbnb when he traveled. He was in the process of furnishing it, and said to me that he wanted to make sure he got things fit for his guests.

I told him that this cannot be the focus in the things he buys. He needed to buy things that he liked, that fit his personality—and then the guests that resonated with the same pieces would be drawn to his place.

There are some caveats to this of course. Don’t buy BDSM art pieces if you want your parents and their friends to come stay at your place (unless they’re into that, which hey, whatever floats your boat).

In general: buy pieces and furniture that resonate with you. Trust that your guests will come. The best part? When you come home from a long trip, you’ll be able to feel at home there.

Express your personality (and even quirks) in your listing description.

Write a little paragraph about how much you love your location, or include a few lines about how much you adore your patio and gardening on it in the summer.

If you’re an architect and have tons of architecture books, mention that. Someone similar will find this to make the difference between choosing a “blank canvas” place and your nurtured, personality-driven space.

In conclusion: Just be you.

I know some hosts will not agree with me on all of these points, especially hosts trying to own multiple impersonal properties and become billionaires off of Airbnb (but beware: large-scale operations are slowly being vetted out of Airbnb by authorities).

(I’ve written the exact formula in my own plug-and-play documents. Give me a call if you want more specific help on updating your listing to reflect you and attract more high-paying, awesome guests.)

And I can tell you this: Using these strategies, I’ve never felt a lack of guests. I’ve always been given exactly what I need in terms of income from Airbnb. And the experiences I’d had have not only been lucrative, but connected. And isn’t that what life is all about?

What do you want to represent to guests in your listing? What is the definition of your ideal guest? Do you need help putting your personality into your space? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet at me!

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

How to Welcome Yourself Home: The Traveling Host’s Guide

I came home last night after a long trip filled with sunshine, cracked heels, windy drives and cannolis. I saw spirit and shadow emerge in people at wine tastings. I danced at sunset on the beach. I stayed at Airbnbs that added vibrancy to my heart, and others that left me feeling pale and constricted.

And then, I came home.

I had four sets of Airbnb guests stay at my place while I was gone. When I come back from long trips, I often struggle with this feeling of emptiness; usually I stay in Airbnbs too, so I sometimes feel like I’m stepping into yet another one. I want to eliminate this as soon as possible.

It usually only takes a night or another day maximum. But, doing these things helps speed up the process of slowing down, and soaking in the loveliness of being home.

Sit down and read your guest log.

After entering my place and greeting it with a warm, “Hello, love,” I put all my stuff down, sit on the couch, and open up my Airbnb guest log.

For my log, I use a journal that my very first Airbnb guest gifted me, and in a Post-It note on the front I direct guests to feel free to read prior entries and sign it if they like.

Here’s an entry I found upon my return home:

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While you might think it would be more logical to quickly hide these “guest things” away if I’m wanting to ground in my home, looking at this log helps remind me why I do this.

It reminds me that I’m giving guests an experience they never would have had—and hopefully, it’s filled with plenty of wonder and magic.

Light a candle, incense or sage.

Scent is incredibly grounding and has long been used to bring people into certain states of mind, whether for meditation or to call forth a memory or state of awareness. I have a certain natural (and expensive!) candle that I hide away when my guests are here. It’s just for me. Its scent makes my home feel warm, nurturing, centering.

Note: Some people might think, even reading my blog, that you have to give your guests all of yourself to make them have a good experience. That isn’t the case. Everything is about balance.

Keeping some things sacred for you will only enhance your experience and your willingness to be open with clear energy for your guests—they will pick it up if you restrict everything with dozens of “NO this, NO that” rules, but this doesn’t mean you can’t politely tell them that certain shelves are private.

Light a grounding scent (or sage your place to clear the energy) and soak it up. You’re home now.

De-prep guest mode and start making things yours.

Place your guest’s sheets in the laundry (that is, if you don’t use a cleaner after your last guest). I prefer to do the last cleaning—I do this because I like to not be completely ignorant of how guests leave my place, even if it’s only the last in a set of four.

Put away your welcome guides, city guides and house info sheets (I hope you’ve got these! If not, I’d love to help you create them.)

Spread out the things that make your place yours. Replace the local city magazine with the books you’re reading, move your plants back to where you like them, their life-filled tresses swinging over your desk.

Go ahead and be you. It’s that energy that attracts ideal guests to your home in the first place.

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

Should You Make A Website for Your Listing?

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A strategy that some hosts use to attract more guests is to set up a simple website for their Airbnb listing, and often a Twitter account as well. I don’t myself have one (yet!), but I’ve heard that the results can be highly beneficial. If you’re considering going the extra mile, here’s my best advice.

The first thing I recommend—which will help you whether you’ve got a website or not—is creating a 2-3 word title and exact phrase that you always use to reference your wonderful listing (and you’ve learned why you should do that from my free guide, yes?).

For example, if you continually refer to your place as your “cozy Asheville abode,” you can go over to Bluehost, purchase the domain “cozyashevilleabode.com” and hosting, and easily set up a simple WordPress page.

What are the benefits of setting up a site for your listing?

  • It will gain you more traffic from people searching for a place to stay outside of Airbnb
  • It will give you more authority and placement in Google (my three word search alone, not even in quotation marks, lands me as the first result!)
  • You can take advantage of linking your personal “$25 off” Airbnb code on your site as well, thereby earning you $25 in travel credit each time on Airbnb (to see how I make this work, take a look at the righthand column on The Abundant Host home page).

Building a website might sound like a lot of work, and it can be—but it’s super simple with the hosting provider I use (and adore). If you decide to go with Bluehost, this link will get your hosting discounted down to $3.49/month. They’re what I use for all my sites, require no coding knowledge, and they have extremely responsive customer service. It’s also super easy to set up WordPress through them in a few clicks.

For a detailed description on exactly how to get your site up and running on WordPress through Bluehost, this is a great step-by-step article (with screenshots).

I talked to Jing and Wayana over at Bukit Vista, and they say their website helps aggregate their multiple listings. They also agree that it helps people searching on Google and social media find them.

“Our website acts like a business card on the Internet,” they told me. “It’s much easier to pass the website than our hosting account number.”

Matt Landau over at the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog writes:

A website is arguably the most critical component of an independent vacation rental’s marketing portfolio.

Matt and I have slightly different perspectives, but I agree that it definitely can’t hurt to have a website for your Airbnb listing (unless you post undesirable photos of your place, but that’s neither here nor there). :)

Then again, a ton of people don’t have websites for their listing and do just fine. Others have websites for the many things they do, and Airbnb is just one of them.

It’s up to you. You’ll have to invest a little bit of time into it, but once you get it up and running, you could see awesome results (and you’ll be able to track them even on Airbnb, as the Airbnb dashboard now shows you how many people view your listing per day).

I’d love to hear about it if you set up a site! Find me over on Twitter and let me know. Until then, happy hosting!

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!

Guest Perspective: Please, Put Some Soul Into Your Airbnb Listing

In addition to being a host, I travel often and am also frequently in the guest role. This post is part of my Guest Perspective Series. Enjoy the love, insight, snark, and fair warnings!

I’m currently staying in a beautifully designed, modern Airbnb in Florida. It’s inexpensive, sparse, and clean. So, why should I have any reason to not give it five stars?

As I channeled the following list of reasons down in a flurry, I asked my partner for help.

“Why don’t we love this place?” I asked.

“Well, I like it…” he replied. “It just… It has no soul.”

No soul.

What is the difference between a place that has soul and a place that does not? How can you touch it? You can’t. It has to be felt.

The best way I can describe it:

An Airbnb with soul exhibits a divine series of touches and accents that bring about the feeling that you are having a human connection, even though you’re not physically having one.

Here are five things that, totaled, equal a void for me.

1) The hosts strive for professional impersonality.

Every time I try to interact with them, they write extremely carefully and sign their messages, “XYZ Properties.” And yet, they are two humans. I wasn’t even certain of their names, even after 4 message exchanges, until I met one in person.

I understand that if you want to do things by the book and become a legitimate company that rents on Airbnb and pay hotel taxes, you must be extra careful in your communication. But please, still be a human.

2) Minor human touch flaws: not having enough plugs, putting air fresheners in the wall.

This, for me, is filed under: Not Knowing Your Audience. A large majority of people who Airbnb also work for themselves in some form, or at least telecommute. Many of those people work from laptops. Airbnb users are part of a society that has what people call “disposable income.” We have iPhones and iPads and laptops and Kindles and backup chargers for these things. If your space does not have enough plugs to handle this (at least 3 per person, please), then simply buy a power strip. Just one is fine.

As far as air freshener plugs in the wall: please do not use these. So many people dislike or are allergic to fake, chemical smells. You don’t need to go all organic everywhere (though I do in my apartment listing), but very few people like to come home to a fake vanilla smell. And it can be seriously lung irritating to some.

3) Major human touch flaws: missing home essentials (like toilet paper).

Our hosts told us we were welcome to use the washer and dryer. And yet, there is no detergent. While this may be expected in a campground or hostel, this is not acceptable in an Airbnb, in my book. Same goes for no shampoo, soap, toilet paper and paper towels.

We discovered on our fourth day there that there was only one roll of toilet paper, as well. I’m not sure how fast one is supposed to go through toilet paper, but I think if two guests are staying for five days, you should at least stock two rolls.

For me, this added up to a sense of scarcity—of resources and mindset—in the entire place. Scarcity is the opposite of abundance; suffice to say, I wasn’t too pleased.

On Airbnb, there is an amenities box you can check for assuring your guests that you provide essentials. In my opinion, one should not even be hosting on Airbnb if these aren’t provided.

4) The house guide is filled with “NO this, NO that,” and threatens the guest’s damage deposit.

The house rules for our Airbnb were literally longer than the description. After reading such a plethero of NOs “NO loud noises” and very specific rules, “Always set the thermostat to 77,” we were greeted with a note saying that if we violated any of these it would be taken out of our “damage deposit.”

Guests who do not host, I’m here to tell you: do not listen to this bullcrap. Hosts can’t actually take out money from your deposit for leaving a thermostat at 76 instead of 77. I am a host; I require a deposit. But you have to go through Airbnb to touch any of that money, so I’m not going to do it unless something is actually damaged. Hosts cannot simply make up their own rules and then say they’ll take it out of your deposit.

5) The place is purely a vacation rental: sparse and one-dimensional.

This is where some people will have a different opinion than me. But I think this is what makes Airbnb different—Airbnb strives to be a place that welcomes people to feel at home wherever they are. Someone can’t feel at home in a kitchen with one pan, or a shower with no shampoo. I can’t feel at home when I am clearly not in any semblance of a home.

This isn’t to say that if it’s not your physical home, that you shouldn’t list on Airbnb. Of course you can. But put some of you into the place. My biggest tip in this arena? Live there for a week. See what you need. See what bothers you (maybe the blinds are too thin and let too much light in at night). Then go get it for your guest, because chances are they’ll want it too.

Thanks for reading! Have a question that wasn't answered here? If you'd like more specific help, I'd love to work one-on-one with you. Or, if you want to work collaboratively in a group with fellow motivated hosts, find out if the next Abundant Hosting Mastermind group is open. I also wrote a book, Cleaning Up, where I give you the nuts and bolts (and so much more) of finding your perfect turnover assistant, thereby upleveling your profit and success on Airbnb. Have a beautiful day!