If you want to know how to become Airbnb host and start your hospitality business journey than I hope I could share some great experiences today.
Hi lovely people my name is Bima and I’m a wedding photographer that operate my studio under my name since 2008. Shooting wedding and engagement for various couple in this world made me try so many resorts, guest house, or even an simple apartment in this entire world….by the way I just got back from Maldives for engagement session too!
What I’m really curious is, I think it’s quite interesting for being a hotel owner or Airbnb host cause I can meet new couple every day and surely got tons of networking through it. In fact being a host in Airbnb is very simple cause you can start by renting your empty and useless room in your house and monetize it as your additional daily income.
When I said to you about useless room than it’s truly useless cause I use that room only for storage, than when I sign up my room on Airbnb surely I can increase my room economic value better and now it become one of my money machine in the rest of my photography business.
So today I would like to share some guidance, tips, and step by step of running this business.
How to Listing Your Room or Property in Airbnb
Listing your property on Airbnb is really simple as you sign up on Facebook for Instagram so all you need to do is Sign Up your room or property in Airbnb and complete all the form and description.
There are some forms and checklist that you must fill before your property is being LIVE on Airbnb, such as:
Describe your property
When you fill this form than do it carefully cause this is your property profile that will seen at the first time to your guest. Tell them in a short and details than add some information about:
- Your property name
- Size of the rooms
- Concept or design that you have
- and also other potential things to do, attraction, or other unique things that your property had
Uploading your best room photos
Pictures are really matter so make sure you take a good picture using a real camera or fine smartphone and make sure that your picture is clean and got no noise at all. Here in my secondary blog I post 5 affordable mirrorless camera that you can buy, it comes with great result cause I also use some of them for daily!
This is the tips for taking a good property photos that I personally suggest:
- Clean – set up your ISO in low, maximum will be in 400 so there would be no noise at all
- Bright – make sure you got a fine lighting even simply using your window light or available light from the sun
- Wide – when you take a photo using camera than make sure you got wide lens such as Tokina 11 – 16 mm f2.8
- Turn on the interior light – when shooting for interior than consider to turn on the light cause this ambiance will super cool for the result
Set the rates and discount system
When you want to set your rates than I suggest you to do some research combining with your competitors within 2 miles from your property. Even Airbnb have their own ‘Smart Pricing Feature’ but I’m not suggest you for being 100% trusted on it cause mostly they will set in too low price.
Airbnb provide a nice system too for providing discount, it’s for weekly and monthly. On my property I used to give 10 to 15% discount for weekly stay and up to 35% discount for monthly stay. It’s simple tips but it increase my booking rate for some guest who want to stay longer.
Decide your payout method
Airbnb provide several options for sending you the money some of them are Paypal and Bank transfer. Personally I love using Paypal cause it is fast (I got my money 24 hours following my guest check in) and I got no error for over than 6 years.
Tell them about your room amenities
Here in my house I provide several basic amenities such as soap, shampoo, towel, blanket, AC and even hot water for shower.
Tell your guest about Do and Don’t
Majority of Airbnb host are living in this property so that’s why you should tell your guest with some rules and term & conditions. Here in my house I usually tell my guest about:
- Do – they can use my kitchen and make by them self for coffee and tea
- Don’t – no part and prostitution inside my house
Surely you can modify any rules that suitable on your daily life and your guest must allow your rules for sure.
What to do when your first reservation is coming
When somebody reserve your room, Airbnb will automatically ask them to write you a message so generally you will receive a message from your first guest.
I highly suggest you to reply it as soon as possible, if I’m not in a night sleeping than I usually reply all the message within 15 minutes maximum and that’s why my Airbnb respon rate is always 100% since 2013.
Simply make a greeting and thank you saying even more you can add other information about how to go to your house by public transportation like MRT, subway, or bus, they love it so much rather than regular taxi.
What to do when your first guest is coming
If you serve your guest on your home than there is no check in procedure just like in a hotel, so all I did when my guest coming is simply say ‘Hei…welcome home guys I’m Bima…come in and let me show your room’
Handling your guest with love and deliver good communication is the key of being great host and as a person who also have an experience for being a guest on Airbnb I’m gonna feeling safe and satisfy with every personal greeting that my host gave to me….it seems like I’m home!
Airbnb is not a short cut to get rich quick!
Become Airbnb host is truly a journey and you should have passion on it in other side of mind that you looking for money. Definitely it gives you tons of money every week but if you think you gonna get rich quick than I sure that you are in the wrong way.
I’m renting my house for just $12/night so it is really cheap comparing other airbnb unit around the world but I could earn thousand of dollars every year that make me able to travel with my family. Down here I’m gonna share some screen shots of my Airbb earning few years ago.
Look I just earn less than $150 for my first 6 months in 2013 but it grows up to $1775 for next couple years. If I got those amount from renting $12 room than you can calculate that there are so many guest coming to my house every month.
Now imagine if you renting your useless space for $40 – 50/day than you can have a better earning than me for sure. Now it’s your turn, lets monetize your room by listing your space on Airbnb, trust me i’s interesting!
What will you do if you don’t want hosting a guest for little while
Everything is under your command, you can block your room if you don’t want host someone because of some reasons. I did it too by the way if I travel for photo shoot or simply make a short holiday with my family so everything is 1005 under your control.
Airbnb provide nice and communicative website and apps so make sure you have it on your smartphone cause you definitely will get a pop up notification when someone taking action on your property.
How to know your guest is a good or bad person
The most easiest way to know your guest is by reading their review, so here in Airbnb both of you and your guest are able to leave an honest review so when somebody want to stay in your place than you can open their profile and you will see all the reviews related to that person.
As I said before Airbnb also provide a messaging system just like facebook messenger so the second way of getting know your guest is by reading their message. Good guest will say in polite about their name and asking for permission of staying in your house so read it carefully and use your common sense to know them, I sure that you can do it.
Want to know my hosting story better?
I wrote an ebook, it’s truly simple ebook that you can read before your sleep. Here I share my story start from the beginning in 2013 and I will be a fair guy of it cause I’m gonna tell you the good thing and the bad thing of being Airbnb host.
It’s called Airbnb Be A Host
5 things that will make your Airbnb property looks great
The key is giving the best thing to the guest, you can set a brand new furniture or even buy the second hand as long as they looks nice. Down here I’m gonna share to you some things or essentials that I personally suggest you to provide:
1 – Nice bed and pillow
The main key for letting your guest feels at home is by provide them with the nice bed and mattress, no matter you set your room for 1 or 2 person than always make sure you have nice bed for your guest.
Once you have the mattress than the next one is providing nice pillows for them, here I suggest you to use pillow that come with removable cover so you can clean it up easily. Lets do your best effort to let your guest can sleep like a baby!
2 – Blanked
Blanked is matter even you serve your guest with FAN, it protects them from cold and mosquito too so here I suggest you to buy smooth flannel blanket, it comes with smooth fabric that really comfort on the skin
3 – Basic bathroom amenities
Providing basic bathroom amenities like soap and shampoo is really matters, even some of your guest with special skin treatment will provide it by their self but provide this two things are really matter to the guest and increase your rating value among the guest in general.
Simply buy some soap and shampoo bottle than you can buy some liquid soap and shampoo later
4 – Set as clean as possible
Cleanliness is the main priority of running a hospitality business, bathroom and toilet are the most challenging space that you should set in clean.
If you smell something bad than go find and fix it up, once you make sure everything is clean than there will be no smell at all. Toilet paper is one thing that used to be messy cause so many guest will throw it to the bin but they not go inside it so I regularly fix some of them too.
5 – Serve your guest as a family
The only reason why so many traveler choosing Airbnb is because they want to stay with you, the host or the owner of the house. So the main key of making your guest comfort is by handling them as your family not just as a guest, it means you can get a breakfast in the same table or even asking them to join your local community sport.
When I was handling my Japanese guest who get an accident than I drove my car with him to go the hospital and take care of what he really need cause whole of his body was injured. At this time he leaves very great review about me and we just keep in touch each other through facebook.
Last Words from Me
I hope that you get an inspiration of how to become airbnb host by reading my story, that’s truly great business even you still working on your daily job or business. Everything is under your control so once you don’t want to host some guest than simply block your room for little while, and this is what I did when I travel for weeks during my photo tour.
You don’t need to worry about listing your room on Airbnb cause it’s super simple and enjoy your journey than you will get new friends every week and they coming from various countries in this world.
Gladly I’m inviting you to join this lovely business, lets clean up your useless space, bring some unique things on it and go sign up your room on Airbnb!