Airbnb Listing For Your Spare Room
Now that you have decided to Airbnb your spare room, are you asking “How do I create a listing on Airbnb?”
The short answer is to go to airbnb.com/become-a-host and follow the instructions. You will answer questions, fill in details and be walked through the process. This post gives tips about what answers to give and what details to include as you list your spare room on Airbnb.
Setting Up A Private Room With A Shared Bath
If, as we did, you want to set up a private room with a shared bath, here are the key steps:
- Go to airbnb.com/become-a-host.
- On the first page, choose “Create a new listing.”
- On the next page change “Entire place” to “Private room.”
- When you get to the page that asks “How many bathrooms?” you are also asked whether there is a private bath. Pick “No, it’s shared.”
Now your room will show up as a private room with a shared bath.
Airbnb Name
Coming up with Airbnb name ideas is one of the first things you will need to do. It’s a good idea to have something that captures people’s attention. You might include something that relates to attractions that are near you or things that are unique about your room. You want a name that will attract people to your place and the things that they are looking for.
You should also keep in mind the type of person you’re hoping to attract and what would attract them. Including words like rustic, modern, elegant or cozy might be a way to help people find what they’re looking for. This is important because you want to attract the kind of people who are going to be happy and give you a great review. If you have an elegant place and they want a rustic one, they’re not going to be happy. You also want to make sure that the description you use matches your place.
Airbnb Photography
This is one of the most important things that draws people to your place. There are lots of people out there that will only look at pictures, so your pictures are very important.
You want your pictures to be bright, and you want to show views that could appeal to guests. You should show the bed, the desk if there is one, and decorations that make your room look pleasant and comfortable.
If you’re good at photography it’s OK to do this for yourself, but it is one area where it may pay to hire a professional. There are professionals who specialize in photography for Airbnb. We had a friend who was into photography take pictures of our places.
If you’re doing it yourself, it’s a good idea to take your pictures at the same eye level that your guests will see the room. For example, pictures of the view your guests will see as they come into the room should be at a standing eye level. Pictures showing from inside looking out the door should be at the eye level of a person sitting on the bed.
Also, be careful of the lighting. Wait for a bright day to take your pictures. Take them with all the curtains open, and make sure all the artificial lights are on. This gives the brightest pictures to make the room look appealing to your guests.
Another tip is to take pictures from each corner of the room and get as far into the corner as you can. This gives the best view, almost as if you were outside the room looking in through the wall. I think this works because the camera has a narrower field of vision than your eyes, so pictures taken farther ‘in the corner’ look more natural. It may also show the size of the room better.
Whether you have someone else take the pictures or you do it yourself, choose the best picture for your profile picture. The one that looks the most rustic, modern, elegant, cozy, etc.
Airbnb Listing Description Examples
Like we said earlier, some people only look at pictures. Others ignore the pictures but will read every word. Your Airbnb description is your opportunity to get your message to these people. You want to be very descriptive so your guests can see the room from your words.
Tell a story to help the person feel what it is like to return to your room doing whatever they’re doing in your city.
Describe and highlight the most appealing features of your room. You want them to feel that they’re already there. Describe features of your place or service that will make them feel special or different.
You also want to make sure that you are completely honest. When people first walk into your room, you want guests to say “oh, it’s exactly the way you described it.“
Your listing is your advertisement for your place so you don’t need to describe everything about it. If there are things about your place that are less than desirable you might not mention them. If you can describe them in a way that gives a positive light, that’s a good idea. If it is going to lead to negative reviews it is better to mention it than to avoid it. And remember, you have to be honest. One of the things that guests review is the accuracy of the listing, so if you’re not honest, it can come back to bite you.
Airbnb House Rules
This is your opportunity to decide how much you want to let being an Airbnb host affect your life. If there are certain things that you really don’t want your guests to do, they should be in your house rules. If you are against people coming in at all hours of the night, you could disallow late check-ins in your house rules. If people break the house rules you can give them a low rating. After a stay, the guest rates the host and the host rates the guest.
If you have too many house rules potential guests might not read them. But be sure to record anything that’s important to you.
Airbnb is more likely to get involved if guests disobey your house rules. If you put your expectations elsewhere and your guests don’t comply, Airbnb is less likely to help you.
Some house rules are standard. You can add others just by checking an option. If there is something you feel strongly about that isn’t otherwise included, you can add it.
We once chose another place because the house rules for the place we were considering didn’t allow any liquor. We are not big drinkers, but we decided not to stay there because we wanted to have the option. We were happy because we found another place. The host must have been happy because they didn’t have to deal with liquor in their place.
You can limit the hours when guests can check-in or out. You can tell guests whether you allow pets or not. You can allow guests to have visitors, or not.
Welcome Message
When you’re setting up your listing you will also provide a welcome message for your guests. As well as welcoming them, you can specify questions you require your guests to answer. This is especially important if you allow guests to instant book because if they don’t answer you can cancel their booking without penalty.
You want to make them feel welcome, but you may also want to get answers to questions that will help you feel comfortable having strangers in your home. We ask what brings them to the area, who is coming with them, whether they’re bringing pets, and what time they think they’ll arrive. Recently, we started asking if they are willing to social distance while they are in our home.
Each time we get an instant booking, we look at the answers to the questions. If they haven’t answered completely, we send messages to have them answer before they arrive. This process is one of the things that allows us to feel comfortable having strangers in our home.
Airbnb Amenities
Amenities are features of your home that people will be looking for. Airbnb provides a list of amenities for you to check off the ones that you have. It’s best to check off as many as you can, based on what you’re providing. One never knows which amenities attract potential guests to your place.
For business travellers, check out the requirements for a laptop-friendly workspace. It’s pretty easy to follow and will attract people who may need to do some work during their stay.
Also, check out the section on accessibility. Here you describe aspects of your place for people with mobility challenges. Airbnb requires you to actually take pictures of accessibility features so your guests can decide if they can manage in your place.
Once again, you want to list as many amenities as you have, but you want to be honest as well. Don’t claim you have amenities that your place doesn’t have!
Airbnb Check In Instructions
Airbnb provides a place to describe your check in instructions. Having clearly written instructions for how a guest can check in by themselves means that you don’t have to be there when they arrive. We usually are, but if we can’t be, we send them a reminder of the check in instructions.
We also send a message a few days before our guests arrive to remind them of the check in instructions. Originally, we sent this out as soon as they booked, but we find it better to do it later. If they book early, they will have forgotten by the time they arrive.
Installing locks with access codes makes it easier to accommodate self check in. We change the codes for each new guest and set it to the last four digits of their phone number. We suggest you do something similar. It helps both you and your guests feel confident your place is safe.
Airbnb Pets
We have had challenges because we have pets and allow guests to bring theirs. For us, this has caused more bad reviews than any other aspect of Airbnb, but we have figured out a good way to handle pets.
You should be aware that pets make more work for you. It takes about twice as long to turn a room around after a pet than otherwise. We allow one pet per booking. Our house rules say that they have to be in a crate or kennel if they are left alone. We charge an extra $10 per day for guests to bring a pet to compensate for the extra work.
Some guests don’t like pets. Some don’t like dogs. Others don’t like cats.
If you have pets it is critical that your guests know it before they arrive. It is better to go somewhere else than to arrive, be dissatisfied, and give you a bad review. Once they arrive, it is too late!
We always mentioned that we have pets in our listing description. Later we changed to mention “CATS and DOGS” instead of “pets.” Then we added pictures of our pets. Eventually, we put a collage of pictures of our two cats and two dogs as the second picture in our listings.
We also mention that we have CATS and DOGS in our welcome message and ask people to confirm that they are aware of this. If instant book guests don’t acknowledge this, we send follow up messages until they do. If we don’t get a response, we contact Airbnb support to reach out to them. If that doesn’t work we have Airbnb support cancel their booking before they arrive. Did I mention that once they arrive it is too late?
We are Airbnb hosts so that we can keep our house. We keep our house so that we can keep our pets. Because we have pets, it’s important that we also allow pets. Guests who bring pets are often very grateful that we allow them to stay, so they tend to be great guests.
Questions
Our goal is to help you succeed at Airbnbing your spare room. We would love hear from you with other question you have for us to answer. Please contact us or comment below with your questions.