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Purchasing our four short-term rentals and becoming an Airbnb host is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It has been life-changing for my family and given me a remote, flexible job. But it’s definitely a job. People who call Airbnb hosting “passive income” are likely unsuccessful hosts or not even actual hosts at all! In this Airbnb hosting blog post, I will share 8 important things I wish I knew before starting my Airbnbs. And follow along for more Airbnb hosting tips!
And, if you are new here, welcome! I’m Sarah. We own four top-rated vacation rentals on 30A. I self-manage them and share my first-hand expertise with you here at Our Little Lifestyle. I consistently earn positive reviews from guests and love sharing Airbnb host tips with you!
Airbnb Hosting
First, this post is about Airbnb hosting, as opposed to simply owning a vacation rental. Airbnb hosting is an active job with day-to-day expectations. Investing in an income-producing property, whether a long-term rental or hiring property managers, can be passive. You can remove yourself from the equation. However, it leaves a lot of money on the table!
Click here to shop all of my Airbnb Buying Guides on Amazon!
Self-Managing Your Airbnb
I choose to self-manage our Airbnbs and believe it can earn you almost 50% more than simply hiring someone. However, it’s a job. You must ensure you have the time and availability to self-manage a vacation rental. Self-managing allows you more control over your dynamic pricing, which is vital for a rental business.
Read: Should You Self-Manage Your Airbnb Or Hire A Property Manager?
After reading my insight on what it’s like to be a full time Airbnb host, you should have a better idea of whether or not you are up for the challenge. And I think you are!
Airbnb Hosting Tips
For a variety of reasons, I exclusively host on Airbnb. But these truths translate to vacation rentals of all kinds, including those who are VRBO hosts.
Furthermore, if you make all of your bookings directly (not using a platform), you should expect to do everything below, plus manage contracts, collect payments, communicate via email and phone, etc. I am not interested in doing any of those, so I only use one platform. If you aren’t familiar with the 80/20 Principle, give it a read!
8 Truths About Being An Airbnb Host
So, let’s jump in.
Here are 8 things that everyone should know before deciding to become an Airbnb host. Some I had a feeling about before starting my journey, but others I have learned the hard way over the past four years. These translate to some of my best lessons learned and Airbnb hosting tips!
#1 You Are Now On Call 24/7
This is the most crucial sentence in this blog post. When you are an Airbnb host, you need to be accessible at all times. This means taking a digital detox or turning off your phone for a day to unplug is no longer an option.
Furthermore, you need to make sure you are receiving notifications. I have a system in place to make sure my Airbnb notifications always come through to my Apple Watch. Yet another process to ensure I hear Airbnb messages overnight, yet silence group texts. My How To Become An Airbnb Superhost blog post shares exactly how I do this.
Being on call 24/7 is easier when you have just one property, but it becomes more of an issue as you scale up. Check-ins are almost daily when you have 5+ rental properties. Remember, you are managing your recent, current, and upcoming guests and fielding questions from future guests and inquiries.
How Can You Manage This?
I specifically ask my guests to communicate with me through the Airbnb app. This centralizes all communication and prevents calls and texts from coming into my personal cell phone. Because now that I am an Airbnb host, I have to answer every phone call, even if it’s most likely spam because it could be a guest!
As you know, my family travels often. Traveling to Europe literally means staying up until 11 pm each night to verify units are ready and send door codes. I always need to double-check that the plane has wifi on long-haul flights and cross my fingers that it’s working. But, this job is flexible, allowing me to work from all over the world.
So, the takeaway is that you need to be accessible 24/7 but can work from anywhere! That makes it worth it for me. Also, I profit quite a bit from our Airbnbs, so I am getting paid. If you are underpriced, in a bad market, or simply not maximizing revenue, you must ask yourself if a full-time job is worth it just to break even.
#2 Your Cleaning Team Is Key
Listen up because finding a cleaning company is generally the first thing on your to-do list after purchasing a vacation rental. In fact, you should have them lined up before you start buying linens and towels for rental properties. They often have input on what works and fits into their processes best.
My cleaners are great; honestly, they spend more time in my rentals than I do. A reliable, hard-working team of cleaners who understand your expectations is essential. When guests pay a cleaning fee, they expect a clean place to stay upon check in. But for a host, the cleaners also are responsible for being your eyes and ears on the ground, inventory management, and more.
One of my best pieces of advice, especially if you are in a condominium, is to join the owner’s group and ask for recommendations. My cleaners clean numerous rentals at our condo complex on 30A. This means that they almost always have someone on-site and can help with one-off requests more quickly.
In addition, I prefer using a small business with numerous employees over a single cleaning person. This ensures backups are in place if someone calls out sick or it’s just a busy day.
Walk your property with your cleaners. Print out your listing photos, punch a hole in the corner, and place them on a key ring. Leave this in the cleaning closet for them to reference. That shows them exactly how the guest expects your vacation rental to look upon arrival.
#3 Visits Are No Longer A Vacation
Read that twice because this has been the biggest downer for me. I want to make two different points here.
First, when you visit your Airbnbs, time will be spent rearranging things (back to where they belong), scrubbing walls with a Magic Eraser, running to Target to replace items, and scanning every square inch of your rental. And, if you aren’t doing this, you’re likely not as successful of a host as you could be.
The reality is that your vacation home is also your work site. I used to try to lay eyes on mine once every 4-6 weeks. But, lately, it has become every 8-10 weeks. I want to be honest here. What once was a feeling of excitement heading to 30A Florida is now a feeling of dread and anxiety. Dare I say that being an Airbnb host means losing your happy place?
Second, to maximize profits, you must rent your property over the peak dates. For us, this means not coming during the summer or on school holidays unless we have a last-minute cancellation. Others may feel differently, but for me, profit is my priority. For that reason, I can’t pass up top nightly rates.
But, the good news is that we have been traveling far and wide instead! Often, we can visit other countries like Paris, France, or Santorini / Athens, Greece, and the money we are making back on the rentals offsets our accommodations in fun new destinations!
#4 Becoming A Superhost Is Actually Easy
I earned Airbnb super host status at the first opportunity. It was 3 months into my Airbnb hosting journey, and I have maintained it 14x in a row!
Remembering that day in 2020 is funny now. I was waiting and waiting for the quarterly superhost awards to come through. When it came through, my family was camping at White Oak Campground on Lake Eufaula. I remember it so clearly. I was so proud!
But, in all honestly, it’s pretty easy to earn. Reply to all messages quickly, don’t cancel on guests, open up your calendar to get more bookings, and deliver a top-notch guest experience. The benefits are minimal, but I appreciate the dedicated super host support line, designation on my listings, and $100 credit each year. I just used mine to book an Airbnb in Rio de Janeiro for our trip to Brazil next week!
Read: How To Become An Airbnb Superhost
The above post shares the Airbnb host requirements for becoming a superhost and some of my best Airbnb hosting tips!
#5 You Are Going To Replace Linens A Lot
And, if you aren’t, they are probably stained and making your guests cringe. My detailed Guide To Airbnb Bedding post shares great insight on choosing bedding for your Airbnb. So, give that a read for some great Airbnb hosting tips for beginners. Essentially, you want to buy cozy yet inexpensive linens for your rental because you will need to replace them often.
We start all our rentals with 4 complete sets of linens (towels, sheets, duvet covers, etc). And I am constantly replacing them throughout the year. The biggest culprit is fake tanning spray. My cleaners do their best to remove stains, but know that if they can’t, I want them replaced. Even though the linens are clean, stains make your place seem uncared for. And on the Airbnb host dos and don’ts list, dirty linens are a big no!
Sitting here in my office, I have four boxes next to me for end-of-the-season refreshes. This includes everything from dish towels to pillow covers and everything in between. Yesterday, my cleaners told me two of my nice gel pillows that I have on every bed were missing from one of my one-bedroom 30A condos. I had extras in their cleaning closet, but I just had to order two more backups.
Just factor this into your budget, and please don’t buy overpriced linens simply because of the name. This is one of my top Airbnb hosting tips!
#6 Don’t Take Things Personal
My husband says this to me all of the time! Because Airbnb guests can be strange. Most of my guests are simply wonderful. Because of my top ratings, curated 30A reccomendations, and attention to detail, I have been able to attract respectful, friendly guests. For the most part, that is!
However, I have had some doozies. The outlier “bad guests” are generally hard to please people. But, the weirdest experiences for me are the awkward guests in the middle. I have had guests stay with me and never once reply to my messages before, during, or after their stay.
Read: Don’t Ghost Your Host: How To Be A Great Airbnb Guest.
Honestly, I wish all of my guests could read my Airbnb tips for guests in the post above. It would be better for my ego. But today’s world tends to be self-centered. Many Airbnb guests don’t see the person on the other side of the message as an actual human.
I also spent 15 minutes writing detailed recommendations, only to receive a thumbs-up emoji. As someone who obviously enjoys using punctuation to convey my positive attitude while communicating, it’s hard to decipher tones over messages. Obviously, if someone expresses a concern, address that. But don’t take an indifferent or off-putting tone personally. They may be voice texting, or they may be just rude.
Either way, it’s usually not personal!
#7 Nobody Will Take Care Of Your Place Like You Do
Specifically, no one will take care of your moldings and walls as you do. People can often be careless on vacation and might not take great care of your place. That is simply the cost of doing business. One of the essential tips on Airbnb hosting is to plan for routine maintenance.
Plan to touch up paint as needed. We repaint our 30A condos entirely every 1-2 years. Avoid having sentimental items in your vacation rental. You have to detach a little here. This is one of the most important Airbnb hosting tips. If you are a territorial person, this might be hard. But, keep telling yourself that this is a business.
#8 You Can’t Please 100% Of The People 100% Of The Time
This has become my Airbnb hosting mantra! So, I wanted to leave you with this. It’s one of the most important truths for any Airbnb host.
I am beyond proud of my original 30A condo listing. As of today, it has 194 reviews. All of them except one were 5-star reviews. This is almost unheard of in year four of an Airbnb listing! One review is a 4-star. And it really bummed me out. The gentleman seemed very happy and even left an excellent written review, so the 4 stars caught me off guard.
I have to tell myself repeatedly that you can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time. And as long as you did your best, someone’s sub-par review does not necessarily reflect your efforts. Keep your head up!
And share my How To Be A Great Airbnb Guest post anywhere you can. Let’s raise awareness of Airbnb guest expectations, and everybody can win! I think Airbnb guest tips are just as important as Airbnb hosting tips.
Airbnb Hosting Tips: Truths About Being An Airbnb Host
So, there you have it! The 8 truths about Airbnb hosting are exactly what I tell my friends and family when they ask me if they should become Airbnb hosts.
I love hosting on Airbnb! The income I have earned has been life-changing, but beyond that, I genuinely enjoy hosting guests. My heart lies in the hospitality industry and travel niche. It’s been the perfect use of my passions and skills. Most people can become successful Airbnb hosts. Just follow my Airbnb host tips for beginners and get started hosting with Airbnb!
I want to end this post with the same sentence I started with. Airbnb hosting is NOT passive income. It’s a job. But it’s both flexible and lucrative if you do it right!
More Airbnb Hosting Tips & STR Resources
Inspired to be the best Airbnb host you can be? You have landed in the right place! My FREE Airbnb hosting resources are overflowing with real-life advice and Airbnb hosting tips for success.
Start by visiting my 5-Star Airbnb Hosting Guide. From there, you can access all of my Airbnb content and find exactly what you are looking for!
Join My Airbnb Hosting Group
Additionally, I recently started the 5-Star Airbnb Hosting group on Facebook. It’s already become a great place to ask for feedback, share in short term rental excitement, and commiserate with other Airbnb hosts. It’s a great place to learn how to be a great Airbnb host and get even more tips for Airbnb hosting.
Pin This Airbnb Hosting Tips Blog Post For Later
This post is something that you will want to revist again and again! It’s important to know that you are not alone and that other Airbnb hosts go through the same thing. Take a minute to PIN this blog post so that you can read my best Airbnb hosting tips down the road!
