Surviving Hosting On Airbnb When On Vacation | Hacker News Reader

Surviving Hosting On Airbnb When On Vacation

blog.booksuperhost.com

33 pointsamiadsoto18 comments

Make sure any respondents/agents have the same passion for your listing's reputation and reviews otherwise it can make for a poor situation.

My best Airbnb experiences have been when an owner/family has been the contact. The worst have generally been where there was an intermediary - some have been exceptionally rude. Had one in Milan where a woman just waved her hand mid-sentence, couldn't be bothered answering my second question (do you have the keys so we can lock up when we go out), gave me a set of 8 keys without explanation and walked out. The apartment had no info sheet or anything. Would've taken her 30 seconds to point out what needed to be locked and which key matched which lock. It was lucky that I held her up to clarify because she'd given us a set of keys for a different apartment.

I can definitely relate. Had been using Airbnb around the world a lot. This is why we put a strong emphasis towards quality of service. As a paid service we know that if we do badly you won't hire us again. We do our best as if it was our own listing. We give fast an accurate response, and we are always there for more clarifications. And our guests love us, so we must be doing it right. You can read in our website some of our testimonials.

Koby, co-founder of SuperHost

Congratulations on your recent entrepreneurship! I owned an ISP in the 90s and PAID an answering service to answer calls after office hours. Two of us would carry the dreaded pager (one of the first SMS devices out) and we'd coordinate who would get the call. I'd take the 2AM calls usually - being the owner and all. A strange thing occurred over time.

A few of the ladies at the answering service started doing simple tech support for the customers. Reboot your modem/computer/check your password. Said they were bored and it was interesting and didn't mind. Ended up giving them accounts for free. The call volume was noticeably lower after that. A few hours without doing dialup tech support is like a slice of heaven.

I feel like this is sorta like that. You can answer a few of the more common questions, maybe get your users to fill out details (maybe a standard form that prints to a handout for the guests even) and use those to populate your agents screens when a call comes in. Stuff outside the scope of the info you gathered gets kicked to the user. They don't get a completely free vacation time, but it's better than it was. Don't promise it'll be 100% interruption free. That means you need to change your marketing a bit, but it's still kinda cool what your offering

Best of luck! Pools of knowledge are going to be big.

Thanks for sharing!

Hi, I am Amiad, the co-founder of SuperHost. I'm here to answer any questions!

Thanks

Your website starts with two questions asked by customers, then claims it will take care of them for you by answering professionally. However it does not explain for those two examples, how they would be answered. Let's assume the answers are not as simple as "instructions on top of washer" and "look on google maps". How would you answer them?

Great Question. Thank you.

When we answer our guests we either do it by phone and resolve their problem or question, or by message on email/airbnb platform. We find that our guests are very satisfied by the level of detail that we put on our answers. For example our directions from the airport are a full page with both public transport options and prices and other more private options like shuttles and taxis.

I hope that answer your question. Feel free to ask me any other question you may have.

I don't think that really answers the question. There will evidently be questions that require the owner's actual interaction. (Eg. Q: which light switch controls the outdoor lights; how much water do I give your plant?). The only thing I can think of is getting some information beforehand from the owner (which at that point may as well be given to the renter).

This solution is great for general area questions, but guests will likely still have specific questions about the actual building they are in (how do I turn on the hot water, etc). How will you deal with that?

Edit: Koby's response just popped up as I was composing this; I like the idea of learning from previous responses!

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback!

For most of the cases, answers can be found in the listing, and guests are looking for clarification or confirmation. As we do get access for the listing, we can learn a lot from your previous responses and repeat that in future scenarios. Also, as we are experienced hosts we understand Airbnb platform better so we can give answers to problems people face with.

Lastly, you are right, some of the questions cannot be answered by us, those are a fraction of the inquires and we give you, the host, the option to not let those interrupt you in your vacation. If you do want us to send you important questions we will. Think about us as a personal receptionist desk.

Koby, co-founder of SuperHost

I've been hosting on Airbnb for the last 8 months, and I've had plenty of guests while I was away/on vacation.

You really just need to screen your guests better.

First, screening your guest is a task that takes time and effort as well. We are offering to reduce the work needed for the really low price of 1%. Moreover, it's not just guest support, but you can also accept new guests while on vacation, allowing even back to back guests. It's almost turn-key service.

With a Lockitron and HomeJoy, I can accomplish most of this myself.

I'm not dismissing the idea, I think it's great for people that need to have their Airbnb monitored. However, you're the equivalent of a property manager. If I'm renting out the room or apartment I live in, I don't see the value. If you're talking about helping out people who have multiple properties on Airbnb, then I could see the potential market. I doubt it's going to have a major upside though.

But hey, prove me wrong. :-)

>You really just need to screen your guests better.

Can you elaborate on how you do this?

1. Ask them why they're renting. If I'm not happy with their answer, I decline. 2. I look at their verified information. People don't usually give lots of details here, but it does help me establish a gut feeling. 3. I give them thorough details about the area and room, and gauge their response.

It's helped me keep my 2BR/2BA apartment booked solid for the last 8 months with wonderful guests, some of whom I happily consider friends. It also helped me reduce my effective rent payment to levels below most places in the US and Canada, let alone Palo Alto.

I hate it when blogs don't have links to the main site. Am visiting your site in an in-app browser. There is no url bar where I can change the url nor is there any link on your blog. Please add!

? Top left is a link that says Home.

You are right. Mobile version did have a bug, hiding the navigation bar! Thank you for noticing! We will fix it asap!

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