Four Things I Have Learned From Hosting an Airbnb (That I Already Knew)

Four Things I Have Learned from Running an Airbnb (That I Already Knew)

Basil and I decided to become Airbnb hosts when we moved to Colorado in July 2019. In our search for housing in Denver, Basil had come across a company called Loftium, which offers significant rent discounts if you agree to “co-host” an Airbnb on the same property you are renting. Although I have long harbored some fantasies about running a bed and breakfast one day, I was certain running the Airbnb would be a considerable amount of both physical and emotional toil. But Basil was willing to deal with the extra work, even when my traveling for work might mean I could be gone for a significant amount of guest turnover. So we took the plunge.

We’ve been at it a little more than a year now. None of the things I have learned from this experience have really surprised me, but I thought I’d share anyway.

Human Hair is Pervasive and Hard to Clean Up 

In the 1997 movie Gattaca, the protagonist Vincent must hide his true genetic identity from detection. (I am not going to go into why. It is a great movie, so watch it if you want to know more.) In order to achieve this, every day he goes over his room in an extremely meticulous cleaning process: he tries to locate and destroy every hair, every eyelash, every sloughed-off skin cell contained within his futuristic living quarters. If Vincent overlooks one stray piece of dandruff, the ramifications could be severe.

I think of Vincent every time I clean our Airbnb unit. Although the stakes are certainly lower in my case than they were for Vincent, it is still a tedious and nerve-wracking experience, particularly when it comes to keeping bedding clean. (Full disclosure: Basil takes care of the bedding, including hair removal, 99% of the time. I am usually tracking down hairs in the bathroom.) I never realized how much hair can hang around in my own personal housekeeping because I don’t care if a stray hair shows up on our sheets. Basil and I know where the sheets have been and Basil has sufficient faith in my cleaning capabilities to know I can clean sheets correctly.

But cleaning bedding for the Airbnb means all stray hairs must be located and removed. One missed hair in the right place on bedding and some guests will react as if the comforter has been dipped in human excrement.

These instances are particularly maddening to me because I cannot say what I would truly wish to say to the complaining guest: “Okay, you found a single hair on the sheets. Did you also notice they otherwise smell and appear completely spotless? Is it possible you are overreacting? The freakin’ sheets are CLEAN.” I hate groveling to ask to be forgiven about an errant hair. But such is the nature of customer service: frequently apologizing for/acknowledging things which are sometimes unreasonable or just plain out of our control.

Some People Do Not Read Directions

When I went back to school to get my MBA, it was the first time I had been in a college setting in over a decade. What surprised me most about being back in the classroom was how infrequently my fellow students would bother to read directions or instructions. I marveled at how much time instructors would spend answering questions which had been addressed in writing in something else we had previously been provided. Most of the professors I had as an undergraduate would have curtly informed such student the information they were seeking was in materials they had already provided, and would have directed them to read the material and stop wasting everyone’s time.

Basil and I are both strong writers, and Basil has taken great pains to write and review our Airbnb posting to make it as clear as possible to potential guests what the unit is like. But just like many of the students in my MBA class, many potential guests do not bother to read the entirety of our listing. And unlike readings I was assigned in graduate school, our Airbnb listing is less than a few hundred words. In some instances, the Airbnb platform employs symbols, as opposed to words, to try and make simple ideas clearer to those reviewing a listing.

And yet, we often get questions that ask us to confirm information clearly stated in the ad. If the question is especially basic, we urge the potential guest asking the question to carefully read the ad. Some people have booked the unit and have shown up, assuming they have booked the whole house, despite the fact the posting is quite clear it is just a suite, part of the larger house. And just like many of the students in my MBA classes, these people seem inclined to hold anyone else besides themselves responsible for their own decision to overlook pertinent information.

No Matter How Hard You Try, Some People Are Going to Complain

Providing great client service is something I have focused on throughout my professional career, from the time I was in retail until present day, dealing with my consulting clients. I take pride in my ability to provide great service. Basil is also wonderful at handling guests and making people feel welcome. But no matter to what lengths we go to, I have realized we will never be able to make every guest happy all the time.

Below are some of my favorite complaints we have received to date.

“I found a cockroach outside. Maybe it wasn’t yours. Maybe it belonged to your neighbors.”

“I am going to email your landlord and tell them you are forcefully gentrifying this neighborhood.”

“Needs . . .  something more than single ply toilet paper to be worth $200/night.” (For the record, if they had asked for nicer toilet paper, we probably would have gotten it for them.)

“In the middle of the night we would sometimes hear this heavy thumping sound, like something being dropped on the ground.” (This is our fat cat Zen, jumping from various pieces of furniture on to the floor in his nocturnal ramblings.)

I used to take complaints personally, particularly during our first year of hosting. Now I have come to accept complaints are going to be a part of being an Airbnb host. There is not a level of perfection we can attain as hosts which will prevent them altogether.

Most People Are Generally Reasonable and Nice

Years prior to becoming an Airbnb host, I read a book about the founding of Airbnb. One of the biggest challenges Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk faced in raising money for the young start up was convincing others enough people would be willing to open up their home for complete strangers to stay in. The argument they often pitched to investors was essentially that people, at their core, want to connect with and be welcoming to other people. Many would-be investors balked at this idea, but enough bought into it to keep the start up in the green, allowing for it to turn into the juggernaut we know today.

I won’t spend time speculating about the actual motivations and beliefs of the founders of Airbnb, but I will say a majority of our guests seem like fine people. They are generally kind and courteous, leaving our space clean. It is this general decency which allows us to continue to function, both as Airbnb hosts and as members of the human race.