Here Are 8 Mistakes I See Airbnb Hosts Make

Okay. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome to the Boost Lee podcast. My name is Mark Simpson. I give hosts all over the world the tools, the tactics, training and the confidence for you to get your direct bookings. Cut down on over reliance on Airbnb and all that jazz. Let me know if you're watching live. Leave a hashtag live for me in the chat. Also let me know where you're tuning in from around the world. And most importantly, give your business a little bit of a push and promote because this is all about you here. I recently came across a blog post and the blog post was titled so a quick share my screen. I'm a full time traveler who has stayed in over a hundred Airbnbs here at a top eight mistakes that I see hosts make. It was entitled an interesting title. You can go check it out on insider.com but I wanted to dig into those eight mistakes and I wanted to see if, if you're making them and also as well, tell us what you're doing to make sure that you don't fall for these mistakes because they're pretty basic. But if you're starting out or maybe a year in this, so easy to do. It's because you don't know what you don't know. So in this episode, we're going to dig into these eight mistakes and we're going to see how we can rectify it so you can get more five star reviews. So without further ado, hello to everybody who's tuning in from Cyprus and from around the world. Hi, Mark, all the way over in Australia. Let's get into it. Boostie podcast, over 500 episodes. Let's get the intro going. This is a freestyle going off the dumb.

Ready for my close up. Good looking, let me tell you. Get more bookings. Oh, that'd be nice. Giving me tips, tools and advice. Yeah, you're gonna get them, hon. You're gonna sit back, listen to Mark Simpson having a blast. Gonna get it on the Boos Lee podcast boy. Bruce Lee. Like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the tea is loosely making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely. If you want my respect, you'll better put direct. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes.

All right. Hello everybody. That is tuning in live. If you're on the replay, leave a replay. We do this every, every single week. Three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and a Friday, we have a podcast that comes out if you're not yet tuned in. If you prefer them on YouTube. Go to Booster CODK for slash YouTube. You can subscribe, subscribe there. Leave a thumbs up and a comment. If you prefer the audio version, it is available on Spotify, Apple and anywhere else you get your audio. And even if you prefer the written, you can go get the written transcription from this. Go to booster.co.uk forward/block. So thank you for being here. So let's dig into this, shall we? I'm going to share my screen. Excuse me. And we're going to dig into this block. So as you can see, this chapter and his partner, they booked their first Airbnb short term rental in 2014 and have stayed in over 100 since. Last year he sold everything to become a full time digital nomad. Really important that digital nomad and I'll bring that up later why that's important. And he only uses Airbnb when he travels. Boo should be booked direct. I've experienced both great and disappointing listings here. 8 Things Host can do better now, one thing that is important to state here is if anybody knows of Danny Roostein, Daniel Roostein, he's also known as @ Danny Booboo or optimize your BNB. He's been doing this something similar for a long, long time. And again, he can definitely sort of go along with what's being said here. So this is what I, this is what I want to do. This blog post, a really good one on inside and we're going to dig into these eight things. So what I want to do, I know we're going to have a lot of hosts watching and tuning into this podcast live and we're going to get maybe some guests as well. So host, what I want to do is when you've been a guest, what has been some of the biggest mistakes you see other hosts make? Please put that in the comments because then we can bounce off. This is not to call out anybody. Don't say I stayed here and it was crap because of X, Y and Z. We're not here to do that. What we want to do is we want to make sure that hosts aren't making these errors because like I said earlier, you don't know what what you don't know. And this chap is speaking from his experience. He's got a lot of experience. They'd done over 100 short term rentals over less than 10 year span. Some of the things that he's going to put into here are pretty valid, but you may also have some as well. So let's dig in to the first one. And again, the first one is a pretty standard one. Let me just share my screen. So the first one that he says is he's experienced short term rentals where hosts don't provide basic cookware to prepare meals, leaving me to down, out, dine out more than I would like. Now this is important in the context. It's important in the context because he is a digital nomad. He is not doing this as a holiday or a vacation. This is him as a digital nomad. Now I can speak as a digital nomad. And there's so many other people that can attribute to this. There are so many people now who are traveling for work cations, as they are called. It is not just a 2020 trend. This is keeping going and growing. There's even a new term which is slow mad, which is people that will find a place to stay. Maybe it's a city or a town or a village or a location. And they'll stay there. Not for a week, not for two weeks, not for three weeks, four weeks. They could be there for two, three months. Okay, so it's really important that you, you get used to this because this is what people are after. Now obviously there's people watching, like Tracy for example, who is a bed and breakfast guest house owner. The cookware may not be important, but for those who are doing short term, you know, rentals, which is like apartments, houses, etc. And you have a kitchen, you've got to, got to, got to, got to, got to make sure that you're providing basic cookware. It doesn't have to be all singing, all dancing, but just make sure that you've got plenty of it. Make sure it is decent and it is for size and it's not just a toaster. You know, you've got to go out and make sure that you look after them because again, if you've got people that are staying for a month, they're going to be living, working and vacationing and work cationing in your properties. And I'll go through the ones that you're giving me as well in the chat, keep adding them in. Trace has added, added a load which is, which is good. So the next one that, that we noticed and what he shared about was this. Good pillows make me fall in love with the home and always garner a better review. I wish more hosts had them. I mean I can attribute to that somebody that stayed in many, many short term rentals in the past. Whether it's glamping, whether it is an apartment in a house In a whatever. Good pillows are everything. And obviously with pillows it's hard because everybody's got different tastes and everybody's got different things that they like. Now what are you doing to attribute to that? What are you trying to do to fix that? Do you have some spare pillows available, for example, if a guest needs them? So what are you trying to rectify that and how are you combating to make sure that the pillows aren't crappy? Please let me know in the, in the chat. Let's go straight down to the next one. So alongside the pillows, it's basically good bedding. Now when you stay at a place and you've got good bedding, to be honest, every other element of the stay could be a bit crappy. But if they get a good night's sleep, which is at the end of the day, what our core focus is is on the place as in the actual bed where they get their head down and sleep. If you can make up for it there, I think that even if you are borderline freestyle review with a good night's sleep, you can definitely rectify and save that to make it a five star. So tell me what, what are you doing? Where do you get your linen from? How are you providing this? Obviously blueprint authors Minoan are doing a fantastic job with Vista, making sure that it's so easy for everybody. I do go check out Minoan, but yeah, bedding is, is, is a big one, is a big one and obviously this host has talked about it and so this guest has talked about him. Now the next one. Now I'm going to say about this next one. I got to give a bit of context as a coffee drinker, as a, as somebody that loves and needs to operate and human on a bit of caffeine in the morning. This next one for me is, is key and having a coffee maker, a decent coffee maker with a decent coffee. Now I would add into this in brackets, local coffee, local beans for the win because then it shows that you are supporting local businesses. But definitely a decent coffee maker. Now if you can do the pods, fantastic. I know people don't like the pods for the environment, etc. Etc. Etc. But if you're not going to do the pods, then what can you be doing to make life a bit easier? Now we stayed in a short term rental in Barcelona once and it was my first introduction to mako pots. Those are the ones that sit on the stove. I think for the next four years of my life are my obsession. Now we've got Like a coffee maker. But you know, you can never go wrong with a, a decent cafeteria and topped with local coffee beans. I mean if you can do local coffee beans and just have a bog standard cafeteria, it's amazing because it shows to me that you are paying an interest in local businesses. And again, if you can do a deal with a local coffee maker, wherever it may be, doesn't have to be like on your street, doesn't have to be in your, in your town or your village, even if it's just in your county or your state, then that still shows that you are, you are making a difference. And yep, like Michelle has said in the chat, you can get refillable recyclable pods, da da da da, if that's like your niche that you want to go down and all that cool stuff. So there's loads of options. But there's hosts out there that aren't coffee drinkers which are fine. But just make a note that there are so many people that are. Now you've got people like Bill Faith, fantastic host, amazing podcast, great coach, all that cool stuff. He goes to town on his coffee bars. He has got luxury properties and so he can go to town on them, but he gets people talking about his coffee bars online because of what they do when they go the that extra mile. So it is important and obviously don't rule out the tea drinkers. Having a nice selection of air obviously goes a long way. Now this is, this is, this is a big one and again I've witnessed this personally, I see it so many times and others do too. So there's obviously a lot of people that don't require you to clean when you check out because you've got the cleaning company that come in and do it and you charge for that. But there are a lot do okay and it's fine either way. But if you're going to require your guests to clean, you've got to make sure that you give them the necessary items to do. So there's nothing more annoying than being expected to clean and then having to go do a shop for said items to, to, to clean. And this has been as if this is being picked up here. So if he's picking it up on it, you're guests picking up on it and you can pick up on it and you know that you need to do. And a lot of the times it is just a little simple making sure you've got the necessary items, it can be done on your checklist, etc. Etc. So again, it's an important one. Make sure that you, that you do do that. Now, I did add the context to this whole blog was about digital nomads and the next one is not going to be a surprise to anybody. But hosts that don't prioritize fast WI fi will lose out on many guests. And you know, this is going to be more important because of the, the, the surge in digital nomadism. But also as well, you've got to look at what the, what the big OTAs are doing, for example, now with Airbnb. With Airbnb now they are going to sooner rather than later in the filter, be able to filter their results based on the speed of your WI Fi. So right now you can go into all of your properties, load up the app and run a speed test on the Airbnb app and it will then rank how good your WI fi is. Now, it is definitely to your benefit if you've got quick WI fi to show off and talk about this, because so many people are looking for it. And with Tesla and with Starlink that is coming even now, people that are in rural locations with crappy WI fi can have a solution to this. And I've seen it in the local area of where I live in the uk, even people that don't have any WI fi can now get really quick WI fi and you've got to talk about it because people need and want it and demand it. It's no longer an added benefit, is a requirement, is as a requirement as having good pillows is having good WI Fi. And you know, whether that pains for you to think of that or not, then it needs to be because there's so many people like this chap who are now living and working, working and living and you know, whatever your niche may be, however long you stay in this business for, if you're just getting started, the generation Z, which is the next generation down, which are now 25 and under, they have grown up in a world where WI fi has been super quick forever. They've grown up with tablets in their hand and they need to, and they need and demand it. So if WI fi isn't an option or, or if you've got less than say 30 megabyte speed at present, download, upload, how can you fix that? Look at Starlink, look at these other solutions that are out there and if and when you do, and you know that others in your area don't have good WI fi speeds, good decent Internet speeds, download and upload, then talk about it, rave about it, put it in the title of your listing, talk about it on your website, mention it in your social media posts and get other people to talk about it as well, because there'll be a knock on effect 100%. Okay, so we've gone through, if you're joining late, so Melanie joining in and a few of us that are joined in. We're talking about the biggest mistakes that hosts make with their properties. For example, the chapter we're talking about here is documented. 8 We've gone through hosts that don't provide cookware, good pillows and bedding, coffee maker hosts asking for a clean place, but don't provide the items, and then WI fi. Now the next one, which is actually the final one in this little podcast is, and I've seen it so many times, especially for those who are maybe in apartment blocks, X, Y and Z. Hosts that don't provide clear instructions or are not communicative will make the entire stay stressful. Now, the one that obviously hits home the most is arrival. We had the situation a year ago. We arrived in Andorra and anybody who's ever been to Andorra, been to one of the main sort of locations in Andorra is it's all apartment blocks, it's all very crappy parking and we had zero instructions on how to find the apartment number. We had, obviously the three boys, me and Laura. It was a very long drive from southern Spain to where we were and we tried to contact the host. It was just an awful experience. Crappy, crappy, crappy experience. Right. And so if you properly have dialed in digital guidebooks into your business, touch day, hostfully, etc, and if you have members of your staff that are available to communicate to, I mean, if you haven't grown a team yet, or if you're not interested in growing a team, obviously it's going to fall back to you. But how? If you have grown your team and your plan is to grow your team and you know, you've obviously studied who, not how, and clockwork and all those cool things, those cool books, then somebody that is able to help and to communicate with it just makes that guest experience so much better. And if you do it better than everybody else, then you will get the reviews, you will get the five stars, you will get the feedback, you will get the recommendations. Now if you're currently not got a digital guidebook, please do get one. If you're, or if you're not currently using something like Dove, which has those automated messages that got all hospitable, then I really do recommend it, even to the point of where if you can just record a quick video. So grab a gimbal, which is just makes it Steadicam, grab your phone, put it attached to one of these gimbals and just do a walkthrough from where the car park is to where the property is. And it can work in so many different ways. You can use it for check in, you can use it for social media. I stayed at a place down in Cornwall this summer and until I arrived, I never realized how close the property was to the, to the, to the port, to the beach and also to the parking lot and all it literally was. We grabbed the camera, we walked on a gimbal, we sped it up and it documented it really. And it went on TikTok. It went, it did really well on TikTok, but it's also used in the, in the digital guidebooks as well. So it's a simple things to do how you can use video, written word, etc. To help with this. So it's just like anything. I obviously come from a sports background, sports coaching background. And I always say the team that provides the best communication will win timeout. If you, every single time. If you've got better communication and it comes into business as well, if you clearly communicate with your guest, then you will have less headaches. Those headaches that we're talking about. And everybody can think about it now, the 11 o' clock ring at night saying, hey, I can't get into the property. What's the code? You could clearly communicate that. Then it eliminates that 99% of the time there's always going to be the that 1%. So this is where I throw it over to you right now. And if you want to go check out this blog, it is a good one. Go onto the insider.com and type in host Airbnb host. Common mistakes I throw over to you now. What are the biggest mistakes that you see other hosts making? Again, don't name them, don't name them outright, please. But just sort of what have you experienced along the way? We've got a few here saying that tea and coffee not being supplied. Places are not clean. That's just a big one. Lights that don't work, towels that are too small. Michelle's hubby is 6 foot 2. I'm a fellow Tali and yeah, I can definitely relate to that. Let us know again what your biggest mistakes that you see hosts making. Leave it in the chat because this is, this is something that we can, we can bounce off. So whether you're watching on YouTube or Facebook or wherever. Leave it in the comments and we can, we can help this situation so you never have a crappy review again. As always, my name is Mark Simpson Given host the tools, the tactics, the training and the confidence to go increase their direct bookings. Thank you so much for stopping by and for tuning in. And if you could do me a massive favor and just share this video or share the link to the audio with a friend in a Facebook group and just try and spread the word of the book direct movement that we are we are creating here over 500 episodes. We've got some amazing news coming up very, very soon, some big announcements and some all of the cool things that are going to be going on A podcast is out every single Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So we've got all of the content to really help you drive your direct bookings, drive more profits and cut down on your over reliance on Airbnb and all those things. But for now, stay proactive. Don't be reactive. Let's go and get some diet.

Bookings. Having a blast. Going to get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee because it's so hard and the tea is loosely making up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.