managing nervousness renting our your house
Whether you are a new or experienced airbnb host, it’s perfectly normal to feel some nerves and discomfort when hosting airbnb guests in your home. After all, you’re inviting strangers into one of the most intimate places, and likely the largest financial investment you will ever make – your own home. However, with the right preparation and mindset, hosting airbnb guests can be an enjoyable experience . Here are some tips on how to manage your nerves and discomfort when airbnb hosting.
You need to prepare both mentally and logistically for guests in your Airbnb
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!” I hear hosts and potential hosts talk themselves in circles about all of the things guests are going to do or touch in their homes, and for the most part they are right. Guests are definitely going to do things you’re uncomfortable with or that go against your personal preferences. The important thing is understanding the difference between a real problem that needs to be stopped, a house rule creation like “no drug use or 400 person parties in my home,” or is it just a personal preference like feeling weird about guests having sex on your couch.
Reasons for feeling nervous about hosting on Airbnb
The primary reason I was nervous about becoming a host was that people were going to rent my home, have a giant party, steal a whole bunch of prized possessions, and what was left behind was ruined. Then I wouldn’t be able to make my mortgage payment and I’d be living in a friend’s basement. Sound like a familiar inside voice??
The reality of hosting guests is much more mundane. Guests are harder on your home than you would be and there are a number of factors why that is: They’re on vacation and not being as gentle, they don’t know how to use your things so they’re learning process is rougher, their normal behavoir is different from yours (maybe their home looks like the beat up apartment of a college student (or 20 something?).
What I hear from other hosts are things like: how do I make guests take their shoes off, how do I keep them from touching my record collection, how do I get them to stop pestering me with stupid questions?
Prepare your home for guests
When you’re preparing your home for airbnb guests, make sure to do a thorough walkthrough and identify any potential touchpoints that could be damaged or abused. It’s also helpful to think through how you want the guest experience to go and plan accordingly. For example, if you don’t feel comfortable allowing airbnb guests to use your kitchen, make sure to communicate that in advance.
If you have irreplaceable items in your house, you need to remove them. Don’t leave anything in your rental that you’d be heartbroken if it was damaged or stolen. If you want guests to do certain things like take their shoes off, you need to make it convenient for them to do so. Put a bench by the door and a design-forward shoe rack.
Cleaning and organizing the space
before airbnb guests arrive is also incredibly important. Make sure that the space is clean and orderly, as airbnb guests will expect to be living in a comfortable, tidy environment during their stay. Remove clutter and extra items. If you’re setting up an entire Airbnb space from scratch remember to do the opposite: add some personal touches and items to make it feel more like home. People don’t want to live in a sterile environment and having fewer pieces of furniture or amenities does NOT make your guests treat what you do have in your home better.
Add extra amenities to your short-term rental
This is counter intuitive to managing nerves around hosting Airbnb guests, but I assure you if you have rules you want guests to follow having amazing extra amenities will go a long way in making that happen. For example, you don’t want people to touch your record collection? Have a cute sign that says pretty please don’t use the record player, but if you’re interested in music check out the bluetooth speaker. If you want guests to park a certain way reward them for doing so.
Educating yourself on Airbnb hosting
Knowledge will not only improve your hosting from a guest perspective it will also DRASTICALLY improve how you feel about the process. Think about your first day on vacation or at a new job, it’s kind of stressful right? A few days later and you’re comfortable and a relative expert! When you throw an Airbnb listing up without deep diving the platform and how and what you’re supposed to do as a host you’re taking a huge risk something is going to go wrong.
Familiarizing yourself with guest expectations and how to provide good customer service
Airbnb has tons of support and materials for hosts to better understand the platform and how to provide a great guest experience. I obsess about hosting techniques and approaches so feel free to check out any of the articles I have on this website.
Create clear rules and boundaries
If you have very specific things you would like Airbnb guests to do or more importantly NOT do. Write out a list of house rules. I would remind you to keep an upbeat and helpful tone of voice rather being confrontational. Believe me I relate to wanting to yell at potential guests about not spilling red wine on your carpet, but that’s not actually going to help. It’s going to annoy everyone and not solve the problem.
Making sure you feel comfortable with the guest and their stay
If you don’t feel comfortable with a potential guest you don’t have to accept their reservation, and if they have a reservation you can call Airbnb support to let them know why you don’t feel comfortable with a guest. Make sure you read Airbnb’s nondiscrimination policy so you know you’re on the right and moral side of that policy. Discrimination is a pretty quick way to get banned from the platform plus it’s just the wrong thing to do.
Having a list of items guests should be aware of before their stay
It’s totally okay to warn your guests about certain items or things in your Airbnb or in your location. We have spiral stairs in our Airbnb so we let our guests traveling with children know to be very cautious about falling hazards. I grew up in the high desert and there are snakes. I would recommend letting guests know if there are poisonous animals to watch out for. In the south we have cockroaches. If you have a fireplace that doesn’t work. Let guests know they can’t have fires. You get the idea!
Being prepared for any eventuality
The key here is to be as prepared and organized as possible. Knowing your guests will go a long way in making sure you feel comfortable hosting airbnb guests. Mentally preparing yourself for the fact that things will get damaged on occasion and that’s okay is really important. For some reason guests always break the knobs on my oven. They don’t push in and turn they just turn really hard and it snaps the internal parts. The way I solved this is to order a couple extra sets of them and I just swap them when I notice one loose (which is every month or so!).
Conclusion
Taking the time to think through potential problems and creating ground rules can help set expectations before airbnb guests arrive. Setting boundaries like no parties or no shoes inside, is perfectly acceptable and can even be comforting for airbnb hosts who may be feeling anxious about strangers in their home. Lastly, mentally preparing yourself for any unexpected issues can help you manage airbnb hosting nerves and discomfort.
Good luck!
