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3 Tips on How to Airbnb Your Place

Adequate hosting is fairly simple: as long as there are sufficient cleanliness and hospitality, guests are unlikely to run into any major issues with their stay. But hosting through Airbnb is a whole other beast entirely. Of course, it does come at a huge advantage: exposure, trust, safety, to name a few. The competition, however, makes it harder for you to stand out as a reputable host. The longer you use the site as your hosting middleman, the more opportunity you have to bulk up your credentials and incidentally leverage your property on Airbnb.

This is an opportunity that you need to seize. Every distinct detail about your guests’ Airbnb experience will make you that much more memorable and recommendable. This could mean anything from bringing humor to their stay to adding convenience to their trip. After all, your guests’ recommendations mark one of your most important avenues towards a steady successful relationship with Airbnb. Here are 3 tips on how to Airbnb your place and create distinct moments that leave your guests impressed and your reviews raving.

1. Always Find The Humor In Things

Every reasonable guest will be satisfied with their visit if everything runs relatively smoothly and there are no unsettling surprises. As a host, you have the opportunity to better any “satisfactory” experience by spiking it with unique, memorable moments. This doesn’t require that much effort: a little personality and humor in some nooks and crannies of your hosting strategy is enough to give your guests a fresh and unmatched experience.

Using humor raises your chance to leave a positive performance impression up to 84%. This is a great advantage for selling yourself as a stand-up host and distinguishing your home from other listings in the area. A dose of your personality can be portrayed in even the most trivial aspects of the stay.

Take your WiFi credentials*, for instance. This is an unexpected feature that you can spin to add character to your home and optimize your opportunity to impact your guests’ stay. Try aiming for something clever and idiosyncratic, like the following

Network: The SanFran Shangri La
Password: FiveStarHost

*It’s important to note that in order to avoid confusion or any disrupt in their stay, you need to communicate these details with your guests before they arrive.

2. Give, and Ye Shall Receive

We’ve already established that the bare minimum is not the most promising way to make your place unique enough to stand out. In order to distinguish your hospitality from other hosts, you need to go above and beyond your guests’ expectations. Catching them off guard with your willingness to accommodate them is the easiest way to have them remember you fondly.

One way to pleasantly surprise your guests is to initiate the cycle of social reciprocity. Psychologically, social giving evokes a positive relationship between the two participating parties. If you welcome your guests with something personal and altruistic, you’ll not only exceed their expectations but also invoke their desire to repay the favor (as in, with recommendations on Airbnb). Think of it as a motion to enact the “eye-for-an-eye” law, but with only positive and considerate implications.

So how do you start spinning this wheel of reciprocal kindness? One of the most effective avenues is through a complimentary welcome package. You can really outdo yourself as a host even with minimal preparation for this added bonus. Consider a package made up of a healthy ratio of creativity, thoughtfulness, and generosity. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy: maybe just a map of the surrounding area, a couple bottles of water, some postcards, and a local delicacy. You can even top off the glass by adding a bottle of wine or a metro card with money for a few trips already loaded.

3. It’s All In The Details

Now you’ve got all your bases covered in special extras that enhance the guest experience, both in complementing their stay with your personality and in supplementing the first interaction with an act of kindness. The next step is making a sizeable effort towards adding convenience to their visit.

Whether or not your property is in a central part of town, or there are accessible restaurants, shops, or sites nearby, you have the power to make your guests feel as if their time spent at your home was as convenient as possible. Exercising that power can be the difference between a satisfied and unsatisfied visitor.

Convenience is actually a major influence on (if not the most relevant factor of) customer experience. Your guests are your customers, and, as their host, you have the responsibility of amplifying their satisfaction by making their experience as seamless as possible.

In this circumstance, you don’t have to get creative to leave a unique impression. All it takes is going that extra mile to make your guests’ trip the carefree, easy, and thus, unparalleled. The key exchange experience is the perfect opportunity to relieve any potential stress for your guests. To eliminate this process altogether, you can opt to abandon keys and invest in a smart or electronic lock that your guests can easily and conveniently open with an access code.

However, more often than not, hosts stick with the traditional lock-and-key system. In this scenario, can accommodate your guests’ time by meeting them at the airport to handoff your keys, or arranging for a third-party to store or deliver the key at whatever time your visitor needs. If you opt for the latter, consider keeping your key at a familiar nearby coffee shop, where you can arrange for the barista to welcome your guest with a complimentary coffee or snack. A simple touch to brighten their day.

In Conclusion…

Each and every interaction with your guests counts, and a good impression is a lasting impression. To succeed amongst the competition, you need to think outside the box when you spruce up and distinguish your place.

Get creative with how you accomplish this and always consider how you can stand out on both an individual level and a big-picture level. If you’re unique, kind, and pay attention to the little details, you will optimize your visitors’ experience while you maximize your reputation as a host.

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