Industry Conversations

What are some of your best messages that you send to guests that have booked in order to get more dollars in?

hi. Im wondering if people do review swaps?Once your listing gets under 4.8 rating, it can have quite a devastating effect on your visibility. Whos interested in review swaps? If we keep the price the same, then theres no difference except airbnb fee for each host. 

We currently have a doozie of a guest in one of our BNBs and they booked a non-refundable stay with us on March 13th and then tried to cancel on the 20th.  I declined since we are NOT the trip insurance but rather a host who is being asked to refund a . . . non-refundable booking. Fast forward 10 days and the guest chose to travel anyways (as would I since they sunk the cost and it’s a beautiful place) and guess who shows up?  A grumpy goose. They are demanding that the hot tub be serviced becuase it was unusable when they arrived (professionally serviced each week, so what do they mean?)  Reading the tea leaves here . . . this person is bitter due to not getting a refund on a non-refundable booking.  So they show up and have an unsurprisingly frustrating stay.  What will their review say? However, all of this is likely retaliation from them not getting to cancel the booking, so is there a way to prevent a review from being lef

I am thinking of getting a non-disc based PS 5 or Xbox that has a gaming service subscription for one of my units with a sweet gaming TV in it.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Great idea?  See holes?   See something, say something.  

I’ve made an app for my own business specifically to handle inventory and automate supply runs and restocking for short-term rentals. I decided to open it up to everyone and need some real-world feedback from hosts who deal with tracking supplies and handling turnovers day in and day out.Check it out here: https://strcomms.comIf you have a few minutes to spare, I would love for you to play around with it for free and let me know what you think.Important note on billing: The app is currently hooked up to Stripe’s Test Mode sandbox. You can use everything without using real money or a real card.When you get to the checkout page, simply use the standard Stripe test card: Car

Curious what others do to create goodwill right at the start of a guest’s stay?Just to be upfront, my business is around creating thoughtful welcome notes automatically, so I obviously think the arrival moment matters. But I’m genuinely interested in what else hosts do, beyond the note itself, to make guests feel looked after when they first arrive.I’ve been reading through some of the older threads here and loved a few of the ideas people shared — fridge magnets with a property photo or logo and a QR code back to the direct booking site, bookmarks, and even Christmas decorations with photos of the property inside them. I thought the fridge magnet idea was especially clever, because it feels like a small guest takeaway but can also gently keep the direct booking site visible after checkout.For our own guests, we usually leave locally made cookies that are genuinely delicious. If they’ve mentioned they’re celebrating something, we leave a bottle of

I currently have a guest who has used Airbnb twice in 2024 and then booked by home this year. The concern is they left reviews for their host giving them 4 stars and saying everything was great. I believe they are not aware how Airbnb ratings work. How a 4 can be really damaging to hosts. I am thinking of writing something like this on the day of check-out. Open to your views. I typically write my review for good guests and they review back. So far it has worked well. Of course I have also had problem guests (unfortunately cannot avoid them) PS: I am a new host and go up and beyond to get 5 stars. So far I have 16 reviews and 5 star overall, also a guest favorite. I’d love to hear from hosts what you think of the below to send to this guest. Is it too much? When should I send it?  “Thank you again for staying with me. I truly appreciate it.One thing I've learned as a host is that many guests don't realize Airbnb's rating system is a bit different from hotel rati

👉 Priced too High? Too Low?👉 Not knowing your value?👉 Not knowing the market? I want to hear your opinion!

Would love to see any ideas that people are already using!

I’m curious to hear how other hosts are offering Netflix, Hulu, etc. in their units. I am starting to hit the “scalability wall” with the way I’ve been doing it so far.The way I’ve been doing it so far has been to simply have an extra profile under each of my personal streaming accounts. The “guest profile” is named in a way that’s obvious to guests and it sits alongside the profiles for my other family members. My personal profiles are PIN-locked as needed so that people don’t rent movies, change my subscription plan, etc. Netflix is the most forgiving as far as enabling me to use a single account across 5 STRs (plus my personal home). On the other end, Hulu is the most restrictive, as far as constantly booting TVs off and having to go through the “update household” method to get them back on.Once in a while a guest says something like “Netflix/Hulu isn’t working, what do I do?” and I have to tell them to click “update household” and/or to have it send me a cod

Hi everyone — I’d love to get your take on something. One of our cleaners, Krista, recently brought me a small envelope and asked if it would be okay to leave these in our Airbnb after she finishes cleaning. The envelope is labeled “For You” and contains a thank-you card with a small, inexpensive, decorative keychain. The card reads: “I hope you enjoy your stay. A little gift from the clean team. — Krista” Would you allow something like this in your listing?Does it add a personal touch, or could it confuse guests or create unintended expectations? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

New STR host in the Outer Banks, specifically on the 4x4 in Corolla, would love some insight on what to leave as a little something for each turnover. I was thinking a bag of coffee from a local coffee shop or something along those lines? Wild horses roam the beach so maybe something to do with that? Would love any help!

This issue has been occurring for the past few months.Upon new guest arrival, a message is automatically sent to guests stating : “We encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! Please use this code instead xxxx”The problem is that the “backup” code is always the exact code it was meant to be in the first place!Eg: if the code was always meant to be 5566 (the last 4 digits of a phone number), then this error message is sent out to the guests just before checkin saying “We encountered an issue while setting your code on the lock. No need to worry! Please use this code instead 5566”It’s confusing for guests and also unnecessary. This is happening on both ABB and BDCThanks in advance to anyone who can explain and solve this. 

Hi! We are currently using Hospitable rental agreements and occassionally will get pushback from a guest who doesn’t want to sign something off airbnb’s platform. However this guest seemed to suggest we need to disclose all the terms of a rental agreement prior to a guest booking. This seems impossible with the limited characters airbnb gives in disclosing house rules. We currently have listed in our house rules “must sign rental agreement after booking, failure to sign will result in cancellation.” What is everyone else doing to stay compliant with this? 

Hi Hospitable Team,We are an India-based short-term rental operator currently managing around 30 properties on Hospitable and scaling toward 100 properties within the next 6 months.We are building our own direct booking website and wanted to use Hospitable Direct widgets / website integration for property availability, booking requests, calendar blocking, and guest automation.However, we are currently blocked because properties cannot be selected for the Direct site/widget unless a connected payout method is added. Hospitable support has confirmed that Direct Lite does not include payment processing and that India-compatible payout/payment setup is not available in this workflow.This means India-based hosts cannot practically use Direct widgets, even if we are willing to collect payment externally through Razorpay, UPI, bank transfer, or payment link.Our requirement is very clear:Display Hospitable properties on our website th

I’m struggling using Buildium for Long Term Rentals and Hospitable for Short Term Rentals. And have to manually enter receivables for short term stays into Buildium for owner payouts. As many of the short term owners both own STRs and LTRs, and some properties will move in and out of both STRs and LTRs.  Curious what other managers are doing to successfully operate a business that has both STR and LTR! Thank you!

Is anyone using Happy Guest? My STRs are smaller, single family properties (both 2 bedrooms). I am considering using Happy Guest so I can list on VRBO and have accidental insurance coverage as well as a rental agreement. My concern is Happy Guest requires me to purchase a policy on all guest, including my Airbnb guests. I worry about getting pushback from Airbnb guests on the two options to either 1) purchase the coverage for $37 OR 2) put a $1000 hold on their cc. $37 is a lot to add on considering what my price point is and some may not have $1000 room on a credit card.  I have reviewed two properties that use Happy guest and looked through their guest reviews and BOTH properties had an unfavorable review due to having this pop up after making their reservation. Both properties clearly state this requirement prior to booking but as we all know most guests do not read all the info prior to booking.  For those using Happy Guest, what has been your experienc

During the off-season, my cleaners have trouble getting staff who are happy to work on Sundays. If I wanted to configure my calendar between now and March, such that if there is a booking that ends on a Sunday, then block off Sunday night (so it can be cleaned on Monday)… and if there is a booking that starts on a Sunday, block off Saturday night (so it can be cleaned on Saturday)… How would I go about that? In other words, “No same-day turnovers on Sundays”, but only for a certain range of dates. I’ve been blocking nights manually for now but I’m curious if it can be done systematically.

I’m looking at switching over from Remotelock to Jarvis. Does any one use Jarvis for lock management? Do all of the locks that Jarvis supports also work with Hosptiable? Are there group door or common door features available on Jarvis?

I cannot figure out how to get the payout or revenue number with all the other variables.  I’ve tried it so many different ways and even asked Claude a few times.  Claude can’t figure it out.  Also is there anyway to make the cleaning fee and the administration fee be pass through to the owner.  For some reason its getting put into the total and Its adding it and I only get 20% of it because thats my comission.  I need to get the whole cleaning and administration fee.  Thank you

I'm trying to think through how to block off one of our units for a half-day of maintenance, that needs to be done on a specific day.The work is being done on May 12 and will be done inside of our normal turnover hours (10 am to 4 pm).So it's fine for a guest to check OUT on May 12 (10 am)...And it's even fine for another guest to check IN on May 12 (4 pm).I just can't have a guest who would be in the MIDDLE of a stay on May 12, because they would be there during the day, and the maintenance cannot be done with a guest inside the property.Any solutions to this, other than blocking the night of the 12th from being booked AT ALL? Seems like a shame to lose a night for work that’s being done during the day. 

Hi everyone,I wanted to see if anyone else has run into this or has found a workaround.I recently had a direct booking guest who, on day 2 of a 4-night stay, orchestrated a full-on brawl outside the property and streamed it live on social media. Police were called, and this was a clear violation of our rental agreement (no parties, disturbances, etc.).Because of that, I made the decision to terminate the stay. My cancellation policy is no refunds, especially in cases where house rules are violated.However, when I went to process the cancellation in Hospitable, I only saw two options:1. Host cancels → guest receives a refund2. Guest cancels → no refundThis created a problem because there was no option for a host-initiated cancellation without issuing a refund due to a policy violation.In situations like this, I would expect there to be a flow where:-The host can cancel for cause (rule violations, safety issues, etc.)

We launched Inndirectly 6 months ago (based out of Seattle) with 3 properties, vision and determination and have hundreds of properties across the US and 6 countries so far. We're so thankful for the support of the Hospitable community!We built Inndirectly.com as a central hub for all booking options, to help make direct booking sites searchable and avoid all the review and algorithm games and ever changing policies while working towards platform independence!  😊 On Inndirectly you can link your properties with all their booking options including direct and social media and have direct connection with your guests outside of any platform. It's $7 per property per month or $50 per year and since it's a listing site, not a booking site, there are no commissions, algorithms or micromanagement.  Hospitable hosts use coupon: HOSPINN45 to make your first year only $5 per property. 💕 

I would like to be notified if a guest does not check into the home by the morning of their check out date. This way I can inform the cleaning team there will not be a cleaning today. Is this possible? 

I followed the instructions given on the Townhall to go to my Mogul business page to find the banner to take me to my profile to prepare to be matched to potential owners BUT my page doesn’t have a banner.  Can anyone else see a banner on their owner page?  I think this sounds like a great service and I am eager to be considered.