How Keep Your AirBnB in Five-Star Shape

While Airbnb might be a relatively recent phenomenon – and there’s no surefire method is set in stone (as it happens for every business) – the rules are already in place for getting constant high ratings from the users you host every time, which translate into more interest from other people and therefore more bookings.

We’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks to make sure that every booking results in a 5-star rating for your Airbnb. All of the following tips in this list are quite easy to understand and implement but remember that you’re a businessperson first and foremost, so you’ll have to strategize wisely to make all of them work in tandem without overexerting yourself (or spending beyond your profits margins).

Help Guests Feel Like a Local

Remember that Airbnb is also favored over the normal hotel system because it helps travelers get a better feel of the city they’re visiting. They’re guests in someone else’s house, technically, so your job as a host is to help them live out that experience. Arrange their room with furniture and any other element that will accomplish that. Is your city known for warm, lovely sunsets? Put up hanging seats on your porch, for example.

Keep things simple

Your ultimate job in Airbnb hosting is to create an atmosphere that will help your guests relax above all else. Instead of going for overwhelming design elements or a complicated room arrangement, go for a style that invites you to just plop down and relax after a long day. An added benefit of keeping a simple philosophy in both decoration and design is that it’s easier to clean and tidy afterward.

Clean and declutter, always

Even though it’s almost too obvious to include on the list, it bears repeating: Keep the area always clean. There’s no amount of chill or cozy atmosphere you can create that will offset a messy kitchen or a grimy bathroom. A characteristic shared by every 5-star review is the cleanliness of the vacation rental, and any host worth their salt knows this, so make a cleaning checklist for your Airbnb covering every little housekeeping detail sorted by room, and never let anyone see the place before you’ve checkmark everything. Seasoned hosts also recommend hiring a cleaning team to make things easier for you and get the job done with a higher standard.

Nothing is as cost-effective as good quality

Cutting a few corners here and there might be very tempting, and might even seem like good economic sense at first, but remember that everything in the room will reflect your attitude towards guests. If you don’t think a guest will notice a coarse towel or bumpy mattress, you still have much to learn. It doesn’t mean you have to overdo it, either, but people will appreciate simple, understated quality more than you know.

Offer amenities that make guests return

A cursory search for the best, nicest looking Airbnb is what brought your guests in, but they’re probably expecting some other amenities on top of the lovely view. Things like good wifi, high-speed internet, TVs, some food, and maybe even access to a Netflix account add so much more value to each visit. Return visits, higher-paying guests, and 5-star ratings are then to be expected.

Get an investor or a partner

Two common reasons why many Airbnb hosts fail is because they either try to do everything by themselves or because they eventually run short on money even if they score high ratings with each visit. Getting some outside help is good to prevent both of these from happening since you can add family or friends to help you as an additional host to your Airbnb profile and pick up some of the slack while you focus on the big picture.

Another good option is to find someone who has the extra cash but not the time to manage an Airbnb themselves so that they can act as a “silent partner.” That way, you’ll be able to still put in the detailed labor into your guests and their experience while the money for upkeep comes in and you wait to turn a profit.

Tags: airbnb cleaning checklis, airbnb hosting