Airbnb guests tend to rate the experience of their stay with a reference frame derived from past hotel stays.
In order to be a good host, apart from must-haves (e.g. cleanliness), you need to be flexible, have clear instruction, have realistic expectations, have good communication with the guests, and also reserve a small pleasant surprise to your Airbnb guests.
What do your Airbnb guests really care about?
Athens has seen extraordinary growth over the past few years in terms of the available accommodation listings on the Airbnb platform.
According to a recent survey, until May 2019 there are almost 9,000 accommodations in the municipality of Athens. It is estimated that in 2018 the city of Athens was visited by approximately 342,000 visitors. So what do these visitors pay when they stay in an Airbnb?
Comments from Airbnb visitors in English are the most crowded and the most important, as review comments reflect the way visitors describe, relive, rebuild and share their experience.
According to the results of the survey, the overwhelming majority of visitors are extremely satisfied with their stay in Athens. “Location” and “comforts” are the two areas most relevant to visitors. This is not surprising as Airbnb visitors tend to use the same criteria as traditional hotels to assess their experience in an Airbnb. The city’s general urban environment (e.g. restaurants, shops, airport, and transportation) receives positive reviews in large numbers, suggesting that the city’s general environment could play a significant role in the positive experience of an Airbnb visitor.
The host was ranked third in the survey. More specifically, visitors are mainly concerned with the help they receive from the hosts, their flexibility, the communication they have with them and the animals that the hosts have.
Tips for creating a more enjoyable Airbnb experience
So, to be a good host, besides the basics (such as cleanliness) the following seven tips can help create a more enjoyable Airbnb experience:
- Create realistic expectations. Some issues such as Wi-Fi are easy to deal with, while others are not. For example, visitors are quite negative about “noise”. That is why it is very important to set realistic expectations to expressly point out that there is noise so that visitors are aware.
- Give clear instructions. Very often, Airbnb hosts are not available 24 hours a day to answer queries and solve unexpected problems that may occur. So the host must provide clear guidance to solve these problems, as the study suggests that Airbnb visitors have no trouble reading these guidelines.
- Communicate. Airbnb services do not follow a specific pattern and this is becoming more and more common to visitors’ consciousness. An Airbnb experience can be full of surprises. In addition to being accurate with your information, communicate throughout the different stages of a guest’s stay (before, during and after) for different reasons (check-in / out, facilities, help) and through different ways face). It is important for the host to clarify the different ways of communication, when to communicate, and with whom to communicate when there is an emergency. In particular, communication about check-in and check-out is very important for visitors to avoid any confusion as it is a very frequent phenomenon that guests may arrive late or arrive early.
- Provide a sense of privacy and security. Airbnb guests value highly their safety and privacy during their stay as these are usually guaranteed in hotels. So, it is a good idea to provide them with a space that ensures both.
- Little Surprise: Many of the little things in hotels are usually not expected in the Airbnb context. However, the provision of some of these, such as drinks, can be perceived by Airbnb guests as an unexpected delight.
- Be flexible. Flexibility, with check-in and check-out, was greatly appreciated by the hosts. However, the frequency and degree of flexibility of such arrangements for others remains difficult, but do set up realistic expectations.
- Friendly pets: In most hotels, guests rarely come across animals during their stay. However, with Airbnb, this is commonplace and plays a significant role as visitors generally comment on the animals’ friendliness that reflects on a host’s hospitality. Respectively hostile pets can affect in a negative way the overall experience of the visitor.
