Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges With SevenStays

Airbnb has revolutionised the short-term rental market by providing a platform for property owners to rent out their homes, apartments, or rooms to travellers. While this has opened up new income opportunities for hosts, it also presents a unique set of challenges. This article will delve into various Airbnb hosting challenges and provide actionable solutions for overcoming them. With proper planning and execution, you can turn your property into a successful and profitable Airbnb venture.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Furnishing Your Rental Property

The Problem: Choosing the Right Furniture & Creating a Welcoming Atmosphere

Guests often choose Airbnb over hotels for a more personal and home-like experience. As a result one of the main Airbnb hosting challenges that hosts can face is selecting the appropriate furniture for their property. Comfort, durability, and style are essential factors to consider, since hosts will be looking for comfort and style, and items with low durability will need replacing sooner – impacting your profits.

The SevenStays Solution

Our team of experts can help you to create a welcoming atmosphere in a number of ways. We’ve been working in this industry for many years, so as a result we know what guests want, and we can use that experienced, expert eye to advise you on everything from interior design cues to the items in your kitchen cupboards. Together, we can ensure that your property delivers what your guests are looking for.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Guest Relations & Communication

The Problem: Handling Complaints and Issues Appropriately

Effective communication with your guests is crucial for a positive hosting experience. Your rental property is essentially a business, so you need to address guest complaints and resolve issues to a professional standard – however, this qualifies for our list of Airbnb hosting challenges because the vast majority of hosts will not have any training or experience to help them provide the professional standard of customer service that many guests expect.

The SevenStays Solution

The situation is different when you get the SevenStays team to handle your guest communications, however. Our team of experts are fully trained and ready to respond promptly to inquiries and messages from potential and confirmed guests. We’ll be friendly and approachable at all times, listen carefully to the guest’s concerns and empathise with their feelings. When necessary, we’ll also take responsibility for any problems and apologise sincerely, before offering a reasonable solution to rectify the issue.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Creating Your Listing

The Problem: Writing an Engaging Description

Also on our list of known Airbnb hosting challenges is putting together a top-quality listing. Even worse, this one could be seen as two Airbnb hosting challenges rather than one, since a great listing requires both finely-crafted text and quality images to work together as one. However, with SevenStays support on your side there’s no need to worry, as we can help you with both elements of this equation.

The SevenStays Solution

A well-crafted listing can make your property stand out from the competition, and once again we have both the talent and experience to provide you with the perfect prod that will draw prospective guest to your listing, and entice them to book. In order to create an engaging description of your property, our team will:

• Highlight unique features and amenities of your property.
• Use descriptive language to paint a vivid picture of the guest experience.
• Keep the information concise, accurate, and easy to read.

The problem: Capturing Stunning Photos

High-quality photos are just as crucial to your listing as your written description – and since as the old adage goes ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, arguably even more so.

The SevenStays solution

In this area, support from the SevenStays team can help you as follows:

• To capture stunning images, we will use a high-resolution camera or hire a professional photographer.
• Take photos in natural light and ensure each room is well-lit.
• Capture multiple angles of each space and include close-ups of special features.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Setting Your Rental Rates

The Problem: Determining Your Base Price

Setting the right rental rate is one of the most critical Airbnb hosting challenges that new hosts face. Set your rates too high and you risk losing money by missing out on bookings, set them too low, and you won’t be earning as much as you should be per booking. What you need on your side is experience – and when you partner with SevenStays, you get exactly that.

The SevenStays solution

Our team have all of the industry experience and knowledge that you need in order to set your base rate at an appropriate level. We know how to research comparable properties in your area to gauge market rates while also considering your property’s size, location, and amenities in order to determine what your base rate should be. Even better, when we make our calculations, we also factor in your costs – such as utilities, cleaning, maintenance and more – to ensure that your property remains profitable.

The Problem: Implementing Dynamic Pricing

If you really want to make the most of your property however, maintaining one flat base rate throughout the year just isn’t going to cut it – you need to use dynamic pricing – but doing so introduces Airbnb hosting challenges of its own. You’ll need to understand how demand fluctuates throughout the year in your location, what drives the more gradual changes in that demand, and what special events may cause demand to spike or fall away suddenly.

The SevenStays solution

Our team will conduct in-depth research into your property and its location to understand what drives demand in your area and why. We’ll monitor local events and adjust prices accordingly, enabling you to capitalise on increased demand to the fullest extent. In addition, when times aren’t so great we’ll again adjust prices – this time to offer discounted rates and attract bookings. Lastly, all of this can be done in conjunction with Airbnb’s Smart Pricing tool or third-party pricing tools to automate price adjustments.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Maintaining a Spotless Space: Property Cleaning & Laundry

The problem: Property Cleaning

A clean and well-presented property is vital for guest satisfaction. However, one of the challenges hosts face is simply finding the time to do all the extra housework that comes with owning a short-let property in addition to your own home. Once again however, our team is on hand to help out.

The SevenStays Solution:

To help you maintain a spotless space for guests to stay in, our professional cleaning team will:

• Create a cleaning checklist to ensure all areas are addressed
• Use high-quality cleaning products for a thorough deep clean
• Report back on the state in which the property was left by the last visitor – helping you identify potential problem guests

The Problem: Managing Laundry

Likewise, extra laundry is one of the other necessary evils of Airbnb hosting. Each new guest that visits will expect fresh, clean sheets after all, and as the host, it’s up to you to provide them – unless you have the SevenStays team on your side!

The Sevenstays Solution

As part of their cleaning duties, the SevenStays cleaning team can also handle your rental property’s laundry requirements, and make sure that all the laundry products needed to meet those requirements are in stock at your property. Lastly, there’s no need to worry about making all those beds and all the other little tasks either – we’ll take care of that for you too.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Looking After it All: Property Maintenance

The Problem: Sourcing and Booking Maintenance Professionals

Of course, the last thing any host or guests wants is for a critical appliance or piece of infrastructure to break during a guest’s stay. However, it can happen, and if it does, the thing that matters most to a guest is often not what broke, but how you respond to it as a host. Knowing just who to call and when you can call them are key pieces of information that can help you deliver a plan of action to your guests, and give them the piece of mind of knowing that you have a plan in place and you’re addressing the issue as quickly as possible.

The SevenStays solution

Our expert customer service support can help in the immediate aftermath of a breakage or malfunction of course, but as part of our research into your property we’ll also look into repair professionals in your area to ensure that no matter what may go wrong, we’re aware of someone that can put things right. In addition, if you want us to we can also call them on your behalf.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
FAQ’s

How do I handle cancellations and refunds?

We can help you develop a clear cancellation policy and communicate it to your guests. However, you should familiarise yourself with Airbnb’s cancellation policies and follow their guidelines when handling cancellations and refunds.

Should I allow pets in my Airbnb property?

Allowing pets can attract more guests, but it also comes with potential risks such as property damage and allergies. As a result this is something that each host needs to decide on a property by property basis, weighing the pros and cons before deciding if allowing pets in any property in your portfolio is the right move for that property.

Overcoming Airbnb Hosting Challenges with SevenStays
Conclusion

The Airbnb hosting challenges that new hosts face may seem daunting, but with careful planning and the right strategies and support in place, you can overcome these hurdles and achieve success in the short-term rental market. For more information about our services or hosting in general, click the relevant links, or click here for more SevenStays FAQ’s.