The first and very risky decision was to put 2 queen in one studio room. No one in my area had it before and of course now people copy me :) My heart was beating fast when I took the risk, but I was believing that I follow the rule MAXIMIZE your space. And it worked.
Considering that I am in Asia and families are big here, many people started to book. Foreigners were also not left behind, because many travel in a group or with kids, and it's CHEAPER for them to stay in one place, yet to have a real good bed instead of sofa.
The forum doesn't allow to post pictures easy, so I am posting just few ones and I hope you got an idea how the quality was and impression as well.
The funny thing is that my area is high demand, even with this kind of pictures it will be booked. BUT I am getting more inquires and other benefits, such are less questions from the guests, hopefully better reviews, etc. And since the photoshoot was just done, we will see with the time real true benefits of it, but I can assure you, that there will be many!
Irregardless, if you are ready for professional photoshoot or no, there are many ways to IMPROVE your listing (and therefore to attract more guests), I will be sharing with you my experience along with pictures.
Thank you for posting this, fluff, this is really important! I hope all hosts instead of dealing with very bad situations will make extra steps not to have ignorant guest in the first place.
We do the following:
1) GIS - Guest Information Sheet - the gusts sign that at Reception. Since I have several properties and not all buildings have Reception, GIS is available in few properties only.
2) House rules - I am working on them now, so they guests will sign!
I noticed, however, that all of this will not protect for 100%. Recently I had a guest, who attempted to bring undeclared guest (last moment, though we had constant communication), then asked for free early check-in, then left items damaged (blanket and towel, impossible to restore). Since he came from Airbnb, Airbnb paid for damages saying they are small. If that was Booking, then we will have losses (we do in fact have them, as no one is paying us for transportation and our time to buy and replace damaged items).
Things are very easy with Airbnb as they do some steps to identify the guests also. However, Booking has been always pain. I will be sending House rules together with my welcome message with the note "please, cancel your booking if you do not agree to our House rules". They are, in fact, very simple and managable
BEDS:
The first and very risky decision was to put 2 queen in one studio room. No one in my area had it before and of course now people copy me :) My heart was beating fast when I took the risk, but I was believing that I follow the rule MAXIMIZE your space. And it worked.
Considering that I am in Asia and families are big here, many people started to book. Foreigners were also not left behind, because many travel in a group or with kids, and it's CHEAPER for them to stay in one place, yet to have a real good bed instead of sofa.
The forum doesn't allow to post pictures easy, so I am posting just few ones and I hope you got an idea how the quality was and impression as well.
The funny thing is that my area is high demand, even with this kind of pictures it will be booked. BUT I am getting more inquires and other benefits, such are less questions from the guests, hopefully better reviews, etc. And since the photoshoot was just done, we will see with the time real true benefits of it, but I can assure you, that there will be many!
Irregardless, if you are ready for professional photoshoot or no, there are many ways to IMPROVE your listing (and therefore to attract more guests), I will be sharing with you my experience along with pictures.
Thank you for posting this, fluff, this is really important! I hope all hosts instead of dealing with very bad situations will make extra steps not to have ignorant guest in the first place.
We do the following:
1) GIS - Guest Information Sheet - the gusts sign that at Reception. Since I have several properties and not all buildings have Reception, GIS is available in few properties only.
2) House rules - I am working on them now, so they guests will sign!
I noticed, however, that all of this will not protect for 100%. Recently I had a guest, who attempted to bring undeclared guest (last moment, though we had constant communication), then asked for free early check-in, then left items damaged (blanket and towel, impossible to restore). Since he came from Airbnb, Airbnb paid for damages saying they are small. If that was Booking, then we will have losses (we do in fact have them, as no one is paying us for transportation and our time to buy and replace damaged items).
Things are very easy with Airbnb as they do some steps to identify the guests also. However, Booking has been always pain. I will be sending House rules together with my welcome message with the note "please, cancel your booking if you do not agree to our House rules". They are, in fact, very simple and managable
HI everyone!!!
I am here, but I can't log from my cellphone. Ilaria, kindly check. As we run from property to property, I have no possibility to bring my PC.
I was busy with preparing for photoshoot, and it's finally done! Now enjoying endless bookings and inquiries :) Will post separate topic on that.
Warmest hugs M, Leandri, hope to see Michael soon, and Aaltje, Zsolt, fluff and others (sorry if forgot to mention the name)