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Airbnb Hosting Amenities - Which are the best? ๐Ÿ… ๐Ÿ… ๐Ÿ…

What amenities should you include in your listings? ๐Ÿค”

Which are required by Airbnb? ๐Ÿง

In this week's video ๐ŸŽฅ, I'll run through all the amenities required by Airbnb. I'll also uncover which additional amenities Airbnb requires of Plus status hosts. In the last part of the video, I'll share which additional amenities leave my raving!!!๐Ÿคฉ

Don't leave on another vacation without hosting guests in your home or let your extra bedroom sit empty for any longer! Join the millions of hosts ๐ŸŒŽon Airbnb earning extra income ๐Ÿ’ฐ from their homes ๐Ÿก .

๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿ‘‰Every week I post a few quick tips on my Instagram account! ๐Ÿ“ธ๐Ÿ“ธ Follow me: @airbnbuncovered (https://www.instagram.com/airbnbuncovered

 

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TRANSCRIPT

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Hi!! And welcome back to my channel! I’m Matt the creator of Airbnbuncovered.com and Airbnb super host. On this channel I UNCOVER some of the best kept hosting secrets as well as share with you everything that I’ve ever learned after hosting over 3000 guests. Today, I’m going to run through the basic amenities required in your Airbnb and I’ll also share with you which ones leave my guests raving.   

You’re on the right channel if you’re brand new to hosting and haven’t hosted any guests yet or are thinking about becoming a host but haven’t yet started or have hosted a few guests but want to accelerate your bookings and revenues. This channel is fully focused on helping new hosts gain the competitive edge they need to earn more and to host the best guests. If you’re new to the channel, please consider subscribing and if you’re enjoying my content, please give it a…. thumbs up!

Now, let’s get into amenities. There are certain amenities that Airbnb requires every listing to have. But there are a few commonly overlooked ones that are relatively inexpensive that can really get your listing to stand out and earn you solid 5-star reviews. I’ll uncover those in just a bit.

First the amenities required by Airbnb:

  • Toilet paper
  • Soap (for hands and body)
  • One towel per guest
  • One pillow per guest
  • Linens for each guest bed

These are all pretty obvious. If you’re having a guest stay in your home I think this list represent the most basics things you need. I think Airbnb agrees and they took it a step further when they created the Plus category. Briefly Plus is higher standard of listing. To be a plus listing a rep from Airbnb actually visits and verifies the listing, the host have to meet a very strict set of standards and currently it’s invite-only. You can learn more about plus on the Airbnb homepage.  

As one of the first Plus hosts in Canada and the world, I got to learn the exact amenities Airbnb considers over and above their basic ones. According to them, all Plus listings must include:

  • Oil and / or butter
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Pots and pans
  • A Coffee maker
  • Shampoo
  • Hair dryer
  • Iron
  • WiFi
  • TV
  • Heating and/or Air conditioner
  • And a smoke detector and a Carbon monoxide detector

These are in addition to the basic amenities they outline for every listing.

Sidebar here --- the items I just mentioned are only the most relevant to today’s topic, I believe there are over 100 items on the Plus list. That full list is shared with hosts once they’re selected to apply to the program.

I’m sure you’ll agree that both the basic list and the plus list are pretty bare bones. Towels, linens, soap, shampoo --  I mean you’d want these to be available in a place you were staying in. This creates a real opportunity to wow your guests!

Way back when I first started out, I began thinking about the travels I’d taken and what I’d forgotten. Not that I forget to pack stuff often, but it did happen – once it was toothpaste, another time deodorant and the ultimate worst was my phone charger! 

So I started to look around and see if I could grab some basic things. Amazon, the dollar store and Costco were the answers. 

Have you forgotten to pack something on trip? Leave it in the comments below and perhaps we can uncover another must-have amenity.

So let me dive into what I now include in all of my listings and lets start in the bathroom. With carry-on luggage restrictions these days it can be annoying to get travel sized everything. So I provide my guests with

  • Toothbrushes and toothpaste
  • Mouthwash
  • Hand cream
  • Spray deodorant (men’s and woman’s)
  • Shaving cream and razors (men’s and women’s)
  • Band aids
  • Hair products
  • Body soap and luffas
  • Suntan lotion
  • Bathroom spray
  • Sewing kit
  • And feminine hygiene products.

Originally, I got nearly all of this at the dollar store. Now I get them from a hotel supply company online. For about $75 I have about a 6 month supply. The basic idea here is to provide anything a guest could get from the front desk of a hotel and a little more to make their stay that much better.

In the bedroom it’s nothing crazy other than a phone charger and an alarm clock. I order the chargers on amazon and I get the ones that have 3 different connectors at the end to accommodate 90% of the phones on the market.

Pro tip here – order phone chargers in unique colours so guests don’t mistake them for their own and accidentally pack them. The three connectors at the end also help in this regard.

In the kitchen I also take it a bit further than the Airbnb requirements. I offer guests coffee and tea, sugar, coffeemate, some snacks (most guests are hungry on arrival), filtered water (a brita) and some soft drinks. I also leave any food that guests have let behind that are not easily contaminated – condiments, salad dressing, un-cooked pasta, spices and unopened individual sized food items – like porridge or granola bars. I grab most of this stuff from Costco – particularly the snacks. I get individual sized chips, granola bars, breakfast bars and nuts. The goal here is to provide some snacks and a light breakfast without having to worry about if it has expired or not. I mean I know it’s not the most delicious or healthy but I wanted to provide my guests a backup just in case they didn’t have time to get anything. It’s really just the basics.

And these basics have truly wowed my guests. I’d say a good 20-30% of guests note in their reviews, that they’ve never seen an Airbnb so well equipped.

These reviews go a LONG way in attracting future guests. And Guests like to know that their needs are being attended too. This is a huge part of my success and I can’t stress the importance of meeting guests’ needs enough.

Of course, some hosts take this a step further and offer locally sourced items, breads, fruits and other perishable items. And no doubt this will truly delight your guests. The danger here is setting an expectation that is not always attainable. Perhaps you have time to grab local and fresh items for some of your guests, but not all of them. If your listing carries a review about local and fresh items and then, a subsequent guest arrives to find none –- that second guest will probably be disappointed and feel undervalued. That disappointment could overshadow all of the other wonderful things you’ve done for your guest. 

The other factor to consider here is food waste. As a serious issue plaguing most of the western world, people are simply throwing out uneaten food and this is bad for the planet and could eat into your profits. Pardon my pun. Lol. Other hosts ask guests for anything they’d like on arrival – something for breakfast, a special soap, etc. I’m not a fan of this method because most guests will answer with no, since they don’t want to inconvenience you. I think this is a missed opportunity to “wow” your guests with things they may have forgotten or to fill a need that didn’t exist before their trip – perhaps a late flight caused the guest not to be able to grab something for breakfast or eat supper because all the nearby restaurants were closed.  

You may be wondering about costs for all of this. And I can assure you that picking up a few toiletries and snacks will not break the bank. I can stock my bathroom for about $75 dollars and that will last about 6 months. On a per reservation basis the cost is almost negligible, since only a small percentage of guests actually use these. As for the snacks, if a guest completely cleans me out, it’s maybe $5-7 – but that might happen a couple times a year across all of my listings.

Honestly, investing in meeting guests’ needs is probably be the highest return on investment of anything you do in your listing. That’s right for a less than $100 in simple amenities you will get the greatest return over anything else you buy for your Airbnb. And that’s because your guests will review about them and rate you 5-stars, which will lead to more future reservations and higher profits.

Every host is going to approach amenities in their own unique way. That’s what makes Airbnb so special. Every host has the opportunity to create their experience. The main point I’m trying to make is that you want to be prepared for the guest’s unexpected. Not only is a nice thing to do, but it will sure wow your guests. Wowing your guests leads to more 5-star reviews. 5-Star reviews lead to more bookings at a higher rate and a chance at super host status. More bookings and a higher rate are the goals, but we also want to create a community of welcoming and responsible hosts.

Let me do a quick summary to wrap things up. Today we went over the Airbnb’s mandatory requirements for amenities in every listing. Airbnb really just requires the basics – linens, soap and pillows. Airbnb took things a bit further with their plus program and required that host provided basic cooking items and some more baseline items – heating / cooling, toilet paper an iron and a coffee maker. I tried to impress upon you to take this up a few notches and truly anticipate your guests’ needs. I think you should have basic toiletries, some food and drink and a phone charger. I showed what my guests were saying about these items in my listings and hopefully I’ve convinced you that some simple amenities is one of the best expenditures you can make.

If you’re onboard with me please give this video a thumbs up! And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to my channel and click on the notification bell so you won’t miss out on any of my upcoming videos. All three of these actions go a long way in helping the channel grow within the YouTube algorithm and reaching new hosts. As always, if you have a specific hosting question, I’m happy to help. Please leave it in the comments below. Chances are I’ve either encountered your issue or have done some research on it already. Thanks again for watching and until next week, bye for now.

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