How Many Hours/Day to be a GREAT Airbnb Host?
Is the potential time commitment ⏱stopping you from starting your own Airbnb business? 🤔
In this week's video 🎥 I outline exactly what's involved with being a successful host and how much time you can expect it will take ⌚️
There are 3 main activities that hosts do every day:
- Communicate with Guests ✍️
- Update their calendars 💰
- Prep-clean (when needed) 🧹
Find out what it's really like to be an Airbnb host on this week's video.
👉👉Every week I post a few quick tips on my Instagram account! 📸📸 Follow me: @airbnbuncovered (https://www.instagram.com/airbnbuncovered)
======================================================================
TRANSCRIPT
======================================================================
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.
A common question I get all the time from people who are curious about hosting is, how busy I am? Is hosting actually a full-time job? And for me it is, because I look after 10 listings. But for the average host who has 1 listing, it most certainly is not a full time job. Airbnb can easily be a side hustle or a part-time job for a retired person.
On today’s episode, I’m going to share with you how much time the average host spends managing their Airbnb.
This is the exact type of content you’ll find on my channel – informational videos for new hosts that are just starting out and insights into what it’s like to be a host for those who are thinking about becoming one. If you’re enjoying this channel, please subscribe and click on the notification bell so you’ll be alerted every time I post a new video. If you find my content helpful, then please give it a thumbs up. Each one of these things counts and they give me a boost with the YouTube algorithms… and also the positive reinforcement helps to keep me motivated to create more content.
Being an Airbnb host doesn’t really come with a job description. Airbnb is truly a foray into entrepreneurship. You can make your rules (and I encourage you to do so), you get to decide what is good enough for your guests and how often you want to host them. Ultimately, everything is up to you. And everyone does it differently. Which is perfectly fine as long as you’re meeting your guest needs. Airbnb describes a few things that hosts must do: and these are to provide a safe and clean space, respond to guests needs in a timely manner and follow their terms of reference and local laws. That’s it!
There are three main activities that you’ll be doing daily as an Airbnb host. You’re going to be getting back to guests, you’re going to be monitoring your calendar. And depending on whether or not you have a guest checking in or out, you may have to clean.
So let’s get into the first one. Responding to guests. When a guest submits an inquiry or request about your listing, they’re wanting to hear back as soon as possible. I mean it’s natural. Imagine if you were trying to book a flight and you had to wait a few days to hear back from an airline to see if you could get on or not. You just wouldn’t. Airbnb is no different. So really good hosts get back to guests immediately or the first thing the next morning, if they’re asleep when the message comes in. To be honest, responding to guests’ messages really only takes a few minutes. Responding quickly shows the guests that you’re a professional host and you’ll take care of their needs when and if they arise.
You also need to be “on-call” whenever you’re hosting guests. While this may sound like a lot, it really isn’t. I bet that you pretty much already keep your phone on your person whenever you’re awake. It’s the reality of life in the connected world. The only difference is that when you’re sleeping you need to set your phone ringer high enough that it will wake you. If you’re not a handy person, then you’ll want to have the phone numbers of a plumber, electrician and Mr Fix it on hand. Have a conversation with these people before hand and let them know that you’re starting an Airbnb and that you may need them in the case of an emergency.
Now let’s talk about the second thing you’ll be doing every day. Each day I recommend you log into Airbnb and check your calendar. Check to see what reservations you have coming up? Do you need to stock up on anything for these upcoming reservations? Next look at your bookings. Are you booked as much as you’d like? If not, consider a small price decrease. If you’re booked more than you thought you’d be, consider increasing your price… since your occupancy is so high. You might be leaving some money on the table. The Airbnb system usually provides some price tips to help you and those are normally on the right side of the calendar. Often these price suggestions are low, so use your judgment when accepting them. I recommend checking your calendar daily and making edits to it at least every second day. Edits can be a price change or updating your available dates. Hosts who frequently update their calendar are rewarded with a higher ranking in search.
The last of the three things that you could be doing on a daily basis is cleaning. It might be after a guest who has checked out or cleaning up after yourself, in preparation for a guest to arrive. Some hosts hire this part out, while others do it themselves. If you do hire it out, be sure to properly train your cleaner. Cleaning between guests is different than regular cleaning for clients. The main activities here are washing sheets and towels between guests. Washing the floors, dusting, cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen. Make sure there are no hairs from the previous guests. Your next guests won’t appreciate the hairs from the previous guest. It’ll probably creep them out and cause them to question the cleanliness of the rest of the space. Which will likely cause you to get a lower review. A pro-tip here is to double check that all your dishes are actually clean. For some strange reason, guests like to rinse used dishes, instead of washing them and putting the back in the cupboard. Yuck!
How long should it take you to clean and prep between guests? Well this answer is easier to predict and I estimate between 1-5 hours, depending on the size of your home and the quality of your guests. Sidebar, the act of cleaning and preparing between guests is called a turn over.. because you’re turning over your home between guests. You’ll probably hear this term thrown around pretty often in the host community. If you’re already hosting guests, let me know in the comments below how long it takes you to turn over your home between guests.
Being an Airbnb host is truly a rewarding experience. Without question it’s the best “job” I’ve ever had, if you can call it that. I love preparing my spaces for guests and welcoming them on vacation or work or whatever it is that brings them to town. Seriously, I don’t mind cleaning up after guests. Seeing my places in a spotless condition and shinning for the next guest gives me a real feeling of accomplishment. The 5-star ratings I often receive are just icing on the cake.
I hope that this video has shown you that being an Airbnb host is really quite doable and the time required isn’t crazy! It’s definitely not a full time job. It is instead a completely viable side hustle or something that retired persons can easily do in their spare time. The time required each day goes from a few minutes to a few hours – depending on what’s happening that day. Daily, you’ll be responding to guests and maintaining your calendar. If you have a guest checking in or out then you also have to clean, if you don’t hire this part out.
I truly hope that you enjoyed this week’s video. If you did, I hope you’ll consider subscribing to my channel and giving this video a thumbs up. Both of these go a long way in help me to grow the channel. As always, if you have a specific hosting question, please leave it in the comments below. Until next week, thanks again for watching.
