Frequently Asked Questions answered by the experts at Airbnb
If you’re a current Airbnb guest, you can re-use your current profile. All of your reviews as guests will show up in your User Profile which may help you secure your first booking faster.
However, if you’re considering listing multiple properties, we do encourage you to create a new Airbnb profile.
You can expect to receive different types of travellers. People looking to book shared spaces tend to be younger, millennial travellers who are eagerly seeking experiential travel. People looking to book entire homes/apartments tend to be slightly older and want a home away from home. It’s entirely up to you!
You’ll want to create a new Airbnb account (www.airbnb.com/signup_login) and create a listing as a Private Room, not a shared space or entire home/apt. Private rooms are rooms inside of a domicile. Feel free to let you guests know what common spaces are available for them to use during their stay.
The higher the quality, the better. The first photo is the most important one, as it helps guests decide to click on the listing (which becomes a ‘view’), where they can ultimately decide whether or not to reach out to you to try to secure the property for a specific set of dates.
Insofar as you using other properties with similar bedrooms and amenities in your area, yes. But we can’t tell you what price to set your property. There are many factors that go into the perceived value of a home, including, but not limited to: location of the property; amenities available; type of property (entire home/apt vs. shared room or private room); décor/ furnishing quality, and many more.
Our rates are entirely determined by our Hosting community. Much like eBay doesn’t tell its users what to price their goods at, Airbnb’s community determines the price for which they are comfortable renting out their homes, rooms and shared spaces.
Great question! Your Airbnb listing will reflect the price that’s set in your Base Nightly Rate from within your calendar when a guest searches without specific dates. When a guest searches with specific dates in mind, the rate reflected will be an average of the total number of nights divided by each daily rate. In other words, guests see prices different when they’re searching for properties without timeframes than when they’re searching for specific periods.
If you are interested in setting your price to reflect your total take-rate (i.e. with the Airbnb Host Service Fee included), simply multiply your nightly rates by 1.03 or 1.05 (depending on the cancellation policy.) If you’re using a Super Strict policy, the Host Service Fee is 5%. If you’re using a non-Super Strict cancellation policy, the fee is 3%.
It is not currently possible to know what the guest’s total cost is. Guests are charged a Guest Service Fee between 6-12% (sliding scale) which begins at 12% but decreases to 6% as the booking value increases.
Guests are paid either 24-hours after guest check-in, or 60- and 30-days prior to guest check-in, depending solely upon the cancellation policy utilized on the listing. If you prefer to receive your funds in advance of the guest check-in, simply email [email protected] to request the Super Strict 30 or Super Strict 60 cancellation policies. Do note that the Super Strict policies are 5% commission instead of the standard 3% commission.
Because of our partnership with PayPal, we are able to accept payment from guests in most currencies. If the currency that they’re paying in is different than the one that your bank account receives funds, the guest may be charged a FX (foreign transaction) fee of 3%. It will be included as a line-item for the guest.
Any fees related to PayPal would be separate from Airbnb. You will want to check to see what the costs of using PayPal are in your market as they vary from country to country.
The only way to collect non-lodging fees would be to roll them into your cleaning fee and include the cost in the House Rules. For instance: If your cleaning fee is $120, but you must accept $60 for a damage waiver, you can mark up the cleaning fee to $180. You will want to clearly highlight the fees that are lumped into the cleaning fee in your House Rules; if not, guests may not understand why this fee is larger than that they expected.
The cleaning fee is optional. If you do the turn-down yourself, you can simply pocket this cost. As far as expectation setting, it’s always best to clearly mention in your listing what type of cleaning services are provided. For instance: if it’s an $80 cleaning fee with cleaning occurring after guest check-out, be sure to mention that this unit is self-catering and cleaning will occur after check-out.
We already do! We are the only platform online that accepts 100% of the booking value online and at the point of sale. Vacation rental managers typically spend 2.5% - 3% in credit card processing fees; we are happy to absorb the cost of these fees to make it easier for Hosts to list their spaces.
There’s no limit for cancelling, but if you do wait until less than 24 hours before guest check-in, you will need to call 1-855-4AIRBNB in order to cancel. You can also always cancel an Instantly Booked Airbnb reservation if the guest makes you uncomfortable (i.e. breaks House Rules, or says something inflammatory or discriminatory in the message thread.)
Yes, you can! You’ll want to set a minimum or maximum length of stay. There are no limits to the number of unique rules you can apply. Click here for more info.
Yes! You can either block out the dates manually; snooze your listing for a specific timeframe; or completely unlist the property. I encourage you to leave the listing up but block the dates, as this way you can continue to receive inquiries for future seasons.
It’s up to you. Everyone on Airbnb is required to verify their ID in order to use the platform, but many Hosts get into the habit of corresponding directly with the guests as well as reviewing their most recent reviews. If the guest’s last review was negative, it might be a good idea to politely decline the reservation.
You can report this directly to Airbnb through many different channels (Facebook, Twitter, our Help Center, but rest assured that we have a 24/7, 365 support line to reach out experienced Customer Services specialists. The number is 1-855-4AIRBNB.
You can add additional requirements for Instant Book guests. See more info here.
If you’re ever uncomfortable with a guest, you should immediately reach out to Airbnb. We can help mediate this prior to the trip. If the trip is currently in-progress and you’re uncomfortable with the guest, ask them to leave. If they refuse to leave, it is entirely appropriate for you to call the local authorities. Of course, please keep us in the loop so that we can look out for your best interests. Please note that this rarely occurs.
As long as your House Rules state that guests must sign a liability waiver prior to arriving, this is not an issue.
We’re working on it, but there’s no timeframe that I can announce at this time.
Our Host Guarantee is damage insurance and offered in every country we operate. You can read more about it here.
We don’t require any additional insurance, but it is encouraged for you to speak with your local insurer to ensure that your specific use cases are covered. Many insurers today offer homesharing-specific plans for a nominal fee.
We currently offer our $1,000,000 Host Guarantee. This is offered globally at no cost to you. Read more about it here.
If you’re having trouble updating the address, send an email to [email protected] with a link to your listing and the corresponding latitude/longitudinal coordinates, as well as your preferred address. We can update this manually on our back end.
