Hospitality

How to Create Intuitive Airbnb House Rules

Pair every rule with an easy-to-follow solution

Sound Familiar?

Pesky Problem

Your guests want to follow your house rules.

But it’s not easy. Buried deep in your 70 line welcome text message or 30 page house manual is a collection of rules you want guests to follow. And while most guests arrive with the best intentions, your beloved do and don’t list can feel very far away when folks actually arrive.

The intentionally disrespectful guest is an outlier. There’s little you can do with these guests but leave an honest review. But when there’s a pattern of different guests repeatedly breaking the same house rule, it’s time to take responsibility for that and go into problem solving mode. Ultimately, if the space itself doesn’t set guests up for success, they will predictably fail.

Let's Try This

Bite-Size Solution

Pair every house rule with an easy solution.

Quick tangent. Have you ever been in a lazy river? We’re talking about those water park loops where you grab an inner tube, hop in the middle, and just float as the gentle current propels you forward. Sure, you could actively swim or walk in the opposite direction (say when you’re searching for your sunken sunglasses). But you intuitively know which way you’re supposed to go. It’s most enjoyable when you literally go with the flow.

That’s how house rules should feel to your guests: easier to follow than to break. When folks are following intuitive house rules, they’re likely not even thinking about it. But when they’re breaking your house rules, it should feel like they’re swimming upstream.

The best advice we’ve ever heard about Airbnb house rules comes from Liora, a Superhost with an adorable Airbnb in West Palm Beach, Florida. Here’s her brilliant rule of thumb: “All house rules come with a solution.”

Her thinking goes like this: Don’t want guests to wear shoes in the house? Just inside the door, set out a shoe tray to catch dirty shoes alongside cozy slippers to wear inside the house. Don’t want guests to block the garage? Post a clear parking sign with a little Airbnb symbol where you want their car to go instead. Guests will notice the solution before they even realize that it supports a house rule.

5 Minutes

Here's Your First Step

Identify the most problematic house rule.

Think of the big picture patterns you see in your Airbnb. What house rule do guests consistently break? (Or the house rule that, when broken, is your personal pet peeve?) Write that down.

Now set a timer for 5 minutes and think about every possible solution you could provide in the space to encourage the behavior you want and discourage the behavior you don’t want. At the end of your brainstorming session, pick your top three ideas and challenge yourself to get those solutions in place before your next guest arrives. Then let the new experiment begin and see how your next round of guests do.

INSPIRED BY you

This week’s Big Heart Hosting post was inspired by Liora, an Airbnb Superhost in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA. Just click here to explore the full listing.

get social

save or share this post

keep reading

ready for the next one?

bye-bye blindspots

The Ultimate Airbnb Checklist Collection

The number one question we hear from hosts is “What am I forgetting to put in my Airbnb?” This collection is the definitive answer to that question. In our signature product, we go room-by-room, step-by-step until your Airbnb is perfectly appointed and ready to impress. Bye-bye blindspots and hello happy guests!

free checklist!

Even the best hosts can forget a thing or two

Luckily all 15 of these common mistakes are super easy to fix. Grab your copy of the checklist below and dive on in!

WELCOME TO

big heart hosting

we help hosts thrive

You’re an ambitious Airbnb host with a big heart. But on some days, hosting isn’t exactly what you had imagined. Maybe it’s overwhelming. Or isolating. Or just not making the kind of money you had envisioned. At Big Heart Hosting, we’re on a mission to help hosts like you thrive, not just get by. We create step-by-step resources that bring together the best hosting strategies from around the world. We’ll give you the knowledge and community you need to create the joyful, prosperous Airbnb you deserve.