Business

Airbnb Guests: Naughty or Nice?

The most helpful mindset for an Airbnb host

Sound Familiar?

Pesky Problem

Your mind fixates on the naughty list.

Imagine you’re Santa. (Feel free to picture the hat, the red velvet suit, the reindeer. After all, it’s that time of year!) Now, as Santa, we’d bet that you could very quickly rattle off the names of this year’s guests who landed on your naughty list. You probably don’t even need to check your paper copy (or the app.) Bad apples are exceedingly easy to remember.

Hosting the occasional bad apple isn’t the problem. Frankly, it’s probably inevitable. The problem is when your mind fixates on the naughty list, ruminating in loops about worst case scenarios. If you see those bad apples every time a new set of guests arrive at your place, the fun of hosting gets zapped completely.

Let's Try This

Bite-Size Solution

Cultivate a “guests are good” mindset.

As we’ve interviewed exceptional hosts, again and again we’ve been surprised by how much they underscore the quality of their guests. Just how wonderful their guests have been. So thoughtful. So kind. Is this a coincidence? We think not. These hosts think that most guests are good. And so that’s what they see. So often, we see exactly what we expect.

And interestingly, cultivating this “guests are good” mindset doesn’t just benefit your guests. (Although it definitely does. Believe us, folks can feel it when a host has a low trust baseline. We get that How can I possibly be in trouble already? feeling during the first exchange or two. It’s palpable.)

In the end, it’s most beneficial to you. The happiest hosts are always the ones who are fundamentally focused on all that can go right. Sure, if you open your door 100 times, there’s going to be a bad apple somewhere in that bunch. But the vast majority of guests are good. And the joy of hosting is all wrapped up in welcoming those good guests. There’s no reason to ruin all the stays by perpetually wondering if this is when the bad apple shoe is going to drop. That would take all the fun out of this hosting adventure. And remember, it is meant to be fun!

5 Minutes

Here's Your First Step

Look at this year’s data and make your list.

Still skeptical? If so, look at your data and make your list! Do a back-of-the-envelope review of the year. Make a nice column and a naughty column. Then tally up this year’s stays. What’s your ratio? We’d guess that your good guests overwhelmingly outweigh the bad. (And on the off chance that’s not the case, it’s time to adjust your listing to discourage disrespectful guests from booking. Remember, good listings turn away the wrong potential guests just as effectively as they hook the right guests.)

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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.