Tips For AirBNB Hosts

Want a 5-star review? Follow these tips.

Tips For AirBNB Hosts

General, AirBNB  · 

We’ve stayed in more Airbnbs than we can count at this point — across the US, Mexico, Central America, and beyond. Some have been absolute gems. Others have had us questioning our life choices. Here’s what separates a five-star stay from a “well, that was an experience” stay.

  1. Be on hand and ready to respond when your guests are checking in. Nothing — and I mean nothing — is worse than struggling to find or get into your Airbnb while the host is ghosting your desperate pleas for help. We once spent three and a half hours trying to get into an apartment in La Paz, Mexico. Three different security gates, unanswered messages, and lockboxes that all shared the same code (what could possibly go wrong?!). The best experience for guests is having someone meet them at the property. I realize that’s not always possible, but at a minimum, you need to be available and responsive during check-in.

  2. Provide accurate and honest information. This seems painfully obvious, but it happens all the time — we’re told one thing, and it’s simply not true. For example, on a road trip in Mexico, we asked the host if drinking water was provided. They assured us it was. Upon arrival? No drinking water. It was 9:30pm, every local store was closed, and we had no way to get any. If we’d been given accurate information, we would have bought water when we stopped for supplies earlier that day. Just tell us the truth — we can handle it. What we can’t handle is being stranded and parched.

  3. Get all the work on the unit done before your guests arrive. For example, we booked a beach place in Guatemala for a month. The listing didn’t mention hot water, so we messaged the host to ask. “Oh yes, we have hot water for showers,” they assured us. We booked two months in advance. Upon arrival — surprise — no hot water. The host’s solution? Sending an electrician and a plumber out to install a hot water device… while we were living there. It took a full week. A week of cold showers in the tropics sounds refreshing until you’ve actually done it seven days in a row. This work should have been done before we arrived, not during our stay. And keep in mind — most guests won’t even tell you about problems like slow drains or broken fixtures. They’ll just suffer through it and bring your review down a few stars. As a host, check these things and fix them before your guests notice.

  4. Make a house manual. A good house manual helps guests get familiar with your place quickly — its quirks, the amenities, house rules, the surrounding area, and all those little things that aren’t obvious to a first-time visitor. It also helps you as a host. Including details like where the water and gas shutoffs are can save you a lot of trouble in a disaster situation. Think of it as an investment that pays dividends every single stay.

  5. Stock the kitchen properly. I realize that many guests, if not most, never cook during their stay. Maybe they’re there for a couple of days and eating out for every meal. In that case, a fridge, microwave, plates, utensils, and napkins might suffice. But guests who stay for a week or more have very different needs. They cook meals. They store leftovers. They need actual tools, not just a countertop and a dream. Simply having a kitchen isn’t enough — you need to equip it. Here are some essentials that are often missing:
    • A good, clean cutting board
    • Sharp knives (dull knives are more dangerous and more frustrating)
    • Scissors
    • Hand towels
    • An unused/clean sponge
    • Paper towels
    • Napkins
    • Hot water kettle
    • Food storage containers
    • Plastic wrap
    • Aluminum foil
    • Toaster oven
    • Extra garbage bags
    • Large garbage bin (at least 10L)
    • Cooking oil
    • Salt, pepper, and other basic spices
    • BBQ tools (if there’s a BBQ)

  6. Provide disposable coffee filters. Nobody wants to scrub out a reusable coffee filter while on vacation. Toss in a pack of disposable ones — they cost next to nothing and save your guests from starting their morning annoyed.

  7. Provide extra toilet paper. Running out of toilet paper is a universal crisis. Don’t put your guests in that position. Stock more than you think they’ll need. Then add a couple more rolls.

  8. Every toilet should have a plunger. This one is non-negotiable. No guest wants to be the person who has to ask for a plunger. Just put one next to every toilet and save everyone the embarrassment.

  9. Replace batteries on a schedule. Remotes, smoke detectors, door locks — swap the batteries in everything every six months. It’s sweltering hot outside and we can’t use the AC because the remote batteries are dead? That’s a one-star review waiting to happen.

  10. Test your WiFi speeds and include the results in your listing. Remote workers and digital nomads will love you for this. And if your WiFi is slow, at least we’ll know before we book — no surprises.

  11. Get a Roku streaming device and set it up for Guest Mode. Guests can log into their own streaming accounts and everything gets automatically signed out after checkout. No awkward “someone is using my Netflix account from Guatemala” situations. I’ve seen every possible option here. Ruko in Guest Mode is the bests one. Trust me.

  12. No surprises. Some issues can be fixed pretty easily. Others can’t — or simply won’t be, because the host doesn’t want to. Either way, surprises are usually bad. We once stayed at a nice place on the beach in Guatemala. When we arrived, the handyman met us and showed us around the house. As he was leaving, we asked about the keys and wanted to get them before he left. “No keys,” he said. “But there are locks on the doors. This place is only two years old. What happened to the keys?” “We lost them. It’s safe here, so you don’t have to worry.” That was a big surprise, and it made us uncomfortable, to be honest. I might have booked a different place had I known this in advance. In another example, during a recent stay in Costa Rica, the power would go out several times a day, almost every day. This was pretty disruptive to Zoom calls and would have been nice to know about when booking. Had we known in advance, we could have planned to buy more data to tether through our phones or use our mobile hotspot to ensure uninterrupted connectivity. We only found out about the frequent outages after a couple of days of experiencing them. I’ve also heard of guests arriving at a property only to find a very loud disco downstairs that’s open until 4am on weekends. Surprise! But here are some earplugs, so all good, right? The bottom line: guests are far less likely to complain in a review about issues that were clearly disclosed in the listing. Transparency builds trust — and trust builds five-star reviews.

I get it — hosts are running a business and need to be cost-conscious. Spending money on this stuff cuts into profits. But I’d argue that ignoring this advice costs you far more than following it: fewer five-star reviews, fewer bookings, and missed opportunities for premium pricing. How much do these things actually cost? Bake it into your nightly rate. Earn that five-star review by doing the things other hosts won’t, and set yourself apart from the crowd. Your reviews, bookings, and pricing will show you just how valuable this advice is.