It’s every property manager and Airbnb host’s worst nightmare: you go to clean a unit after your guests have checked out, only to find the entire place covered in glitter. The frightful tales of extreme guest interactions and behaviors shared on hosting forums will strike fear even in the most seasoned property managers. While the short-term rental industry is projected to reach $256.3 billion by 2030, continuing to make rental properties a profitable investment, setbacks like glitter bombs provide a harsh dose of reality to property managers and owners. Vacation rentals aren’t just easy money; running an Airbnb property requires hard work, proper safeguards for your investment, and a heavy duty industrial vacuum cleaner.
Most property managers have a hosting horror story to tell, so in honor of Halloween, we’ve scoured the internet for the best ones and rounded them up here — along with how to avoid having them cause permanent damage to your short-term rental business.
A terrible smell — and sight
One relatively new short-term rental host entered her property to clean after a guest checked out, only to be hit by the overwhelming smell of feces. Upon closer inspection, she discovered heavily soiled bedding. Even the mattress was beyond repair. And going from bad to worse, there was another guest checking in that same afternoon.
The hosting community was ready with plenty of advice, with running to the store for a new mattress topping the list, but there are a few other safeguards hosts can put in place to avoid a similar situation.
- Damage protection is a must-have for hosts for several reasons. Filing a claim through the booking channel can quickly become a game of he-said-she-said and can even get you banned from the platform. Furthermore, the arbitration process means guests know that you’ve filed a claim, which can lead to retaliatory bad reviews. Adding coverage like Guesty’s Damage Protection gives you the ability to file claims without any guest involvement, safeguarding your property and your reviews.
- Blocking a full day for turnover between stays gives you more time to clean up any disasters. And while that might seem like lost revenue, it can more than make up for itself in the money — and stress — you save. When you’re short on time between stays, you may be forced to make a more expensive fix (like buying the first mattress you find). And an unprepared apartment can mean a worse review from your next guest, affecting your income potential in the long run. Giving yourself breathing room allows you to recover from whatever surprises you may discover, and blocking that day automatically is easy to do on your property management system.
Liars, cheats, and thieves
A minor but fishy complaint turned into a major ordeal for one host, when her guests first complained about nonexistent roaches, demanding a refund, and then stole the keys to the property, brought unauthorized guests, and threatened the host with a lawsuit.
Even one of those things might be enough for a new host to call it quits, but there are ways to protect your property.
- Guest verification solutions like Autohost and SecureStay integrate with the Guesty platform and provide an added level of security by ensuring your guests are who they say they are and don’t have a prior criminal record.
- Installing smart locks will allow you to control access to your property remotely. Easily change the electronic code once guests check out (or in this case, if they don’t leave), ensuring guests can’t return after checkout, copy your keys, or just become squatters.
The wrong price on a trip of a lifetime
This one might seem like a guest’s nightmare, but it’s a hosting nightmare too. When a host realized she had underpriced her property by a lot when Taylor Swift’s Eras tour was coming into town, she reached out to the potential guest expressing her error. Not surprisingly, the guest wasn’t about to pay three times as much as she had originally booked for, and she let the host know. Their back and forth has led to a showdown, with the guest refusing to cancel her reservation as it will result in having to pay more, and the host refusing to cancel the booking as it will result in those dates being blocked for subsequent bookings.
Making this even more of a hosting nightmare is the fact that the story has gone viral, with Taylor Swift’s vast fanbase quickly identifying the host’s identity, her other properties, and even her spouse’s properties, effectively threatening their livelihood. So how could this have been avoided?
- Using a dynamic pricing tool can help you set the right price for your properties from the start. By utilizing AI to examine market conditions, including competitor rates and local special events, tools like Guesty’s PriceOptimizer can help you price your short-term rentals to maximize income and occupancy.
Booked and booked again
One of the biggest sources of anxiety for short-term rental hosts is double bookings: that pesky phenomenon where your property is booked on one platform and then on another platform for the same dates. And while they may not be as dramatic as a trashed property or a guest who won’t leave, they can wreak just as much havoc. Dealing with a double booking means having to apologize profusely, cancel someone’s reservation, and quickly come up with a workable solution for the guests you’ve left stranded. It can also cost you financially if you have to pay for the double booked guests’ new accommodations, as well as in reputation if it leads to your account being blocked or to bad reviews.
Luckily, double bookings are easily avoidable as long as you have the right tools.
- A property management system (PMS) helps you list your rentals on multiple booking sites without the risk of double booking. While operating without a PMS means manually blocking out calendar dates on every site you list on, a PMS does the work for you, automatically syncing your calendars across every platform you’re connected to.
Whether you’re a brand new host or a seasoned property manager, operating a short-term rental always comes with some risks, and some hosting horror stories are unavoidable. But with the proper tools in place to safeguard your property, you can ensure that those nightmare guests and scenarios are few and far between, and that the damage caused by them is minimal.