Tips on Attracting Airbnb Customers

I was so excited to start working at a large Tech Company in the Bay Area, but I didn’t want to MOVE to the Bay Area. My family and community all lived a few hours away and I had just gotten out of a traumatizing lease in San Francisco. So I decided instead to commute to the Bay Area during the work week and stay at various Airbnbs or hotels. Needless to say I have quite a few thoughts on Airbnbs and hotels in the Bay Area and have picked up some tips based on my background and discussions with Airbnb hosts.

Let me tell you a little more about the kind of Airbnb guest I try to be:

  • Always try to pick up after myself even during the week that I am staying there

  • Mostly keep to myself especially after long workdays

  • Usually ate dinner at my company, at a restaurant, or lived off snack bars, cheese sticks, and pita chips since I didn’t like cooking in other people’s homes

  • Value cleanliness

  • Faith-centered so I try not to break or damage other people’s things and also not to steal

If you are an Airbnb host and you are looking for customers similar to me I have some tips on how to attract customers like me. And just so you know, if you are new to Airbnb I have heard from Airbnb hosts who have had some really tough customers who weren’t clean and did damage some things in the room. Everybody is different and I’m willing to share what I looked for when choosing an Airbnb room.

I want to preface these tips with the understanding that for many people and Airbnb is an alternative to a hotel room. Here are the accommodations I can usually expect from the hotel rooms (*pre-covid) I would consider as an alternative:

  • Location

    • Close to my work or downtown

  • Parking

  • Square footage

    • Guests can expect a certain standard size room as a living space

  • Privacy

    • Locked door

    • Private bathroom

    • The option to ask that the cleaning service not come during the week for additional privacy

  • Clean room and bathroom

    • Vacuumed

    • Hard surfaces wiped down

    • Clean trash cans

  • Clean Sheets and towels

    • The option to ask for new sheets and towels if it looks like the sheets and towels are not clean

  • Pest controlled living environment

  • Heating system / cooling system

  • Iron and ironing board

  • Closet with hangers

  • Dresser

  • Desk and chair

  • TV

  • Soap and shampoo

  • Wifi sometimes free

  • Breakfast either complimentary or for purchase

  • Coffee maker

    • Or coffee available in the lobby

  • Mini fridge (ideally)

  • Microwave (ideally)

Pricing is important to me and if the an Airbnb is too expensive compared to the value it offers I have no problem staying at a hotel instead. Guests like me may consider an Airbnb if it has all of the options above and is cheaper or has all of the options above for the same price plus additional accommodations. It does not make sense to price an Airbnb the same as a hotel without all of the same accommodations as a hotel.

I would usually find decently priced Airbnbs but I quickly had to read between the lines to find rooms that fit my preferences. See my tips below to see what made an Airbnb make or break for me!

  • Clean the room!

The first thing that I learned really quickly was that if the host asks for you to pay a cleaning fee that does not mean that they actually clean the room. Some hosts believed that if they didn’t leave their own things lying around that was clean. Those hosts did not vacuum, wipe down any hard surfaces, and in some cases didn’t even change the sheets or the towels. Other hosts I believe just didn’t feel like cleaning and believed that guests wouldn’t notice; well guests DO notice when rooms are not clean.

These same hosts would enter a comment like “clean room” in the description and uploaded photos of a time long ago when the room looked clean (even though it wasn’t anymore). It wasn’t enough to rely on the description on the photos so I had my own strategy of confirming if a room was clean: before booking the room I would ask hosts if the room was actually cleaned. Hosts would usually respond indignantly that the room was sparkling clean even though probably 30% of those hosts did not actually provide a clean living space.

Finally, Airbnb provided a section where hosts can confirm that they have a professional cleaner come by and clean the room. Even though this was also probably only 70% accurate, it was still a great resource when choosing the room I wanted to stay in.

My suggestion: actually have the room professionally cleaned or professionally clean it yourself. This includes: vacuuming, wiping down hard surfaces with a cleaning agent, cleaning the sink, shower, and toilets with cleaning agents, taking out the trash, and providing recently washed towels and sheets. Cleanliness was one of the most important things to me so please note that I did not go back to an Airbnb that wasn’t cleaned.

  • Provide Pest Control

In addition to cleaning the Airbnb, PLEASE make sure that you have invested in appropriate pest control. I stayed at a number of Airbnbs who all claimed to be “clean” and who openly had cockroaches and other pests scurrying around. This is highly unsanitary. Even if you don’t think you have a pest problem, I recommend hiring an expert to come through at least once a year to spray the area you provide to paying guests with pest control. Having a pest problem is right up there with cleanliness for me when choosing an Airbnb.

  • Provide Privacy

Traveling alone as a female privacy was very important to me. Having a lock on the door for your guest is important in providing a sense of safety. Yes, I’m sure you claim that “you won’t go into the room while the guest is there” but just provide the guest with some sort of confidence in that promise. 

Some Airbnb hosts liked to go into the room during the day and move things around. This severely limited my personal sense of privacy especially if I wasn’t told in advance that the host would be entering the room and why. I personally preferred when the host did not enter the room at all and simply responded to any needs I had if I asked.

This last point on privacy you would think goes without saying but apparently quite a few stories were published on Airbnb hosts having hidden cameras in their guests rooms. A hidden camera is obviously not ok, ever.

  • Provide a mini fridge or some small space in your fridge

I really valued when hosts had the foresight to think, “wait a second, if someone is paying to stay at my house for a week then she probably has to eat something, it really wouldn’t make sense to expect her to rely on dry, packaged snacks to eat.”

I had a pretty easy routine for food and morning coffee that didn’t take up a lot of space and was easy to accommodate. I would mostly eat kind bars, hummus and pita chips, and cheese sticks, and have some juice and iced coffee in the morning to wake up. For me, these were all necessities so I would ask ahead of time if hosts could accommodate this and I usually didn’t have a problem. 

I would generally try to avoid any host who unreasonably mentioned in the room description that guests had no access to the kitchen while also not providing a mini fridge. I’m not sure if those hosts just didn’t put two-and-two together, that paying customers should reasonably be accommodated for food and drinks during their stay, but it definitely deterred me from staying with them.

  • Provide Room to Store luggage or otherwise price appropriately

Most Airbnbs I stayed at had a living space that was about a quarter of the size of a standard hotel room, which means, there was literally no place to put my personal belongings. In these instances, hosts should make a note of the small space and provide a price discount for the lack of living space. I tried to avoid staying in small rooms that were priced to high.

  • Provide WIFI (TV was optional for me)

I believe that most if not all of the places I stayed at provided Wifi so the rooms I stayed at provided this at least. Wifi is important in today’s day and age so don’t avoid providing this to your guests.


Overall, it’s important as an Airbnb host to understand that the person staying in your home is a paying customer. If someone is paying you that means that a transaction is taking place and a certain level of value is expected. Some hosts forget that they are selling a service and try to avoid providing the amenities that guests are willing to purchase in their stay. Try not to lose sight of your guests point of view or you may lose some customers who otherwise would have been willing to come back for another stay.

*Note: this is part 1 of a series of articles I will be posting on Airbnbs. If you have an Airbnb or are thinking of starting an Airbnb check out my course Prioritizing Profit for your Airbnb

Additional Resources

Disclaimer

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is provided with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering any kind of personal or professional services in this publication. The reader should consult with a competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this publication or drawing inferences from it. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal, professional, or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of use and application of any of the contents of this publication.

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