Hello my YouTube friends its Richard founder of Short Term Rental University
and Airbnb super host i just got back from an absolutely epic morning of
skiing on the Jackson Hole resort had a great time wanted to get back here and
film for you what it takes to be an air B&B Plus hosts a lot of these things are
fairly straightforward and almost even common sense but Airbnb has taken the
time to let us know what they're looking for so these are best practices and I
think we should all do them whether or not we're in an Airbnb plus qualified
city so let's get to it now it's important to realize that this is a new
pilot program that Airbnb just rolled out so it's only available in 13 cities
or so but they say they're gonna scale really quickly I have my own doubts
there's a whole nother video about that but nonetheless here are the things that
you have to have in order to be qualified if you are in that city and
I'm just gonna read them you have to be well reviewed you have to have a 4.8
average rating from guests you have to be welcoming more than 95 percent of
your booking requests you have to accept and this one's key you must be committed
you can't have any cancellations in the past year they've broken it down to four
different categories and we're gonna talk about each the first one is that
the home must be thoughtfully designed the second one is that it must be
comfortable the third is that it's well equipped and the fourth is that it's
well-maintained so let's start with the first one thoughtfully designed Airbnb
is looking for a cohesive interior design with personal touches they're
looking for a layout of furniture that's thoughtfully arranged and not cluttered
they want to see design elements like artwork and photographs that reflect the
host style and personality they want everything out in the open is either
aesthetic or could be used by a guest and all counters and cabinets are
organized in clutter-free finally wires and cables for electronics are organized
and hidden from sight so this is the thoughtfully designed it basically in a
nutshell what this means for all of us is your home must be accessible for
guests to use if it's not available for them then don't have it out it has to
have a little bit of your personality but not too much you don't want family
photos everywhere and at the same time even though you might live in a more
cluttered environment recognize that a guest in your home might find that
uncomfortable so they want us to be thoughtfully - designed they've taught
us exactly what it is that they're looking for and let's just make it
happen the
an item that Airbnb is looking for in the Plus program is that the place is
comfortable at a minimum it has to have an easy check-in such as a lockbox
or a digital lock a keyboard or an in-person handoff so the check-in is
important the beds must be elevated off the floor and they must have flat
mattresses soft matching linens and two sleeping pillows for every guest private
bedrooms have a private bath with a bathtub or a shower there's at least two
sets of plush towels hand towels and washcloths per bathroom and at least
eight clothing hangers and an empty drawer or shelf for a guest to put their
clothing and there must be some privacy in the form of window treatments such as
curtains or frosted glass now if you think about the the comfort that they've
just described it's pretty basic right like you must have privacy you must have
hangers you must have a shelf you must have a bed that's flat and it's elevated
off the ground I mean these are pretty basic standards if you're not doing any
of that it's really time to elevate your game because whether you're a Airbnb
plus host or a super host or just getting started this is bare minimum
stuff imagine checking into a hotel and having you know your mattress on the
floor with non matching sheets one pillow and two hangers you wouldn't be
happy and so that what Airbnb is basically saying is a guest checking
into Airbnb especially an Airbnb Plus host home should expect that to me
that's a very basic low hurdle and every single person listening to the video
should be able to comply with that and then actually even go higher the third
one is that the home is well equipped and what Airbnb plus hosts must have is
the following fast Wi-Fi with download speeds of at least five megabytes I
think that's too low now depending on where you are in the world maybe that's
what's available but if you're anywhere that's urban or in the United States of
America five is way low to a printed house manual which includes the host and
emergency contact info Wi-Fi password and check-out procedures I think that's
a must we've developed our own guidebook if you haven't seen that will include
the link here but it's a great way to comply with that it's really helpful and
really easy to use the third one here is the TV with remote control and access to
entertainment such as cable Netflix or Roku fourth this is really important
from a health and safety standpoint and carbon monoxide detectors are
installed I'm putting hardwired units in my new home here in Jackson Hole but
there's also plugins for carbon monoxide but that's critically important they
want an ironing board and an iron available they want filtered water and a
supply of either coffee or tea so let's go ahead and make sure that we have that
for them if you don't have filtered water a Brita is a great way to go
bathrooms have a hairdryer shampoo conditioner hand soap and body soap now
I think a lot of us are currently doing that and we've had a lot of debate on
our Facebook group page about how best to do that do we use the little travel
sizes or those too expensive and we use bigger ones that's really a personal
preference but since we know where B&B is expecting that in all of the homes
let's just make sure that we do that and if you're not doing that now start to
experiment with it it's really not a big cost I personally use larger units I get
them at Costco or I get them on Amazon it gets all delivered and people use
pumps I try not to make it gross that the whole point is that it's clean and
accessible so make sure it's like easy for people to use and then the last item
here that Airbnb is looking for is that the kitchen has essentials like a frying
pan salt and pepper and cooking oil now this is an interesting thing because to
the extent that you use cleaning services or maids and you operate remote
places you may need to talk to them because what happens in many cases is
the cleaning team will come in and whatever the guest has left behind they
sort of stock their kitchen with it now that's great if it's milk and other
perishable items like fruit and so on like they should take them they
shouldn't throw them away but if there's household staples like salt and pepper
and cooking oil you want to make sure that that's left behind so speak to your
cleaning team and make sure they understand what they can take and what
it should be available for the next guest it could cost you an A or B and
pretty plus rating and that would be terrible the last one is actually quite
lengthy and I think it's kind of use your reasonable standards they try and
outline them all and I'm gonna skim through them because there's many but
they want the home to be well-maintained so what that means is outdoor areas need
to be clearing and clutter-free and you can't have dead plants or trees around
the entrances to the listing must be clean and illumina
the door to the listing property closes easily and locks easily furnitures in
good condition they can't be stains or scuffs or breaks or tears the walls
floors and ceilings they don't have visible scuffs and there's no cracks or
buckling cobs those better dust if to keep it clean carpets and rugs can't be
stained or to warn windows and mirrors are clean and not cracked look for
fingerprints that's a big culprit there or if like in the bathroom area where
people brush their teeth a lot of times it splatters up so just make sure that's
clean somebody walks into the place you want it to look great
the lights work in all guest spaces make sure that you change the light bulbs
walking into a place and having a non-functioning light is just a bad
experience this one's kind of important there's a neutral or pleasant to roam in
every room now recognize this we all have our own preferences so you don't
want it to be overly fragrant don't put too much candle or too much spray that
can smell sort of like you're covering something up but at the same time if you
cook with heavy spices and so on and you love those spices you might think it's
great but a guest coming in from a different part of the world might say oh
my gosh this place smells too much like insert whatever so just make sure that
it's neutral that's probably the best there are no signs of pests watch for
things like spiders and cockroaches and water bugs and flies in the corner I've
stated in Airbnb recently with my children and the place was spotless the
host was fantastic but in the corner there was six dead flies and that just
was a turn-off it just didn't look great so I actually spoke to the host offline
and suggested that he fixed it I think he took it kind of personally but I
wasn't trying to offend him I was trying to help him so just recognize that the
stuff that's in the corners kind of looks yucky you want to make sure that
all the appliances are clean in the kitchen in the oven make sure that the
person that cooked the turkey dinner before the gravy didn't spill out it's
not a big mess underneath there the shower heads faucets cabinet handles and
other fixtures they aren't loose cracked they function right just make sure that
the place works well bathrooms including the medicine cabinet the counters the
shirt the shower curtain they're clean there's no mildew there's free of hosts
person items and the big offender that I've
seen time and time again is hair nothing wrong with hair in the drain just remove
it nobody wants to see it it's a natural occurrence we know it happens so instead
of leaving it there just have your cleaning team or you clean it get rid of
the hair and then there's strong water pressure with hot and cold water
I don't know how air B&B is gonna test for that like how do they quantify what
strong water pressure is but let's just make sure that there's plenty of hot
water plenty of cold water and that it functions well there's nothing better
than a great shower in the morning welcoming you to start your day so we
want to make sure that our guests have that so I think you'll agree with me
there's really no high hurdle here this isn't very challenging or difficult if
you're not doing some of this stuff it's really easy to start doing it get
shampoo and conditioner make sure you leave salt and pepper make sure
everything functions I think this is kind of obvious stuff and Airbnb is just
telling us what to do so let's just make sure that we do it again
to reiterate Airbnb Plus hosts you first you have to be in a city that allows
Airbnb Plus then you have to be invited and the criteria to be invited is you
have a 4.8 average rating from guests you have 95% or more booking ratio
meaning you only reject 1 in 20 or less people that want to stay with you and
then the third thing is you have to be committed you have to be a committed
Airbnb host and the way that they define that is that you don't cancel on anybody
and I think that's really important you can ruin people's plans vacations
honeymoons what it's just not a good thing so I hope you found this video
helpful we're gonna continue to monitor all this I'm sure it will be updated and
there'll be more stuff and I probably think it's gonna get harder to be an
Airbnb Plus host this is the bare minimum as they start to go through this
process I think that the criteria is going to continue to elevate as they
want to elevate all of our games they want the hosting experience to get
better and the guest satisfaction experience to get better and for guests
to start to do things that for personal for business and use us more and more
and Airbnb has been really helpful in being very clear here's what to do so
tell me what you think in the comments below like the video please and I'd
really appreciate it if you would go ahead and subscribe to the channel just
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make it click Bing so they know that way you get alerted when we have new videos
thanks so very much happy hosting here's to super host status Airbnb pause status
and beyond
you