Hello YouTube friends this is Richard founder of short-term rentals
secrets.com and Airbnb super host welcome back to this week's question and
answer session as always if you have questions that you'd like to see
answered here go ahead and leave comments in the section below and we'll
go ahead and address them let's get started I want to know how much money
you put aside for handyman or repair costs I know they have a security
deposit and all but what if it potentially doesn't cover the damage
thanks in advance so I think this is a great question I think that the real
question here is how do you pay for repairs and maintenance because the
question about security deposit is really related to tenant damage so we'll
talk about that in a second but I think the real interesting question here for
the average Airbnb host is okay I have this home how do I maintain it how do I
pay for that and the easiest thing to do is to set aside as much as you possibly
can I recommend at least 10% and better is 15% or more and put that aside in a
savings account just like you take money from your income currently and pay for
taxes in advance go ahead and set it aside open up a savings account and so
if you get $100 in in rental income after the Airbnb fees after the cleaning
fees after you pay everything of that money just like you're gonna pay some
percentage in taxes take at least 10% ideally 15% and put that aside so that
when you have a problem like a roof needs to be repaired or a plumbing
disaster or something like that you have money there to handle it in an ordinary
course of business turning to the question about security deposit
recognize that the security deposit is really only for guests damage so if
somebody burns your a hole in your couch somebody opens the door you know the
microwave too hard and rips it off that's what the security deposit is
there for it's for guest damage only I like the video tips but I would never
directly asked for five stars it's likely to make the guests feel
uncomfortable I agree with everything else though and that's what's kind of
cool about this channel and sort of being out there public everyone's
entitled to their opinion I completely respect this viewers opinion however I'm
going to respectfully disagree with their opinion the point in asking for a
five-star review when done properly is to make the guests feel like their
voices heard their opinion counts that you're bending over backwards to
accommodate them to make sure that they feel welcome and that your
you know filled with interest in making their stay great and in order to ensure
that you're aware that there's a rating system and five stars is sort of like
the upper mark of your expectations and you're trying to deliver five star
experience now if I recorded the message and it didn't resonate with any of the
viewers as to like how I go about asking for it that's okay it's not a
prescription you don't have to follow it line by line but figure out your own
script figure out a way that you feel comfortable asking for the five star
review the key thing for me and the videos that have record in the past is
for many guests like a three star review might be great we get far more comments
and questions on our Facebook group and on the YouTube channel about I don't
understand what happened here the guest was thrilled they absolutely loved it
they left me a tip they said such nice things to me we had a great report
everything was wonderful and I'm so disappointed it left me a four star
review well that's why we asked for a five star review because for that guest
that four star review might be the highest echelon of like satisfaction
they're thrilled they love it it's the best thing that's ever happened to them
but five stars would be like you gave them a million dollars to stay in your
place and since you didn't do that it's four stars and so that's why I encourage
everybody to figure out a way figure out your own language figure out your own
script that you can tactfully ask for a five star review suggesting to them that
all you care about is their happiness their well-being their health their
safety their comfort their hospitality is like first and paramount and in
return you're working really hard for that five star review all right so this
this is an interesting question it reminds me of a challenging time and the
question is how did you solve the issue with this challenging lady what this
viewers referring to is I was in the middle of filming a video when my phone
rang and Charles just kept the film rolling okay for you okay they were just
like really upset and just wanted to get out and blah blah blah and so the
question is how did I solve it so here was the resolution I think this person
was new to Airbnb perhaps it didn't meet with their
expectations I happen to think that they read the listing quickly and incorrectly
and not thoroughly because they were complaining about the fact that there's
only two beds and not three where it's pretty clear that there's two beds in a
fold-out couch and I think you know some people you just can't please I've made
videos about that in the past so the way that I try and handle this is I don't
take it personally I get my ego out of the way I don't try and explain to them
why they're wrong and I'm right I just very simply get out of the way and I'm
willing to take the short-term impact of like loss of revenue for peace of mind
sustainability that I can keep doing this time and time again and it's you
know it's a personal like a front you feel like you've been insulted and
offended try and get past that and just sort of look at the deal and if you've
ever been in a situation where you've been uncomfortable or you don't like
something it's really hard for somebody to convince you that you're wrong you
can't so what I basically did was just say okay this isn't a good fit I'm
really sorry that you feel this way many others haven't but if that's the way you
feel let's make you happy you can exit she stayed for one night so we charged
her for the one night plus the cleaning fee which she was happy to do and then
she went and stayed you know some other hotel the basic premise is this was just
a bad fit didn't work for you it didn't work for me however we've come to a
resolution where we have a happy ending you're happy to pay for one night I'm
happy to accept the payment for the one night plus the cleaning fee those are my
costs going forward I'll take the loss you'll be in your hotel everybody wins
so why don't we leave it that way because you two have an air B&B review
and a profile that you may want to stay at other Airbnb ease and I just think
it's best if we keep this between us something like that again you can't come
right out and say I'll give you your money back if you give me a good review
it's illegal on the Airbnb terms and conditions to offer to refund the money
in exchange for like a positive review it's also illegal to offer to refund the
money in exchange for no review and this is where you have to use your skills and
negotiation and human you know interpersonal skills to try and get to a
common ground this just wasn't meant to be it didn't really work out for either
of us why don't we communicate directly between us and let's leave it out of the
public Gai something like that I can't tell you
how to do it but you'll figure out how to do it yourself but it's really
important if you're gonna in this situation to make sure that you don't
give them the money back and forget to talk about this and then next thing you
know you get a one-star review and awful you know feedback like the place was
awful you don't need that give them the money back and move on with your life
alright this person lives off the beaten path and during peak seasons they have
80% occupancy however most people are searching for one night in our area and
adding a cleaning fee to the listing will just bump up the nightly cost what
would you do in our situation or do you think cleaning fees may not be right for
them and I've filmed videos about this in the past but to address this
specifically I think a cleaning fee is right for everyone to the extent that
you are cleaning between guests and you better be then you're paying somebody or
you should be paying yourself it's unfair and unjust and should never be
contemplated to just clean for free are you also cooking the meals for free
I mean no the answer is no right you're providing lodging and after lodging they
need to come and clean whether you do it yourself or somebody else there's some
fee involved with that so I guess the two choices you have are bump up your
nightly rate which may make you not competitive with the rest of the
neighborhood and you get fewer bookings to cover your cleaning or keep your
nightly rate where it is and add a cleaning fee on top of it so now you're
competitive with everyone else and you're paying to get your place clean I
think that's completely fair what that amount is I don't know how big your
place is or you know what labor costs in that area but just to give everybody an
expectation Airbnb has come out with a proposal that people that are cleaning
all of our homes should be paid at least $25 per hour if they're not employees or
$15 an hour if they are employees and have other benefits I think it all
depends on where you live for instance $25 an hour in New York City is one
thing $25 in the middle of you know America is a different thing so you'll
have to figure out what the right amount is that you pay and then what you charge
but I definitely think you should be charging a cleaning fee is there any
advantage in teaming up with your direct air B&B competitors in your neighborhood
I can see the listings in my area that offered the same number of beds as my
listing is there any way we can ever sit gistic partnership you know the only
thing that I would say about that that I see a real benefit to is for all of you
to say like have a meetup or a group where you elevate the hosting standards
and maybe to the extent that you ever have a problem like a double booking or
something you can reach out to them and ask for their help or assistance you can
send business their way but as far as like collusion and prices or
availability or anything like that I don't recommend it I don't see any
benefit those are sort of like you know gray tactics that at best and illegal at
worst but I do think knowing who is doing this building a community
elevating the standards it's basically why we have this YouTube channel right
instead of like me keeping my best tips and secrets to myself I'd rather share
them with everybody be a leader in the community be a leader in my area elevate
the hosting standards have more guests stay in Airbnb ease and have Airbnb be
more successful and if I can contribute to that I win in a small way but I win
and so to the extent that you can do that within your immediate vicinity and
and collaborate and cooperate with your direct competition I think that that's
going to elevate the entire community so do that alright and that's a wrap I hope
you've enjoyed the QA session I would really encourage you to leave comments
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ears if you think this has been helpful
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goal to put more money in your pockets until then happy hosting have a great