During your vacation you rent out your house through Airbnb to partly finance your trip, very clever! And now you have heard that your goal should be to become a superhost. What does that mean? And how do you become one? We provide explanations and tips.
Why would you want to become a superhost?
It is of course a great title, but for that you will not spend the time and effort to become a superhost. Fortunately, there are actually advantages to this status. The most important benefits?
- Your ad gets more visibility on Airbnb because it appears higher in the search results. More chance of bookings!
- You get a superhost badge on your profile, so that a potential guest immediately knows that you have proven to be a reliable and good host.
- On Airbnb, travelers can filter for superhosts if they want to be sure of a good host. You will then come up to their search results.
- You have a chance to win a bonus from Airbnb. If you are a superhost for a year, you will receive a gift of your choice. That is a travel credit of $ 100 USD or a photo shoot of your house.
- As a superhost you will soon be the first to choose your own custom url for your advertisement. Read more about this new feature here.
Airbnb’s requirements for superhosts
You will not be super host if you have been doing your best for your guests for a while. Airbnb uses strict conditions for this.
- Your guests give you a score of 4.8 out of 5 or higher in reviews.
- You have had enough guests, so either at least 10 times a guest or at least 3 times a guest for at least 100 days in total.
- You respond quickly enough to new reservation requests, so your response rate must be at least 90% (Click to read exactly how that response rate is calculated).
- You rarely cancel a booking, so your cancellation rate must be less than 1%. That means a maximum of 1 cancellation per 100 reservations and therefore you may never actually cancel.
Tip: to keep your cancellation rate low enough, you can hardly ever cancel. Does someone not meet your guest criteria as stated in your advertisement or do you have a bad feeling about someone for another clear reason? Then call Airbnb and let them cancel the booking. We did this, for example, when someone made an instant booking on an account with only top views and that account turned out not to be his.
Remember that you do not automatically become a superhost when you meet these conditions. There are a number of review moments during the year. You will receive a message by e-mail if you have received or have retained superhost status after such a review.
In short: score reviews of 5 stars
Keeping a response rate high, not canceling bookings and bringing in enough bookings, is the least difficult of the requirements for superhosts. The crux is in the score of sufficiently high ratings. To be precise: you must ensure that you almost always get 5 stars from your guests. We give tips!
# 1 Provide a personal welcome
You prefer to welcome your guests in person. You can hide the front door key in a key cost or under a doormat. That of course saves a lot of time and hassle, but it also costs you stars. By welcoming them personally, they do not have to investigate both the key and your house upon arrival. Open the door for them yourself, help them with their luggage and show them around the house immediately.
Tip: tell them the WiFi password right away. That way you have tackled the most frequently asked question.
# 2 Make a welcome package
When we booked an apartment through Airbnb in Montmartre in Paris, a super nice welcome basket was waiting for us. It not only contained some goodies, but also a lot of practical information about the city. We don’t need that for Paris right away – check our Paris blogs! – but we thought it was a great idea. We now also have a nice welcome basket with Dutch stroopwafels, a public transport chip card for the metro, a travel guide for Rotterdam and the Netherlands and many brochures and (bicycle) cards for guests.
# 3 Write a welcome letter
Expect that if you welcome and show your guests, they will immediately forget half of the information. How does the heater work? WiFi password? Where was the supermarket again? How did they have to check out again? Help them by giving the same information in a welcome letter and immediately inform them when they check in. Such a letter is definitely a must if you cannot personally welcome your guests.
Tip: you can also put your welcome letter in the Airbnb app, as additional information that becomes visible on the day of arrival. You can also put the WiFi password in the app for your guests.
# 4 Help your guests with local tips
If your guests don’t have a nice trip, your review will also get worse. It is also nice to give others tips for your favorite places in the city! We therefore have a list of local tips, useful websites and practical places in the neighborhood (supermarket, ATM, pharmacy, night shop, etc.). Together with our travel guides, brochures and maps, we are so happy to help our guests to get the best out of their time in the Netherlands.
Tip: you can also add your own travel guide to your Airbnb ad.
# 5 Keep in touch with your guests
Your role as a host does not stop at check-in. Keep in touch with your guests in between. Ask if you can do something or if they need tips. If your guests are not satisfied, you’d rather hear that during their stay than in the reviews. Then you can still solve it and make their time in your house better.
# 6 Make sure your house is furnished for your guests
Your house is probably designed for your own needs, but make sure that your guests also find their place here. It is nice for guests if they can put their luggage somewhere, if necessary they have some cupboard space with clothes hooks and they can put their toilet bag in the bathroom. Also make sure that there are enough towels for them and that there is also enough toilet paper in the toilet.
# 7 Make your advertisement as complete as possible
The easiest way to get bad reviews is to disappoint people. Of course you want to use your advertisement as positively as possible to attract guests. But always be as honest and as complete as possible. Are there any disadvantages to your home? Then tell this clearly. Is your house on a busy road, do your guests have to climb six flights of stairs, is there only paid parking in your street or is the bathroom ensuite in the second room? Make sure your guests know this before they make a booking.
# 8 Empathize with your guests
Do not just think of your own convenience as a host, but picture yourself in the role of traveler. How do you like sleeping in hotels? What do you miss or do you like? We also often rent a place to sleep through Airbnb and therefore know better what
# 9 Provide all necessities in the kitchen
There is nothing more annoying than renting a fully equipped kitchen at your sleeping place, but having to buy all the basics. We think it is essential that a kitchen has a good basic supply, such as pepper, salt and some spices, olive oil, washing-up liquid and washing-up brush, coffee, tea and something to put that along. Also don’t forget the towel and tea towel in the kitchen.
# 10 Do everything for good WiFi
We have mentioned Wi-Fi before and we emphasize again: most questions are about Wi-Fi. Make sure the password is correct, that your wifi is of top quality and that the wifi does not falter. Do you know from personal experience that the wifi in the bedroom is poor? Get a wifi amplifier. Do everything for good WiFi. You don’t want a bad review because your guest has not been able to update his or her instagram profile?
