Remedy against host fatigue

[Till-and-Jutta0]

We are hosting since 5 years. It's fun, and work, sometimes exhausting.

We print out all reservations and stick them on a blackboard, ordered by date. This helps us to get q quick overview about all coming guests. The print-out includes the rate paid.

I just found an effectice remedy against host fatigue: If it should happen that I say, that - despite all social positive aspects of hosting - "oh another guest will check-in tomorrow..." a quick glance to the rate at the right time might work wonder. Try it!

I know, we don't do it just for money. Money is not enough compensation for all the effort we do. But sometimes it's a comfort.

[Carrie0]

do you take any time off from hosting?  i've been doing this for over 3 years and am getting tired of cleaning and greeting and repeating myself.  i try to take one month off every year to catch up on sitting at my apartment at night doing nothing and inviting friends over.

[Deborah0]

I think one of my remedies, is to look at my front garden, and imagine it from a guest's eyes.  Someone new, seeing this for the first time.  It seems to always delight me that I can look at my garden newly, imagining it through the eyes of someone just arriving.  I seem to welcome myself to my own home this way.  

[Doug4]

That is a beautiful idea! Thank you!

[Keith0]

Since before Airbnb we always took in guests and wanderers and strays and outcasts. Sometimes it would feel that our home did not belong to us. This is a lousy feeling - that we do not belong in our own home.

So when we decided to get very serious about Airbnb we made a deal with each other. If we ever felt that way we would change something - we would stop hosting for a while or we would get out of town or we would do something. We would not allow ourselves that discomfort. 

Since we made that deal we have not had that lousy feeling. Of course we have not had great experiences with every guest and we are still learning.

But every host has to know themselves and their own comfort level.  And every host has to manage their own comfort in their own way.

--

Keith

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

5 years is a long time. It is normal to be tired of cleaning.

Personally i just do it from time to time. Have a housekeeper. Take holydays every 3 months and is finally thinking about long term guests.
Anything to escape the household.

But when i see the happy face of the guests coming in the place, it boost me to go on.

[Christina0]

I've been hosting for about three years and I've realized that I can make a nice living just hosting for about 10 days a month. So when I get those 10 days booked, I block off the rest of the month.

[Vicky0]

I do the same as Christina and generally aim for around 22 nights booked per month. But if I have guests for one or two weeks that are never there and are no work then I sometimes open them back up. I am starting to view it as workload rather than number of nights as this month I am booked 21 nights with 3 guests which is a lot less work than 10 one nighters! I am loving only changing the bed once per week and only cleaning the bathroom deeply once per week as well! 😄

[Jake0]

I've been hosting for a decade and I can completely understand not wanting to do the cleanings, that does get pretty tiring. For me I don't live at the homes I rent out, so I'm not expected to be there and entertain my guests, which is probably part of the reason I don't find it overly tiring. If you are on the premise I'm not sure what you could do to relieve that, however, as for having to clean your place it shouldn't be too hard for you to have a cleaning fee and hire that job out. That will save you a load of time, I've never not charged a cleaning fee and I only cleaned my place if I had the time and felt like making a little extra money off the top by not having to pay someone.

Is charging a cleaning fee and hiring it out not an option?