Thoughts: First 90 days as an Airbnb host

Alright! My wife and I just hit our 90-day mark on Airbnb as hosts and I have a ton to share. First and foremost, we just gained our superhost status! This means we now have that little badge attached to our listings and we’re searchable on Airbnb via the superhost filter. There are other little perks but I won’t get into that here. During these first 90 days, I can also say that I’ve learned a bunch of customer service skills when dealing with issues or questions that came up during a stay. Emphasis on ‘I’, because my wife discovered that she doesn’t do too well with guest relations 😂. Speaking of issues, we had our first major one during this time when our AC unit died on the first day of a guest’s stay. Needless to say, we put our best customer service hats on and dealt with the AC issue as diligently and swiftly as we could. Everything worked out but it was very costly. This particular stay was extremely important for us because it was our first booking without those ‘new listing’ discount rates. Also, being a minimally discounted 11-night stay, the earnings were eye-opening. It was certainly our first time realizing how profitable this could become.

There were some other challenges that we encountered during our first 90 days but more on those in a separate blog post.

The data

Only showing data from Sept-Oct as the rest of the data can be found in my ‘First 30 days on Airbnb’ blog post.

Calendar

Reviews + Stats

The good stuff 💲🚀

As seen above, September was a massive month for us with 4 bookings, 93% occupancy, and a huge 22-night booking. October looks a bit low because it’s currently mid-Oct as of this publication and we’ve also crossed out a few nights for maintenance and restocking. Enough of that though, here’s the earnings breakdown by month:

First 30-day total: $3855

August –

• 11 nights = $2820
  • $150 cleaning fee
  • -$640 discounts
  • -$70 host fee
  • Total: $2260 * 0.82(9 of 11) = $1853 **Other 2 nights are accounted for in the 30-day total**
• 2 nights = $440
  • $60 short-stay cleaning fee
  • -$112 discounts
  • -$12 host fee
  • Total: $376

September –

• 3 nights = $1080 (custom offer/including cleaning fees + discounts)
  • -$30 host fee
  • Total = $1050
• 4 nights = $680
  • $150 cleaning fee
  • -$25 host fee
  • Total: $
• 4 nights = $1160
  • $150 cleaning fee
  • -$110 discounts
  • -$35 host fee
  • Total: $
• 22 nights = $5680
  • $150 cleaning fee
  • -$175 host fee
  • Total= $5655 * .68 (15 nights in Sept / 7 nights in Oct) = $3845

October –

• 22 nights = $5655 (same as above)
  • Total= $5655 * .32 (15 nights in Sept / 7 nights in Oct) = $1810
• 2 nights = $570
  • $75 short stay cleaning fee
  • -$50 discounts
  • -$15 host fee
  • Total: $
• 2 nights = $450
  • $75 short stay cleaning fee
  • -$45 discounts
  • -$15 host fee
  • Total: $