But how on earth does one go about renting a room on Airbnb? We explain the procedure in detail in this article!
Have you finally decided to rent out your place on Airbnb and don’t know where to start? In a series of two articles, we’ll teach you how to rent a room, but also a house or apartment on the world’s most widely used tourist rental platform. This post focuses on how to create a room rental ad on Airbnb.
The steps described below assume that you have an account with Airbnb. You can create a Host account on the dedicated page. Then simply select the « become a host » option from the home page.
#1. Choose a general category
The general category of a rental property is none other than the type of property you wish to offer for rent on Airbnb. The platform recognizes 6 types of accommodation in France:
- Apartment
- House
- Adjoining or nearby dwelling
- Unique housing
- Bed & Breakfast
- Boutique-hotel
Once you’ve scrolled through the list and selected your options, you’ll need to choose a general category. It’s important to note that this general category can no longer be modified. As a result, if you choose the wrong general category and your room is registered as an apartment, on the one hand this will lower your Airbnb rating, and on the other you’ll have to delete your listing and start again from scratch, this time taking care to choose the right general category.
#2. Choose a type of accommodation (room in this case)
It’s all about selecting a type of accommodation. After all, in France, a room is a room. In other countries, however, a room may have a particular shape or layout, and thus bear a unique name. Airbnb France offers 5 types of rooms:
- Bed & Breakfast
- Casa particular (Cuba)
- Farm cottage
- Minsu (Taiwan)
- Gite
- Ryokan (Japan)
Same rules as for the general category. If you choose the wrong type of accommodation (room in this case), you’ll lose precious Airbnb host points, you’ll lose in terms of referencing and you’ll have to delete the ad and renew it, taking care to choose the right type of accommodation this time.
#3. Characterize the room for rent
This part is quite tricky too. You’ll need to enter the number of rooms your property has. If you don’t have a property, but rather a single room, you’ll need to select the option 2 to 5 rooms in the choice list, and then select just one room in the next step.
Another important detail: is the room private or shared? Let Airbnb know so they can refine the characteristics of the listing.
#4. Clarify rental conditions
The next step is to clarify the rental conditions. Here, it’s a matter of selecting :
- The maximum number of guests that can stay in the room,
- How many rooms do you rent out in your property? (Remember that in the specifications you were asked to select the option 2 to 5 rooms in the choice list and then select only one rented room in the rental conditions),
- The number of beds available in the room and usable by the traveler,
- The presence or absence of common areas,
- Type (private or shared) and number of bathrooms.
The last step in this part is to give your exact address so that Airbnb can locate the accommodation. The same goes for information about the country, city and so on. When everything is OK, Airbnb asks you to confirm the accuracy of the information you’ve provided. All these steps are summarized in these screenshots:
#5. Housing contents
This section looks at the contents of the property you’re offering for rent. Does it contain furniture? If so, which? What equipment is provided? This is a checklist that you’ll need to fill in before moving on to the next stage:
#6. Spaces for travelers
This is the final step in creating your room ad. At least as far as the basic features are concerned. You’ll need to select the common areas (if any) that can be used by travelers renting out your room:
If there are no common areas to share, or if you don’t wish to rent any common areas in your apartment, simply leave the boxes unchanged.
#7. Set the tone for your room
This part essentially concerns the ad itself. You’ll need to include the title of your ad and a bombastic description of your room for rent on Airbnb. You’ll also need to upload photos of your rental property to the platform:
Please note that you can download the photos later. If you don’t yet have any professionally taken photos to show off your room for rent. Just click on « Later Just click on « Later » as shown in the screenshot below:
The next step is simply to provide information about the property and its surroundings. Include the title of your ad, a description of the property, the quality of life in the vicinity, stores and other facilities:
#8. Prepare to welcome travellers
This section focuses on the availability of your room for rent. This is where you set the days on which you wish to rent your room on the platform.
A calendar allows you to select in greater detail the days when your property is available. To optimize your return by increasing the number of reservations, among other things :
What’s more, you’ll learn about the Airbnb platform’s rules for renting out your room. For example, the information your tenants must provide to ensure a safe rental. Or, for example, Airbnb legislation and the taxes applicable to your activity on the platform:
Now that your ad has been created, don’t forget to add photos and use theAirDNA metrics tool toimprove your bookings and multiply your earnings as much as possible.