“My Sixth Day” ~ creating the animals

I was so happy today to hang a show of small bowls at Findings Art Gallery in Lynchburg, Virginia.

For the next three months I’ll be refilling a wall of hand thrown 25 bowls, each painted with one of my animal neighbors. I’m very curious to see which animals find new home first!

My animal portraits are part of an ongoing pottery sketchbook documenting my neighbors. Living in the forest in Virginia, all my neighbors are animals– wild and domesticated. I try to capture these creatures’ individuality, and I’m always amused by the personalities that emerge. The process of making them makes me feel more gentle towards them– living among wild things can sometimes feel like a battle rather than peaceful cohabitation, but the process of regular documentation of them encourages appreciation. The reception of the pieces is always half the pleasure of making them– I love watching folks connect with an animal, and then choose to live with it– these are pieces that are meant to disperse into a new wilderness.

The process of making ceramics is wildly different from painting in oils, and the changes that happen in the 2000+ degree kiln can change the personality of a painting or a vessel, and always move a piece away from what I imagined for it.  In that way, the process of making pottery is about letting go, of allowing some wildness. The tension between the very wild process and subject of these bowls, and their intimate resting places in peoples’ homes feels right. Making domestic objects matters deeply to me. Sometimes the things we hold close, in our homes, quietly shape us. I’m always honored when someone else wants to hold my work in their hands.

I hope you’ll come by, take a peek, and maybe adopt some fauna for your walls.

Find the gallery here:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/4Xchfe2kNtnJezfc6?g_st=ic

Photos 101

Photos say volumes about your short term rental space— they are the MOST important reason guests cite for booking a particular space.

Airbnb’s search algorithm loves light and bright photos. Edit yours to make them shine.

I do recommend that my mentees eventually get professional photos taken, unless they’re quite deft with a camera. But I don’t recommend doing that until you’ve hosted a few times— with your first few guests, you should be changing and refining your space as you learn how to be a better host.

And even after you have the basics of the space worked out, you’ll want to update your photos when you change a piece of art or furniture to keep your listing up to date.

It's worth the time to style your space and edit your photos to make them clear and bright. Don't post your photos until you edit & brighten them with your computer or phone software!

Here's my quick checklist to help you prep your space to be photographed:

~ Open curtains and blinds

~ Remove all clutter and personal photos. Minimize knick-knacks

~ Obsessively fluff pillows and fold and drape throws

~ Make the beds PERFECTLY

~ Minimize kitchen clutter, close-up of coffee set-up

~ Straighten rugs

~ Fold towels precisely

~Minimize ceilings in photos

~ take wide shots and close shots of details

~Review photos to look for bare-spots. A painting on a wall or a vase on a table can make a whole room look a lot better.

Airbnb has a great guide to help with this: https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/take-great-listing-photos-with-your-phone-14

And this is a new guide that really gets into the nuts and bolts of great photos:

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/prepare-your-space-for-a-smartphone-photo-shoot-213

I like to think about the different ways my guests might interact with my space, and take photos to reflect that. A close-up for the table, set with nice china or cool pottery gives them a deeper sense of the care that's gone into designing the listing. A photo of the fresh flowers or cookies you leave guests lets the know this is a space where details matter! Views out windows, of the green spaces, and of the entrance help them imagine what being there will really be like. And don't forget to include informative captions under your photos!

Airbnb will even rearrange your photos for you based on how their algorithm undertands how guest respond to photos-- it's worth trying-- you can always change it if you don't like that order.

Photos are part of the listing you might update often, as you change and upgrade your space. I highlight different photos depending on the season. And changing the order every few days is another quiet trick to stay high in search results.

This guide will help you arrange them so that Airbnb can highlight your home's spaces https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/how-to-organize-listing-photos-into-a-home-tour-456

The Great Strip Tease: Airbnb & the Hot-Button Topic of Stripping the Beds

Airbnb announced today that their search algorithm will no longer “hide” cleaning fees, but instead clearly show them in the nightly price breakdown. I applaud this decision, especially because, as I've written before, hosts use the cleaning fee to make the nightly prices work with their lives.

But the second part of the announcement, that Airbnb is going to prevent hosts from asking for certain tasks prior to check-out, is troubling.

Today's news release says that tasks such as vacuuming, doing laundry, and stripping the beds are “unreasonable.” I've never asked a guest to vacuum or do the laundry (though I have asked them to start a load of towels), but stripping the beds is a task that I would encourage EVERY GUEST who stays at an Airbnb to do.

Why?

Personal Belongings.

Almost every time my guests haven't stripped their beds, they have left things in the bed. Nightgowns, underwear, phone chargers, toys, beloved stuffed animals. The bed is where the things are left. Personal things. Unmentionable things.

If you strip your bed, you might save yourself $25 or $100 in your left-behind stuff. Or more— You may spend far more on nightwear than the average human!

I didn't ask guests to strip the beds until Covid. That's when guidelines emerged recommending that hospitality workers shouldn’t strip the beds, but have guests do it, and then bundle their laundry. Following those guidelines, we waited 24-48 hours to clean it, giving germs time to die. When you pop those sheets off the bed, you are spraying skin cells and body moisture back into the air, and you're breathing it in. These guidelines from the CDC are eyeopening.

Now that I know about spray, I NEVER want to strip a stranger's bed again.

And when I do it, you know I am masked up.

Finally, as an Ambassador, I work with hosts all over the world who are setting up their own Airbnbs. Many of them are older, and they are doing the cleaning themselves. Frankly, to keep one's prices competitive, it’s a huge help to do one’s own cleaning. And some of my hosts NEED help from their guests in order to be able to host. Making a bed is a lot easier than stripping it. And so they ask their guests to do this task, which takes 1 to 3 minutes.

And that's their choice.

The elegant solution to this strip tease is simply for Airbnb to have space where hosts disclose what the guests need to do. If it seems onerous, don't book the place. No one is ever forced into booking an Airbnb. It's been basic practice for decades of home rental for folks to bring their own linen, or to strip the beds. This is truly not a big deal. I've been hosting for nearly 10 years and NO ONE HAS EVER COMPLAINED.

I only see these complaints as click-bait online. When my guests check in, they can see how much care we have put into the space to prepare it for them. The care they put into the space when they check out feels reciprocal and kind.

Stripping beds is a super-hot topic in the STR world. Miles of Reddit and FB discussions, videos galore. And plenty of hosts never ask guests to strip beds— but the reason is a little creepier than you’d think.

When you’re stripping a bed, you can more easily see “stains” and you can spot treat them, and you can photograph them and request a reimbursement from your guest through Airbnb’s AirCover Program.

That’s right. The non-sheet-strippers don’t have you strip because they are examining your leavings.

~ long pause ~ deep breath ~

We don't have any “requirements” upon check out, but we do have an ask. I ask my guests to please consolidate and bag their trash, to wash their dishes, return toys and games to where they found them, and to strip the bed and leave the sheets in the laundry room.

Maybe once a year, someone decides to ignore my asks. They are always from New York. (What gives, NYC?)

And those I choose not to host again. Hosting is great, but for my health, for my family's health, and for your precious panties, let’s strip!

And please, don't ask me to mail your panties home.

In Praise of CLeaning feeS

A popular click-bait news article bemoans the financial absurdity of Airbnb hosts adding “outrageous” cleaning fees to their price. This article-- versions are swirling around the interwebs-- always includes a screen shot of a booking price breakdown where the cleaning fee is nearly the price of the single night’s stay, or even more, like a $125 night stay and a $150 cleaning fee.

“Ludicrous! Absurd!” the internet pontificates. This is an unsustainable business model! Airbnb shall crash and burn, and soon!

Cleaning shouldn’t be “hidden” work. Let’s foreground its value rather than try to hide it.

Oh, potential Airbnb guest and/or stockholder, fret not. Cleaning fees are your friend. Allow me to explain.

THE best part of Airbnb, in my experience, is that the platform allows hosts to host in way that feels comfortable, safe, and worthwhile to them. Cleaning fees are one tool hosts (like me) use to make our space available to more people.

First, remember that most Airbnb hosts have only one listing-- most folks aren’t “professional” hosts, but working people who are hosting space to make a little extra money (often to be able to stay in the home they are hosting!)

Airbnb hosts aren't operating on a margin where they have a thousand rooms, where a single percentage change makes a noticeable difference in the bottom line. For most hosts, our single listing is the whole kielbasa. Either we get a booking, or we don't.

When we get a booking for 3 nights, we're not only making three nights of income, we're not taking time away from our other jobs or from family time to clean the space. This gives us a great incentive to want to host longer stays. Remember, it costs us nearly the same to clean after a one night stay than after a week stay.

Supplies + Time + Care = a thoughtful cleaning fee

However, some hosts are willing to host guests for one night, if the guest pays a higher price. The only way to make this work in Airbnb's software is through the cleaning fee.

As a host, you can set two different cleaning fees-- One for 1-2 night stays, and one for “longer” stays. This difference is counter-intuitive to how must hosts use the fee. For example, I have a $100-125 cleaning fee for my 700 square-foot cottage. When I hire a cleaner, I pay her $100 dollars, but usually my family and I clean the space ourselves. If a guests stay one night, they pay $200 + $100 Cleaning Fee + $43 Airbnb Service fee + $34 in State and Local Hospitality Taxes, and their total for one night is $377. But if they stay 4 nights, their nightly price is around $250 per night.

Basically, cleaning fees are an additional fee for shorter stays.

The cleaning fee becomes a way of rewarding guests who stay longer, giving me more time to spend working and with my children.

If I didn't have the option of the cleaning fee, I wouldn't even offer 1 or 2 night stays. They're simply not worth the sacrifice in time. And of course, if a guest doesn't like a price, they need not book the listing.

The “shorter” cleaning fee option is really puzzling to me, since Airbnb requires hosts to maintain an extremely high level of cleaning, a level which does not depend on trip length. When you disinfect every surface, it takes time, regardless of how long someone has stayed. When you change the sheets, scrub, vacuum, mop, and restock the kitchen and vanities, carry in fire-wood, and clean the hot-tub, it takes the same amount of time for an overnight guest or a week-long guest.

Cleaning is hard work, especially in a carefully curated space. Although I designed my listing to be easy to clean, it still requires a lot of care because I have amenities that hotels don’t offer, like a well-stocked, esoteric library (books don’t dust themselves!) a wide variety of vintage games and puzzles, a collection of vintage LPs, an amazing 1950s stove, and a hand-built cedar hot-tub. These things take time and care to maintain. We have antique stained glass windows and a claw-foot tub. We offer a variety of ways to make coffee. We give you locally roasted coffee. And baked goods. And flowers from the garden. And handmade soaps. Details take a lot longer than a room at the Omni.

Hosting an STR really is hard work, and it requires a lot of heavy lifting. But it’s rewarding work, and in my experience, hosting for more than 9 years, the ability to set my own cleaning fee has helped me create a work-life balance with my STR that would have been harder without them.

Nota Bene: The Airbnb Service Fee is 3% from the host’s take and 14% from the guest’s total price. That line item is paying for AirCover Insurance, for software development, executive income, and it’s also now paying returns for stockholders. I implore the internet, bemoan not your host’s fees— for they scrub your toilet leavings. Ask instead where those corporate earnings are going.

How do you use your cleaning fee? Do you make sure to pay your cleaner (or yourself) a living wage? Hosts have to reap our own dividends…

Gone but Not Forgotten: The Airbnb Living Wage Pledge & Airbnb Cleaning Fees

In 2017, Airbnb promoted a new badge for hosts who promised to pay their cleaners a “living wage.” The definition of a “living wage” was unclear, but most hosts took it to mean above minimum wage. I for one do not think the American minimum wage is a living wage.

I opted “in” to the Airbnb Living Wage program, but almost as quickly as it was announced, it disappeared, and I never saw a badge nor heard of it again. When I contacted Airbnb I was told that the program is “not available at this time, but if it becomes available in the future, hosts will be informed.”

Because the “program” disappeared almost immediately, I have wondered if it was proposed simply as window dressing, as a band-aid to the internet's joyful complaints about Airbnb cleaning fees. If so, this is a shame-- The idea was solid, and travelers need to understand how their lodgings are cleaned-- we need more transparency and more valuing of cleaning, not less. Visible cleaning fees encourage economic thought. Travelers who stay in an Airbnb for a single night need to understand the environmental and economic costs of a one-night stay. It requires nearly as much domestic work as a multi-night stay, and the environment and your wallet will thank you for longer stays. (I break all this down in my post In Praise of Cleaning Fees).

91.5% of all domestic workers-- workers who work inside of a home-- are female, and most of those workers are immigrants and women of color. It is news to no one that house cleaning is traditionally a female job, and, therefore, devalued.

I'm not playing that game.

And for a minute, I thought Airbnb wasn’t going to either.

As a domestic worker, I'm in a place of real privilege. Although I clean up after other people, I do clean a home I own. And I clean it alongside my husband, and with the help of my children. (It's important to both of us that the whole family is invested in our family's economic engine- cleaning is not seen as “women’s work” in our household).

When I do pay a cleaner (when we are on vacation, or ill) I can afford to pay them fairly and well above the “going rate” in my community, which is between $12-20 per hour.

When I pay a cleaner to clean my cottage, I pay them a flat $100-- I estimate it will take them 3 hours to clean (It usually doesn't-- it takes 1.5-2) and then I “tip” an extra $25 on top of that, since we are located pretty remotely, and gas and time are expenses. If the clean was onerous, I’ll pay more.

There is a $100 cleaning fee attached to my Airbnb listing. If I always hired domestic help, I would need to charge a higher cleaning fee or raise my nightly fee. But, as I wrote here, the cleaning fee encourages guests to stay longer, which is my preference as a host (and as an environmentalist). Hosts need to be able to charge cleaning fees, not only to foreground domestic work, but to encourage multi-night stays.

I continue to think that the Airbnb Living Wage Badge was a wonderful idea-- it foregrounded the humans behind the scenes. EVERY hospitality business should commit to paying far more than minimum wage, and every stay-- at an Airbnb or at a Hotel, should be transparent about how much they are paying their cleaning staff.

I encourage both Airbnb hosts and Airbnb guests to host and to travel with intentionality-- with awareness of how their decisions are affecting their community.

If you’re a host, consider including in your listing description that you do pay your cleaners a living wage. You might even consider explaining what you do to clean the space. Foreground the work that goes into hosting. Hosting is theater, but its also hard work. Most Airbnb hosts are women. Don’t devalue yourself and your work.

If you perform domestic work, hire domestic workers, or travel, I encourage you to read more. The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) works for the respect, recognition, and rights for more than 2.2 million nannies, housecleaners, and home care workers who do the essential work of caring for our loved ones and our homes.

I also recommend Meg Conely's Substack “HomeCulture”-- it's great, and she always engages with ideas about domestic work— transparency about its value is front-and-center in everything she writes. Here's her piece on care work in Harpers Bazaar from earlier this year.

There is still a link about the Living Wage Pledge in the Airbnb Host Resource Center

And Airbnb still has an announcement up about how important it is to them.

But the option to add it vanished, after that brief moment in 2017.

Supplemental Insurance for Your Airbnb

Airbnb's AirCover is great, but it only covers you when guests are in the home. This means it will not cover damage that occurs while the home is vacant, or occupied by yourself or friends/or family staying outside of an Airbnb booking (that's where supplemental insurance can help).

I recommend Steadily, a company that specializes in in home insurance for Airbnbs. Its the best-rated STR Insurer in the US. These types of policies can be difficult to find. I've been impressed by this company-- they are quick with communication and their claim process seems very simple and direct. Also, they'll reimburse you for any money you lose if you have to cancel due to a plumbing problem, broken major appliance, or weather event that causes property damage. If you use my link, you can get a quick quote for free. (And I do mean quick!)

https://hostwithelise.steadilypartner.com/

Insurance isn't the most exciting part of hosting, but it's great to know that you're thoroughly covered, so you can move on with the more fun parts!

As much as we try, things occasionally go wrong, and it’s best to know that your short term rental is protected.

Protect Your Rental With Landlord Insurance

With Steadily you will:

• Ensure you have the right coverage to protect you and your investment

• Save money by finding the most competitive rates

• Work with the best-rated landlord insurance company in America

Landlord insurance is a policy for people who rent their home to others. Landlord Insurance is not required for a landlord, but insurance can bring many benefits:

• Legal liabilities

• Fire and water damage

• Financial protection against natural disasters

• Protection for your furnishings

Steadily make it easy to get property insurance for whatever type of property you own including AirBNBs, VRBOs, and other rentals.

• Single-family

• Multi-family

• Vacant or restoration

• Apartment buildings

• Condo units

• Manufactured

Did you know?

Landlord and homeowners insurance policies are not the same

Landlord insurance is specifically for owners who rent out a property that they don’t live in. A good, comprehensive policy will typically cover the value of the dwelling and improvements, along with liability protection and coverage of rental income losses.

The cost of a landlord policy can be more than a homeowners insurance policy, but it offers more coverage that landlords need. Costs vary due to location, size of the rental, level of coverage, etc.

But do I really NEED it?

Many mortgage companies and lenders may not only require that you have a landlord insurance policy on a rental property, but that you also insure your home for 100% of its replacement cost. This is to protect your lender’s investment in your home.

Make sure you have the right policy. If you have a Homeowners policy instead of a Landlord policy, collecting on a claim for a tenanted rental investment property could be difficult at the time of loss.

Choose the right insurance

When working with your agent, ask questions like:

• Are there additional overages I should add on given my location?

• Does my policy cover both short and long-term rentals?

• How is replacement cost calculated at the time of a claim?

• Are there any upgrades/repairs I can do to this property to reduce my insurance costs?

• What is NOT included in my landlord insurance policy?

I like Steadily, but a different company might be a better fit for you and for your property! But it’s good to get multiple quotes, so don’t hesitate to use my link for a FREE quote from Steadily today.