For hosts

Articles for Hosts

Advice for the hosts and managers listed on Overnight Atlas. Signed-in hosts read every article in full.

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  • How to Appeal a Negative Airbnb Review

    Airbnb removes a review only when it breaks a named rule in its Reviews Policy. Here are the rules, the removal request, the public response for when removal fails, and the escalation steps in order.

  • Airbnb Arbitration for Hosts: The Letter, the Fees, and the Deadlines

    When a review appeal fails on a case you can prove, or Airbnb refunds a guest out of your payout, US hosts can take the dispute to arbitration. It starts with a letter, and under the arbitration provider's fee schedule most of the cost of a case falls on Airbnb. Canadian hosts are under different terms.

  • Common Guest Refund Scams and How to Stop Them

    Most guest complaints are honest. A few are built to get a refund. Here are the methods hosts report most, the turnover record that answers them, and what to tell Airbnb.

  • The Visit: Checking a Smell or Bug Complaint in Person

    When a guest reports a bad smell or bugs, offer to come and see it within minutes. An honest guest usually says yes. Here is the method, the messages, and the rule on entering during a stay.

  • Why Your Rental Needs Its Own Booking Site, Even If Airbnb Fills It

    A full Airbnb calendar tells you about this month. A booking site of your own protects the business from what you cannot control on someone else's site: an account review, a fee change, or a shift in search ranking. Here is the case, with the platform rules that make it.

  • What a Direct Booking Site Costs to Run, Line by Line

    For one rental, the fixed costs of a direct booking site came to about $324 to $672 a year at published prices in November 2026, before card fees. Here is every line, with its source, and the costs that have no fixed price.

  • How Guests Find Your Website: The 5 Searches That Matter for a Rental

    Guests reach a rental's own website through five kinds of search: the area, a nearby park or lake, a feature such as a hot tub, the rental's own name, and the map. Each one is earned differently. Here is what Google's own documentation says about each, and where a single-cabin host can start.

  • Your Google Business Profile: The Setup Most Hosts Get Wrong

    Google says individual homeowners are not eligible for a Business Profile for their vacation home. A rental business that meets guests or owners at a staffed office can have one. Here is who qualifies, what a single-home host can do, and how to set a profile up by Google's rules.

  • Pricing by Day of the Week and by Season: A Starter Method

    Most hosts set one nightly rate and leave it. A base rate, a weekend difference, and three season bands get you most of the way to better pricing, as long as you read your own bookings and change prices in small, written-down steps.

  • Minimum-Stay Rules: When 2 Nights Earns More Than 3

    A longer minimum stay means fewer cleanings, but it can also leave nights nobody is allowed to book. A worked example shows when a 2-night minimum earns more than a 3-night one, and how to set weekend, seasonal, and gap-filling rules on Airbnb and Vrbo.

  • Last-Minute Discounts Versus Holding Your Price

    An empty night earns nothing, so a last-minute discount can look like free money. It has costs too: guests who learn to wait, a lower reference price, and rushed turnovers. A price floor and a simple rule decide when to cut and when to hold.

  • Pricing for Holidays and Local Events Without Scaring Off Guests

    The best weekends of the year are usually sold at an ordinary price, months before the host knows an event is coming. Find the dates early, price them in tiers, and know the one situation where a high price can break the law.

  • Turning Airbnb Guests Into Repeat Guests, Within the Rules

    Airbnb keeps tightening its rules on guest contact, which is another reason to build direct bookings. Meanwhile, here is how to bring Airbnb guests back, and where the line is.

  • Email Lists for Hosts: What to Send and How Often

    An email list of past direct guests can fill a quiet week with one message. Who belongs on it, how to get consent under US and Canadian law, what to send, and how often.