Hi Paula, it is an interesting topic. Not so much on what one offers, but the practicality of the lived experience in keeping these things maintained. We have lots of outdoor furniture, pool, bikes etc. The more we have to maintain outside, the less time something gets inside. And when you have a large property like 44 acre farm with fencing, water pumps, live stock etc something has to give. I've learnt to manage expectations carefully. Like bikes are not roadworthy, but ok for farm. Pool won't be resort style clean because it's only serviced every few days, so leaves and dirt can blow in between cleans or even just before they arrive. etc etc. I've stopped providing inflatable pool toys because they busted so easily, or guests got stressed trying to find patches to fix them when they did bust...but I do provide an inflatable pump that deflates as well if they want to BYO. We maintain all the outdoor furniture and replace (its harsh weather here) when its worn or broken, safety and comfort is paramount. And always looking for cheerful little garden spots to enhance as we have such large acreage to utilise and views over the valley.
But then I'm not convinced all guests are like yourself and appreciate the outdoor offerings. For example, I got penalised by a guest because some previous guest must have done a bad dishwasher load (probably stopped it half way) and put some some not-perfectedly clean dishes in the cupboards that we missed in our checks. Slapped me with 4 star kiss of death rating just for that. He didn't appreciate all the effort we went to in providing all the exterior stuff for almost the same price if he had booked a hotel for his family. So whilst as a host it might help attract bookings (would like some data evidence from airbnb on this, surely you guys can tell if a property gets more bookings with more features/amenities etc?), I don't think it helps ratings?
And frankly, ratings matter more than bookings. I have a theory that the larger and more complex property you provide, the harder it is to get better ratings too. Unless you are luxe and charging an absolute bomb and nothing is left to chance (whereas our property is a constant balancing act on where to spend our constrained time and we are 'affordable' deliberately).
I'd also ask, should one charge more for such amenities/extra outdoor offerings? Us hosts probably would all like to but the market won't bear it. Maybe it helps gets bookings, but is it profitable/worth it to maintain it?
Not sure it quite answered your question but that's my view
kind regs mary
