Do you provide board games for your guest

[Merlberg-And-Jamaal0]

Hello everyone,

I was talking to my partner and he suggested that we leave some board games for our guest.  I think it’s a great idea but worry about them having pieces everywhere and not  placing them back in their box.  

We have a ton of games already so we wouldn’t have to buy any.  Do you guys provide games? And if so, would it be too much to leave a note in that area stating to place any games used back in its original box? Tell me what you guys think please because I really want to leave some type of note.  

Thanks for any input. 

[Patti-And-Marty0]

Hi @Merlberg-And-Jamaal0 

I think leaving a note is a good idea, and lets the guest know what the expectation is. But sooner or later pieces will go missing, and the next guest using it will be disappointed. Which is why I don't leave games anymore. Unless you are going to inspect each game between guests, which would be very time consuming.

You might also say in the note to please let us know if any pieces are missing, though I wouldn't count on that. 

I have 3 or 4 notes around, I try not to leave any more than that but I'm always tempted!

[Bhumika]

Hello @Merlberg-And-Jamaal0 ,

This is pretty interesting! Providing a selection of board games for guests to enjoy during their stay, can often lead to a good experience of the listing. As @Patti-And-Marty0 correctly mentioned, leaving notes is a good idea.

As you mentioned, you already have prepared a number of board games for guests! Would you mind sharing with us, which board games you are providing, and which ones are likely to be popular among guests?

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Trude0]

I do have some board games in my guest house. I have no idea if guests use them, but I think some might. But I guess it will depend on the type of listing and the clientele, whether they will be used or not. I get a lot of couples, and they tend to explore in the daytime, and spend evenings in. 

I have UNO as that seems to be common in many countries. A regular stack of cards. And then a couple more - cannot remember which right now. 

I personally would not write a note. I think everyone will understand they should put games back in their boxes. Those who care, will do so, note or no note. Those who don’t care, will probably not care more, because of a note.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

After one of our previous guests had asked for games, we have bought this box which contains some of the most popular games, plus a play card deck. I’ve no idea how our guests like this, but it definitely didn’t cost a fortune:

[Bhumika]

That's great @Till-and-Jutta0! I'm sure your guests will appreciate the added entertainment options. Such multiple options for board games is good to have. It's always a plus when it doesn't break the budget.🙌

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Michelle1851]

Hi @Merlberg-And-Jamaal0 , I provide several games and puzzles as well as watercolor supplies..  As a I guest I always appreciate it, and as a host, anything that occupies the guest and helps to entertain them is good .  I wouldn’t leave a note , unless it’s on top of the games themselves or in the house rules, I think guests are tired of all the notes.  I wouldn’t worry about missing pieces so much. 

[Maia29]

I have board games and playing cards at my unit; however, I don't monitor the pieces/parts. I just don't have time to do all that. It is a nice thing to offer though.

[Heather133]

Absolutely! I have a note in the house information book asking guests to make sure pieces are put away. I also to supply games where it's not the end of the world if a piece is missing or ones that would be harder to lose (Jenga, Uno, Pictionary...). 

We live in an area where weather can make or break a stay and I think it's important to provide alternative activities for a rainy day.

[Gillian166]

@Merlberg-And-Jamaal0 

We do provide board games, and initially we left them in our cottage, until one time we found 2 games upended in our coffee table chest, UGH. 

We actually have 3 listings on our farm so we opted for a New System. Now all the games are kept with me in the main house where we live. The full list of board games is in the Guest Manual, but I also mention it in the pre-arrival message and offer to send through the list before arrival so they can have them placed in their cottage. I save this as a message, and I have 3 versions: 1 of all games, 1 of 2 player games, and 1 with "best for kids". We have over 50 board games. 

We found that having to open the games and check them during turnover was too much work, now a guest can borrow a game and we retrieve it after checkout and only have to check the games we know they borrowed. And the guest knows that we know which game they borrowed, so there's some accountability on their part to put it back properly. 

We have had some pieces lost, namely Operation has lost 2 pieces, but you can buy replacements on eBay. 

One of our listings is open to families with kids of all ages so we leave the kids games, toys and books in the cottage, and frankly even that is getting to be a giant pain to reset (especially as we do mostly 1-2 night stays). Cleaning up after a family is SO much extra work because you have to look for the sticky marks, crumbs and other surprises, and they could be anywhere. And I daresay our Mr Potato Head is not going to have all his pieces by the end of 2023. We even used to leave chalk, until kids drew all over the veranda, adding a very annoying hose down and scrub to our turnover. We took the chalk away after that. Not even an option to request. 

For most of our board games I have written inside the lid "please pack up the game as you found it". I usually deploy ziplocks for board games, that's the best way to keep things tidy. You could even go further and list the items that need to be returned (I've done this when we loan out our mini projector) but I don't get too wound up. The majority of our board games we got in thrift shops (and many of them were never used, or hardly used!).  Up until recently we didn't offer TV, so the board games were very popular. Sadly, now we have TVs in 2 listings, we are finding fewer guests are requesting them. 

[Merlberg-And-Jamaal0]

I love the idea of them having them request the games they want prior so at checkout it is less of a hassle for me.  So you give them a list of the 50 games … do you limit the amount of games they get? What if the say they want 20? 

thanks for this great idea.  I’ll most likely try this instead of leaving al the games out

[Gillian166]

@Merlberg-And-Jamaal0  no one has ever asked for 20 games! I think the most has been about 7, but they rarely play them all. Sometimes I will also add in a game that I think they should try (Sequence is a great 2 player game, and Monopoly Go is a card game version of monopoly that is actually really good)

[Merlberg-And-Jamaal0]

Haha ok thanks!! 1 last thing.  Do you send them the list of game names or a picture? 

[Gillian166]

@Merlberg-And-Jamaal0 

I send a list. I have the list split into: full list, 2 player games, games for kids. You'd be surprised the number of times adults chose Guess Who, haha. and i confess when we first got it (found it in a thrift shop, bargain) we also played it for a while. Simple fun.

In the guest manual I have another 2 pages with a brief description of most of the games (I don't bother explaining Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble etc). That was a bit of work to do but I get a lot of comments on how helpful and thorough my guest manual is. 

[Merlberg-And-Jamaal0]

Wow this was very helpful! Thank you so much! Really appreciate you answering:)