...Without important amenities, I should say, because we have the sheets and pillows, the towels, soap (three kinds!), and the toilet paper. The essentials are covered!
What we don’t have is a much longer list, and it begins with wifi. No wifi! For some, depending on their provider, no cell service and no data. Also no electricity, no plumbing, no vehicle access, no transit, no touristy things to do.
What we are is a treehouse on a river in the woods. Two hundred metres away there is an outhouse, where sawdust is as important an essential as toilet paper. Dreamy, huh?
Okay, maybe in the right light. 🙂
When we started hosting, I was as surprised as you that we got good reviews, that we got guests at all to give those reviews – but we got them in droves.
So it is my job, in this Festival of Hospitality, to tell you what hospitality looks like without amenities.
It starts with accuracy…
“Tiny, cozy, rustic treehouse at the end of a rugged one-kilometre footpath: sleeping platform and woodstove inside; porch and hammock outside. Campfire pit with tripod grill on the riverbank. Appeals to leave-no-trace hikers/canoeists who look for time off the grid, who understand how to function sustainably and respectfully there, and enjoy being self-sufficient.”
That’s the summary, and you’ve noticed that it includes as much about what we expect as about what we offer. That’s on purpose. I added that once we started to get mainstream attention and, with it, mainstream assumptions. I highly recommend something like this on every listing, though: a sort of “here is what we are, and here is what you might want to be”.
It is working pretty well.
“This place is getting a lot of attention” says the sidebar on our listing. “It’s been viewed 500+ times in the past week.”
Did we get 500 bookings in the past week? More like 3. This is partly because we book up a month or two in advance, and mostly because 497 savvy viewers decided to book a place with running water!
Accuracy is its own filter...
Guests know what they are getting: privacy, quiet, wildlife, a campfire, starry skies, fairytale woods.
That tends to get emphasised in the reviews. But it is what they are not getting that gets emphasised by me.
Specifically, I assume the worst with instant book guests, that they haven’t read everything, and so ask them (nicely: “when you get a chance”) to open the “Read more about the space” and “Read all rules” dropdowns, as well as “Read more about the neighbourhood”.
You have heard this before but, really, undersell, over-deliver...
I’m like most hosts here, underselling and over-delivering.
No worries. I’m not spoiling our guests so that they will demand over-the-top treats when they turn up at your place. Over-delivering here means (surprise!) there are two reusable water bottles filled on the shelf. And a topped-up pail of sawdust. But, shhh, don’t tell ’em...
Thanks, Lizzie, for the opportunity to contribute. Looking forward to the rest of this series!
