[Festival] Hospitality without amenities

[Lawrene0]

...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.

Cabana de contos de fadas

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!

[Lawrene0]

To take a look at any host's listing and fees, @Julia2480 , just click on their photo then on "View Airbnb profile". Try it with mine.

[Olive497]

You highlighted some very key points. I would definitely implement. Thanks much

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[Rita189]

Great to see your post, my place is also pretty basic with a compost loo, sawdust provided, and 150m steep climb to the house. It is really in nature on a terraced mountain side , the pool is filled each week with natural mountain water, no chlorine and often frogs prefer it to the pond close by.

Mostly my guests love the place, but some are too frightened and dont stay. I think they have not read enough of the description or have too romantic a view- one family left this spring because there was a spider in the bedroom!

Rain can also be hard on my clients, all the bedrooms have an outside door onto a patio and the loo is down a short path. It was a wet spring, not my fault but one or two unhappy people decided it was and complained!

I do try and give an accurate description also, and if there are very small children coming I always write about the hill etc. I also have  a Christmas booking and have written about all the possible drawbacks and that I also wont be there for the 1st part of their stay. They still booked with me so then I know it is going to be fine for them whatever the weather!

I am about to build a wooden cabin on a lower terrace , it will just be a bedroom with an adjoining small bathroom, am looking into toilets which separate the pee from the poo. The kitchen will be another cabin outside with a patio in between. It is a lovely space to be under the trees.

Rita in the Spanish mountains