@Huma0
The pandemic seems to have made our guests even more grateful for a place to get away, to peace and quiet in safety. We make it clear that we are careful, conscientious, fully vaccinated, and expect them to be as well. This is our full time permanent home. Our guests are of the age that our children and grandchildren would be. Our guests are all of the sort who have respect for their elders. We are fortunate, and we believe that our hard work attracts that good fortune. As you well know, being a host is work. The business of hospitality is a business and we are either in it with all 4 feet, or we are not doing it right. Creek and I have been successfully self employed together for 50 years. Whatever we are selling, we are selling service. Personal service to real people. It takes being resilient, resourceful, compassionate. If we are not ready, willing, and able to do that, to do it excellently, consistently, with heart, we are not cut out for being in business.
In the distant past we managed a wilderness resort with 12 full sized houses, in the hand built rustic natural materials Wright architectural style. It was challenging. We refurbished and pulled it up to a max 5 star rating in all the travel sites. We made necessary rules and the guest population changed from party, to peaceful, respectful. We raised the rates significantly, so the place showed a healthy profit, while providing superior value to the guests.
Back to the present tense: we closed our home share hosting here for 2 years, to protect ourselves and our community. It has been very stressful here on our excellent rural health providers. They are also community members who we care about, and for them it has been quite a marathon. When covid cases dipped, the rest of us showed up for care that had been postponed in favor of their taking care of the seriously ill. They are so exhausted, every doctor's visit is actually a mutually healing thing. They need us to be really kind, patient, prepared. Telling them how we love and appreciate them really helps. This is a small town and we are all in this together.
In addition, our small town went through uncomfortable changes these past 2 -1/2 years. Family owned and operated restaurants either closed or re-tooled, as did other retailers. We've not had long term guests, we don't do that. We have advised our guests where to buy food to cook or to go, and what restaurants are open for business, on changing schedules, and staffing challenges. We've all learned.
IB does not work for us either. People fall in love with the photos, and don't read further, for the most part. As you said, they may have unrealistic expectations.Thus, it is our job to make that fantasy happen for them. We don't reveal how challenging it is for us to live out here, and unless they ask.... the infrastructure is passively there for them. It is like Disneyland. Visitors don't see the works behind the rides, and staff are busy keeping it that way.
Kitty