[FESTIVAL] The story of our Expansion

[Sybe]

This article is part of the Community Center's Festival of Hospitality 2022 . The original topic was posted in the Italian-speaking Community Center by @Pietro44 , and we have translated it below.

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We'd like to tell you a bit about us and the 3 rooms in our home that we host on Airbnb.

About seven years ago, Pietro, his son and I returned to the house where Pietro was born because his mother was no longer able to live alone and needed to have us around—she lived in a world of her own, like a one-year-old child. Luckily, both for her and for us, she was always relaxed and smiling.

It was a big house his grandfather had bought after the war.

We found two empty rooms that were unused. We had heard of Airbnb, so we said "let's give it a shot." We've done our best to make the rooms welcoming. In the house, there were two bathrooms and only one had a shower. Consequently a shared bathroom between the two rooms and us as far as the shower was concerned.

This has been the case since September 2016.

After overcoming the initial tension and novelty of having strangers in the house, we realized almost immediately the extraordinary beauty of hosting.

We talked, ate and had coffee with women and men from all over the world: white, black, yellow, green, straight, gay, bisexual, graduates*, engineers*, tradespeople*, shop assistants*, students*, you name it.

All beautiful people who enriched us with their stories. Someone born in Australia to Hungarian parents and living in Japan. Someone born in Canada to a Croatian mother and Greek father and now lives in Berlin. So many of these fascinating situations.

In 2021, we renovated the whole apartment (thanks to an inheritance!) and the two rooms became three, each with its own bathroom complete with everything, and a fully equipped bathroom just for us.

From the reviews we can see that we provide good service (this was true even before the renovation). In our opinion, they're normal, essential things that seem obvious to us. A decent, clean room with sheets ironed by us, air conditioning and heating, three towels per guest, the welcome corner with tea, biscuits, kettle and water (which is drinkable in Florence), and sweets on the pillows. We put out three containers for recycling, with the specification in 7 different languages, we provide a magnetic card that is used for entry into the room and for electricity. This is how we solved the problem (which happened) of leaving lights and air conditioning on while guests were visiting Florence.

As a result of the pandemic, in addition to Airbnb's advanced 5-step cleaning process and for the safety of guests and ourselves, after every checkout we do not touch anything and place an ultraviolet C (UV-C) germicidal lamp in the room that destroys bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms, inactivating them and preventing them from reproducing.

As far as security is concerned—though we have never had a problem with the 1,300 or so people we have hosted so far—Airbnb's platform comes to our aid with various options for requesting documents, emails, messaging, etc. We assume that when entering an inhabited house, psychologically the guests are more likely to have a respectful attitude towards us and our things, compared perhaps to a house where they are alone.

We have noticed that guests thank us and appreciate us very much for the advice we give on interesting but lesser-known places to visit, or where to go to eat (places where we also go), from sandwiches to typical Florentine products or shopping according to their requests.

We make ourselves understood with our modest level of English or Spanish and with Google Translate.

One last thing that we think is very important is a beautiful smile always on your face. Fortunately, that comes naturally to us.

[Laurelle3]

@Pietro44 and @Sybe  I love the different colour schemes for the different rooms. They look bright and fresh. I also iron our sheets for the beds, I think it gives them a good look and to sleep on.

The coloured ribbons on the towels look good too, do you recycle  them? Great to hear from you both on your expansion of your Airbnb.

[Pietro44]

@Laurelle3  @Sybe  , the color combinations came about almost by chance, at least at the beginning in 2016 when we started with 2 rooms. The blue and orange painting above the beds with their color gave us the idea of calling the rooms this way.

After every checkout we don't touch anything and place an ultraviolet C (UV-C) germicidal lamp in the room that destroys bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms.

Then we also wash the colored ribbons (like everything else) and give them new opportunities to show off as they "hug" the towel set for the next guests  🙂

[Clara116]

@Pietro44 Thanks for your post. How lovely with all the vibrant colors and your style. I love the neat, clean, bright colorful look so much. 

How did you shoot the photo of the bathroom? Terrific - gives the full look which is so difficult in most every bathroom photo. 

I'm curious about the UV-C lights for disinfecting. Do you also use in your living setting and does it keep you and your family more protected? Have you all done well with the viruses everywhere??

Many blessings to you and your family. I wish you massive colorful guests in your Airbnb world,

Clara

[Laurelle3]

@Pietro44 and @Clara116 yes I would like to know how you took the photo of the bathroom was taken. (Joke) was it a droneor was it one of those hidden secret camera's. 

I am also interested in the UV C lights

[Clara116]

@Laurelle3 haha, I had not thought of secret camera....I thought of super long selfie stick or such.....oh my.

[Pietro44]

@Clara116  , @Laurelle3  

Say the photo of the green bathroom? Standing on the chair in front of the door, with my cell phone , but I was holding my breath so that the photograph was not "moved" 😄  .

The UV-C lamp is from an Italian company, you can buy it online. Sometimes we also use it for entry, corridor and living room. It is an extra gesture of attention for the guests we welcome and also for ourselves.

Thank you both for the compliments, we do them to you too, for your beautiful colorful houses! And then there is the sea ... we love it ❤️

[Bridget130]

@Pietro44 , mamma mia che bel progetto avete portato avanti ....i miei complimenti , siete riusciti nel vostro intento ed avete lo spirito giusto , siete fantastici , veramente complimenti per tutto , siete due persone speciali !

[Pietro44]

Grazie  @Bridget130  , troppo buona.

Noi ce la mettiamo tutta sperando di fare bene.

Questo progetto è cresciuto insieme a noi, siamo contenti 🍀😊