I just wanted to share this absolutely hilarious message from a guest.

[Deb18]

I got the following message from a guest after I sent her note telling her I popped into the accommodations to freshen the flowers.  Wow.  You just can't win with some of them, right?  So hilarious:

"I did love the pink alstromeria and I was just about to remark on them to my son and his girlfriend when I noticed they'd been changed! And I'm not much of a yellow person so I'd take the pinks back if you still have them~ I used to be a flower grower and vendor and have a pretty defined color scheme I prefer~ but I can live with the yellow ones. Thanks for letting me know you'd been in while I was out."

[Cormac0]

@Deb18 

In the words of Max Bialystock (The Producers, original version), "are you nuts", fresh flowers, five-star accommodation on a two-star budget, you do realise its activities like this, that’s making Airbnb hosting impossible and loss-making for hundreds of thousands of hosts and giving guests a completely wrong expectation of what they should expect for the money they pay. 

The most expensive hotel I stayed was a Five-Star hotel in Killarney Co. Kerry Ireland, the suite was one thousand euros a night, it had fresh flower and antique furniture and breakfast were served in the suite by staff in brass-buttoned tunics.

So please, by all means, make your guests feel welcome, but fresh flowers on euro fifty-nine per night are just ridiculous in my opinion.

[Ben551]

Hey @Cormac0  ... we always provide fresh flowers, but we've never bought them.  We either grow them or pick wild ones at the side of the road 🙂  There are types of wild flowers that grow in NZ all year around.. plus I find just tossing seeds at any kind of dirt produces something.... even food.

[Alon1]

 @Cormac

I find it more than a little perverse that you consider it 'ridiculous' and however humorously suggest Deb is 'nuts' for wanting to do something nice for her guests. More so that Deb is a considerably more experienced Airbnb host than you are. Indeed she has ten times as many reviews!

Perhaps a less cynicism would help?

And no, I for one don't 'realise its activities like this, that’s making Airbnb hosting impossible and loss-making for hundreds of thousands of hosts and giving guests a completely wrong expectation of what they should expect for the money they pay.' 

  I wonder if you make some of this up as you go along?

[Emilia42]

I would be happy with any flowers, @Deb18. Even a bouquet of dandelions! Although, those are yellow …..

[Sandra126]

I provide flowers, but only what I pick in the garden. At some times of the year, slim pickings. Like today, end of summer, I have very little going. Some geraniums maybe, and a flowering shrub that smells awful...

Then they just get some green leaves. But buying flowers is too expensive.

[Ben551]

Totally do the same @Sandra126  - I just responded to Cormac on it.  There are wild flowers that grow pretty much all year around in NZ. We've always provided flowers and never bought them. I doubt we'll ever need to buy them, stuff grows like weeds here...

[Sarah977]

I do put a mini bouquet in the guest room, in a sweet little pewter vase I got at the second hand store for a buck (if someone knocks it over onto the tile floor, it won't break, like my last pottery one did) all picked from my garden or along the road. Might just be a couple of flowers, a fern frond, some wild grasses, whatever happens to be growing at the time. Takes me about 2 minutes. I certainly wouldn't go out and spend money on flowers, though. And I never go in to refresh them during a guest stay,  just think it's a nice touch when they arrive.

Have a friend who's really clever at thinking of creative ways to make $. She used to spend a couple hours on a Friday afternoon driving around the countryside, with a few 5 gallon pails part full of water and ice in the back of her car, pick whatever wildflowers, wild grasses, rosehips, whatever, shove them in the buckets, then get up early on Saturday morning, go to the farmers market, where she arranged them all into bouquets and would sell out in about an hour- made several hundred dollars every week and her only expense was the gas money and a couple hours of her time.

[Ben551]

@Sarah977  Genius! 

[Maree25]

At the end of the day..pink or yellow..it''s the thought that counts..I am learning quickly that some guests don't give much thought when it comes to reviewing/scoring or giving feedback

[Marisa182]

I think I need to move to New Zealand, it sounds heavenly! I like both pink and yellow and have a large garden so I do provide large bouquets of flowers because they always make the place look extra special. I tell guests I can remove them if they are not fond of flowers or have allergies.

[Cathie19]

Okay, if they were here in the tropics, I could spend money at the local markets, but due to shade, I can offer like @Sarah977, green.

Any particular shade of green?  I stopped stressing about fresh flowers that occasionally happen. The rest of the time it’s good quality artificial flowers with real greenery. Choice of leaf and type. I’m thinking Kermit’s song at the moment... “It’s not easy being green.” 🍃🌿🌱🌴🌱🌱🌴🌿🌿🌿🌴🌴🌴

[Huma0]

I really like the idea of homegrown flowers but, despite my best efforts, have never managed to grow enough flowers in my little city garden to produce cut flowers for indoors, although this has not stopped the theif who reguarly steals from my front garden (he/she stripped an entire peony bush of its blooms last Summer and dug up all my gladioli the Summer before, as well as regularly making off with a pot whenever the contents come into flower).

RE picking flowers from the side of the road, this is something you have to be careful about in the UK to stay on the right side of the law. As most land is owned by someone, whether that's a private individual or a council, picking anything that has been cultivated, and people do plant wildflower meadows too, is theft and it would certainly be illegal to sell them for profit. Some things may be picked, but not dug up. Even with self-seed wildflowers, some are endangered and therefore illegal to pick, so you would have to know your stuff. Did you know, for example, that you are allowed to pick bluebells, but NOT if you are planning on selling them?

[Alon1]

@Huma0 

Until very recently I regularly got bunches of discount flowers from M&S, Simply Food. They just stopped discounting flowers & bakery, which staff say now goes to charities.--M&S SF have two discounts a day, the latter half an hour before closure, and I got them at the second discount, when they're literally pennies. 

Waitrose also do the same, but their staff mostly can't be bothered with the 2nd discount.

The flowers are distributed round the flat, so if guests are in they get them as well.

The only caveat was some post(s) on CC relating that some guests request removal of flowers due to allergies. I've yet to encounter such a guest.

[Huma0]

Hi @Alon1 unfortunately there's no M&S near me, although I'm sure it won't be long with the current pace of gentrification! I do sometimes pick up discounted flowers from other supermarets though. Usually they have quite a few days left in them. I find that you can get real bargains right after occasions like Valentine's and Mother's Day when some supermarkets seriously overestimate how many people will buy flowers.

I have never had  a guest complain of an allergy or complain about flowers in any way! Recently, I hosted a guest for one month who was on a floristry course and filled my house with the most beautiful (quite expensive) arrangements, bringing home several a week. It was wonderful!

[Mark116]

@Huma0  When we started we did fresh flowers for everyone, now I do it for people staying more than 4 days, most of the time, but not always.  It is almost never mentioned in reviews, which is extremely annoying but I feel like it still increases the subliminal positive impression.

 We get the flowers at the supermarket, 3 small bunches for $12US, enough for our space and the airbnb.  We started making our own flower food [2 tbs. lemon juice, 1 tbs. sugar, 1 liter water and 1/4 tsp bleach], which really does well.  Once in a while I take something from the garden, but like you, don't usually have enough to spare and I sort of hate cutting off a flower in my own yard in its prime, especially since we try and grow bee friendly annuals.  

As far as @Deb18 and her guest, wow, people are so entitled these days.