This is why you don't drink wine while booking guests...

[Laura2592]

We have a few wineries near our cottage where we leave cards for our cottage. We *used* to do small weddings at our space so our cards contain contact info for that which is not through Airbnb. We do get a  fair number of bookings from these cards. Or we did until the pandemic. 

Dial back to May of last year. I was dropping off cards at one of these places and the manager invited my husband and I to a tasting of a new blend they were about to offer. It was delicious and we were there for a few hours. One of the staff got to chatting with us about a wedding they were booking this September and guests who were looking for accommodation in the area. I looked at my app and we were available. The staff member got excited and had the guest contact us. We chatted back and forth-- 2 guests booked for 4 nights over a wedding weekend on Airbnb. All well and good.

So fast forward to yesterday. Guest is getting ready to check-in. I do my usual rigamarole and send instructions yadda yadda. Guest informs me that there will be 4 people staying, vice 2. Okay. I send an alteration request and call them to make sure they understand why. Guest is fine with it but starts asking me about the kitchen. It seems she has decided to make a WEDDING CAKE in our space. Uhhh. We have basic cookware but not the materials needed for that. We have an extensive conversation about what she needs and I do my kitchen inventory for her-- the Great British Bakeoff it is not. She is now scattered that she may have to supply some other items. What?? How was this not mentioned??

So my pleasant wine tasting afternoon has now put me in a situation where I failed to get as many details from this guest as I might have. Which is totally on me. And I have since learned not to open my calendar that far into the future as I do forget who and why they are coming. Wish me luck! I am dreading this clean up....

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Laura2592 Maybe it will be a small wedding cake - Oh no its America - small doesn't work there does it!

[Laura2592]

@Mike-And-Jane0 indeed. We had 35 people at our wedding and cupcakes. I have a feeling that this is not going to be what she is trying to accomplish. 

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592 I suspect she is not  a professional cake maker, so I’m picturing a “Pinterest fail”. Let us know how it all turns out.

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  I don't quite understand why you're feeling that the oversight was yours. Had the guest mentioned in your initial correspondence that she was involved with catering and not just a guest? As a caterer, I'm no stranger to preparing wedding cakes - they are the most annoyingly specific things you can bake in terms of equipment- and I can't imagine just assuming I could rock up to an Airbnb and have it already stocked with exactly the right materials. Unless the guest was planning to bring her entire kit all along, this really sounds like the error was entirely her fault. 

During big fashion events I occasionally have aspiring designers here to promote their work. It never would have occurred to me to verify that the guest won't be needing to turn their bedroom into a sweatshop.

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592 I’m with Andrew on questioning that this was really your fault. However, as we’ve all learned (and it’s certainly the case here), guests can be astonishingly clueless. It certainly does help to be as thorough as possible in asking questions at booking. ‘Potentially’ less surprises and headaches to deal with after the fact. Not sure you could have uncovered this guests plans with more questions though. Accidentally maybe!

I think oftentimes there is the perception with guests that because they are booking a house (in your case cottage = duh moment for this guest), that they can just proceed as if it’s their own home. But this guest was really out to lunch, expecting to produce a wedding cake on the fly!

[Laura2592]

@Anonymous I am being the teensiest bit facetious but truly I should have spent more time vetting this guest. I can't anticipate every wild thing someone might think to use my space for, but as it was a wedding, I should have been more diligent in asking questions. As I have mentioned in previous threads we have a lot of strange and entitled guest situations due to weddings in our area so my spidey sense should have tingled. But that wine was tasty....

The review on this one should be quite interesting. 

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I understand you feeling you should have asked more questions, but this is a guest fail, not a host fail. A guest who is in charge of making the wedding cake should be savvy enough to ensure that there is the facility for her to do that where she'll be staying, not make ridiculous assumptions that there will be a professional kitchen available in a cottage listing. Did she expect there to be cooling racks, an oven thermometer and cake decorating tools, too?

And even if you had asked questions back in May, there's no assurance that she would have known she would be taking on this task at that time.

This is no different than guests failing to disclose that they have pet allergies or sensitivities to certain products. If a guest has special needs beyond clean and comfortable accommodation, it's their responsibility to make that known.

[Laura2592]

@Sarah977  too true but I have some emerging themes in my area-- lots of would-be gourmands wanting a restaurant-quality kitchen for their weekend trysts and very desperate but still demanding wedding-related bookings.  Both existed pre-pandemic in smaller numbers but the Venn diagram of these two specific needs groups has converged in this particular guest. Its the perfect storm of entitlement and expectation. I can't help but feel I could have done a better job of seeing this one coming. Ah well. Stay tuned for breaking news on "This Airbnb host ruined my cake bakery for my best friend's wedding and now she is getting a divorce!" 

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  Whenever I stay in a place in Europe that's fully dedicated as an Airbnb (as in, not anyone's actual residence) there are two things I really miss in the kitchen:  a decent knife that can cut more than cheese, and a cutting board bigger than an iPad. The last place I stayed, the host had clearly put a lot of thought into breakfast:  the tiny kitchen had three (!) coffee machines, a toaster, cups and saucers, egg cups, and a menagerie of herbal teas beloved only by Germans ("Detox Your Feelings" is the actual name of one made from, I kid you not, stinging nettles - something like poison ivy).  But the only knife in the house might have been made by Mattel, and the cupboard held just one aluminum pot and no pans. Not a problem - I always check the inventory before I go shopping and adapt accordingly - but I couldn't help but think there's a niche for listings that foreground a kitchen that's truly a delight to cook in, for people whose idea of a meal is a bit different from 27 cups of coffee and boiled eggs.

[Laura2592]

@Anonymous you are so right. Instead of "experiences" Airbnb should just have "kitchen luxe"  where people who truly have a great kitchen with all the bells and whistles can charge extra for the experience. Think cooking tourism. I am in the process of remodeling my kitchen in my primary house but I am sure I would miss the mark on that even so. Aesthetics? I have that down. Cooking? Well...I don't actually do that much. I am more of a "drink wine at the kitchen island and discuss the issues of the day" kind of girl. I think if it were an option to exist solely on wine, sparkling water and espresso without the attendant health issues, I could probably completely give up actual food. So when I set up my Airbnb I put in an espresso machine, coffee maker, tea selection, the requisite number of pots, pans, utensils, plates, mixing bowls and cookie sheets one might need for a basic meal. Wedding cakes, paella, sushi, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner? Nope. I wasn't planning for any of that. But there are hosts that I am sure are ready to take on that challenge. Why not promote that as a niche?

[Huma0]

@Laura2592 

I have a large, pretty well equipped kitchen I think. People seem impressed by it anyway. There is a large range cooker, huge fridge, plenty of counter/work top space and huge amount of pots, pans, cooking utensils, crockery, cutlery, glassware.

Still, I don't think I would want to advertise that as a feature. I don't want guests constantly cooking up a storm and leaving a massive mess behind (when I've had guests who 'entertained' here, even for a very small dinner, it was a disaster). I had a lot of that when I did short-term hosting. Interestingly enough, long-term guests seem to cook less than many short-term ones despite the staggering range of restaurants in London (go figure).

Plus, even if you feel you are fully equipped, there is always going to be one guest who finds it lacking. I had one demanding lady who rejected all three of my coffee makers, finished all the white sugar and refused to use brown and expected a waste disposal in the sink which no one here has. By the way, she couldn't and didn't cook at all, but continuously complained about the kitchen facilities. 

There was another, much nicer guest who was astonished I didn't have a pizza cutter. Again, not really considered a 'must have' here. We just use a knife. It works. The only person I know for sure who has one is my mother, who has all sorts of random kitchen gadgets. I asked her if she ever used it and she said 'no, never'. So, I'm not running out to get one any time soon.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  Believe it or not, stinging nettles are delicious. I used to gather and cook them when I lived in Canada. Of course, you have to pick them with gloves and you pinch off the new tender tops, rather than use the older, tougher leaves. When you cook them, they don't sting anymore, and changing the water once during the process ensures that. (So no, they aren't anything like poison ivy)They taste a bit like spinach, but way better and almost meaty. Even my kids loved them. And they are super high in iron, other minerals and vitamins. 

You'd have to bring your own knife if you came to my place. My kitchen is quite well outfitted, and you could easily make a full course meal, but I have a fear of large sharp knives, so you wouldn't find any here. However, my little Opinel is quite sharp and cuts pretty much anything.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977  Can you imagine the scene in the airport, when someone who looks like me has to explain the knife set? 

[Lawrene0]

I serve stinging nettles all the time, too, @Sarah977 ! So good! (Now no one will ever want to come to a dinner party put on by either of us...)