do you give a breakfast ...to make booking more attractive

[Dee8]

im in belfast - UK and i charge £25.00 a night for 1 person and £10.00 an extra person.   with this i give a european style breakfast with toast/baguette jam ,marmalade, cakes and buns.   also fresh orange .coffee, tea, herbal tea.  also a boiled egg/ slice of ham and slice of cheese.  also a bowl of quality granola. 

i estiamte the cost of each breakfast is approx £1.50 or thereabouts. 

do you think im being too generous ?  

and...do you think it will increase my bookings ? 

thnx

[Dee8]

oh...and a yogurt pot

[Linda108]

A good indication about providing the breakfast and the guest appreciation is to search your reviews, @Dee8.  None of your 9 reviews have mentioned breakfast.  I also provide breakfast and of the 59 reviews, 34 mention the breakfast.  So in my case the breakfast is appreciated, but I do not have a way of telling if having a breakfast directly made a difference in bookings.  I have had guests tell me that my very good reviews was an important part of their decision to book.  You might just ask your guests directly if the breakfast was part of their decision making process.  Most guests are happy to share their opinions.

[Chris232]

Hi @Dee8

I think you have a good balance re breakfast.

I offer the same as yourself and have found most guests are appreciative of a good breakfast to start the day and have even expressed surprise that breakfast is also included.

In my listing "Breakfast is provided with a choice of cereal, fruit juice and yoghurt, If you have a specific requirement ie. type of Cereal we are very happy to oblige." has helped with those on a gluten free diet etc.

I feel that if breakfast was not offered would reflect in poor reviews and star rating would be hit.

[Rebecca181]

@Dee8 Your breakfast sounds delicious! To answer a question like this, you need to crunch some numbers. Add up all of your expenses to maintain the rental - Monthly operating expenses and any start-up costs incurred before you opened (furniture, TV, or what-have-you). Then look at what you are bringing in on average a month. This will help you to see whether you may be spending too much on the breakfast. 

For awhile I was leaving out a good bottle of wine for guests, or champagne (with glasses, ice bucket, ice  - the works). It was never mentioned in my reviews. The little birthday lights I strung up were, however. Now, because I am near the beach and it is a bit chilly at this time, I leave out big mugs with bags of tea and hot chocolate in it, and cookies. Much cheaper, and although it has not shown up in reviews, most all the guests point it out during the tour and make gleeful sounds. So that is my happy compromise.

[Lilly28]

I also include breakfast. I just leave different cereals, milk, eggs, coffee, tea, butter, honey, many different jams and a loaf of bread. I am not preparing the breakfast myself, I just leave the things in the fridge or cupbords, sometimes I leave cheese and olives. I think guests are happy having this choice, they can use the stuff left not only for breakfast, but for dinner as well.  This is especially appreciated by late commers or guests who are exosted by the long route to your flat, i.e. coming from another continent.

[Lilly28]

And I think the breakfast will not increase your bookings, but will increase the number of your good reviews, I hope they all will be 5-stars. By the way to have such a breakfast you are describing at 1.50 pounds? - in my poor country in Eastern Europe the price would be much higher.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Dee8

I think it really depends on your location and type of guests you get. As a guest user, I've only stayed in 'downtown' locations so there were tons of options nearby and I really liked that I had the freedom to choose what I wanted each morning. As a host, I get mostly long-term guests so I have the occasional loaf of bread in the bread box or fruit in the fridge and tell guests to 'help yourself'. Also when they are home around dinner time, Henry and I often invite our guest to join us. We clearly state we don't provide any meals, but usually end up sharing meals often 🙂