Groceries For Guest

[Matthew800]

I was thinking of running out and getting groceries that my guest requested ahead of time. 

Has anyone done this before? 

Please share your thoughts!!!

[Anonymous]

@Matthew800  What guests? Your profile is empty and has no listings attached.

Anyway...if a host offers this service on their listing, it's reasonable for a guest to request it. Otherwise, it's a big red flag that trouble lies ahead. An experienced host would nip it in the bud and politely supply the address of the nearest grocery store.

[Matthew800]

I'm just think adding this layer of easy convenience ... upon arrival your favorite groceries are stocked in the house might be a great thing for guest! 

[Joan385]

I think that is a great idea. I supply their favorite wine or beer and a cheese tray with a few little snack. But if a guest asked me to pick up groceries I would so they had them when they arrive. We have a specialty market up the street which I am the General Manager, and we have home deliveries. We live in a resort area so we get tons of vacationer during the summer renting cottage/hotels/Airbnb and we delivery to them upon their arrival. 

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@Matthew800 wrote:

I'm just think adding this layer of easy convenience ... upon arrival your favorite groceries are stocked in the house might be a great thing for guest! 

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@Matthew800 wrote:

I'm just think adding this layer of easy convenience ... upon arrival your favorite groceries are stocked in the house might be a great thing for guest! 

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[Sonia1249]

hello! I am starting a grocery shopping and delivery service in a tourist town (pensacola, FL) and would like to provide my service to guests, but unsure of how to reach out to hosts. Do you know of a place to do this? i appreciate the help.

[Francis2156]

Hi Sonia, I'm a host in Pensacola and is interested in your service.  Kindly message.

[Ana1136]

@Matthew800 Are you planning on charging for the service or you will just do it as a favor and guests will only have to pay for the actual groceries? In both ways, I don't feel like it is something that ads to the whole experience of staying at your place. I personally wouldn't bother, guests can shop whatever they want on their own.. for example what if something they want isn't available, will you text them to give you a replacement? What if they see the message after a few hours, will you go to the shop again? I agree with @Anonymous, just give them locations of a few grocery shops and save yourself the trouble. 

[Matthew800]

I'm just think adding this layer of easy convenience ... upon arrival your favorite groceries are stocked in the house might be a great thing for guest! 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Matthew800 

hahaha are you crazy? 😄 😄

I see it coming...

Guest:  Ketchup, bread, milk, cereals...

Host: what brand of ketchup? Hot or mild? How big package?

What kind of bread? White, integral, corn....? How much bread?

Fresh or pasteurized milk? How much bottles? How much fat? Cow milk or goat or soya or quail ?

What kind of cereals? How much boxes?

...

And then reviews.....:

The host was kind to provide us with groceries but then he wants to charge us for them. He didn't say we will have to pay, we thought it is all-inclusive! 1*

or

Host bought Meggle milk, we don't like it, we drink only Dukat milk, and the bread was from the morning but we arrived at the evening and it was already hard, we had to go to buy new groceries. 2*

or

The host said he will buy groceries for us. We sent him a list but then we realized we forgot to add a few items on the list and send them another list. He refused to go to the grocery shop again, said he has no time, we were disappointed because we had to go to the shop by ourselves and we hate it, it ruined our day, we want a full refund !.

No no no! 😄

[Anonymous]

@Matthew800 It's great to be creative about ways to improve your guests' experience, but I think you're going down the wrong path here. When people are planning their vacations or business trips, they don't want to be thinking about grocery lists. And preferences for what we like to eat every day are very personal, it's way too invasive for a host to insert himself into that.

Think about the conveniences you like to have when you travel, and use that as a guide. When I rent a home I expect to cater my own meals, but it's very nice when the property is already equipped with stuff like coffee, tea, sugar, cooking oil, salt, and spices - things that are cumbersome to buy for single use. A water filter is a great thing to supply, so people don't have to buy unnecessary plastics. Toilet paper, soap, cleaning products - all basic things that should be part of your regular restock. But personal grocery items should be supplied by the guest - especially perishable goods. 

[Von3]

This is extremely kind of you but it will certainly turn into the "no good deeds go unpunished" path. Having the basic supplies should be enough as people mentioned above. A whole grocery list could turn out to be wasteful if once arrived, the guests decide to only eat out instead. We offer bread at our place and it's hard managing even that since some guests don't even want to go into the kitchen and other guests are trying to get the most bang for their bucks-- so basically spoilage certain weeks. A whole fridge of groceries could be even worse in terms of spoilage!

[Elena87]

Sounds like a business pitch looking for affirmation rather than an eager as a puppy  to please host.

It might have some unintentional disclosure by the guest though...

Guest... : - Five doberman sized tins of acme dog food and 10 lt of cat litter, citrus fragrance

Host ;.....Hold your horses there chief ....I think we now need to get down to discussing pet fees.

Guest....: 20 bags of ice, 2 cases of Moskovskaya Osabaya vodka, 12 cases of baltika 3 , bottle of aperol...

Host....crikey, this rather seems quite a lot for a one person booking in my five room mansion for a single Saturday night now....hmm.

[Lisa723]

@Elena87 @Matthew800 @Von3 @Anonymous @Branka-and-Silvia0 

Well... I offer in my pre-check-in message to stock the breakfast area at cost if guests send a list. Part of the reason is to politely make sure they know that it will not be stocked if they don't. I would say 1% of guests take the offer, but everyone appreciates it. It hasn't been any trouble.

I used to provide complimentary breakfast items, but there was a lot of waste and I couldn't make it work financially. To me this is a workable compromise.

[Linda108]

@Lisa723 @Elena87 @Von3 @Anonymous   Perhaps I am the only CC member who wonders why a person with virtually no profile starts a discussion thread.  I am not usually a suspicious person, but this post has me wondering.

[Sarah977]

@Linda108 I had a similar thought- I think this is a troll post.