Kid-Friendly

[Marisa-and-Joe0]

Recently, one of our guests left us some feedback. They said they wished I would provide a few small toys to make the home more kid-friendly. What are your thoughts on providing a few small toys for families with children?

[Sarah977]

@Marisa-and-Joe0  If you accept  children, yes, I would definitely provide some toys, children's books, etc. 

You don't have to go out and spend a lot of money- you can pick things up at second-hand stores and on sites like Craigslist. 

A friend of mine provides a big basket of toys and kids books in her Airbnb suite- they are toys her own son outgrew long ago. She gets a lot of positive comments from parents for this. Toys that are new to a child, regardlesss of whether they are actually "new" or not, will entertain kids for hours, thereby affording the parents some relaxing adult time. 

The most popular toy my friend had was a building set where you construct a series of chutes and slides and such that you roll marbles down. Parents told her it was a great  activity they did with their child.

Many parents just plug their kids into TV or a screen these days, but there are lots that don't want to be raising their kids like that. My daughter won't even do Facetime with me with her 2 year old- she wants to put off my granddaughter's knowledge and addiction to such things as long as possible, which I totally agree with and respect.

[Anonymous]

@Marisa-and-Joe0 There are two sides of this that I'd weigh against each other:

1)  Your listing promotes its proximity to family-oriented theme parks, and its 3-bedroom layout and suburban location would also suggest that families with a bunch of kids might be your target customers. Some hosts in similar situations angle for that demographic by leaning hard into their "kid-friendly" features with advanced childproofing, high chairs, pack n' plays (whatever that is - honestly I've never seen one in person), and whatever else young parents are into these days. You might have to draw the line at a Gender Reveal Party, lest your neighbors get their faces blown off by pink explosives, but otherwise that's one direction you could take your listing and possibly add to its already considerable value. If so, a bunch of toys are among the many things on your shopping list.

2) You could also lean away from features oriented toward young children and stipulate that the home is not optimized for their safety. Accentuate the features that are more appealing to adult groups and families with preteen and teenage kids, including the entertainment options and all-ages board games. 

I have no idea which approach is better for your market, but given your penchant for seasonal deco, I'd guess that you're someone who's willing to customize your space to fit the goals you have for it. There's nothing wrong with having some toys stashed away just in case they fit a particular group rather than others - you can create a unique environment for each guest if you want to. Just be warned, each little thing you make available for your guests is one more thing you have to inspect for safety and function, and sanitize during your changeovers. The parents who gave you that "helpful" feedback probably had no idea how much that adds to your workload, as they weren't even thoughtful enough to bring toys from home.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  A pack 'n' play is a portable baby crib, made mostly out of cloth. The sides are usually made of netting. It folds up for easy transport. If the parents travel with their own, it can be a place the baby feels comfortable about going to sleep in, as it's familiar to them. It's also a safe place to put the baby in to play.

You'll likely never have occasion to show off your knowledge of all things baby, but now you know.

I think most parents do travel with toys, I know I did. But there's a limiit to how many toys you can bring along when travelling, and the kids will get a bit bored of them after awhile. It's always exciting and entertaining for them to find a bunch of new to them toys to play with, and can allow the parents to enjoy a glass of wine without being disturbed for awhile by "I'm bored, there's nothing to do". 🙂

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977  If I were calculating purely on cost-benefit ratio, I'd guess it was the better investment to give the parents more free wine than give the kids more toys. But once again, much of that comes back to the cleaning and maintenance problems. Whatever brief thrill the kids might get from those new toys can be obliterated by the parent who finds those toys too dirty or old or inadequate, or who has to put down the Merlot for hours to rush the kid to hospital to extract the Lego from one of his orifices. And of course it's not your fault, but you're still the one who gets reviewed - and if anything you generously offered didn't meet the guests' expectations, you take the blow for that in your ratings.

You know, I'm not a fan of organizing hospitality around the whole ratings drama, but I really did see an unexpectedly steep improvement in ratings when I went super minimalistic in my offering and stopped trying to be everything to everyone. I'm happy to go the extra mile for the people who are really committed to enjoying themselves, but my experience with the stressed-out customers who always feel something is missing is that whatever you throw at them will always fall short. What they're desperately trying to push away is any awareness of the obvious fact that the problem lies completely within themselves.

And yeah, when it's a married straight couple, the toy they really need might not be for the kids.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  That's one of the things that I advise new hosts- don't try to attract everyone to your listing- think about your target demographic and market towards them and furnish accordingly. There will be some crossover of the types of guests one gets, but I think a host can get more guests who are a "fit" and come up with less complaints if they keep that in mind.

If a host has a family friendly listing, though, they should provide some things to entertain kids, just as they would provide high speed, unlimited internet if they cater to digital nomads. 

I wouldn't provide toys with small pieces that could be choking hazards, unless the host is really into customizing the experience and has a selection of age-appropriate toys and games they would put in the unit according to the ages of the child guests.

And of course one can't have a box of grubby toys- they have to be cleaned just like everything else.

I'm a minimalist in my own life, so my Airbnb room is also. The only "stuff" in there, aside from the furniture, the hangars, and a throw rug, is a bedside table lamp, a safe candle holder (a small pewter container filled with sand) and candle in case the power goes out, a small basket guests can use to put jewelry, coins, phone chargers, etc, in, and a few travel books on Mexico, maps of the area and some local business cards. 

I look at some of these listings full of decorative items, dried flower arrangements, "collections" of whatever, and a dozen kitchen appliances on the counters, etc, and can only think of how much time it takes to clean all that stuff. And that guests don't care about any of it. They more appreciate clear surfaces where they can spread out their own stuff.