New guests

[Patricia867]

Hi we have our first guests arriving soon and we are very excited about it but also very nervous. Do we tell them they are our first guests? Do we clean the room every day or let them have privacy? Etc etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Patricia867

Hi -well done on getting your first guest. They won't know and I wouldn't tell them - but remember they will be just as nervous as you (particularly if they are sharing your home).

If they are there for a few days then you do not go into their room, and neither is there any need to clean or tidy up their room. If they are staying for more than, say 4 days, a change of towels should be offered and a change of bed linen after a week.

Some guests are happy to chat and others just want to be by themselves - so don;t worry about it, just go with the flow. Be friendly and welcoming, show them around and point out anything that is particularly important to you (eg locking the door).

Let them know that you are around if they need any help or advice...

I am sure you will be fine.....

In terms of feedback you can, in the private comments section, tell them afterwards that it was your first time hosting, so if there was anything different you should have done that would have improved their stay, then ask them to let you know.

Good luck

[Sarah977]

Hope your first guests are lovely and friendly. Assuming they will be, and are easy to talk with, at some point when it seems appropriate, you could certainly mention that you just started hosting, they they are your first guests, and that you'd really appreciate their feedback during their stay as to anything they think you could improve on or if everything is as they expected from your description.

My first guest, who turned out to be a lively, outgoing gal, actually gave me a great opening- shortly after she arrived and we were chatting, she said "You didn't have any reviews!" I said "That's cause I just started hosting and you're my lucky first guest!"

She wrote a long and glowing review, which I credit with the booking requests rolling in at a good pace. She understood how airbnb works, but I feel it's not a bad idea to let the guests know that airbnb considers anything less than 5 stars to be somehow lacking, so since you're first starting out, you'd like to hear any issues they may have during their stay and have the opportunity to rectify them, rather than wait to hear about it through a less than stellar review.

[Matthew285]

@Patricia867, congratulations on getting your first guests!

My opinion is that it would be fine to mention that they are your first guests if, as @Sarah977 mentioned, there is a natural conversational opening for it.

The same thing happened with our first guests: they mentioned they were curious about our listing having no reviews, and I mentioned that they were our first guests. They were very nice and understanding (possibly because of this). Not everything went perfectly during their stay, and we had to hustle to make some things right, but they ended up giving us an all 5-star review.

And as to cleaning: the normal expectation on AirBnB is that the host will not enter spaces private to the guests unless requested by the guest.