Something you learned when you first started hosting?

[Deborah0]

I thought I'd ask hosts to share a story of something you learned when you first started hosting. You might explain what experience or knowledge you had before you started hosting, and then, what experiences with guests early on, taught you something important.  Did something come up that you hadn't thought about?  Did guest feedback help you learn something new?   Was it a struggle to incorporate what you learned, or did it go relatively smoothly?  

[Queenie0]

I immediately learned that guests expect what you tell them to expect. Initially, I offered a hearty, cooked breakfast. Guests expected to see it even if they weren't planning on having it! So I went to offering a basic cold breakfast - coffee/tea, cereal, yogurt, toast. Now, if a bagel and cream cheese show up, guests are thrilled because it's an upgrade from what they expected!

[Wendy-and-Markus0]

@Deborah:

*It helps if the host themselves have been a guest before. This gives invaluable experience.

* Spend the night in your actual listing. Sounds silly BUT you really get a sense of the comfort level of the room, bed, pillows.. Etc

*Ask a friend/family to spend a night as well and give you feedback.

*We invited our guests for constructive feedback and we got some really great suggestions.

[Deborah0]

Great ideas, @Wendy-and-Markus0!!

[Kara1]

A few things suggested by some of my first guests were more pillows so they could sit in bed and read.  A nightstand on both sides of the bed with lamps for reading.  A wastepaper basket in each room rather than just the one in the bathroom and the one in the hallway.  A box of kleenex in each room instead of one in the bathroom, one downstairs, and one in the hall.  Having a small floor or desk type fan in each room...many use them as white noise to block unfamiliar sounds, was also a frequent suggestion.  At least one extra blanket or quilt per room.

As a guest, for my husband and myself, not having a nightstand or something on EACH side of the bed is a dealbreaker.  I am totally blind without my glasses and have to have a place on my side of the bed to lay them after I am in bed.  My husband (and a surprising number of our guests) travels with a CPAP to help him breath at night so he needs something to set it on on his side of the bed, so if I cannot see in the photos a nightstand on each side of the bed or can't see that there's room to put a chair (or a small table) from another room, I do not even consider staying there even tho everything else seems really nice.

Hope these suggestions helped.