Personally, I don't think hosts are more fussy than typical guests. They definitely have a color on their vision, since they go through the process with guests and believe they've got it down pat.
We stayed at a host home with almost 400 positive reviews that, after our stay, wouldn't be a place we'd go back. It was the hardest review I could ever write. She reached out and accused us as being fussy hosts that were trying to get them to live up to our own expectations. After some reflection, we realized that we were suffering from the expectations we read in every other review. Our biggest complaint and reason we wouldn't return, they had an open-door policy. They left their doors unlocked and didn't issue keys to their guests. All we could think of was the 400 plus reviews and countless guests who had stayed there who knew this.... it made us completely uncomfortable for the entirety of our stay. But clearly this was OUR issue and we tried to clearly explain this. They probably haven't had a single issue of theft of otherwise, so it really "wasn't" an issue for them, but it really was for us!
We had other personal issues - she had a beautiful spread of toiletries in the bathroom. Problem for us was how much space these took up. Both of us couldn't lay out our things in the bathroom because there was so many things on the counter, my cosmetics ended up perched on the toilet lid. I had to unplug the nightlight to plug in my curling iron. Are these deal breakers? No. But for us, it made us uncomfortable. She had beautifully printed instructions and information on the night stands in the bedroom. This included a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a water set up that was so generous and thoughtful. All of these things also prevented us from setting down our phones, eyeglasses and other personal items while we were there - everything ended on the floor. Does that make us "fussy" and unreasonable? To us, it was a bad fit and we tried to say that nicely in our public review and, privately, explained it as carefully as we could to the host.
It is difficult not to see a property through the lens of how you'd do it for yourself, but ultimately, we've been glad for the feedback from other hosts. Like once, a host's husband was here with a bad cold. While they were complimentary about the free cold medicines we offered, they were critical of the fact we don't provide a garbage can in the bedroom to collect used tissues (they didn't think to move the one from their private bath next to the bed). Was it a petty complaint... probably... did we feel hurt... sure... did we change anything?... no since for all the other guests it was never an issue but we can completely understand why they complained!
The nice thing is that other hosts will challenge you to think about how things could be different. It's always a nice to think about things in a different way.
