Poll - Do you provide breakfast?

[Kirstie]

Hi all,

To continue our series of polls which started last week with this poll about the cleaning fee, this week's topic is breakfast!

There are three options in this poll so choose the one that fits best. In answer to the question 'Do you provide breakfast for your guests', select either 'Yes - I cook them breakfast' or 'Yes - I give them food that I have bought (e.g. cereal, bread etc.)' or 'No - I do not provide breakfast' and then click 'submit'. If you cook and provide bought food as well, select the first option. 

Then write a comment below in the thread telling us more about your choice and why - e.g. I don't provide breakfast as I don't live in the listing etc. The answers will be interesting and useful for new as well as more experienced hosts!

You can see the current results of the poll here!

Please give any suggestions about topics of polls that you would like to see in the future! We welcome your ideas 🙂

Happy polling!

Kirstie

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Current polls:

Poll - Do you charge a cleaning fee?

[Linda108]

Since my space is a private room and I am here, I provide a cold breakfast for self serve.  However, I can customize the offerings a bit if I wish.  Sometimes instead of a hard boiled egg I provide deviled eggs.  Instead of toast, I provide bagels.  If I have a nice rapport and the guest is staying a week or so, I might make a frittata.  I use the breakfast option to gage the amount of interaction a guest wants and needs.  I think having a high touch option contributes to my guests giving me such wonderful positive reviews and ratings.

[Chantal6]

Hi,

We live here and share our home with our guests so we do provide breakfast. We offer farm fresh yogurt, fruits, pancakes on the ist day, 2nd day is usually an omelette also served with yogurt and fruits.

Our guests enjoy the freshness our the dishes served and appreciate the personal touches.

Chantal

[Zacharias0]

 If I ran a hotel, a larger property or even a remote airbnb offering breakfast would make more financial sense. The fruit goes bad too fast,  no one wakes up at the same time, while other people skip breakfast altogether.

[Janet147]

Yes and No.  I love to bake so I always have a fresh muffins, scones and cookies for the guests.  In the guest treat area refrigerator I have bottled juice, water, soda and containers of fresh fruit.  It is fruit that I have cut up and prepared.  There is also yogurt in the refrigertor.  I find that most guests like this.

In the same guest area a  3 triered serving piece with puchased rolls, crackers, snacks or all kinds that are free.  There is a microwave for the instant oatmeal/creme of wheat/ hot cocolate.  An electric tea kettle for tea with an assortment of teas available.

This area is separate from the kitchen area.

All of the items are FREE.  Ocassionally I will have a guest use the snacks/treats for a meal.

[Rachael26]

Our guests have the complete use of our remote cabin on a mountainside, 30 minutes from the nearest town/supermarket. I do not advertise that breakfast is provided - but I do. I always think of the guest who may never have experienced such a remote setting, or do they really believe that it is half an hour from the nearest anything. And some guests drive straight from work on a Friday and arrive late, and may have 'forgotten' to bring groceries - I do not want anyone to wake up their first morning with no food or even milk for their coffee!

So a few days before arrival, I message the guest to give detailed directions and to let them know that bread, milk, juice, fruit, butter, tea/coffee, eggs and bacon will be in the fridge for them so not to worry about bringing those items.

By not promising it in the listing - it is an 'extra' - which means I can keep it flexible (for example I am rethinking the bacon option - it is expensive and I do not agree with the health aspects of it so it may be off my list very soon) and the guest is normally pleasantly surprised. I also always include a bag of chips and salsa, some chocolates, and sometimes a bottle of bubbly and a pancake mix and fresh blueberries, especially if they guests are celebrating an anniversary or special occasion (over 60% of our bookings are for that special something).

Getting my expenses together for the tax year evidences that this is an expensive thing to include in my already discounted listing price..... but it would be hard for me to not do - as I think a guest who only has 2 days to take their relaxing break in the mountains shouldn't have to miss out on their first breakfast because they forgot to include some basics during the rush to get here.

Best Wishes.

[Rachael26]

@Kirstie

I like the polls. So thank you for facilitating them. I also like results - so will a summary of the findings be presented at some point in the future?

In the cleaning fee poll someone made the observation that Airbnb could just do a simple computer search (well it wasn't worded like that but I'm not the computer software expert!) to find the % of hosts charging cleaning fees.... which I agreed with - but it was good to read the thoughts and opinions that went along with the Poll.

In my previous job we designed and conducted many community and service provider surveys - easy to ask the questions but it was always the results and analyses that were the hardest to do - but the most worthwhile to produce.

Please tell us that someone in Airbnb is going to summarize and put together a brief report of these Poll results? That indeed would be useful to hosts (and guests) both new and experienced.

Best Wishes.

[Rachael26]

OK - I think I just answered my own question.

I just read the last post on the other Poll (about cleaning fees). And now I have to say I am disappointed...

"This isn't an official poll instigated by Airbnb, it's just for fun! We thought it would be interesting to see what proportion of hosts do and don't charge cleaning fees and your reasons - it's turned into a great discussion :). I'll be publishing another poll later today on a different topic so keep an eye out!"

Would love to think that our time in replying is worth a little more than 'just for fun!'.

Perhaps I am only speaking for myself when I say that, as a host, I am busy but I do value the opportunity to read, contribute and learn from the posts and threads in the Community Center. It helps develop me as a better host and helps me develop my business to be more effective (as well as avoiding possible problems/pitfalls as outlined by other hosts) - but I certainly don't spend time here in the Community Center in the hopes of participating in 'a great discussion'.

Best Wishes.

[Kirstie]

Hi @Rachael26,

I'm sorry to hear you are disappointed. Of course we value your responses and I wasn't trying to detract from that by saying these polls are 'just for fun'. Although these polls aren't official, exchanging your experience of these different aspects of hosting and explaining what you do via these comments is such a useful way for hosts to learn from each other here in the Community Center. These polls are just another opportunity alongside other threads in the CC for these valuable discussions to occur. It's also interesting to see the proportions of hosts choosing different methods via the pie charts!

You can see the results of the polls by clicking on the link I put just below the poll box in the original post. I will post the current results of this poll below, but there won't be an official end result yet, as we are keeping them open to allow more hosts to respond!

Kirstie

[Kneikha-And-Darian0]

Hello all

We are new to Airbnb (March 2017) 

I find the polls and all the post helpful, and I do enjoy reading all the responces. We do not charge a cleaning fee we just add it into the price. In the beginning we did charge and had a guest tell us it was rude and we are nickle and dimeing our guest and it was rude. We provide OJ, some pastries, coffee, cream, sugar, and water which is all FREE. What I am finding out is there are so many people out there what want so much more for so less. 

Keep the polls going they help new host understand how it all works.

[Jamie-and-Gustavo0]

As a longtime host, I encourage all hosts to be a Guest through Airbnb at least once a year, and take notes of things that you as a guest appreciated or didn't need/like that you can incorporate into your home - and did it match what you paid? We found that food was a nice touch but mostly an unnecessary decoration in a place where we wanted to place our bags

Given that there is now an amenities section which can indicate what amenities a host provides, if a guest feels that the price should include breakfast they can look for places that provide it, much like a hotel. 

Of course, also much like a hotel, places that do not provide a "complimentary" breakfast tend to be cheaper - no surprise there. We price accordingly and are honest in our description, and I hope our 5 star rating reflects that while we are nothing fancy, we are genuine. We do offer basic staples to all guests - coffee, tea, instant oatmeal, fruit from our fruit bowl, rice, beans, potatoes, spices, and kitchen access. We have an electric kettle in the room, but it rarely gets used.  Anytime we make a big meal we offer our guests to try if they would like, but we never specifically prepare our meals for them unless we plan it that way together. 

We find that shared meals happen often and naturally. We often have shared meals with our guests where both parties contribute to the meal. Often, this gives an opportunity to learn from our guests about their culture or tastes, and we get the free meal! Try being a guest yourself - you'll find that you want to buy your own food, and if you stay with someone, first read their description to know what to expect. We are busy and not always home. But even for busy/ private guests, we try to have one meaningful conversation, and it often involves chatting casually around food.

[Linda108]

@Jamie-and-Gustavo0  Excellent perspective.  I totally agree about hosts being travelers.  I think hosts have to understand about the reality of the hospitality industry, but now I am afraid  I might be breaking the rules.   My guests love what I offer, but I do not want to risk losing my business license to provide short term rental by ignoring regulations.  So....my next step is to become more educated.  I understand the need to regulate when you offer services or products to the public, but all I wanted to do is give people what I give to my friends and family.

[Annette33]

about breakfast : my offering come closest to @Rachael26: I leave the fridge in our rental apartment  nicely stocked with several breakfast items, so the guests are able to fully take care of their first morning breakfast. I don't mark it as breakfast in amenities, as I am not there to cook it and I don't want to raise false expectations, better this way, a nice surprise . As my rentals are  max 4 days, I am not worried about things spoiling - whatever isn't used, we use it up after the guests leave.They have a fully equipped kitchen, can cook their own coffee, etc..so all is well.

At one time, I had offered a gourmet choice of 4 different cooked breakfasts that I would bring down to the apartment (we are living above) at the specified time, had offered to do that for an extra $20 for two , to be handled via "change of reservation"  or whatever.  To my great surprise, nobody took me up on that, but I had made sure that I had all ingredients at the house for whatever they might order. It ended up a pain in the neck to have all those ingredients at hand when nobody actually went for it, so I just dropped it.  Also learned that some people just don't eat breakfast, are just happy with coffee, etc.. so to leave nice fixings for them to use as they please (no extra charge) seems to work best.

[Kirstie]

Some interesting responses so far! Thanks for sharing what you do about breakfast @Annette33, @Rachael26, @Janet147, @Zacharias0 and @Linda108!  There seems to be a fairly even split between those who don't provide any breakfast and those who provide bought foods. Only a relatively small percentage cook breakfast as it stands! I'm intrigued to hear from more of you 🙂

Kirstie

[Roger86]

My partner and I are new at this. Our initial decision was to provide a few granola bars and "check" that box. I do feel it is a little weak. However, because our unit is a complete 1 bedroom unit and we didn't want to get into the weeds with this, self-serve breakfast in the bar form seems to make sense.

However, where we are happens to be one of those old towns with several great restaurant breakfast options. I am wondering if we should go and negotiate a contract and give our guests a say $10 voucher or something. But then since our per night rate is around $89, it seems to be an expensive add-on.

What do people think?