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?

[Mariann4]

I share a lot of the breakfast food with my guests since buying jam, butter, milk etc in small boxes is too expensive to do, @Susie0. I also clear out one shelf in the fridge if needed. The room is too small to put more into if my guests should get the space they deserve. But I give full access to my kitchen at any time since it is not common to have breakfast in a cafe in Norway. So far this has not been a big issue. It was more me trying to make a fun point about my learning curve 🙂 My biggest loss was not in the fridge but when someone found my imported cereal in the cabinet when I had put two types out on the kitchen table..  Trifles 🙂

Mariann 🙂

[Julia66]

I serve a full cooked English breakfast to my guests: bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms, tomato, baked beans, hash brown, with toast etc and tea, coffee and orange juice.  I do this because there isn't anywhere to go for breakfast on this little island and guests don't have access to the tiny kitchen.  All the guests love to start the day with a good meal, especially if they're going be out all day without lunch, and many say it's the first AirBnB they've been to that offers a cooked breakfast. 

[Linda108]

As a US citizen, I love to hear you include beans in your breakfast.  I love it but it is associated with my time in Belfast and unique to UK so keep doing that!

[Rachael26]

@Linda108 how lovely that you like baked beans! For me personally, after growing up in England for 40 yrs and then returning to the US in 2008, I never understood why baked beans never really caught on here (besides campfire pork & beans or barbeque beans - just not the same).

My husband is from Belfast and loves his good old traditional Irish Full Breakfast (with the soda/potato bread) - or in @Julia66's case, the Scottish Full Breakfast which would normally have the black/white pudding and Haggis - but Julia is kind to her visiting international guests and omits those extra delights!

(Haven't forgotten you @Julia66 and the Airbnb Breakfast book - we are currently drafting a template page for approval....)

Best Wishes.

[Susie5]

I'm on my way to yours for breakfast!! 🙂

[Robin129]

@Julia66 I need to come visit you! That breakfast sound wonderful!

[Tim-and-Holly0]

We have two homes, both are seperated from our own house. We do not provide a cooked breakfast because it would be too much of a hassle. One of the things I love about Airbnb is that I can, to some extent, work it around my personal schedule. The house just needs to be cleaned before the next guest arrives.

With that in mind, however, we provide a well-stocked kitchen with both breakfast foods and quick dinners. Our philosphy is that if a guest arrives late and tired they can fix a quick meal and relax or go to bed. Our breakfast items allow the guest to eat something and get right on the road site-seeing or whatever it is they came to Tucson for.

Breakfast:

instant oatmeal ($2 for 12 packages)

frozen pancakes ($3 for 24)

butter, syrup

coffee, hot chocolate, tea

Supper:

Ramen noodles (20 cents a package and actually very popular)

canned soups (80 cents)

canned spaghetti sauce ($1)

spaghetti noodles (80 cents)

rice (popular among our Asian guests) (75 cents)

canned foods like spaghetti-os, ravioli, etc (80 cents)

Vienna sausages

Snacks:

microwave popcorn ($5 for 24)

marshmallows (to roast over the fire) (90 cents)

and bottled waters in the fridge and freezer.

We also provide common spices too such as garlic, onion powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper for people who wish to cook their own meals.

Our houses stay pretty well booked and we MIGHT spend $20/month on food. Many people do not eat it, but a well-stocked cupboard makes a great impression on a guest whether they eat it or not. One house has had 115 five-star ratings in a row.

[Donald28]

so you DO provide breakfast and lunch and dinner. 

[Annette76]

Tim & Holly, just checked your listings to get an idea of your set up and what you provide. I haven't listed my place yet as I'm doing a few renovations so am reading and making notes for now. I was planning on a similar set up regarding stocking the kitchen with basic spices and such. I am also planning on leaving coffee, tea, and light breakfast stuff. So do you leave enough for just breakfast for one morning and assume they will shop for the rest? Also, I noticed in a couple of reviews people mentioned you left a gift. What kind of gift? And I'm dying to know about the intimate moments basket lol. 

[Janet147]

We have a 1895 house built as a side-by side townhouses which we purchased out of the condemdation department.  Needless to say we have two of everything.  The condition of buying from the city was that it had to be made into ONE house.  It had been made into 16 apartments when we purchased it.  That is a bit of history so it makes more sense.  The wall between the staircases was opened on the first floor.  That left us with two front staircases side-by side.   We use one side of second floor totally for airbnb, one waiting parlor and one dining room is also used at this time on the first floor for the airbnb.  The second half of the second floor is our private area (master bedroom suite, TV room, office).  The hallway between the laundry room/office area on first floor was a perfect spot for the guests.  It is off the main kitchen.  The first floor is an area used for guests with TV/DVD, dining room, music room, powder room, walk in shower, smoking area, laundry, office just for the guests.  The guest area has a dorm refrigerator/freezer were we have the water, soda, juice.  There is a microwave, toaster, kettle, with shelves of goodies.  It made offering items for breakfast very easy (stuff from the Dollar Tree)

I enjoy baking.    On Thursday nights I bake for the guests.  The gifts (LOL) are just dish cloths that I knit or something that I have sewn.  I put out fresh fruit in the morning with the baked goods.  The cost for the fruit and baked items runs about $20.00 a week.

We are new at hosting and this seemed a cheap way to get good reviews and have someone to eat everything that I'm baking each week.

For our 2nd location across town (upper apartment) I have frozen items in the freezer (pancakes, waffles, bagels, etc.).  My husband takes over a plate of baked items when they arrive.  There is also Ramon noodles, crackers, fruit cups, stuff that has a good shelf life.

Hope this isn't to long.  I've gotten a lot of good ideas from other hosts.

We are going to fix up another second floor apartment for airbnb soon.  We are using much of the information we have gotten from the posts.  Thank you.

[Colm2]

We like to look after our guests fully, so a fine breakfast is a must. In fact,  I am glad to say that we have gained quite a reputation for our varied breakfasts, and that has had no small part in us obtaining superhost, from our first quarterly assesment!

Colm

[Allison2]

That implied "breakfast" part of Airbnb is really problematic because it sets an expectation for breakfast, even if we don't have that option listed as something we offer.

For a while I tried to keep fresh fruit, yogurt and cereals on hand, along with choice of milk.

It was a massive pain to keep everything stocked and within dates, and I ended up with every kind of milk & plant juice under the sun (whole, almond, soy, skim, OH MY!). So much wasted food.

Most of my guests eat breakfast at one of a dozen places that are walking distance, anyway.

Now I leave them mason jars filled with cereals and offer a container of whatever milk I have on hand... and mention there are two markets within a block where they can get anything else they'd like. I still don't have breakfast checked as an amenity, but this seems to fill the requirement for those who expected one anyway while not requiring too much of my time or energy.

[Zack-and-Jennifer0]

We were providing some fresh fruit (bananas, oranges), muffins on occasion, and eggs, but found that most guests weren't eating it. The fruit would just go bad and have to be tossed after they departed and after the muffins sat on the counter through two groups of guests, I gave up. 

The grocery store is less than 5 minutes away, so we just let them buy for themselves. I still provide butter, OJ, and occasionally a carton of eggs, since those things last a while in the fridge. There's always coffee and an assortment of teas available too.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

We provide breakfast foods in the guests' own full size fridge and small kitchen cabinets.

Coffee, tea, cocoa, milk, small cans of different kinds of sparkling juice, soy or almond milk, English muffins, eggs, pancake mix, butter or margarine, dry cereal, oatmeal, syrup, jams, sugar, other sweeteners, salt, pepper, balsalmic vinegar and olive oil, gallons of drinking water (our tap water is safe but does not taste good.)

We used to provide individual yogurts: too expensive and often outdated.  Also used to provide fresh fruit which often spoiled.  Now everything is either shelf stable,  can be frozen or has a really long refrigerator life.  If something is approaching expiration I replace it and move the partially used container into our own house.

We also leave a can of vegetarian refried beans, a package of shelf stable precooked rice and some condiments (ketchup, mayonnaise) in the kitchen.  This in case a guest arrives late and is really hungry.

The camper has a nice little kitchen with three burner gas stove, microwave, full size fridge and separate freezer, double sink, toaster, small electric drip coffee maker (we also provide paper filters and a separate filter holder plus  kettle), pots, pans, cups, plates, bowls, utensils etc.

Guests are free to cook whatever they like and are expected to clean up after themselves.  I always point out the dish drainer (which is tucked away in a cabinet when not in use) and specifically tell them that 'after you do the dishes you can leave them in the drainer on the counter, no need to dry and put them away before you check out.'  Since I started doing this, no one has left dirty dishes for me to do.

I stayed in an Airbnb in San Antonio and was extremely disappointed.  Although they kindly provided coffee and creamer for the morning the coffee was old, stale and had started out as very cheap poor quality coffee so the result was undrinkable.  And the creamer was the artificial powdered kind.  I would rather have had nothing than a disappointment.  I did send the host a private suggestion that a better coffee, perhaps stored in freezer or in smaller sealed packages, and a nicer option for cream (they make fairly expensive shelf stable 8 oz cartons of whole milk that are easily available on amazon.com) would be a nicer touch. 

We get our shelf stable milk and soy milk  in quart containers at the Dollar Store very inexpensively and it tastes perfectly fresh when opened.

[Jo133]

I find the offering of breakfast thoroughly confusing as a guest and a host, as everyone likes different things. I would only be happy in a 5-star buffet or if I had a smoothie which I have everyday. Most people offer cereal and toast... I would not appreciate this as a guest so do not offer as a host.