What Amenity is Most Cost Effective?

[Tim-and-Holly0]

What is a major amenity that you have found to increase your bookings or you feel would if you could do it and (IMPORTANTLY) why? We're not considering a pool, but what about things like a playground for kids, hot tub or sauna room or something else? I could imagine spending up to $2,000 on this amenity or amenities.

Thanks!

Tim

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15407139

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Tim-and-Holly0 

free parking space... but we are in the city center

[Tim-and-Holly0]

This is a private home with a drive. Thanks, though.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

Let's see... in Tucson, I would assume a pool would be the #1 amenity travelers would probably look for, but you've already said that's not a possibility.  A hot tub could be pretty high up there - those are always relaxing - though I would worry about someone breaking it or using it incorrectly.  Do you want to cater to children specifically?  If you want to attract more families, the playground might be an incentive.  A lot of people seem to like having breakfast included - you could maybe do that instead of a physical amenity?

[Tim-and-Holly0]

I agree, a pool would be nice, but we discarded it for three reasons- cost, lack of space and it would be useful only about 6 months of the year. The house is about 15 minutes from where we live so breakfast would be difficult to do too but we do provide breakfast foods in the pantry. We don't really want to cater to children specifically but it does seem to be an area that few people advertise for which is why we thought about a playground. However, we are afraid we might not get bookings from non-family people if we advertise for family. Seems a double edged sword. That's why I brought it to the community. Do you think we would hurt ourselves if we went family oriented? Would older couples pass us over? Your thoughts?

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

@Tim-and-Holly0  Hard to say.  Personally, if I were looking for a place in that area (granted, I'm in my 30's, married with no kids), I would definitely rather book a place with a hot tub or something like that over a place with a children's jungle gym.  But if I had kids, that would be a huge selling point.  Again, I think it just comes down to the type of guests you want to attract - families vs. couples.

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Cynthia-and-Chris1: Thank you for your thoughts! Much appreciated.

[Robin4]

@Tim-and-Holly0

Most people who know what goes on here say that I do and provide too much for guests, and I am starting to feel they are right!

The more you provide Tim, Holly, whoever I am talking to, the more problems you will have, and the more chance you have of acheiving the exact opposite of what you are trying to acheive. 

One of the kids fell of the playgym and knocked out a front tooth. A guest had a crash on that bike you loaned them and spent a couple of days in hospital with a broken femur.

There is an old saying, less is more!

By shopping very judisiously I am able to provide an amazing assortment of things for guests. I supply a comprehensive cheese plate which ordinarily would cost half the total I receive for a night in our cottage just by itself without all the rest of the things the guest gets! But I have an arrangement with the manageress of the local Woolworths supermarket, and when good local cheeses get within 3 days of the use by date...and particularly if the wrapping looks like it has been pulled around in the cabinet for a week or so she does not want to know about them any more so, I get a fantastic assortment of cheeses for a maximum of $1 per cheese. I can supply a $30 cheese plate for less than $3....so why wouldn't I!!

I bought a carton of Dove moisturising soap individually boxed for less than $30! for the 144 cakes in that carton that works out to 20c per cake....even overnighter get a new cake in the sealed box.

Where I am coming unstuck guys is, we mostly invite guests to share a cheese plate and a wine or two about 5 in the evening and many times this leads on to a meal...which I love doing! But what is happening many guests will mention this in the review process, so now some of my guests are arriving expecting that they are going to get a meal and a nice bottle of fine wine. My past generousity is catching up with me....It does not pay to be too good a host.

@Tim-and-Holly0, if I could give you one piece of advice it would be to do what you do very well, but leave it at that! Every extra you provide will come at a cost, and I don't know that the cost is worth it!

Cheers.....Rob

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Robin4: As always, good, well-written thoughts. We too have found that the more we do for guests the worse the ratings. It is the people we pick up from the airport or go out of our way to help that give us the lower ratings! We had one lady who came in after a very long international flight and asked me to go to a restaurant a few blocks away to pick up a meal. I said "OK" and she also handed me a shopping list. Completed her tasks and got a "4."  Another guest inadvertently booked our smaller house and showed up with 8 guests. I quickly moved them from our 2 bedroom 1 bath house to the 3/2 house since it was empty and let them stay there for a week without charging the $30/night higher rate. For that effort I got a "4" for value.

We all have our stories!!

Anyway, thank you for your thoughts. They are helping us with our decision. By the way, I think we've "made it" when you reply to a post!!

[Robin4]

@Tim-and-Holly0

I reply to lots of posts, but I correspond with those I admire....and you definitely fall within the correspondence camp!

Cheers.....Rob

ps: Some of us lost the ability to post today, did you fall in that bracket? I imaging a few people thinking I was a self centered disinterested **bleep** for not responding in a timely fashion!

To the edit

Hahaha, I just love this censoring software that will not permit you to use the word 'pierced with a sharp object' but will allow a picture featuring that ultimate bomb!!

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Robin4: I did not notice the glitch. Was actually out with one of our guest groups on a hiking/nature tour. I love doing these tours for our guests! This one was to a hidden cave with ancient Indian petroglyphs.

[Annette33]

@Robin4 , I don't think there is a straight line from offering "too much" as a host to ungratefulness and (unreasonable) expectations on the guest's behalf. Guests do appreciate a thoughtful approach and some extra goodies. However, reading @Tim-and-Holly0's stories, apparently there are some guests out there who demand and expect extra services that are clearly uncalled for , and then leave that dreaded 4 star review! It is up to us to recognize such patterns and to swiftly and firmly draw our boundaries.Luckily, that doesn't seem to happen with your guests.
If were to come to your place, yes, based on your photos and promised amenities, I would expect some appetizers like your lovely cheese platter in the fridge and breakfast goodies. But you can change that easily if you want to. I would have no clue that you invite guests to your house for appetizers and that most likely it gets extended into  a get together over several hours, including dinner. That is what you told us here, no guest actually mentioned that, but you hint at that in a few of your public responses. Your last guest didn't even mention you and all you did for him in his review, surely that must be somewhat disappointing.
To preempt any such disappointment of a guest not being appreciative enough, or even giving us a 4 star review for all we offered, all we can do is re-examine our own approach to hosting. To me, it doesn't so much have to do with providing too much or being "too good a host", I think the key is to read people right: every guest is different and has different needs - so perhaps some guests don't even like to be invited over to the host's house for extended communication and get togethers, and it surely must be difficult for such a guest to gracefully reject a dinner invitation. Accepting it or rejecting it, it could easily make them feel sightly guilty or uneasy. Consider that perhaps you are filling your needs more than the guests' needs by extending a super warm welcome and most likely extending it into an invitation for a longer get together.
How about just leaving the goodies in their space, providing a nice welcome, but then leaving the guest alone? That's what we do, it works great for us, though the guests clearly understand that we are available should they need or want to be in contact with us. No misunderstandings, no disappointments, my energies are spent wisely, the guests feel well taken care of and I enjoy hosting

[Robin4]

@Annette33 Yeah Annette you are right.....once again!!

And you are right about the way comments are left. We did have a lot of interaction with our last guest, he was a solo traveller from the USA, a great guy to talk to and he clearly wanted to gain as much knowledge and contact with us as he could get. He gave us 5 stars so clearly he liked the experience.

This was his review but I am also including his private comments because they probably better describe the experience that he had than his public comments did. And yes it would have been nice to see some acknowledgement of the effort we put in publically....I will take what we get!

I would rather have had his private review public and his public one private, but Annette, that's the way it goes.

Cheers.....Rob

[Charlie-and-Terry0]

Annette,

I think you hit it right on the nose. Less is more. We leave a $2 case of water for guests, a bottle of wine, some cheese and crackers, and those who drink will drink it, those that dont wont, pretty simple. Amazing that we get comments on those little touches. Chocolates in a dish that may seem nice as a snack inthe evening top it off nicely. We too give our # and offer help or advice if needed. Only one guest has asked us to come by after their dinner, as it was them that wanted to share a glass of wine with us. After the glass, we thanked them and left them alone, which i think most people would want. We simply ask ourselves what would we want, and then offer the same to others.

[Zacharias0]

Many hosts are under the assumption the best way to increase bookings is to add more stuff. You'll read from a few hosts on this forum that that is not the case at all. If you want to increase the amount of bookings and thereby increase the amount of your income it is not by blowing $2k on a new playground set for kids which has liability written all over it.

Now, increasing your bookings does not mean increasing your income (I think you know that though). If you want to increase your bookings just lower your rate, remove all but two of your house rules and approve every guest that sends you a request. As you know that doesn't mean you will increase your income. A few suggestions to increase your income (you can take what works for your situation): increase your minimm stay to 2 nights- you have one day reservations that are stopping 2 and 3 day guests from booking over the weekends, rent the bedrooms out seperately- I noticed you dont offer that, but what if you did? Another host in your area is renting out one bedroom for the same price that are renting out an entire house. Offer an earlier check in time of 1 or 2 pm. It costs nothing and if you block one day in between reservations the house will be ready early anyway. Lastly, remove the cleaning fees. Airbnb makes it hard to find them, but if there are any build it into the rate and it makes it seem the guest is getting a great deal.

Just my thoughts.

Best.