What have you added to your listing that has been a flop?

Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

What have you added to your listing that has been a flop?

Hey all, just wondering if you've made any changes or additions to your listing that you thought were going to be a great idea that ended up not working out the way you thought they would. Maybe you can stop other hosts from wasting their money on things that sound good in theory but don't get much play in reality.

 

To set the scene, I host a separate apartment that's part of my primary residence. No spaces are shared. I host about 300 nights a year; my average stay length is 2.6 days.

 

Earlier this season, I had a few enquiries from people who wanted a barbeque, but I didn't have one. Because I got multiple questions about it, I decided to add one. I picked up a very gently used good quality propane barbeque. It's been out all summer, and only one group has used it. One of the groups who asked for one stayed on the weekend: they weren't the ones to use it. 

 

The other one was about two years ago. Some of my direct competition had laundry available for guest use. I thought that adding a washer dryer might encourage longer stays or business travelers to book. I was worried about overuse, and asked in here at the time about how to prevent that. In two years, it's probably been used by 5 groups of guests. 

 

Has anyone else had a brainwave that ended up being a bit of a dud?

 

 

 

82 Replies 82

@Anonymous  we get a fair number of solo travelers but mostly guests. Summer season its a lot of families. The kids seem to use the tub. I have a rubber duckie and some toys at hand. 

 

I must enjoy a lot of time away from my partner as I soak pretty much daily 🙂 But know I am in the minority there. Its actually a "practice" for me to have time to relax and let my mind go. Culturally we don't have much of that in the US....

@Laura2592I'm one of those who's not a fan of baths... sorry! I've never used the tub in my house, and I've lived there 5 years. I do love the esthetics of a beautiful tub, though. 

@Laura2592 I absolutely LOVE soaking in my tub. But I do not take baths when I travel. No matter how sanitized, there's just something about lying naked in a tub full of water that so many others may have lied in that gives me an ick factor. It's all in my head, of course, but I can't get over the ick.

I have a planner with laminated pages:
Transportation options
How things work - info on where the trash is, how to use the tv, any special info about things like filtered water in fridge, etc.
Suggestions for local food like delivery, fancy places, local bars, etc.
Health/Wellness - I have a page for info like where are the local gyms, pools, hair salons, nail salons, etc.
Groceries/Shopping - info about 24-hour pharmacy, supermarkets, local malls, etc.
What I suspect people object to are directives - “Strip the bed before you leave” “take out the garbage daily”, etc.

Nice one. We have a house manual which is also laminated, and with much of the same kinds of information in it. And we do ask people to do things such as take the recyclables away, but we do it politely and have never had any objection to it so far (noting also that we don't charge for cleaning).

Wende2
Level 10
Church Creek, MD

Hi all....something else I put on tub, shampoo for kids, it's watermelon scented.  I noticed for the amount of kids that have stayed, that shampoo is more then half empty, guess adults have been enjoying it too.

We added a window between the master bedroom and its ensuite bathroom, and on the terrace, we got a wider base for our umbrella (to withstand wind better) and put a gate on the opening that takes people out into the general garden area. The gate, which you can see on the far end of this pic, adds a degree of privacy but is also a great safety feature for people with small children, as there is a 3-step drop down into the general area. And as for the window, it lets natural light into the bathroom now, and we've heard good things about this from the guests who have stayed there--including one family who stayed before and after it was installed. 7dcba06e-699d-4527-b171-483924824a32.JPG

Here is the window mentioned above. It might not look like much, but it made a HUGE difference in the amount of natural light there is in the bathroom now:f6cdb22b-5cc6-4975-a5be-f305c3e6a08d.JPG