What ideas have you had that didn't quite work out as planned?

Jamie69
Level 7
Wheat Ridge, CO

What ideas have you had that didn't quite work out as planned?

For a bit of fun and a bit of learning experience, what have you done as an Airbnb host that didn't quite work out like you thought it would?

 

Here's mine: When I first started hosting a few months ago, I bought a bunch of post cards and stamps. I leave a stamped post card on the night stand in my guestroom in case guests would like to mail a post card to someone. I thought it was a brilliant idea.

 

I've hosted about 25 people so far. To date, I think one person has taken a post card.

 

Jamie

14 Replies 14

We thought providing a hot breakfast was a brilliant idea, until people didn't eat what I made 😞  

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Jamie69 @Alice-and-Jeff0

Alice turn away!!!

Oh boy Jamie, I always hoped someone would come up with a thread about just this topic!!

I put a lot of information in my house rules....It's not a Cecil B DeMills epic,  but it is seriously comprehensive!

Along with the local wineries, boutique Brewerys, shopping and walking trails, I thought it would be a nice little touch to put a pouch into my house rules that contained a few business cards to one of the local taxis services, like this......OK!

IMG20170503142204 b.jpg

 

You can imagine my surprise when a guest came up to me and said..."Someone who looked through your house rules has either a weird sense of humour, or they had trouble getting a lift!" and he opened it up to the Taxis page and this is what it contained!!.....

IMG20170503142740 b.jpg

 

This Jamie was not the sort of response I envisaged I would get when I went to that trouble!!

Just another little thing I have to check before each guest arrives.....sigh!

Cheers.....Rob

Annette33
Level 10
Prescott, AZ

@Jamie69 , my experience is fairly similar to @Alice-and-Jeff0 : I had worked out a real nice offering for an optional breakfast, 3 choices, to be communicated to me the night before (for a very modest charge to be worked out through change reservation/or what is now request/send money):
To my absolute surprise, nobody ever took me up on it! my guests have their own separate apartment from us, it has a kitchen, but I thought people would love the extra convenience of having a grand breakfast delivered to their door steps at a designated time.
After my first 8 guests or so I simply scratched the whole idea/offering: it was just too much of a headache to have all ingredients for possibly 3 different breakfast choices  ready when nobody actually went for it. I also learned that many people are just not big breakfast eaters (like I am!)
Now I leave fixings for an all around nice continental breakfast in the fridge for them ( part of the goodies they get), fruit, oatmeal, croissants, etc, and still, it hardly gets touched, except for the coffee and juice.

@Jamie69 I think the postcard is an awesome idea, I think I would totally use that as a guest!  @Robin4 that note is hilarious...I can't stop laughing!  There are SO many little things to check in between stays!  

 

To my surprise, whenever I leave beer in the mini fridge, it rarely gets drank.  I had one couple drink a few beers, it was on St. Pat's weekend...ha!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Zoe34

Yeah Zoe, I find exactly the same thing....I would say one guest in 6 would actually have a beer or a cider that I supply.

I think this is a carryover from hotel/motel fridges where if you even open them there will be a charge involved!

And yet almost all guests will happily eat the cheeses I supply on the cheese plate...I guess because, that is so unexpected they do not have a pre-conception of there being a charge involved.

 

On that postcard thing that Jamie mentioned, I have been through all sorts of ideas for gifts to give guests when they leave but most seem to miss the mark! I have had some cards made which I give to overseas guests in an envelope when they leave, and they do genuinely say they like it and will proudly display it when they get home.....

001.jpg

 

I think I need a new scanner, it looks really washed out here but the real thing looks quite nice and we put a few nice personal words inside. It seems to mean more to them than Koala or kangaroo keyrings or pens with the Sydney opera house!

Cheers....Rob

 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Jamie69

ah... before we started hosting I bought nice thick towels, bath mats and sheets... a lot of them... just to realize that they need to much time to dry and as we use loundry service it cost to much. So I bought new ones , much thinner and use thick ones for my family. 

I also realized that It is to heavy for me to use fitted sheets bc I have to lift 4 corners of each thick and heavy mattrass to change a sheet. And we have 6 beds... so I bought flat sheets.

 

Then I bought 100% cotton bedding... a lot of them... just to realize that ironing service would cost me more than washing and drying service together. So I bought new bedding 50:50 cotton-polyester and now I use cotton ones for myself.

 

Then I bought IKEA Indira cotton bed covers (quilts?) and put them on each bed for every new guest... just to realize that the average stay is 2 days , covers are thick and heavy and it cost to much money, effort and time to wash and dry them every 2 days. So now I keep it in a closet like an extra blanket in case anyone feel cold or we use it to cover unused beds when we have less guests than beds. They are used very rarely. 

 

Then I bought desposable slippers for my guests and realize that it is not enviromentaly friendly to throw 6-8 pairs every day in a trash and that lowering nightly price for 6-8€ makes more effect than free slippers. Then I bought more durable slippers and just wash them after each guest.

 

Yes.. I spent a lot of money on wrong things in the begining 😞

 

 

 

 

Linda108
Level 10
La Quinta, CA

@Jamie69  Love this post!!  I am still giggling over the responses...

 

@Branka-and-Silvia0 the good thing about your desire to supply a 5 star hotel experience for your guests is that you get to have the plush towels for yourself! 🙂

 

@Robin4 I, too, have a comprehensive book of resources and attractions.  Now I am going to look for "interesting notes"...

 

@Zoe34@Annette33, @Alice & Jeff:  What is it about hosts that want to feed guests...hmmmm?  I tried leaving chocolates in the room but no one ate them.  

 

 

 

 

 

@Linda108

eh.. not just towels but sheets, beddings , bed covers  and bath mats for my whole family for the rest of our lives 😄

They always eat the chocolates here @Linda108.  I calculated it last year I spent almost $100 in chocolate alone!  

OMG! @Alice-and-Jeff0   Any plans to come to Southern California desert?  I can hook you up with the best chocolate toffee ever...

 

@Alice-and-Jeff0

Yeah, they always eat mine too Alice....surprisingly enough only about one in six actually has the beer or the apple cider that I provide and only one in three will eat the cheese plate.....but they all eat the chocolates!!

Cheers....Rob

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Linda108

Hey Linda, I have had produced this amazing video loop of the listing and the area, including way out things like a 'fish eye' video down our main street and some beautiful night scenes, a section about the shopping and the wineries in the area. It looks really polished and as soon as it is complete I will post it on UTube with a link address here so you can see what can be done. This loop lasts for 10 minutes and it will run on the tv when guests arrive. It is in Ultra HD so the vision is outstanding and it would be wonderful if I could somehow post this on my listing page but, that seems to be beyond the current possibilities for ABB at the moment.

I am thrilled with it though and hopefully guests will be too!

Cheers.....Rob

@Robin4  Sounds fabulous!  You obviously have more technical skills than I do.  I only recently stopped accidently taking pictures of my face when I thought I was aimed at the dog... :P.  Not to worry, though.  My daughter thinks I am getting better with the phone...slowly.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Linda108

 

It's not a matter of technical skills...I am an old dog, and you know what they say ....'you can't teach an old dog.......'

A couple of years ago I bought one of those Hero 4 action cameras that those loopy cross country BMX racers wear on their helmets!

These cameras are Ultra HD and I bought it because every day you see something that you would like to hold in your brain forever, but simply can't....3 year old Madison splashing in the bath, 1 year old Ivy trying to catch a floating soap bubble....the list goes on.

Because the quality of this camera was so good I started to take short movies of things I love about my area and the more I took the more I hungered to get more adventurous and involve more people. I ended up with my camera strapped to a drone in the midst of a flock of two thousand white Cockatoos on the wing....skimming the waters of our local wetlands....doing a fish eye run down our main street....a childs face as she unwraps a toy on the forecourt of our main shopping centre.....sitting at a table sipping wine in a local vineyard as a family of Kangaroos hops past just as the sun is about to go down. Even individually these 30 seconds clips are really good, but put them all together, backed with appropriate music, Linda, it's stunning!

I have looked at these clips individually many times, but seeing them professionally produced and edited gives me goosebumps!

 

It's possibly a trifle indulgent Linda but if I could include this loop on my listing page, I am sure my bookings would go through the roof!

Cheers....Rob