What makes the perfect gift basket?

[Phillip131]

Hi, I'm looking for feedback!

My wife and I recently started a company that sends hosts a monthly box of snacks and toiletries to make gift baskets for your guests. The idea is that the baskets make guests more likely to leave five-star reviews.

My question is, is this something you see as truly valuable? And what items ought to be included in each gift basket?

*solicitation removed*

[Helen3]

Do you have any evidence that demonstrate your baskets make it more likely that guests will leave a five star review @Phillip131 

Hosts who offer these gift baskets often like making them up themselves and include local products.

You may be more successful pitching your concept at the large corporate airbnb management companies.

[Sarah977]

@Phillip131  My guests don't get gift baskets, they get attentive hosting, a lovely, clean and comfortable room and extra touches like fresh flowers in thir room from my garden, and picking them up at the bus stop. And I've had all 5* reviews.

Also it's against the rules of this forum to advertise your personal business here.

[Fabienne217]

Instead of creating a business with welcome gifts, I would suggest to create a 'new guest basket' which would be a new toilet brush, a new shower curtain, a new sponge and different toileteries which could be sold less than $10. As a host, I like to change my toilet bowl brush for every new guest. Last year, I could find one at 75 cents at Ikea (they removed it, and sell another around $1.5). The shower curtain, it takes me too long to walk to a Dollar Tree and so on... As another host already mentioned, if they provide a welcome gift, they usually prefer to make it themselves with local products or putting a cheap bottle of wine. Also, you must keep in mind that host do not want to spend too much money on it since it reduces their margins.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Fabienne217 

new toilet brush and new shower curtain for each guest? OMG... you are an enviromental disaster! Our poor planet 😞

You know, shower curtains can be washed in a washing machine and toilet brush can be washed in the toilet bowl and reused, they are not made of sugar.

[Ana1136]

@Fabienne217 I have never heard someone change the shower curtain and toilet brush after every guest, it is not necessary at all. As @Branka-and-Silvia0 sai, you can wash the curtain in a washing machine and I was the toilet brush with a bit of bleach or domestos and in the toilet bowl and it looks like new. 

[Fabienne217]

Sorry for the ecologic disater, but a shower curtain can 'touched' by private body parts, and I beleive it should not be shared amomg my guests. For the toilett brush, sorry again, but I won't clean the 'poop.' I won't use a shower curtain in fabric and wash it! (It takes too long, to wash it and iron it) I already spend 3 hours on cleaning one bedroom condo. On the other hand, I steam clean my floor: so I do not use harsh chemicals and I wash the pads of the steamer. So yes, techniclly you can show me your beautfiful picture of a 'plastic whale,' but the ecologic diseaster is everywhere with H and M cheap clothes, the carbon production when our guests are travelling and so on...

[Ana1136]

@Fabienne217 but you don't even touch the 'poop', just pour something to kill the bacteria and while in the toilet bowl just flush it. Also you can wash plastic shower curtain in the washing machine on 30°C and just hang it again to dry. 

[Ann489]

@Fabienne217  You are correct, the "ecologic disaster" is everywhere.  So why would you want to contribute to it?  Makes zero sense to me. Do you also replace your toilet seats every time someone sits on them?

[Helen3]

Really  @Fabienne217  if you are so concerned about private body parts touching your things, what about the sheets and covers yours guests sleep under? What about the sofas your guests might have a romp on.

At this rate you would need to replace much of the furniture and items in your house every time you have a guest 🙂

Quite honestly get a glass shower door if you feel sensitive about a shower curtain.

[Mark116]

@Fabienne217   That sounds pretty crazy.  All you have to do is spray the toilet brush with bleach cleaner and voila, it's clean again.  And if you don't want to wash the shower curtains or liners, then yes, I would get a glass door.  We have a cloth shower curtain and a plastic liner, both can be washed and the liner can also be simply sprayed down with cleaner and rinsed off.  

[Sarah977]

@Fabienne217  I also find it absurd to throw out a shower curtain and toilet brush for each guest changeover. That's outrageous waste. The guest's "private body parts" could also touch the shower stall walls- do you replace the entire shower stall between guests? And who rubs a shower curtain around on their body? And I've never heard of anyone ironing a shower curtain. If you're that compulsive about cleanliness, you can wipe the shower curtain down with antibacterial wipes.

[Fabienne217]

I agree with you maybe I'm compulsive about cleanliness, but I beleive it has to be this way when we are dealing with shared spaces. The problem with shower curtain isdifficult to be cleaned. I may consider a glass door which can be cleaned within few seconds. 

[Sarah977]

@Fabienne217  As other hosts have said, there's nothing difficult about cleaning a shower curtain. Just buy a second one so you can throw one in the washing machine and hang the clean one up.

[Esteban201]

I’d say you’re giving yourself a lot of credit by calling yourself “compulsive about cleanliness”... it seems more like you are lacking a basic understanding of bacteria and how it spreads which leads me to believe your space is not clean at all. If you think you have to replace something out of a bag to make it “clean”, and that washing an item is “too much work”, I can only imagine what your house must be like. Please do some basic research and gain some knowledge about these things.