Good day all,
I was reading the new Community Profile for Robin this month, and it made me think about the reasons we start to host, especially for those who host in our own homes. As these boards often document, our hosting journeys can be both rewarding and challenging, and I'm wondering what made people sign up for this. As a follow-up question, has the journey been what you expected, and do you see yourself continuing to do it long term?
For myself, my husband and I moved to the small town of Vineland, Ontario, Canada, which is in Niagara's wine country, a year and a half ago. We were moving from a small house in a bigger city, and we bought a house that was quite a bit larger than two people (and two large dogs) needed, as it turned out. We found that the lower level of the house got very little use. We had stayed in Airbnbs when we were travelling and really liked the concept, so I had the idea of giving it a try at our own home. I thought our underutilized lower level would make a nice space. It had previously been an apartment, and had a private bathroom, kitchenette, seperate entrance, and seperate heading system already. I started doing research on the market in our area, and found that most of the accomodations were on the higher end of the price range and had at least 2-day minimum stays. A lot of people come to our area for weddings (wine coutry=weddings) or just for day-long wine tours, and I thought people would appreciate less expensive place to stay where they could get away for a night or two. I was a little bit apprehensive: what would the guests be like? Neither of us are exactly what I would describe as "people persons", as both more introverted, but we still thought it would be an adventure, so we got to work.
We ended up opening September 1st, 2017, and we had our first booking within an hour. It was for a one-night stay at the end of the same week, and the guest was a famous person (at least famous in Canada) who was coming to Niagara to have dinner at a local restaurant. I spent the entire week biting my nails, and making sure everything was perfect. We also got a bunch more reservations that week for future dates, so it was sink or swim. Friday arrived, and so did the guests: I gave the tour of the flat without being too nervous, and left them to it. Everything with the stay went smoothly, and we had our second guest the very next day. It's been pretty much go, go, go ever since then. We haven't been booked solid, but we've had at least one reservation every week.
As for being nervous about the guests, I have learned to get over it: our guests have consistently blown me away in terms of their kindness, honesty and respectfulness, and we have met some extremely interesting people. I think we've been lucky to have consistently great guests, and I hope it carries on. I would like to keep doing it as long as it's legal where we live. I do think that when we go on vacation in the winter, we'll probably snooze the listing so I can have a bit of a mental break though.
