@Lenore22 the point is to find the "pickle" incentive for your guest. Early check in is a pickle, but they aren't grateful, they ask for it, and they aren't loyal regular customers. Like you we offer lots of local tips on wineries, restaurants and cafes (and as foodies we are more than happy to do all this research!), this is our "pickle".
@Sammy-L-0 I really enjoyed this old-school approach to business, BUT (here it comes) this man would be defeated by the Entitled Millenial. They don't want a "pickle" for free, the want the whole enchilada for free (staying with your food analogy). We now have Influencers who think they can stay for free in exchange for social media posts, or people who claim that because they saw 1 hair or 1 bug, the whole stay should be comped.
A friend of mine owned a cafe and she had a nightmare time with her chosen clientele: the veggo and vegan crowd, and the allergy people. gluten-free bread is 50% more than regular bread, but they'd want it substituted for free. personally I would have done it, but knowing what I know now (that they can never be happy) perhaps she was right to charge more for the swap. they make endless substitutions to cater to their special needs of what they "can't eat" (actually they mean "won't eat") and cost the restaurant extra time, not to mention the social media reviews that can now hurt your business should you get something "wrong", these entitled brats know how to work the system. One mother ordered a vegan dessert for her nut-allergic daughter, and then blamed the restaurant when the daughter went into shock (horrifying for everyone!), she thought vegan=nut free, she even admitted to this in her 1* review. She then rallied her friends to leave bad reviews too. This is the modern world of customer service. Give them a pickle, and they also ask for extra mustard and a side of fries, for free. And if you don't they leave you a 1* review.
I'm sorry, this guy doesn't live in 2022.
Don't get me wrong, i did 10 years in retail and I LOVE retail, i love helping customers find a product and the thrill of selling, and upselling. I love airbnb too, and I LOVE sharing my local area with guests, and we've had 99.9% amazing guests in our niche region. I've done plenty of training in customer service but I will tell you that the average customer (attitude) has changed SO much in the past 30 years. With a recession looming in the USA (and probably spilling out to effect many of us globally) I can only see this getting worse and people try to squeeze as much value as they can from every dollar, and a "pickle" won't mean anything to them.
