Explaining an alley entrance to a guest in Washington DC

[Mica313]

I am opening two Airbnb's in Washington DC.  Both are entered off the Alley.  If i give my home address, a guest would arrive in the middle of a one-way street with no way to get to the back of the house except for walking to the end of the street and then going around.  The Alley is not named.  What are some helpful ways that people have directed their guests to an alley entrance?  How are things like food deliveries handled for the guest? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mica313 we send guests the whatthreewords location for where to park and where to find our front door. Those that use it don't get lost. 

[Sybe]

@Mike-And-Jane0 That's actually quite a brilliant idea!

For those who aren't familiar, "what3words" is a geolocation system where each patch of land in the world with a resolution of roughly 3 meters (9,8ft) is assigned three words. With these three words you can accurately find locations anywhere in the world, like a remote forest or an alley entrance. 😉

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sybe thanks for the website name correction. I have updated our arrival instructions accordingly.

[Debra300]

@Mike-And-Jane0,

Thanks for sharing.  I had never heard of what3words before.  For anyone who's interested in bookmarking it, here's the link: https://what3words.com/clip.apples.leap

@Mica313,

Most residences in St. Lucia don't have a street address.  For my place, I gave it a name (Keep Cool Guesthouse) and created a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), which included a Google Maps placement. This enables guests to search for and download directions to my place for use with or without mobile data.  My directions message has the Google Maps Pin or link to the directions, and I tell guests that the directions will get them to about two blocks from the guesthouse.  The next part of the message is a screen shot of the Google Map of my area from the local highway to the guesthouse.  I used the Microsoft Paint app to add landmarks and comments, and to finish the directions from where GM left off (red dot on right side of picture).

When guests use the information that provided, they tell me it was rather easy to get to the guesthouse.