How many chairs to a table?

[Inna22]

I actually have a hosting question! Not a complaint! Cheers to that!

Each of my houses has a table that comfortably seats 6, can squeeze 8. I guess you can always try to pull a chair to a corner as well. Since I host larger groups, how many chairs should I be providing? I assume if I advertise up to 8, I should have 8. But what about 10, 14? My pictures clearly show table size, I have never had a complaint about lack of seating. That does not mean that it does not reflect on my stars or guest experience without me knowing about this specific issue. To clarify, I am not hosting large groups right now, this is a general question. I do hope I will be back in business eventually. Also I ask that if you have a comment about hosting larger groups in general and how it is bad, please hold on to those for someone else's thread. Not productive. Thanks!

[Sarah977]

@Inna22 Well, if you've never had any complaints about not enough seating, then it's probably not something to overthink. If you can host 14, but only have a table big enough for 6 to sit comfortably and 8 to squeeze in, how would more chairs help? That might backfire and lead to complaints about the table not being big enough to fit all the chairs :-))

How about another table to go with extra chairs where you can host up to 14? Wouldn't that make more sense? Or is there not enough space for an extra table? Both the extra table and extra chairs could be of folding types, so they could be stashed if not needed without taking up too much space.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 no room for another table. I am thinking chairs would be used if people having drinks rather than eating so you are sitting close but not necessarily at the table? Maybe family game time? Once I was looking for an Airbnb for myself and family and found a wonderful apartment. Perfect in every way but no dining room table. Just seating for 2 at the bar counter. So I moved on with my search. I wonder how many people move on from mine. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

I always thought that guests would complain if we didn't have the same number of dining chairs/table space as the number of guests we host. Same with sofa space. I would be interested  to hear if guests are happy with less.

[Ute42]

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@Inna22 

You are agonising about buying more chairs but at the same time You say " I have never had a complaint about lack of seating".

My advise: Don't fix it if it ain't broke.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Inna22 

I have a single occupancy guest room so no experience at all hosting large groups...... but Henry and I live in a fairly small apartment with a dinner table that only seats 4 people comfortably. We like casual entertaining at home and often have a group of friends over for dinner and drinks :-))) So we have stackable stools (from Ikea) for when we don't have enough room for proper chairs for everyone, we switch out 2~3 chairs with 4~5 stools in order to squeeze people around the table when we need to for an hour or two. 

Providing stools like this could be a cheap, easy way to provide temporary extra seating for larger groups that may need it.  

[Mark116]

@Inna22  It probably depends on what percentage of people who book have more than 8 guests, where the inability to sit everyone at the table might be an issue.  If most of your guests are 8 or less, not an issue, if a majority are more than 8 then maybe you should add some stackable chairs and a folding TV table or something. 

[Kelly149]

@Inna22 look at my photos... my place is bursting with chairs. I also have 2 benches at the kitchen table. But it is this way bc I host large parties for myself, not for the guests.

The stacking chairs and/or stools is a good solution too @Jessica-and-Henry0 

[Anonymous]

@Inna22  If your listing allows a maximum of 14 people, it's implicit that there is a suitable sleeping surface for all 14 people.

Similarly, if you offer cooking and dining facilities as an amenity, there should be available seating for as many people as your listing allows, to dine comfortably at once. But rather than crowding a dining room with lots of extra chairs, I would set the dining area with the optimal number of chairs for the table's presentation, and have foldable or stackable chairs on hand for larger groups.

[Luana130]

I don't think you need chairs for max capacity. I have 4 chairs in the larger apartments, I can fit 6 to 8 people in those apartments.