Simple suggestions from a regular Airbnb guest

[AnneMarie253]

Hello Awesome Airbnb Hosts!

My husband and I have stayed at many airbnb locations in the US, France, Spain, Greece, Mexico (not all make it on my list bc for some odd reason, some hosts don't ask for a review and therefore don't fill one out for us either). We have stayed a few days and as long as 2 months. 

I have a suggestion to offer - maybe not possible for all hosts but as I am here now in one lovely place in Greece, it quickly becomes evident to us that the hosts have never stayed here. They have not slept here to see how the beds and sheets are, if it's too light in the mornings, if the noise from the street is more than they imagined; they have not grocery shopped and tried to put things away (we had one place with literally no pantry or cupboard for groceries anywhere), they have not cooked or baked, showered or tried to find a place to hang wet towels after a shower...especially for more than one person!

I have found myself looking for many simple items like food storage containers - if there is a full kitchen, people are often renting the place bc of a kitchen and when making meals it is useful to have somewhere to put food that needs to be stored (leftovers, cut fruit or veggies, etc).  Right now I have no scissors to open any packages and knives are all dull. There is no plastic wrap, foil or food storage containers so everything is in the fridge in a bowl with a plate on top. There are no cooking utensils that won't either melt or scratch pans. We do try to take good care of everything in the place and equipment. 

So, it's just an idea, I believe that if people stay at their own rental for long enough to have to sleep, shop and cook and shower, they'll realize some basic items are missing. 

I understand it is not the hosts place to provide foil, plastic wrap, tissues (almost never have tissues), etc - but these are just some little things that go a long way for a great stay.

We had our best location ever in Cadiz, Spain in regards to finding all we needed and this was because the hosts also live there for extended times during off season - it was obvious and amazing. It was our 3rd airbnb in Spain in 2 weeks and hands down the best anywhere for those reasons. 

Anyway, just FWIW 🙂 

Not criticisms, just feedback. 

[Anonymous]

@AnneMarie253   I want to be a fly on the wall at the board meeting where Airbnb's product team decided which features to turn into Categories for the flexible search. There must have been a couple theatre queens who made a little skit based on how they imagine guests are thinking:

Schnookums, let's take a holiday! Where shall we go?

I don't care, Noodle, I'd love to go anywhere in UNITED STATES for one week in November, as long as we can stay in a HOUSE with a PIANO!

Well Schookums, today is our lucky day! I've just discovered this website called AIRBNB and I found us a HOUSE in DUBUQUE, IOWA which contains a piano! The fun will never stop!

Oh, Noodle, that is simply perfect! We'll never long for the museums of Manhattan or the beaches of Hawaii, when we can celebrate our wedded bliss by tinkling "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on a stranger's instrument in a semi-detached unit down the highway from a fragrant pig farm! Our life is a glorious cycle of song, our love is a thing that could never go wrong!

Exactly, Schnookums! Technically it's a double-wide trailer, but I shall book it straight away! But wait a minute, before I pull out my Discover card, I just need to be absolutely sure that it's SKI-IN/SKI-OUT. Because that is the most important quality of a rental home!

The current search format is perfect for these guests and crap for basically everyone else. But it's nice that you've managed to find some good places to stay in spite of it.

[Mark4445]

Thank you for posting this. I have stayed at Airbnbs all over the world but have started looking for other accommodations and will likely start staying in hotels again. As I type this, I'm spending two weeks in an Airbnb in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There are no cleaning supplies, there is no toilet brush, there are no food storage containers, there are no trash bags and there is is no dish strainer. There is one dish towel. There is no broom or dustpan. I went to the market and bought those things. It was like moving into a new apartment and having to furnish the place. I think Airbnb should force owners to stay in their properties for two weeks before they're allowed to post a listing. I suspect things would be very, very different.

[Caroline2163]

These are excellent suggestions! I run an Air B&B “Winnie’s Place” in Longwood Florida. We live in a separate house on the property. This is also my bugaboo. I believe, because we think this way too, is the reason we have so many 5️⃣⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ratings. Thank You for sharing.  Safe Travels ✈️ Caroline

https://www.airbnb.com/h/winniesplace

[Elaine701]

@AnneMarie253 

Thanks for pointing this out. We do stay at our own listing from time to time, and always discover something that would be attractive for guests, and then ... make it happen. We've been doing that for 7 years now, and it's made an incredible difference in our ratings. It also attracts a better quality of guest.

Yet some hosts see it as "passive" income and put the minimum amount of effort or investment into it. And their ratings generally suffer as a result. Perhaps some have become agnostic to consistently unhappy guests, and having to compete on lowest price rather than ratings, but there's a whole world of guests happy to pay a good price for a well supplied and maintained accommodation, and the reviews are their main indicator of that.

[Zheng49]

Great suggestions!

I agree that you should stay in your own Airbnb listings yourself once in awhile. I've been meaning to do a more intensive "routine maintenance" of sorts where I try to stay them personally overnight to find out for myself the actual experience. 

I basically did that exact exercise recently, where I stayed in each of my listings overnight. It was a learning experience. For 2 of them I did stay overnight, but for one of them I cheated and only stayed in it for a couple of hours. 

Overall a good exercise, and I would recommend.