Welcoming Guests with Gift Baskets & Kits

[Lenore22]

We have a large pet&family-friendly in an outdoorsy well-touristed area. We work to establish ourselves in a higher bracket of hospitality. With this in mind, we offer a pretty good gift basket that gets a lot of compliments in reviews (which I actually don't like bc I try to set modest expectations, so I can surpass them. No one likes a guest that comes in *expecting* an awesome gift basket. I kind of wish they would just keep it a secret.) I set the value of the gift basket at 10% of the cost of their 1st night. So a $179 mid-week stay gets a $17 basket and a family staying over the holidays paying $450/night would get a $45 gift basket.

The other goal of my gift basket is to support our local businesses. I promote their brands, share their products and encourage guests to reorder more for themselves. AirBnBs have a tenuous relationship within our community and I work to establish ours as an asset to the community & to local businesses & charities (we encourage guests to volunteer at events or to donate during their visit to add meaning to their stay & keep the area beautiful.)

We are also remote hosts, so most of our gifts are pre-packaged so it's easy for cleaners to set-out, as opposed to the lovely ideas of freshly-baked goods, fresh flowers, etc.

Here's a photo of a typical basket

 

It typically includes:

* A welcome card from us.

* Wine (bought on sale at a local discount market for US$5 or less- usually with a "rating" sticker like "91 points!". We ask if they drink alcohol or have dietary restrictions at the time of booking)

* Locally crafted chocolate mountain (made a deal for $5 w/local chocolatier)

 

* Microwave popcorn

* trail mix.

Bonus items:

* locally branded beef jerky ($5)

* Locally branded tea or jam ($5-7)

* Holiday ornament (with our house name, the year and our website- made locally for US$1-3)

* Set of themed coasters from our house (with our house name and our website- made locally for US$5)

* S'mores kit in summer ($3)

 

For kids ($3-5): 

*Gummy packs

* age-appropriate toy from the dollar store (sidewalk chalk, bubbles, frisbee, jump rope, jacks, etc)

*Hot cocoa bombs ($1/ea)

Doggie good bags include ($3-5):

* A roll of poop bags

* A bully stick

* bag of training treats

* a toy (ball, tug rope or Frisbee from dollar store)

... These are designed to encourage behaviors that we like to see from guests and their pets and also as an outlet for chewing behaviors & letting out energy.

 

For birthdays:

*B-day card

* Cupcakes from a local baker

 

Bathroom baskets have useful items and small sample-size bars of soap made by a local soapmaker and branded with our house name:

 

 

And proudly provide coffee from our local coffee roasters in our coffee/tea area.

[Bhumika]

Hello @Lenore22 ,

This is such an informative and sweet post! Thank you for permitting me to post it as a new topic. Loved the details and images. So thoughtful of you🙌

We're happy to announce the Month of Celebration!

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[Danielle1342]

As a guest and a host I have to say, walking into a place with goodies makes the experience go from good to GREAT!  It's always an exciting moment to see something like that.  It's very sweet.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

As travelers in California, we once found a small assortment of tea bags, fruit and other goodies in our private room, which saved us the hassle of getting breakfast in a foreign city. The hoste was a single mom and scraped by with Uber driving. So certainly didn't have much money to spare, but relied on the Airbnb income. Still, the joy of the guests was obviously worth it to her to put this basket together.

Another time we were offered eggs and homemade bread. We appreciated that in each case, but did not take advantage of it.

Back from that trip, we also became a bit more generous about providing odds and ends. Cookies, instant soups, tea, coffee. Guests who arrive late are sometimes really happy. However, they don't take advantage of it, but rather we have to watch out for the best-before date. And some guests even leave a small tip. However, I don't think alcoholic beverages are in keeping with the times; the beer in the refrigerator is non-alcoholic.

[Sébastien480]

Ausgabe von diesem Sommer, eher teuer

Ausgabe von diesem Sommer, mit lokalen Wein, Marmelade und Honig, eher teuer.

Edition of this summer, with local wine, jam and honey, rather expensive.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sébastien480 This looks nice but would apparently be illegal in the UK without a licence to supply alcohol. 

[Sébastien480]

Thanks for commenting @Mike-And-Jane0 , likely that it is also forbidden in France. I am thinking of replacing it with Swiss chocolate. Advantage is that it becomes allowed for kids !!