What have you learnt about hosting from being a guest?

[Liv]

Hi everyone,

I’m aware that many of you are occasionally Airbnb guests when taking some time off or travelling for work, and I’m guessing it must be quite interesting to experience hosting from another perspective. 

When travelling as a guest, you might have been able to have different insights and ideas that you later applied to your own listing perhaps. As they say, we learn best by example.

So I was wondering: have you ever seen other hosts making mistakes that you now try to avoid? Have you been surprised by a different way of doing things, or by a great idea that you hadn’t thought of?

Thanks,

Liv

[Marg11]

@Liv The oranges are nearly finished so in the fridge. Mulberries in their last week but some frozen for summer on icecream. We'll have figs soon to put on cereal with yoghurt.

[Helen427]

We had those on the farm @Marg11 As kids we got sick to death of eating them & had fig jam with crystalised ginger.

Those trees must be over 80 years old and going strong.

Did you plant your own trees @Marg1 

Figs cost a fortune in Auckland over summer, usually around $4 each, if you can find them.

We have them at our local Greengrocer but don't see fresh ones at the supermarket.

Do you share them with the birds?

I recall they love feasting on them 

[Marg11]

@Helen427 

Just one tree is enough with the Mediterranean fruit fly to control and yes, we planted it 50 years ago. The birds love the figs too. I used to make lots of fig jam and dry some but now I pass on a few buckets to jam maker friends. Some guests are amazed we encourage them to pick anything ripe in the garden and that we compost the orange skins. The worm farm is a puzzle to some guests. Two little girls visiting recently picked kumquats, their first fruit of a tree ever. Last summer visiting kids climbed the mulberry and they made jam with their lawyer Mum's help. We planted two new passionfruit yesterday as they don't live very long but are great producers. I think New Zealanders are amazing how they developed Kiwi fruit from a small Chinese gooseberry and the kife spoons are a wonderful design.

[Pat114]

My Melbourne host once gave me a big bag of figs from their trees for my flight to Auckland. Since there was no way I could eat them all enflight, I shared them with the stewards and pilots - so as not to have to chuck them in the bin in the Auckland airport. The lovely crew treated me to many thanks of appreciation and a bottle of wonderful down-under champaign. Win win win all around 🙂

[Anna9170]

The welcome basket with snacks is now a very complicated topic. Someone is vegan, someone without gluten or lactose, and the welcome jamon can cause a negative reaction. 🙄 But, no one has ever refused Spanish wine. 😎😂

[Helen427]

The Government Department mentality @Emilia42 , just another file & number then 😉, we all know someone like that, don't we??

 Those types grate on my nerves to.

[Emilia42]

Exactly! @Helen427 

[Donatella26]

@Liv  I often travel as a guest, last january I was in Rome and my Host, Laurent, prepared a little very useful city plan, of course of the zone the apartament was, with all information about transport, restaurant, supermarket and si on, and spent time during the check in to answer all my questions about tips to enjoy Rome. I appreciated and now also in my little apartament I have such a city plan.

[Pat114]

I have a 60 page google doc with info about the house, checkin, directions, parking, amenities, wifi, local attractions, shopping, sightseeing, Q & A, local history, etc. Guests get it in their welcome packet of messages upon confirmed booking. I remind them about it a time or 2 before arrival. And if they have questions once they are checked in, I answer their question, then also refer them back to the google doc. I get a lot of compliments and I think all 5 star ratings for "communication". I had to get a bitly short url, because some guests iphones could not open the very long google doc url. You have to set sharing options to "anybody with the link" on google docs.

Since Covid 2020, I do not physically see or welcome guests, so the google doc orientation is very reassuring to guests - and to me as host - knowing they can easily access lots of common questions and inquiries. I added home delivery supermarkets this year, too, for guests who are in quarantine or stay-cationing. Some common questions are also posted in the house: Wifi password, emergency plumber #, address (for deliveries), my #, etc.

[Debra300]

@Liv,

These are the things that I learned while being a guest that I make sure to take care of as a host:

1. Send in English and a Google translated version of the guest's native language: 1) a communication right after the booking, and periodic messages depending upon how far out the reservation was made; 2) written directions to the guesthouse and a link to the Google Map directions that can be downloaded to the guest's mobile device.  I stayed at a place in Brussels, and the host failed to tell us which end of the metro station to exit.  We got a bit lost.  It was night when we arrived, and extremely dark outside.  We felt unsafe.
2. Upon arrival, I would greet the guest, and speak in English or passable Spanish, or use the one or two French or German words that I know, and point to/demonstrate the amenities and speak very slowly.  This seemed to be very much appreciated by non-native English speakers.
3. Clean the blades on the ceiling fan.  Once I stayed at an apartment in St. Lucia, and it looked like the fan blades hadn't been cleaned since installation.  It was really gross.
4. Descale the tea kettle and coffee pot.  I encountered this at a few apartments.  Again another gross experience.  
5. Make sure that the microwave is clean.  We didn't use the tea kettle, but also couldn't heat water in the microwave either, because it had food splatter all over the inside.
6. Make sure that all pots and pans are cleaned.  We stayed in a Stockholm apartment, and only one pot didn't have food literally dried or crusted on it.  The owner said that one pot was all we were supposed to use.
7. Have comfortable mattresses.  We stayed in apartments in Munich and Nuremburg, and the mattresses were just some old memory form that forgot that it wasn't supposed to be harder than the floor.  My husband prefers a firmer mattress, and even he had body aches every morning.
8. Show the guests how to turn on the AC or heat, and have a sign on the wall with directions.
9. Make sure to clear the floor of tripping hazards.
10. Have photos of every room that is for the guests use.  I stayed in apartments in Costa Rica and Martinique, and there wasn't a picture of the bathroom.  I found out why when I arrived.  It was too small to photograph.  I actually had to turn my knees at an angle and rest my arm on the sink when sitting on the toilet, and these weren't the kind of bathrooms where the commode is in a separate space from the shower.
11. Leave a review.  There have been times in the pass when I didn't leave a review, and I now realize that this choice was very unhelpful to the host and future guests.
12. Provide an appropriate complement of towels (face, hand and bath) in good condition.  I understand that the definition of this is cultural, but I've had one French host proudly give us one beach towel each for our daily bathing use. At another place, the bath towel was tattered.
13. Clean, clean, clean everything.  I don't need an enhanced cleaning process.