I’m a full-time guest, travelling the world, working from my laptop. I’m also co-hosting, helping my parents run their Airbnb – a little cottage on their farm.
As a guest, my top advice for hosts is this – don’t just guess, be a guest!
I see a lot of comments on Facebook and forms from hosts having problems with guests, but I believe if hosts spent more time as guests, they’d become much better guests. Vice versa too, for sure, but that’s just not so easy to do.
My top tips for hosts, based on my last 6 months of full-time Airbnb guesting…
- Provide adequate utensils for the kitchen! Tiny frying pans just don’t cut it.
- Where possible, comfortable beds/couches are the best thing ever as a guest!
- For long-term guests, (if the property isn’t cleaned weekly) provide some cleaning gear/supplies.
- Have a map, to help your guests find good supermarkets, restaurants, laundry services, coffee etc.
- Offer enough blankets for even the coldest nights – some guests aren’t used to your climate!
- Provide enough towels.
- Let guests know when the rubbish day is, and clearly explain how to take the rubbish out.
- Provide decent sized mugs. No matter where I am, there is nothing better than a coffee in a big mug. While we’re travelling now, we are buying mugs each time we get to a new place, and leaving them behind.
- Finally, and most importantly, provide all of this information in a digital form, so your guest can easily use Google to translate the details into their language.
