Have your AirBnB hosts left any gifts for you, or you left any gifts for the hosts?

That awesome @Depreciator

 

That is great. In setting up the sharing economy streams, I'm sure they wanted to see some of this - brings the human elements in. It's great you're paying it forward. Great to hear.

 

I'm finding the best gift a guest can leave me is a relatively clean property....

 

I'm finding I'm getting quite a few bookings with not many reviews.

On the other hand, I've had some absolute grubby pigs stay where I have really earnt my cleaning fee....

So depends where you see the value.

 

Is it a property separate to where you live? In my information I ask for a review. I think after you hit a reasonable number of reviews, additional ones don't matter too much. But it will contribute to superhost status.

Perhaps if you leave the guest a review first, it might prompt them to leave you one too.

 

Scott - You know you are offering a great service when people pay over. What a great response and good thing to do with the Opal cards giving credit to Presley and Lyle. I am sure that The word of mouth endorsement will have been great and ongoing. Very smart and underlines that “Doing good is good business”

 

At mine we always have a bowl of fruit. It costs about $10 per booking. It looks great and the price is low.

 

Couldn't cancel my Barcelona AirBnB listing fast enough when I discovered the fine was 30,000 Euro (they are illegal). For another property outside Barcelona (legal), I just leave basic cleaning products which would be inconvenient to buy for a 1-2 week stay. Sometimes they leave me a lot of magazines, mostly in Dutch, German or French.

 

Those Opal cards are still going. Sometimes people use them to get to the airport for their return home, which is fine. And my kids would have grabbed a couple in an emergency. Most people who use them leave a similar balance on them. Unopened food items and alcohol (usually) get left in the pad for the next guests and when my chickens are on the job, there are often eggs. It's easy for me to do this sort of thing because the pad is next door and I always meet incoming guests and most times take them for a walk and show them my favourite food places and bars and the station etc. Doing that at the start of a stay sets up the relationship i.e. we get to have a chat and guests appreciate the effort and usually go out of their way to do the right thing. It's tougher for absent hosts.

 

We provide a minibar but usually stuff at cost price. Always have nice bottles of wine at cost price as well. We are finding that the bread, milk coffee etc is hardly touched as they tend to bring their own. I don't understand that but each to their own. We don't go full bore BnB just when we need some spare cash. If there are kids staying we give them a stack of lollies. We haven't had any gifts left for us and we don't hand gifts out unless there are kids.

 

I once did AirBNB in Provence during lavender season. The host was an artist, she gave a few small pretty cloth satchels for us to pick up own lavender in our visit, to dry and make own smelling packs. She made her own jam, and gave it to us in small jars . We ate them with our picnics and lunches. Small things that add to the experience

 

Yep. It's often the small things.
When we have people who stay for a few weeks, they often venture into the ceramics studio downstairs where my wife shows them how to make a cup or a bowl. It gets fired and they glaze it and then it gets fired again and they get to take home a great memory of their trip to Sydney.
We had a Texan couple stay recently. He loved oysters but had never had a freshly shucked one. So I took him to the fish markets on Saturday morning (I often go there to get stuff) and he bought a couple of dozen oysters and when we got home I showed him how to open them. That was a big deal for him.

 

Just back from europe. In one (HUGE apartmnet above a restaurant in Germany) we had a stocked wine frdge + beer...help yourself he said. I could have had a bender but we replaced what we took to be fair. How can it not be 5 stars!!

 

Majority of BnBs I've stayed have had a bottle of wine as a minimum. I'm usually staying with my partner which they're aware of before I book.