Guests complain because I don't serve breakfast - Not a true Airbnb they say

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If you demand that we serve breakfast to satisfy the second part of the name ‘airbnb’ you must also demand we satisfy the first part of the name - AIR - and we all will sell our mattresses and beds and replace them with air mattresses and put them on our living room floor.

20 years ago B&B meant bed and breakfast, and I would expect a full ‘country inn’ breakfast. However, in the last 10 years when I’ve stayed at a b&b it’s been precooked stuff, for the most part - cereals and packaged pastry - yuck. (Never forgetting the ‘scones’ my ‘hostess’ in London would pull out of the freezer and stick in a toaster oven - mmmmm - burned out the outside, frozen on the inside…Hey where’s my fry!!!) The concept of the B&B has changed to suit the times, and especially, to suit local health codes.

‘Airbnb’ has also evolved, ABSOLUTELY, to mean - whatever - you may not even always get a bed! Sometimes it’s a hammock, sometimes an airbed, sometimes a lux mattress in a lux condo - that’s it’s main selling point - stay in UNUSUAL and UNEXPECTED places - such as the duck farm in Detroit that we stayed at recently.

So while airbnb incorporates this idea of ‘bed and breakfast’ in it’s name, it was evolved to mean something completely different. This is why there is a box to check for breakfast in the amenity list.

If it wasn’t optional, there wouldn’t be that box.

If we pound our fist and insist that the name should mean today what the name meant 20 years ago, we have to change many things - such as the soft drink ‘Coke’ was once named so because it contained the drug cocaine.

End of discussion as to what ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ be done as an airbnb.

That being said - I had an interesting experience today that I think adds to this discussion. I DO provide breakfast as many of my friends here know - pastry, cheese, fruit, etc. I set a lovely table with a table cloth and nice plates, etc. I really make an effort because it brings me joy.

However, my day yesterday included a busted toilet in the guest area, dealing with my contractor, picking up three guests that speak little English, tracking fraudulent activity on my hacked checking account, a broken toe, and taking my asthmatic daughter to the ER and finding out that, in addition to a bitch of an episode with her asthma she has pneumonia. After working until 3:30 this morning I set my alarm for 6:30 so I could get up, cart all the clutter out of the breakfast area and prepare breakfast for 8 a.m.

I woke up at 8:30 a.m.!! But guess what? My guests were cooking their breakfast in their little kitchenette. They didn’t even realize that I cook breakfast for them.

So what we provide, and what the guest expects, with airbnb…it’s anyone’s guess!!!

Happy Hosting, everyone - it’s going to be a GREAT day!!

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Yikes…hope the toe heals quickly and pnuemonia disappears!

Good point about the “Air” part in the name. I mean people could claim that they thought the nightly rate also included free airfare…sheesh.

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My sister just got pneumonia too… came out of nowhere! It’s very serious. I hope your daughter gets better soon. Kids bounce back more quickly than adults, it seems. My son (the one going to Washington) has had asthma as a younger child and basically grew out of it, but sometimes a cold will bring it on, so he always keeps his inhaler with him.

Otherwise… all of this is well said, thank you DC!!! :slight_smile:

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I wish you much happier days than this one!! When it rains it pours.
I started doing breakfast: bagels, cream cheese., orange juice, yougurt and fruits. No one touched it yet. Now after I had to eat all these bagels myself like I need more carbs. I stopped going it. When we are running such a small business breakfast is quite an ordeal at least for me. I bought food, spent extra with my shopping, bought a lot of it as I had several bookings that week, and no one cared. Now I put brochures of Bagels and more place on every nightstand where full breakfast cost 3.69$, and 2 min walk from us

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Wow!! No one ate it? Oh, I feel so responsible! Sorry for the extra hassle. Just goes to show - different folks means different strokes… Well, well done you giving it another try!!!

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Hehe, yes no one liked my bagels. Not your fault:). I guess I am done with breakfast.

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Very well said. And now to everyone who gave me good advice and weighed in on this debate, I’d like to update you on what happened with my ‘disappointed’ English guests who didn’t get a proper breakfast. Firstly, there were food items left over in the room after they checked out - I had provided more milk than they’d required, more tea and coffee and more bread and jams (although they had run out of apricot - the flavour they preferred). They had, however run out of butter and as I mentioned earlier I’d had to provide extra juice. Secondly, and very surprisingly, they gave me 5 stars across the board in my review - but very decently kept their gripe about the lack of proper breakfast to a private feedback comment. And I suspect this was because when I knew it was coming I casually had the conversation with them about how hard it had been to achieve Superhost status and how important it was for me to me to keep it due to the high number of competing properties within a stone’s throw of our place.

This has been a really useful forum for me to understand just how people as hosts see their role with Airbnb and I think it’s pretty clear that my guests and perhaps a ‘now silent’ host on this forum are very much out of date and in the minority.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback and advice - it’s all been really appreciated. DC, I hope your daughter is on the mend and that things are looking up for you for Christmas.

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YES! “Ritz at Motel 6 prices.” That’s exactly it.

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You now put brochures of bagels and places on the nightstand…lol! - I love it! Just don’t forget to uncheck the box on your listing if you won’t be providing any breakfast at all.

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it’s a place called " bagels and more" that serves breakfast, lol. Whithin 2 minutes walk from the house

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can’t say you didn’t try!!

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Ah gosh sounds like you had a horrid day!! Hope your ok now

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Brilliant!!! Great idea Yana.

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Glad they were nice, but their grousing would have ruined my impression of those particular guests.

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Yes, and their grousing did ruin it for me and it’s guests like those that make you think you don’t want to keep going - which is why the review I left for them made it quite clear that they were first time Airbnb users who rather than accept that not all properties provide breakfast, were disappointed and expressed that to me.

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Was this the public or private review area? I hate it when guests complain about anything. They are getting a great deal at my house but with some of them they think it should be “more.”

I would really like to improve my other business so I don’t have to rely on this so much. :frowning:

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Zoiks, I hope your daughter is okay Dcmooney, sounds like a trying time!

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I see, EB… so by your reasoning because I an Airbnb host in England, I should be providing a full English breakfast each morning?

Well I do not provide a full English breakfast for a variety of reasons -

  1. I would need to obtain a food liscence to serve any animal product.

  2. I get a lot of veggie and vegan guests that would be offended by the smells.

  3. I MYSELF would get offended by the smells, even as a meat eater! Fried fatty food stinks!

  4. Not to mention the layers of grease that would coat everything in the kitchen…

  5. Most of my guests are foreign, relatively progressive in terms of diet and REALLY don’t want the infamous greasy English fry-up. To buy in the items would actually work out very wasteful.

Here’s what I DO provide -

A selection of cereals in jars, a selection of breads (sometimes freshly baked by me, if I have time!) honey and fruit, a selection of teas and coffees, jams and various spreads…

However, I certainly don’t advertise that I provide this - it’s just included as a complimentary extra for anyone who so wishes to partake (and I’d say approximately only around 1 in 4 people actually do). So, a little bit like Wilbur’s set up! And it’s a set up that’s worked well so far … those that want breakfast have some staple items to go on … and it’s something they weren’t expecting…

Most folk want to have breakfast out as part of their city-break experience (I know I’d fall into that category!).

I think the people who expect breakfast as a given are archaic in their thinking. The bnb in Airbnb is being used of something of a twee term. The people who’d assume they’d be staying at an actual B&B are not the type to usually use Airbnb… which, correct me if I’m wrong, but tends to mainly consist of forward thinking individuals willing to embrace fresh concepts and young hipsters :wink:?

Having said that, I did get a slammed recently in a review by a total odd-bod because I didn’t serve her a fry up in the morning … ( the details of which are in another thread) - Airbnb removed the review because it was based on ‘unrealistic expectations from a new user’. So there we have it - end of discussion :smile:!

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I am not English, so I am not the one to tell what English hosts should be providing in the morning. However, I do regularly book an ordinary B&B in London, and almost all of them do provide full English breakfast.

Funny to hear Airbnb removed the review because it was based on ‘unrealistic expectations from a new user’ - they seem to start shaping our expectations of what is “realistic” and what is not.

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I think I wrote this before, but I will be happy to repeat it. The host did not state that she would not offer breakfast. That’s why she got a negative review.

It also happened to me being a host, btw. Almost all the time, I am around to offer breakfast if people want it, but sometimes (around 10 per cent of the time) I am travelling myself, so the flat will be rented out empty. In that case, there is no breakfast being served. I do always tell guests before they arrive, yet sometimes some of them do complain not having breakfast being served.