I’m pretty sure that until the 1980s the only purpose of the kitchen other than cooking was as a place where “you’ll always find me in the kitchen at parties”.
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I’m about to have a more-or-less outdoor-kitchen soon so I guess I’ll be joining the two-kitchen bourgeoisie soon. “Thanks, Airbnb!”
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Well I’ve just totted up and it seems I have 4 kitchens, one in the upstairs studio, one in the downstairs apartment (both ABB) our own kitchen and my soapmaking workshop which could function as a kitchen.
Sadly I am neither R nor F …
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It sure is a lot more fun to cook outdoors sometimes. I have a smoker outdoors and I smoke meat but I wouldn’t call that a kitchen even though it makes some of the best food around.
I think it all depends on what type of guests are utilizing the home. We get mostly tradesman who are in town for work (we have a shortage of professional tradesman in our area) so we get a lot of electricians, journeyman etc or the one night stoppers on their way to a different location. We are not a destination location (other than 2 special events yearly) plus we do not accept children and the room has a max of 1 in the small bedroom and 2 in the larger. So it has worked well for us. Interesting enough is that the most irritating thing I find is q-tips everywhere!!! I swear they just throw them over their shoulder hoping to hit the garbage can…
Yes, wow, to the Q-tips, @Cindy_Turner_Dodd! I find them everywhere, too. So many that I googled to see what might be up with that. One-night stays and a half dozen of them will be on the floor.
No good information. The cotton can be used as a filter for drug use, but the cotton is intact on these. So it is your over-the-shoulder hunch or maybe package spillage?
Easy to sweep up, anyway.
Guests absolutely HATE shared bathrooms. I have a 4 bd house and when I put it on the market I had the intention of only renting out individual bedrooms, not the whole house. A week later I had two female guests occupying the house. Both gave me horrible reviews. One complained about the noises the other lady was making opening and closing doors because she woke up early, while the other wanted to sleep in.
The other skewered me because the person in the other room took the only hair dried that was in the bathroom and locked it in her room.
Female guest won’t like to share bathrooms with male guest whit a poor aim, if you know what I mean. So, after this I decided I was going to rent mostly to groups. People in groups are friends or family and dont mind if anyone wakes up early, takes the hair drier or pees on the floor. In between groups I do rent individual rooms but if someone rents a room, he/she will be the only guest. The other rooms/house get automatically blocked on the calendar and I lock them with a key, so the guest can only access their room and the shared space. They like it very much, to have a whole house for themselves. I do it by approval though because I want more groups, not individual bookings.
I work full time, I don’t live in that house and I have no means to clean the toilet multiple times. So my approach works for me.
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Possibly but everyone, no matter what type of guest they are, pees 
I know what you mean though. Today, because our rentals are in a resort, a huge problem is sand that goes down the drain when guests are showering. (It seems like half the beach is down there sometimes).
But in the UK, my guests were people who were in the area for work mostly. There were three rooms suitable for single people and one that was fine for a couple. We had three bathrooms shared between the guests and us.
No matter how hard I tried to organise things better, I still had to clean and tidy all three bathrooms at least once a day and sometimes more often. Even if it was only emptying the trash, cleaning toothpaste from the sink, cleaning the mirrors, straightening towels and replacing the loo roll it still took more time than I had to spare.
I’m one that definitely wouldn’t want to rent a room with a shared bathroom that didn’t get cleaned multiple times a day. Urine splash, hair in the drains and on the floor, toothpaste drips, soap splatter on the faucet and mirror. A guest could vomit or have diarrhrea, etc. And that’s just what you can see. What about things you can’t see like athlete’s foot fungus, cold and flu viruses, streptococcus or MRSA bacterium? (I have a family member with an immune system problem, so I am aware).
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I have two bedrooms in my house that I rent separately, but that share a bathroom.
The most important thing about doing this is to make sure that the guests know that the bathroom is shared AS SOON AS THEY BOOK. Setting expectations is Rule #1 in my book. Make it one of your house rules. It’s not a rule, per se, but it’s important information that I make sure a guest acknowledges before booking.
I clean the bathroom thoroughly whenever a new guest is due to arrive. Other than that, I leave it alone, but I leave cleaning products under the sink.
The only toiletries I supply are soap beside the sink. I leave one bath towel for each guest in their rooms, and just a hand towel in the bathroom for everyone to use.
I’ve only ever had one complaint, and that guest complained that it was a shared bathroom, so clearly they didn’t read any of the information. I didn’t really care about the review, but I pointed out in my reply that all guests receive that information prior to check in. It was really just another opportunity to let potential guests know that the bathroom may be shared!
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We have a shared jack and Jill bath (toilet behind a separate door from the connected vanity room) between two guest rooms. We have had almost no complaints.
We go to extraordinary effort to describe in detail the bathroom situation.
When we give the self check in instructions we go over it a gain.
With the two sinks and toilet behind a second door I think it makes it easier for the guests to “separate” the space. We have a sign on the vanity that again reminds them it is shared and to keep space neat and tidy. We have dispensers in the shower with soap/shampoo/conditioner (never has dripped or made a mess) Though we give guests a set of towels, we leave plenty extra in the cabinets, along with cleaning supplies, and TP.
We clean when any guest checks out.
Hope this helps
I have two friends who host spots with shared bathrooms - it’s a little hostel-y, but the prices are great and they attract guests who are casual.
Their tactics:
- completely upfront about the shared aspects, of course
- extremely sparse, renovated bathrooms.
- trash can with a cover/flap
- wipes for the counter/sink with a small note that reminds guest to wipe surfaces after use
- refillable soap/shampoo/conditioner dispensers mounted in the shower
They also have a professional cleaner visit the shared spaces of the home (kitchen and bathroom) about 2x weekly. They find it to be an inexpensive way to maintain the cleanliness, and they just have to check in once a day at most to maybe remove trash/hair or wipe down a surface.
I’ve been in these homes, and honestly it seems like guests are more shy/polite/bashful about the shared bathrooms than selfish or rude!
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Great idea!
I can’t imagine doing this.
I get them at the dollar store. Very popular. Ib a shared environment it’s handy.
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I have Lysol spray, dilute bleach spray, and rags. People are asked to rinse before and after.
Ah, ok, so cheap knockoffs then. Sounds doable.
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Are you in the US? Do you own the property (or anything of substantial value)? If so, I would not let guests from separate parties share a bathroom at all.
If guest A stumbles into the bathroom while guest B is peeing, causing irreparable emotional damage (or if B thinks that A is trying to get a peep), you could be held liable. After all, you “allowed” them to share a bathroom. You might be able to protect yourself with a solid set of privacy disclaimers, but the property owner is the nearest set of deep pockets in the event of an incident.
This probably isn’t what you want to hear, but I would either not let guests from different parties share a bathroom or restrict the entire place to one gender or the other (whichever gender you are).
Maybe it’s OK if you have full-on B&B commercial liability insurance…
Oh, FFS…just make sure the bathroom door lock works, post a little sign: “please knock before entering shared bathroom,” easy-peasey.
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All Airbnb hosts should have the necessary STR insurance. Didn’t you know that?
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