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Oh, good news! That was a crazy game here, and we were hosting some rabid Eagles fans for a few days. They made an anniversary trip out of it. I put a little stuffed “Sir Purr” (our mascot) in their bed. They got a huge kick out of it, and were more than delighted to gloat (rightfully) over their win. I made our courtyard lights green for the remainder of their stay in honor of their win.
Thanks so much for the link. I’m going to buy those!
That’s great! I’d be tickled too.
I’m jealous that you get to do this. So much fun.
Yes, but you get doggie guests! We all have to create our perks & benefits! 
Maybe to get away from their own family and pretended they were going somewhere special 
I want to be you when I grow up, bloody domestic goddess and all.
This sounds SO lovely!
It puts me in mind of the Ace Ventura movie where the mom bakes football cookies (the VERY long ad before the clip is LOL funny, too!):
Ha ha! I either never grew up, or I’m having the childhood I never had perhaps. Long may it last…
That was great—and it cracked me up even more because I was actually baking footballs, jerseys, leaves, and Halloween cookies TODAY! I still have to decorate them, though.
Yeah, it’s time to pull out that old vhs and watch it again.
Awww! Those are cute! I’d love to see the finished product, too, after you’ve decorated them. And you even made some Canadian maple leaves. 
Laces out!
Those would be Vermont maple leaves. 
Yeah, I didn’t really figure they were Canadian maple leaves… I was just being a bit cheeky (thus, the extra-wide grin).
And my comment was equally cheeky. Hence my silly smiley face.
I know this post is over a year old, but rather than start a new thread, this thread seems relevant to what I am faced with this year.
To answer @George2013’s question: No. The only “extra” thing we do is try to charge little bit more. We decorate our home, but it’s really for our benefit as we usually host one or two holiday parties a year, and sometimes Christmas.
This is our 4th Christmas being Airbnb hosts, and every year we have guests who come to the area visiting family. We are not a holiday destination. They sleep here and then go off for the day visiting family.
However, I think we got our first booking from a small family looking to spend Christmas at our home. While we might normally travel for the day ourselves and let guests use the home like any other day of the year, this year we’ll be home entertaining guests of our own.
Our listing is a “private room in house.” We allow guests to to use the common areas, but it’s generally unlikely they’re here during the day anyway. But we’re not an “entire home” listing. Her messages seem to suggest she is spending Christmas at our house, but that’s only a guess. And while I don’t want to assume her travel plans, I feel strange asking her to clarify her plans simply because we want to be in our own home on Christmas. Regardless of her expectations, we’re spending Christmas at home with our guests.
Has anyone else had any holiday expectation mishaps? This has only come up once over Thanksgiving when it became plainly evident by a new user that renting our entire home for $50 a day was way too good to be true. Not to mention it would have been a very crowded Thanksgiving dinner with two completely strange families.
I blocked off Thanksgiving, Christmas eve and Christmas this year so that Airbnb doesn’t interfere with my real life. I don’t even host in my home, their room is separate but at sub $50 a night why would I take a chance?
A bottle of decent wine (and by decent I mean $5 with a pretty label), hot cocoa packets in holiday mugs, Christmas themed toiletries from TJ Maxx laid out on top of the towels in the bathroom, and decorations from the thrift shop make for a nice experience. Maybe I’ll get them cookies or something from our local bakery.
This year I have someone bringing their dog, so I’ll wrap a bone in cellophane, tie a ribbon around it, stick a stem of holly in the ribbon and hot glue it to a bag of good treats from TJ Maxx (only $2.99!)
If you want to spend Christmas at home with your guests why didn’t you block off the dates so you didn’t have guests? Or at least put something in your listing to say your kitchen and dining area are off limits on Christmas day as you are having friends over for the day.
If you allow use of the communal areas the family could expect to cook Christmas dinner and eat at your home.
Surely the best approach is to contact the guest and ask them about their plans for the day. If they are planning to cook and eat at yours, you may need to do some negotiation over kitchen use.
We actually get booked both holidays. Would be a hit to our budget to block the busiest seasons. But they are visiting family. Like I said, we’re not a holiday destination.
I guess this is the difference between “private room in a house” and “entire place,” Airbnb language, not ours. Being the former, we allow our guests to use common areas, but they’re not necessarily part of the whole package.
Their plans are a bit vague, and I feel awkward asking. Besides, it’s only a guess. We generally don’t share our plans with guests, especially if we do plan to be away, until after check-in. Franky, it’s none of their business.
Like all our other guests, I’m going to guess she’s visiting family. She happens to be from here originally, so that seems the safer assumption.
Hi @Josiah
Sure it hits our budgets but like many hosts who share our homes, I choose not to host on these occasions so I can relax with family and friends.
I was a little confused about your remarks about your arrangements for offering a room in your home. You say you let guests use common areas but they aren’t necessarily part of the package. What does that mean - do you offer guests access to use your kitchen, dinging room etc or not?
If you do, then your guests can expect to use the kitchen and dining room during their stay. You said in your initial post that you have ‘received your first booking from a small family looking to spend Christmas at your home’.
If you are not sure whether they intend to spend Christmas Day itself in your home with access to cooking facilities, I am not sure why you feel it would be awkward to ask the guests about their plans. Surely it would be much more awkward for them to expect to share a kitchen and dining room with you on kitchen day 
Honestly it will be much more relaxing for you if you know in advance whether guests will be around on the day so you can plan accordingly.
We’re a “private room in house” listing, not an “entire home” listing, so it’s safe to assume we also use our own home. While use of the common areas is permitted, it’s not necessarily what they’re paying to use. I know we can argue all day about that, but basically it’s pretty clear how Airbnb defines “shared” and “entire” listings. If we wanted to rent our house we would for a lot more money. For instance we charge $35-49 per night for one guest for each room. Nearby listings for entire places are $130-450 per night. Not to mention another local B&B that uses Airbnb charges $155 per night per room. Guests are welcome to use our kitchen and other living spaces, but it’s by no stretch of the imagination guaranteed.
I thought of another approach: Since we technically have 3 listings - one’s a combination of our 2 guestrooms - and she only booked the larger of the 2 rooms for 3 people, I’ll let her know I blocked the smaller room for her to avoid overcrowding the house. I’ll let her know this and hope this might elicit more information from her. I would switch her reservation to the combo, but for some reason that creates a credit for her, albeit only $7-8, but why would I do that?
She hasn’t even asked if she can use the kitchen, so I’m not even bringing it up. At face value, her messages just say she’s coming to our place for Christmas, that’s it. Like all our other holiday guests, they most likely won’t even be here during the day.
We will have to agree to disagree on this @Josiah . As hosts offering a room in our home, we can choose whether guests also have access to communal rooms such as dining rooms, kitchens and living rooms.
So if you include access in your listing description to your dining and cooking facilities, then yes that is exactly what they are paying to use as part of what you offer. You can’t restrict this use if you haven’t done so on your listing at the time they booked.
To be honest I really don’t understand why you can’t simply ask her about her arrangements for Christmas day.
