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I have a double bed, which is pretty standard in the UK.
This week I had two lovely young German women come to visit. I wasn’t here when they arrived as they wanted an early check in.
The next morning they told me neither could sleep as the bed was too small for both of them and so one slept on the floor. The one who slept on the floor was I think about 22 stone. And the bed was too small for both of them to sleep comfortably. They mentioned that at home the larger one had a King Sized bed.
I felt absolutely awful. I wish they had mentioned that they felt the bed might be too small for them and I would have offered the sofabed earlier. I honestly didn’t think of it because I have had larger people use the room before without a problem (but thinking back they were in a couple).
I do have a sofabed in my living room which I mention in my listing (although it’s not available to book). I offered my guests use of it for their second night and when they refused and said they would be comfortable in the bedroom if I could give them some additional covers. I provided them with an additional winter duvet, pillows and extra sheets and blankets.
I wonder what I could have done differently to make it easier for guests in that situation to ask for extra bedding/to sleep in the sofabed.
Nothing it seems. You seem very empathetic and offered solutions in your response. It seems odd that the guests would be uncomfortable or assertive enough to tell you about the problem but not be willing to accept the sofa bed.
Does your listings clearly state it’s a double bed as pictures can be deceptive? If it is clear, this is really on the guests 100%. If a person is that size they need to have commonsense enough to book a place with their own bed or at least ensure it is a King- not the norm even in a hotel.
For this reason I have dimensions of the beds in my description. Still, if they had some doubts about the size (and they could’ve approximately guessed they might have from the photos), they could’ve asked you for extra info on the bed.
Thank you. Yes it does I have mentioned it’s a double three or four times in various parts of the description and Airbnb shows the bed type too as being a double in diagram form too.
She said she didn’t want to bother me by getting the sofabed set up. I offered again two or three times and said it was no trouble, but I think they preferred to share a room.
Not sure if bed sizes are the same in UK and US, but a Queen would be a nice upgrade if possible. Saying that, you should not feel bad at all as you described it correctly. People need to read the listing.
Well, I think Airbnb updated this, but back in the day it was possible to just pick “double bed”. It does not specify the exact size (king, double, small double etc). In my country for example, a normal “matrimonial bed” is often 160-180, which I see now is considered king and superking size. Usual double bed (135 cm) would be considered exceptionally small. In general we don’t really classify beds in such a way, I had to look it up to see exactly what is meant by each category. That’s why I prefer writing exact dimensions so that people wouldn’t get confused. Especially since even those names differ from country to country.
Because the sizes vary so widely across countries, I suppose you’ll have to be very clear and include the exact measurements (converting to feet and inches) in your listing. Ask guests to confirm they understand the bed size. I think the full size bed has practically disappeared here in the states. Most people have either twin, queen, king or cal king. They might even confuse the full with a Queen.
Double is a bed that comfortably sleeps two people. It used to be that most people had double beds but as homes have got bigger and fashions change people are now getting larger sized beds in the UK.
Double and full are the same. I have two full/double beds and one queen. So far everyone has been happy.
The guests knew what size bed they were getting, they also knew their own sizes. You did your best. Maybe buy a single air mattress for future guest flexibility.
We also have a full sized bed as we inherited a very nice bedroom set that goes perfectly with our decor and a double mattress that was barely used and quite comfortable. I just learned of converter rails so we can keep our headboard/footboard and accommodate a queen mattress. No one has complained, but I fear we might miss bookings if people are deciding between units. The room is too small for a king anyway.
My wife and I are quite small people, and I wouldn’t say a double sleeps two comfortably! We have a queen bed at home so that’s we’re used to a bit of extra space between us, but when traveling in Europe/UK I would expect a double as the default due to generally smaller room sizes than in North America.
It sounds like you could have offered up the sofabed in advance, but you’d have to do that for every booking that was for two guests. I have a somewhat similar setup (a bedroom and day bed in the living room) and if I remember I do generally ask if they want separate beds when a booking is for two people who specially say they’re friends or coworkers. Many of them booked my place specifically because I have that option, but generally it’s up to me to figure that out since they don’t usually mention it.
We use a ‘Queen’ type bed, which is a bit bigger than the double.
I feel your pain though, because there is literally no standardisation of bed and mattress sizes in the UK which means tape measures are a must.
What we did was get a decent mattress through CostCo and a wooden frame online (which I then built) to fit it. It has worked out very well.
As to your guests: you did everything you could and it is not your fault as a host if they didn’t tell you pertinent details such as one of them is 22 stone. They didn’t book responsibility or communicate with you on the issue that they must have known might potentially arise. So it isn’t really your responsibility as a host to sort it out if you ask me, but like you if it happened I would do my best to make them comfortable.
That’s why I prefer writing exact dimensions so that people wouldn’t get confused. Especially since even those names differ from country to country.
