I agree that this all is way too long, and possibly still too long.
And I thought my 2 messages at 351 words at 1st communication, when request comes in, and 316 words upon confirm are a little long! They do include reiteration of the few important rules, and ask the guests to confirm they read everything in the listing, which is probably too wordy for most folks here too<><> 
After that I text one day before to confirm arrival time and send note about foods we provide.
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Well, Just looked at @PitonView 's listing and I felt embarrassed that he uses so few words to describe such a grand place while I use so many to describe . . . a nice but humble place.
Yes, I still have work to do!
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Wow, incredibly wordy & off putting. If I were a guest, I wouldnât read any of it. I hope your house rules & manual arenât as long⌠Shorten it to maybe one paragraph.
Let me stand up right now for @muddy 's comments. She got to the point, admittedly blunt â yes, somewhat off-putting â but this is a collaboration here, Of course, she could have shortened it [I wish she would have] but we need to make allowances. Please try to be nice.
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@HostAirbnbVRBO Itâs a pdf document that we uploaded to Google Drive. You can make the link private to only those you send it to. Itâs the same document that we leave in our rentals. This is what our first message response to a new booking looks (link included), 2nd msg âkey code instructionsâ, 3rd with âhow is everythingâ and 4th âcheck-out instructionsâ - are much much shorter.
Hi !
Thank you again for booking Cast Away Cottage!
A few items/reminders for your upcoming stay:
Check-in: anytime after 4PM on .
Check-out: anytime before 11AM on .
We require names of ALL guests (maximum 6 NO EXCEPTIONS â INCLUDING children and infants) that will be staying at the Cottage as well as any visitors that may be on the property during your visit.
Well behaved, house trained pets (Maximum (1) small dog) NO EXCEPTIONS are welcomed at Cast Away Cottage. Please advise us prior to your booking. Pets ARE NOT allowed on furnishing or in/on beds. Please collect and dispose of your pets waste. Please make us aware of any damage or mishaps.
Smoking, Vaping or tobacco of any kind is not permitted inside the cottage.
Please respect the neighbours and keep the noise down after 10PM.
Please respect ALL Hot Tub rules located in the Guidebook (link attached) - especially NO LOTIONS or liquids of any kind as it upsets the water chemistry.
Check any Provincial regulations before fishing and using ATV and Snowmobile trails.
Please check the New Brunswick Burn Ban info on-line or phone before lighting any camp fires. NO FIRES IF PROVINCE IS RED!
Disclosure: as noted in the booking details, Cast Away Cottage has 24/7 video surveillance on the exterior of the property.
We will send a further message closer to your check-in with keypad entry details.
Link attached is a Guidebook for Cast Away Cottage with further info:
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!
Cast Away looks forward to hosting you!
Cheers,
Duane & Joanne
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I almost commented on this a few days ago but deleted it because I didnât want to come off as rude. Iâm in the camp that if I received these messages, I would cancel the booking. I also understand that you are trying to be helpful and thorough, which I appreciate, but as someone with anxiety (and zero OCD) this would be so overwhelming. I like the suggestion to but âI am a meticulous host and expect meticulous guestsâ in your listing, so that you are up front about your expectations of them.
I also think a guidebook is a great idea if you want this level of detail and intructions. We use Hostfully and send to booked guests. Sometimes Iâll follow up with them to see if they had any questions about it, but, 99% of the time, I donât think they read it and donât mind. Youâd probably want to just have something in writing confirming they read it.
I also, and this is just my opinion, scheduled messages are off-putting in general. I donât think it takes much more time to have a personal conversation with guests, before, during, and after their stay. Iâll sometimes ask for kidsâ interests and make sure we have a book in our library for them and lay it out. Or if they give a nugget about âoh little Jack is so excited to see the dolphins!â Iâll buy a dolphin balloon as a surprise. Always ask for dogsâ names so they get a little welcome note from our golden retriever warning them not to swallow too much salt water.
But mostly, Iâm a big proponent of âIf they need to know something, theyâll askâ.
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Airbnb has a saved messages option that I use. I just cut and paste and edit to fit that booking. I agree with you about the personal touch but I also think Airbnb is getting less personal all the time.
I use Airbnb as a guest and I have hosts who donât even message me to acknowlege I booked. I have hosts who donât leave me a review and I guarantee I was a stellar guest. I have guests who book but donât answer any of my messages. It is what it is but messaging is starting to seem like a waste of time.
Honestly this reads more like a bit of a humble-brag than something useful. It also sounds like a host that is way, way too attached to the material objects in the house.
Let your guests show up and be pleasantly surprised by the fanciness, rather than show-boat it in an extremely wordy and tedious way. Youâre turning luxury amenities into some kind of burden.
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Thanks for your input.
As I wrote above I have made substantial changes, deleting the first message entirely, as well as #4 and #7, and greatly shortening the others. [I think #4 above was the most off-putting but letâs not debate whether #1 or #4 was worse; theyâre both gone thanks to input from the group.]
I often donât know much about the guests to personalize the message. But often I do. When I do I edit the scheduled message to personalize it. I could just keep it as a saved message, but I schedule it in case I somehow forget; I usually get to personalize the scheduled message.
VRBO does not have a scheduled message feature. So there I have the remaining four messages, which I personalize to the extent I have the information.
We do have a House Manual that we provide, as well as a guidebook spiral bound and printed in color with pictures. Iâm in the process of editing the House manual, adding pictures as well as an index and table of contents. [We just had a guest ask if we had a step stool; we do, in the hall closet and that will be in the guidebookâs index.] Right now the House Manual is just printed in B&W but will eventually be spiral bound with color pictures.
We do the same when we know. For example, people often stay here for the Boston Marathon. We bought a Boston Marathon âthingâ for their shoe laces. Or a guest with her daughter came for the Ringo concert, we bought her a Ringo bag. Someone coming for a childâs graduation gets a personalized graduation card. Weâre on the same page with you to a greater extent than it might first appear.
Maybe so. But Iâm not so sure. We just had a guest leave with whom we had multiple interactions during their stay for this reason or that. When they left, saying that theyâd like to come back again later this month, they mentioned as a by the way that there was no hot water! Well, Iâm amazed that they had not mentioned that earlier. With each interaction I asked how things were going and they never mentioned it (turns out I had inadvertently shut it off). But we have had several guests who mentioned things only on checkout that could easily have been resolved if mentioned earlier. THAT was the impetus of at least message #5 (message after check-in).
Luckily none of these guests but one docked us any points but it amazes me how some guests just donât ask. But my takeaway is to edit the House manual rather than put things in messages.
Thanks again for your input and your consideration in making your comments.
While there seem to certainly be guests who only mention something you could have addressed during the stay when they check out or in the review, itâs possible that you donât get alot of info or questions from guests because you have been bombarding them with all these lengthy messages.
Guests are much more likely to mention their own plans and ask questions if messages between you are brief and friendly/chatty. I.e. establish a rapport rather than try to convey a ton of information.
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Yes, Iâve considered that possibility.
I wonder whether a moderator @KKC should close the thread because Iâve received a lot of input, most all of which Iâve incorporated. Weâre getting posts now repeating the same thing because â and I understand this is a long thread â they havenât read the intervening posts.
Again I am thankful for everyoneâs input. This thread is a great example of the value of this community.
I know itâs a long thread but the message youâre referring to is one Iâve deleted based on the feedback from the group.
good evening,
As someone who has taught neurodiverse individuals, I can fully understand the authorâs need for detailed descriptions. If I may, I would like to offer a different perspective.
I question whether in the end it really matters whether you, as host, write 3 lines or 3 pages of notes to your awaited guests. The crux of the matter is that you are going to worry regardless (have they found x, will they use x correctly and safely, have they put x back in the correct place for future guests). While for all of us as hosts these are important issues, this may especially add extra stress for you.
My suggestion would be to simplify your home. For example have one regular run of the mill coffee maker and provide a common supermarket blend coffee. I have stayed in airbnbs all over the globe and the norm is salt and pepper as far as spices go. If the homemaker or previous guest happened to leave garlic/Onion powder, chili or paprikaâŚI was delighted but it was never something I expected. If I wanted something special, I would buy it.
All your reasons for why you have set up your garden as you have are environmentally sound and I applaud you for it ( and I would love to see it since I am experimenting with various types of ground cover to see which will suit our climate best). I was constantly telling my grandchildren not to trample on the newly planted moss, but then I had to let it go. I realized if the moss could not stand up to them then no, it was not the suitable choice for the area. As my husband pointed out, if this was going to stress me out, perhaps just go back to grass in this area until the munchkins are older.
That is my point to you. I know you want to make your guests as comfortable as possible but first think of at what cost to you. So perhaps look at other airbnb listings and see what people who have excellent reviews offer. Then go through your rental with a close friend who can be objective in selecting what should stay/go or bb modified. The objective is certainly a clean and comfortable home but most important is a low stress level for you.
I hope my take off the matter was not way out field.
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My friend and neighbor who has diagnosed OCD, built her house with 2 large extra bedrooms on the lower level (her living space is upstairs), with their own private entrances, ensuite bathrooms, outfitted with kitchenettes, planning to Airbnb them.
She had one or two guests, couldnât stand anyone else being in her home, even though they were downstairs and she didnât even have to interact with them, couldnât stand them âmessing upâ the room, even though they didnât leave a mess at all, felt she had to tiptoe around all the time, and decided that hosting wasnât for her. So now she has these two large rooms, beautifully outfitted, which just sit there empty save for the occasional friend who comes to visit.
But she canât even handle having a good friend around for more than a week, max.
If I go over to visit, and we sit on the outside bench, that I made the cushions and covers for ( Heavy duty Sunbrella fabric, which can easily be sponged clean) and I tuck my clean feet up under me, which is the way Iâve been most comfortable sitting all my life, she tells me to put my feet down.
I sympathize with her issues, and I love her, but itâs hard to be made to feel like youâre always bound to do something âwrongâ.
She told me she used to drive her now deceased husband crazy because she would never let him climb in bed unless he had just stepped out of the shower. Heâd say, âHoney, I just showered before we went to dinner. I put on clean clothes, we rode in our clean air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned restaurant, ate dinner, and drove home. I havenât gotten dirty or sweaty, Iâm still cleanâ.
âI donât care, youâre not getting in this bed until you shower.â
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I didnât get past the 3rd message. I was being diligent reading your first one, skimmed the second one, and then the 3rd one had check-in info. donât you just pre-fill the check-in section with photos in the app? way easier than another long message.
When I saw there was going to be more stuff to read I skimmed it, then gave up.
the advice from @FiZ also is excellent. I stayed with a host in CA who was an internet friend (and now a real friend) and she is def on the spectrum, and her guest manual was insanely long, as were her pre-check-in messages and some of the things she expected were bordering on unrealistic (like: donât sit on my white couch in your new denim jeans). After meeting her, and now being a host myself, I can see how this happened. She is a perfectionist, and her place was perfect, but her rules were just a bit over the top.
re: spices. I personally wouldnât mention them all, are you checking them regularly for freshness and whether theyâve gone hard. seems to me you are OverPromising and might just underwhelm an excited guest. I agree that itâs better to offer up a more simple offering and then wow every guest with how much more youâve actually got for them.
I send a msg on booking saying âthank you, youâve booked for X number of guests on this [arrival date]â really that msg is all about making sure the correct # of guests is booked.
2 days before arrival i have a âhereâs what we have, itâs all good, but also no smoking, and we have dogsâ type thing. then on arrival day I have a âhereâs whatâs not in the manual [new stuff] plus also another reminder about no smoking, and the dogs might greet youâ. then on morning of check out i have some basic instructions + thanks.
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Good morning Muddy,
It seems you donât understand neurodiversityâŚthe fact that you felt it necessary to mention your input on the cushions plus your changing font. Moreover I would venture that many who are not on the spectrum may find it off-putting that you deem it acceptable to put your feet up.
I fail to see how your personal rant about a neighbour is helpful to our author at this point. I find it insulting and offensive.
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Too long, too much. If your guests bother to read any of it,you are lucky. I gave up half way through the first one and only glanced at the others.
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Re squeegees.
I stayed multiple times in a lovely home in a nearby city. Per messaging, the host was genial and seemed pretty laid back.
Except, there was a sign by the shower. âWater spots are evil! Squeegee the shower after use.â Even though the host used humor, how I began to resent that sign at about the third stay, almost irrationally. I wanted to be on my way after showering, not checking multiple glass and tile surfaces for stray spots. Iâm not the cleaner. NOT MY JOB! There are products and methods to remove spots.
Whew! Donât know why that sent me around the bend, but it did.
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Then you might not pass the test.
Just kidding.
You are right, of course. As a result of numerous comments that message and another have been deleted, and others shortened.
Instead, I now have a mandatory 45 minute face-to-face orientation session, including fire drill â like on a cruise. I hired an ex-Marine to run it. So far, no complaints. So I think I fixed this.
I jest yet again.