I'm a new listing and need help with wording of house rules

Maybe not a direct upside for this host, but there’s an upside for the host community. If every host or even every new host took this advice, then more bad guests would book at other hosts without those hosts being aware of their bad behavior. It may be small, but there actually is a potential upside for this host if the review is good. However, there is definitely a potential downside for ALL other hosts. Let’s hope it’s not you or me.

2 Likes

Perhaps a stretch but I admire your passion. The guest just had a stay with 9-10 people. Is she really “about to book again”? The host community will get their review soon enough.

We know a little bit about the guest. She was “very pushy” several times about leaving their luggage early, well before check-in, while another party was still being hosted. That gives me pause. That lack of consideration for others may translate into a negative review for Nora. This is not an ambiguous “what if”.

We have a lot of common ground. I agree that “we need to leave guests honest reviews”. If Nora’s situation were different, we would agree on all points.

Nora is a host in high season in a mature market, enjoying the end of her one-time initial listing boost. If all goes well, she may be 100% booked up for the remainder of high season in the next 12-13 days, and she is on that path.

I hope that this guest gave Nora 5 stars! I would not bet her revenue against a hope.

5 Likes

Off topic for the question but …

I see that you have a shower/bath. We have a shower/bath also. Recently we had an older gent who marked us down to 4 stars because he found it difficult to safely get into and out of the shower/bath.

We installed a small grab rail on the wall.

Photos are great. Good listing.

2 Likes

Ding her because she booked for 6 and had 10 staying at your house. That is exactly what I would write in the review. In regards to rules, it’s good to be specific and detailed but beware that many guests will not read them nor will they care.

1 Like

thanks JohnnyAir, I agree because my mother also pointed that out to me. I did buy a grab bar (against all my designer pride) because realize I will also get older soon so should not complain and just do it. I have yet to install it as I have not had an older person book the place yet. I am sure I will have to do it at some point. When I do where do you think would be the best place to put it?

1 Like

You didn’t ask me but I’m currently planning a bathroom remodel for my own bathroom with an eye to the “aging in place” model. One doesn’t have to be old to benefit. People of all ages get sick, dizzy, injured, etc.

I would urge you to do it as soon as possible. And if your designer urge is strong you might consider looking some more and finding one of the more attractive ones. They even have some that double as a shelf so it doesn’t look so much like a grab bar.

People of any age can fall in a bath or shower so there’s no solid reason to wait. I’d also try to make sure any towel bars that might be grabbed onto are screwed into studs, not into the drywall with anchors.

@JJD would you like to chime in?

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TSYJSI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

2 Likes

I’m sorry that happened to you. It sounds like another case of guests not reading. I’m not giving him a pass just because he’s older, it is arrogant of him to expect a grab bar if it’s not in your photos and not advertised on your listing. It’s awesome that you installed one but I don’t think the review was fair.

2 Likes

Grab Bars: Hi @noramiami! This is what I spend my days doing :slight_smile: I’m a therapist and do a lot of home health and accessibility assessments and such and also install grab bars (and hand-held shower heads - which you have covered). However, your showerhead looks a little high, which is awesome for tall guests, but you could add an extra showerhead bracket about 1/2 of the way between the showerhead and the water control to be extra accommodating. You can get one to match your bronze. You don’t want anyone having to get on their toes to put the showerhead back if possible (safety issue because it challenges their balance in a wet, soapy tub).

To answer your question, ideally you want one grab bar directly across from where you step into the tub and one grab bar perpendicular to the outside edge of the tub at the showerhead end. Like this:
grab bar1

And @KKC is correct, there are nicer, less institutional, designer grab bars. I noticed you have the rubbed bronze in your bathroom, so you could do something like this:

For whatever reason, the best photos I found had the grab-bar on the long wall horizontal but that isn’t typical. They are actually usually installed at a diagonal. This is mainly because of the 8-hotdog-buns-10-weiners phenomenon: most studs are 16 or 24 inches spaced but most grab bars are not that or multiples of that (I don’t why :woman_facepalming:). When I see a horizontal bar, I’m suspicious of it. However, placing it at a diagonal also has the benefit of providing bar at different heights and that’s good too. If you are going to self install, you’ll need a carbide or diamond drill bit for the tile. If you aren’t super handy, it might be best to have someone else do the install. It’s better to have no grab-bar at all than to have one that comes out of the wall (or cracks a tile :wink:

grabbar3

There are other, more flexible and temporary options as well. You could have a grab-bar of this type that you could “install” and un-install as needed. For this to work you’d need to have a feel for who is coming to stay and/or ask if they want it on for their visit. I don’t think it’s a good idea to let the guests install these. They are easy on and off but creates a fuzzy liability issue if they haven’t done it before and read the instructions. So, I’m not sure if it’s a great option or not for you but could be considered. And am including it because it is probably a great option for some hosts. For instance, someone like @jaquo who meets all of her guests so she could guess if they might want it and offer it during check-in. Edit to add: If you wanted to go this route you could ‘guess’ and install it for people and then tell them if they don’t want it they could remove it and put it in a closet - they are fast and easy to remove and there’s no liability there.

I like this one because it’s height-adjustable:

And I like this one because it has a leg on the floor:

Ok, that was a whole presentation but I am hoping it helps other hosts as well. I’m always happy to help you find the best place to buy, etc if you’d like. You can PM me anytime!

Edit to add: A related note: here’s a huge safety issue that is lurking in many of your homes. The towel bar in reach of the shower/tub. People who are dizzy/stumbling/slipping/in sudden pain will grab a towel bar automatically. The screws are 1/2 long and the bar part is usually hollow. It won’t hold them and they will fall. When I go see a new patient after a fall, I look for the mangled wall where a towel bar used to be. I find it in about 50% of the cases. If you want a towel reachable from the shower/bath, put a hook there. And then you can move the towel bar further away. FWIW.

15 Likes

That’s awesome and worthy of being a post on it’s own. You should make a separate thread on the topic that we can refer to in the future. Thanks for taking the time. MVP for today!

5 Likes

@JJD I also find that most shower heads are installed too high for me. Being only 5’4" and not always wanting to get my long hair wet everytime I shower, even adjustable shower heads, especially in a small shower stall, often don’t angle low enough to get the water flowing over my shoulders, rather than my head.

4 Likes

Hmm. Okay. I just ordered this. Thanks for the tip.

3 Likes

Me too! The struggle is real :blush:

It’s easy to put an extra bracket that is a bit lower or a slide bar like @KKC just posted and will definitely be a subtle but real thing for guests to be most comfortable (and safer too).

And, at 6’4”, my husband has the opposite problem. Most showers hit him in the chest.

This is perfect! Can you post a link to this by chance?

That’s funny, I posted a link and then figured no one wanted links stuffing up their reading and I deleted it. LOL. I have order multiple KES brand items and have been very pleased with he price and quality of all of them.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B011UAQL10/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

1 Like

Thanks! I’ve never heard of KES but I will check out their line of other products.

They are made in China (but what isn’t?) and I think only sold on Amazon. I’ve had this same handheld shower head and extra long hose in my Airbnb for 3 years. One warning, they aren’t “low flow” water saving shower heads. Great for guests, bad for the environment.

1 Like

I hate the “low flow” shower heads myself and at least in my case, they don’t save any water. I’ve always had fairly long hair and I have to stand under the shower 3 times longer to get the shampoo and conditioner out with a low-flow shower head than with a normal one. They’re useless in my house anyway, as my water is gravity fed from a big tank on the roof, so it doesn’t have a lot of pressure anyway- a low flow head then produces a paltry stream of water. I was lucky to run across some eco-friendly shower heads made specifically for gravity-feed systems, so they give a good shower with decent pressure.
But my shower, sinks, and washing machine grey water are all directed out through piping to various parts of my garden, so none of it gets wasted.

2 Likes

I hear that, I hate them too. They shoot out way to much water at a high velocity. I find the actual spray of water to be uncomfortable on my skin/scalp.

Wow. Lots of good advice there. Here is my suggestion. We installed ours in a similar position to this.