Good idea, but the stovetop had no brand name on it, so I couldn’t look it up.
Guests will have questions and make mistakes, even with things that are absolutely obvious to us. As guests in Scotland my American husband put the electric kettle on the stove, as he’d never seen one before. We appreciated adding Scottish department store to our list of daily things to do, and were able to replace it with the same model.
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I did the same thing years ago at my daughter’s house, not because I didn’t know it was electric, but because I have always used a stovetop kettle myself and was momentarily distracted carrying on a conversation with my granddaughter- it was just a rote, unconscious action. The 4 seconds it was on there was, of course, long enough to destroy it and melt the plastic bottom onto the glass stovetop. 
People, we are not addressing the real problem. Poor Muddy went WITHOUT COFFEE after a horrid plane trip. My sympathies, Muddy. Glad things are better.
While I’m a huge fan of tech, I believe there’s a time and place for it, and a STR isn’t the place, at least for most people. I have smart locks, but that’s it. The appliances are ordinary, not too high-end because of this very thing. I get all kinds of guests, and they may not want to be introduced to something super complicated, people get frustrated easily and that leads to bad reviews. Plain fridge w/ice maker. Plain gas stove and DW. Keurig, $10 toaster and electric kettle, plus a lower end microwave that I bought my renters last year. When my mother would come stay with me, or I’d buy her a gift, I’d always get just the basic model unless there was a feature I know she wanted.
Most of my guests would be like the Amazon Echo Silver - [Amazon Echo - SNL - YouTube]
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I wouldn’t put one in because they need proper cleaning of the milk frother, and guests can’t be trusted to do that. I’ve owned one in the past and they would require instructions to be left out.
Nespresso offer a subscription when you sign up to spend $50/month on coffee (for 1 year) and they give you the machine for free. actually for my home i opted to pay extra to have a fancier machine, but in our STR i put the most basic pod machine.
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Or the guest can ask the host?
I used to stay at lots of Airbnbs before the pandemic. I think booking Airbnbs is an adventure in itself. I have always received positive and negative surprises compared to hotels.
If you are used to smart appliances, you may find yourself at a place with old appliances that you don’t know how to use. You could have labels in different languages (I have had that experience as well). Many models of microwaves and washer/dryers can be very different to operate.
It’s sometimes nice to be in a hotel as it is so standardized. I could wake up in a hotel room on any continent and not know where I am. It works perfectly when I just need a clean place to sleep and shower.
I guess I just prefer vintage stuff to new, and not to be reliant on the net, QR codes or screens for making coffee, getting inside my house or turning the lights or music on. Wondering if my guests can figure anything out is non existent as we have a non smart home and a vintage trailer rental, which is, by its nature, well, old and not “smart”. Although we do supply a smart TV…
Persons that have never used a combination lock can’t do that, and I choose to not have to learn how to do the other tech stuff that is not attractive or meaningless to me.
Surely, eventually, a time will come when electronic interconnectedness will be mandatory, but not here on my property.
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Get a Canadian Google Voice number. Download the Google app to your phone. Login to your gmail account. Search for Google Voice number. Pick one that looks pretty (seriously).
Now you can order anything you want anywhere. And if you have CashApp or Venmo, get their debit cards and link them to your delivery accounts.
Voila. Problem solved.
Toilets in non-tourist areas of China. 'nuf said.
Thanks for the tip. I’m clueless about stuff like that. I probably won’t have any more need for it on this trip, but good to be aware of in the future. I do have Canadian debit and credit cards, so no payment issues.
You’re welcome.
It’s fast and easy and since you’re in Canada, Google will see Canadian IP addresses and won’t give you a hard time security-wise.
Also, if you sign up for DoorDash or other delivery services, you can link all your Canadian info and hopefully your daughter will allow you to use her address as your main one and you can add addresses at-will.
Do it now and you’ll have time to play with it in Canada. Good luck.
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Re the coffee- because they have the Jura that grinds the coffee, they don’t even have a separate coffee grinder anymore and only have beans. So even hot tap water wouldn’t have been an option. I would have had to go outside and pound them with a rock 
Interesting info re the delivery apps. That would have been quite funny- contacting someone I only know from an online forum who lives in a different country to get a cup of coffee delivered to me.
Last year when I came to Canada, I wasn’t yet vaxed, so had to stay at a quarantine hotel until I got the results of the Covid test I was given on arrival at the airport. Meals were included in the hotel booking, but the food left outside my door was disgusting. We could order out for food, which is when I discovered that the food delivery apps wouldn’t accept out-of-country phone numbers for account set-up.
Otherwise, my Mexican phone plan works great. For the equivalent of $10US/ mo. I get unlimited calling and texting to and from anywhere in Mexico, the US and Canada.
On another positive note, my Costco card from Mexico works at any Costco worldwide and a Costco membership is cheaper in Mexico than in Canada or the US.
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I visited my daughter in Japan and while there we went to Kyoto. I love gardens, so she took me to some stunning ones. At one I needed to use the public bathroom. The toilet was set into the floor, no sitting, hovering, and I could not work out how to use it as nothing’ lined ‘ up.
I called her and asked - I had to face the wall’
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I second that emotion! I turn on the coffee maker before I feed the cat!
Welcome to the 21st century! It’s fun! (when the tech works)
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@PitonView
I love that QR code idea. I have one to log into the Wi-Fi, but your idea has opened a whole new panorama for me.
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As a writer, and a father who was an inventor- I see that most manuals are written poorly- assuming you know certain things- and most appliances could be simpler but I think aren’t partly because the creator couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the person on the other end. There’s an arrogance -there that certainly is frustrating and needless.
That’s one of my frusrations with the hosting pages on Airbnb. The programmers hide things where it is totally non-intuitive for the average person to find. I do think it’s a kind of arrogance among techies. Sometimes I picture programmers standing around the coffee machine saying, “Hey Dexter, I just switched the Log Out button from the upper right hand corner to the lower left hand corner. I give Grandma two weeks til she figures it out, snork, snork”.
It’s astounding to me that they think it’s okay to suddenly revamp everything without any warning or instructions as to where it has been moved to, or suddenly change what used to be called “Stats” to “Performance”.
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I was in construction for a bunch of years. Manuals for putting things together were often written in another language then translated. Manuals used to and still do drive me crazy. I look at them, get frustrated then figure it out myself.
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Thank god for your patience! I’m always amazed at my handimen pulling out the manuals as I would want to throw the thing in the sea. Recently opened my new ironing board- can’t figure out how to CLOSE the dam thing so it’s taking up 1/4 of my room!! Bought some expensive handsoap for the airbnb- can’t figure out how to get the top to open to emit soap- my friend broke it trying… the list goes on of things I want to kill, lol…
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Pictures of countertop appliances in Airbnb listing?
I list them (text) and show major, but that’s it.
Your comment about the blinds struck a nerve. I have very long windows in my old Victorian and like the scalloped, fringed pull shade look. Unfortunately guest have broken every shade that I have put up within fairly short order despite little signs and personal demonstrations of how they work. They are pricey custom orders so I gave up. I now have somewhat ugly thick curtain that just open and close with simple tiebacks. Guests tied the curtains up in so many weird ways that I had to make a sign with pictures to solve that problem.
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