@Maggieroni You would be surprised at what people have offered to pay us for… 1 guy wanted to pay us to come shovel goat manure and trim goat hooves so we could teach him how. We get requests all the time from people looking to pay us to teach them beekeeping. I would love to incorporate some of our experience into an “Airbnb Experience”.
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@LegendsCreek
Kind of, it’s only in San Francisco and New York at this time but yes, it matches up farmers and food artisans with local consumers. Here’s the link:
https://www.farmigo.com/market/fruitionnutrition-cityisland
Really cool! I hope it comes to RI. We don’t do farmers markets because its SO time consuming having to go, set up tables, etc, and them sometimes you only make $20. Not worth it. If we could do something like Farmigo offers and set it up so people come here within a time frame on a certain day to buy the select goods we sell, WOW.
I think farms in your area participate, only distribution is in NY area. Take a look.
Don’t use comforters, use quilts they are much easier to wash at least have two sets. We do LOTS of back to back day trips to the Keys so it can be hard work but your place will remain a lot cleaner and you will notice little things that will make your place better in the long run.
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Good idea! I prefer quilts over comfortors. Does anyone know where I can buy “country” looking quilts and coverlets? I would even buy them used if they are in good shape
Sorry, but I disagree. I move all the furniture to the middle of the floor and vacuum and dust every square inch after every stay, even one night stays. I almost always find something on the floor (packaging, food waste). One time we had tight turn around and I’d dusted the day before so I thought I could skip it. My husband went in to look around and found that the guest had trimmed his nails and left the nail trimmings on the window sill. Also, our house is small and it still takes me three hours between guests.
I just let the guests know that I must have access to the guest room by noon which is our check out time. Also, if they wake up earlier than noon (yes, some folks sleep until noon; it must be the Tuft & Needle mattresses), I grab the blankets as soon as they are up so I can start the wash. I also hate duvet covers. Stuffing the comforters in to them is such a pain. We bought inexpensive comforters from Big Lots and we wash them between each guest. We have had a couple of guests who weren’t out in time. It was stressful, but we rushed and it worked out okay.
I email 2-3 days ahead of time and say:
“Hope you are excited about your upcoming trip blah blah. Guests will be checking out at 11 a.m. on Friday, and the cabin will be ready for you at 4. I will need to know your ETA so that XXXXX can greet you on time for a quick tour of the electronics, etc. Anytime after 4 p.m. is okay. But I need to let him know so that he can arrange his work schedule.”
Also, before accepting a booking I ask guest is they have read the entire listing description, house rules, and check in/check out times. So I really don’t have an issue with guests hanging out past that time. Just the occassional person running 5-10 minutes late.
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Thank you very much. I will make sure to ask that people have read the rules. I should have been doing that anyway… I guess people don’t read the rules. My rules say “no children allowed”, and I received a request asking me to waive the extra $25 a night fee for each person past two people, for a 2 year old and newborn.
I was pretty annoyed. haha
I’m sure every host has a different style and speed for cleaning. Since Legends has an entire guest house on a working farm to clean I’m sure he can’t do it in an hour. In your listing you are sharing the bathroom so I’m sure that takes more cleaning than my separate bathroom with no more than two guests. Someone had posted, was it @jaquo, about doing a “deep clean” after each guest. What a deep clean means is different for everyone. It takes me less than an hour to prepare my guest room. It could be a lot of things, small room, new room, the kind of furnishings I have, etc.
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I board dogs in my listing and I don’t just say “no children” in the rules. I also say in the description that children aren’t allowed for safety reasons because of the animals. Most people are concerned about their child’s safety. I’ve had no requests to include children. That could also be because my space is small. Given the size of the space and the draw of the working farm you are probably going to get lots of requests with children so you might have to beef up the “no children” aspect of it if you don’ t want to be bothered with fielding requests.
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Legends, I have not looked at your listing but I would just offer you some unsolicited advice about your check in time. You ought to move it to 4pm if you have an entire guest house to clean. I have got a smaller space than you to clean and it takes me four to five hours every time. I love having that extra cushion and not being stressed about check in.
Also, you didn’t ask but you must be firm about check outs too. They really can’t linger around even for an extra 20 minutes on back to back days.
I wouldn’t mention to the incoming guests that you have outgoing, but I would remind the outgoing that you have to be firm about the check out time due to guests arriving the same day. People get it!
As others have mentioned, extra sets of everything–sheets and towels-- can make this process a lot less stressful.
Lastly, if you are booked this solidly, your price might be too low!
I also love goats!
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Thank you thank you!!
Great advice everyone. I don’t just say “no children”. I have a whole paragraph about farms, goats, electric fences, honeybees, etc, and I explain that our insurer says we need to “child proof” everything, so we just opt-out of allowing kids. Mostly its because kids don’t behave and we don’t want our goats let out, fences climbed, or kids running around screaming at our farm all day. I run a business here and I can’t deal with the stress of having to babysit someone else’s kids.
I know not all kids are like that, but 95% of all people who have visited our farm with kids have flat our disobeyed our rules, so we just don’t allow it.
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I don’t know if you have a Tuesday morning around you but you can order online, I have found great quality bedding there and purchased my coverlet (bamboo collection ) there.
Tell us more. Is this some kind of UV lamp that will detect bacterial infections? Can you provide a link and/or suggest what kind of item to search for?
I have a blacklight flashlight, but I have only ever used it to check for antifreeze leaks on my farm machinery. How dark would it have to be in a house to see anything?
So much good info in one comment. 
I’ve heard about people using black lights for such things as semen stains and other bodily secretions. But I don’t know if this is actually possible - they weren’t reputable sources.
Yes, I have a flashlight I got on Amazon. I originally bought it because of board dogs in my home and having carpet. Now I check the guest room with it. [quote=“LegendsCreek, post:37, topic:5430”]
How dark would it have to be in a house to see anything?
[/quote]
it’s doesn’t have to be pitch black.