My knives aren’t that dull. I just don’t like razor sharp ones.
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Personally, I LOVE to cook and appreciate sharp knives. But they can be dangerous for folks not used to using them. They cut much quicker and a nick can be more serious. In my personal kitchen I keep them on the sharper side but when friends come over I give them a fair warning after one person told me they were too sharp (really? Sighhhh).
I always appreciate being told about problem issues (sometimes I wish they would tell me during the booking because we live on the property and often can fix small issues immediately) One guest left in private feedback that they didn’t like the free range chickens because they come on the porch, most guests love them but had I known I could have easily locked them in their pen during their stay.
I like to address issues right away or as soon as possible, But most of the time I would never notice without living in the house. I replaced a sofa because someone said it was uncomfortable to sit on, I did double check and they were correct. It did however take a while to find a replacement.
I also appreciate suggestions, useful ones I may implement, not useful or ones I simply don’t like I just shrug off. Everyone is entitled to their opinions.
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I recently was checking over the kitchen at my rental and realized that my knife selection was severely lacking, I had really thought I had more available, but I was surprised no one had pointed out that I only had one medium sized knife and one pairing knife. I immediately went out and bought a new set! Wish someone would have pointed it out earlier, it’s so easy to overlook things over time. But now I wonder if there is a knife sharpener in the house 
. And yes I will be checking today!
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I agree with this completely - we are lucky to have a small crew of “regulars” who are often in the area for work, and they’re always so helpful in pointing out little things that aren’t detected during cleaning. For example, if one of the burners on the stove burns low or an outlet isn’t working.
These pointers are very different from a guest saying “I wish there was XYZ” or “I prefer XYZ”
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We are always happy to get input from our guests, regardless if they are hosts or former hosts. A “new set of eyes” can always notice things that we can easily miss. Also, there are things we would never need or even imagine needing during a stay in someone’s home that our guests bring to light, and again, we appreciate it. We get a lot of “they have thought of everything” in our reviews and i smile because i know that is simply not true. The truth is, because our guests have brought “everything” to our attention, we have been able to address very specific needs and cover all the bases. We are almost 6 years and 760+ reviews into hosting and are still learning ways to improve from our guests. I hope that never changes.
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One of our “Important Stuff” items (list on the refrigerator door) is “Tell us about issues during your stay. After is too late!”
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We provide a full set of knives and a sharpener. I’ve had guests tell me the knives are dull, at the end of peak season. I go to my places twice a year and leave the knives sharp, but guests in between, who knows what they do!?
I do use my super host credit to stay as I drive to my place and I have learned some things over the years- One place, after 15 hours in the car, I could not figure out the TV, I maybe gave it 5 minutes at 10PM, I am sure I could have figured it out, but was weary. I then improved the instructions at my places by adding some labels on the remote, about the basics.
I do notice that guests rarely report an issue unless it’s really bothersome, therefore, we stay in each of our places for at least a few days. Last year we found intermittent hot water in a sink, after days of troubleshooting, we ended up replacing the entire faucet. It would be easy to not discover that as a cleaner.
I also notice cleaners do not notice burned out bulbs in non overhead lights as they clean in the day time and don’t use them, one autumn, I returned to find all the island pendant bulbs burned out. We replaced every bulb in the place with LED and are replacing all the batteries with 10 year lithium if the experiment with them in the door locks looks good.
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you have such a positive attitude. I want to stay positive like you. I became a bit jaded and started looking at all guests with suspicion because of the few bad ones.
These were seriously dull knives and no sharpener anywhere. Had they had a sharpener, I would have happily sharpened all of the knives and not said a thing. I had to use the steak knives to saw through the tomatoes. The dullest knives I have ever used. I could expand but you get the picture. Lol
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