Pouring milk into a bottle isn’t hard work if you are already carrying their breakfast to their sitting room daily. The work is well worth the fact that they are having breakfast in their own rooms, and not in mine. And guests do love it.
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@anon67190644 it’s not just the pouring milk that sounds like too much work. It’s the providing breakfast as a whole that sounds like too much work to me.
What do you do as far a breakfast goes when you have, for example, an entire week booking and want to go somewhere for a couple days during the middle of their stay? Do you just not ever travel whenever you have a booking?
We do not have anyone staying in our home if we are not here. I would not be comfortable with this at all. Well, actually we had some guests from Australia who were really great and did slip off to the Cape for two days while they were here. So they were in our house for one night without us. I had a trusted family member come by to make sure that the door had been locked. No silver was stolen and they did not touch all of our string instruments, which we did lock up.
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Interesting. That would never work for us. We are booked about 90% of the time. We’d never be able to leave our house 
We often go to my parents house for the weekend while we have guests. However, we do have a smart lock that auto-locks itself after 2 minutes so we don’t need to worry about them leaving the door unlocked. We also have a Canary security camera in our living room (common area since it is a private room listing) and a video doorbell to keep an eye on our place while we’re away.
I use the Mini-Moos. I wish there was an equivalent in almond or soy milk. Anyone know of any?
I am booked more than 90%. We don’t generally want or need to go away for the weekend, and certainly not to my mother’s house. if we want or need a break, we block the dates.
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Thank you for your time in giving detail suggestions ! People should just take or leave some ideas. I’m always looking for ideas to optimise my listing. I have almost all you suggest for guest and they rarelly take something… Bottles of water and some snacks are sometime taken but thats about it… Makeup wipes are always use and saves my towels !
We also provide:
Sewing kit
Wrapping: ziplocs, saran wrap, foil… ( we rent the entire home and families like to pack a lunch to go)
A luggage rack in each room ( saves the bed spread)
A dollar store surprise/kid ( we ask their age before c/in and leave it beside the welcome note… This is the most well spend 2$… parents with 2 kids are staying for the week. Kids are super happy of a small surprise and parents are happy that their kids are happy ! When we ask for kids age we dont tell its for a surprise we email them in purpose of giving them places to visits thats suits their kid) so the little surprise is a wow factor when they c/in. We always have a thank you. )
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I literally LOL’d at this. Not sure if I should have.
This.
I just had a guest that pushed all of the wrong buttons for me - kept referring to me as “brother” and “sir” in his messages. asked to check in 3 hours early (I said no). He continued to hound me about it. They ended up showing up about 15 minutes early. It was only a one night stay, but they used EVERYTHING - all the snacks were gone, the milk in the fridge gone, a beer gone, every single dish in the place was dirty (but in the dishwasher, thankfully). And the oddest part was they only stayed about 6 hours - from 2:45pm to 8:25pm. I was so annoyed that the flat had been so “used”. I know its unreasonable - they didn’t break any rules, nothing is damaged or missing, and other than the incessant pestering about checking in early they were a typical overnight stay. And I know logically it all evens out. Many of my guests don’t use anything. Yet I’m annoyed.
I’m still trying to talk myself down from writing a bad review.
This is a great post!
Us too! No weekly discount. Never have. I’m afraid of getting stuck with someone we can’t stand.
Us, too! We have a few very busy weekends a year that we’ve considered renting out our whole home. We could make a killing. But I’m too afraid. People behave very differently when you’re always there then if they have the place to themselves.
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The guest that asked for early check in recently could have easily avoided annoying me so much. And when I wrote an unemotional review that simply stated the facts he tried to contact me about that. Some here advised giving him a bad review but I didn’t, just a conditional review. That is, I stated that my recommendation was conditional based on him disclosing and paying for additional guests in advance.
In my case I love an early departure and that buys a lot of goodwill from me. If I had your guest all would be forgiven except for the three hours early and hounding you about it. A guest like that should say, I just need the room for half a day but I’m checking out before 9pm. That changes the equation for me.
I’d say just state the facts of requesting early check in and the hours they were there. Leave your emotions about their social skills and eating habits out. 
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My logical brain agrees with you. My emotional brain is still annoyed. And had I known earlier that they weren’t going to spend the night (I didn’t realize that until around checkout time, when I was watching for their departure so I could go in and clean. When I didn’t see them leave, I went back and checked the cameras, and sure enough they left the night before) I may have been less annoyed… Maybe…
Oh, yeah. Definite annoyance right there. I’m so glad most my guests are driving so I can see if the car is here. Maybe you need to put in your house guide/rules/message to guest: please message me when you are checking out.
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Excellent post! I took some notes of things I hadn’t thought of, particularly the makeup wipes and the fabric sheets-both things we don’t use!
We have gone with all white on linens and towels. Do you use bleach? We don’t use bleach in our home, but think it might be good to keep the whites white? But, I believe some people have irritations from it?
Oxyclean is a better product and does not wear out the fibers of fabric. The best tip I learned on this site.
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We mainly started providing these for us more than the guests in an attempt to get guests to stop smearing their makeup all over every single towel they touch! Sadly, we still get the occasional guest that doesn’t think about anyone but themselves and uses the towel. 
No, the towels and linens that we have say not to use bleach. Oxyclean is a godsend though, specifically the spray on “laundry” one. It’s like a thick gel like consistency. Get’s blood out like it was nothing.
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Great, I will pick up some. Thank you.
The makeup on towels is another thing I hadn’t thought of. No women in this house.
Excellent advice! So grateful for you spending time and wrote down your experience. I cannot understand how these valuable advice would trigger some negative comments.
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Thank. You. Share my confusion 