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With the onset of Covid we eliminated a few of our amenities, we now dispose of EVERYTHING left in the fridge, and have taken out everything except salt and pepper in our kitchen. When we did offer spices we stuck to garlic powder, oregano, seasoning salt, vinegar and olive oil. I may re add those items now, as guests have started to leave them and we have stopped throwing them away now.
I feel that as I have started to use the new tricks in our properties the most popular by far is the letter board that welcomes guests by first name, it is mentioned literally every stay if not publicly certainly in private notes. For some reason it is special to our guests.
I do have small snack sized baggies with 2 q-tips and 4 cotton balls in the bathrooms for each stay, as well as a few tampons and a couple pads just in case it hits at night, as nothing is open 24 hours anymore.
Itâs so hard to know these days what guest will feel about things left in the kitchen, I had a private note from one guest that was shocked that we had sugar cubes in the coffee area and suggested we take them out because it is a risk with Covid, and I had others that suggested that we stock basic condiments in the fridge, like ketsup and mustard etc.
We are playing it safe right now and slowly adding some things back in.
I would never tell guests you have all that stuff. You are setting yourself up for someone to use that as an excuse to be disappointed or ask for money back.
âIâm so disappointed you didnât have Honey Ginseng green tea. I deserve a refund of $50 a nightâ.
I do agree! We donât tell them we have anything out of the normal! We mention a well stocked kitchen with what you need to prepare and serve meals.
TP, Shampoo,conditioner, body soap, trash bags, hand soap, dish and dishwasher soap, and about a half a roll of paper towels. Most condos in our area provide one roll of TP we always supply 3 rolls, we also typically provide 1 trash bag per day of stay, and enough dish soap and dishwasher soap for their stay.
I also charge $10-$20 more than some of the other properties in the area, but we have newer furniture, higher end appliances and we repaint and touch up continuously. We get a lot of repeat stays because they see value in what they we not promised but found in the home. One of our recent guests noted that they have stayed 3 times and every time they see something new, or we step up our game to welcome them in a new way! That just feels good. This guest was in town for a tournament with their daughters softball team, I added good luck at the games!! They loved it!
While I agree that food left can be a turnoff for guests, that guestâs private message shows an ignorance of how Covid is spread. You canât contract it through food- it is transferred through the respiratory system, not the alimentary tract- you have to breathe in the virus particles.
The outsides of containers could be a source of transmission if they arenât washed down with soap or sterilized, but that is an extremely slim chance- youâd have to touch something that had virus particles on it, there would have to be enough of a viral load to make you sick, and then youâd have to put that hand up to your nose or mouth and breathe it in. Almost 100% unlikely.
I agree that Penzeyâs is excellent, most likely better than what I am providing. The advantage to the brand I selected is that I can go to the grocery store and replenish it instantly whereas I get Penzeyâs online.
Robin I donât put this list in my listing. It is a paper document on the kitchen counter they see after theyâve checked in. If I see something that is empty or near so I can replenish instantly or edit the one page document thatâs on the counter. â The idea is that when they are grocery shopping they can take this piece of paper to know what is at the house so they donât need to duplicate purchase anything we already have.
@muddy The paper document explains why this is provided, so they have a reference when they go grocery shopping. Iâm hoping that they see if for what it is, a thoughtful and considerate action to make their life easier when grocery shopping. So far our guests have been appreciative of our intentions to make their stays comfortable, enjoyable, easy. Weâll see and keen our sense for anyone who feels âturned offâ by this as you say you would be. Would it be better to you if it did not include the brand names? [I donât think âFrontier Co-opâ is some premier pretentious name. Or is it? Actually, @PitonView I think Penzeyâs is better in name and in fact, but not convenient for me to replenish instantly. But even Penzeyâs is not, in my view, high brow, just really fresh and good.]
Robin, Iâm with you. We dispose of everything in the refrigerator, which is why we donât stock mustard and ketchup, though I have read that if you get the squirt bottles of ketchup that that should be OK. What do you think? Iâm on the fence. I like your letter board idea! Do you possibly remember where you bought it? Is it like a chalk board or literally a letter board that you just insert the letters? I thought of the tampons but donât know which ones to get.
Itâs pretentious and pointless to include brand names, period. Who cares? If the purpose is to let them know what they wouldnât have to buy, that there is already maple syrup provided is all they need to know. Do you really think theyâre going to go, âOh, thatâs not the brand I prefer, Iâll spend another $15 on an entire bottle of âmy brandâ of maple syrupâ ?
Got it at Hobby Lobby! 50% off when wall art is on sale, which is usually every other week. It is the boards with slats on it that you can stick plastic letters in, we leave the word Welcome and the Wi-Fi password/is on it and just change names.
I still would not put this all down on a piece of paper. If anything, leave a little note that says âthere is a choice of tea, coffee, spices and seasonings in the pantry. We hope you find something you like there!â.
This the scenario that just saying you have âstuffâ avoids: Guest A loves your ginseng tea so much they take it all with them. You (or your housekeeper) do(es) not notice itâs gone, and Guest B, arriving after Guest A has left, reads the list and really wants the ginseng tea. They search for hours and canât find it. Finally, they give up at 1 AM and text you to ask where you hid it. When you say âI donât know, we must be out of itâ, Guest B gets grouchy.
I just switched to these little stands for signs - they are very attractive and the bottom is a good weight: 5 by 7 clear acrylic stands for signs
The Costco medium roast is better than any of $tarbuck$ overpriced overroasted pods. My guests usually appreciated the Keurig, and since my rooms were low-mid budget, having decent hot coffee in a few minutes was a real plus.
Now that Iâm shutting down, Iâm using the best Keurig instead of the backup (both cost $15 at garage sales) but I use a reusable pod with locally roasted coffee.
I tried offering the reusable pod to guests, but after they inserted them incorrectly (in a Keurig?) and ruined 2 of them, I reserved them for myself.
I know some folks donât like Keurigs, but for a shared AirBnB kitchen they are perfect. Very little mess or fuss. I also had an electric kettle, pour through filter holder, thermal carafe, and filters for those wanting to make a pot of coffee, as well as a giant jar with a variety of tea bags.
French and Flemish women preferred jasmine green tea.
Folks from the upper midwest drink Earl Grey tea.
Californians drink non-dairy chai or plain green tea.
Pacific NW guests wanted quick hot coffee.
Southerners want sweet iced tea.
Italians wanted to use my Krups espresso maker, but I sent them to our artisan ice cream shop with a great barista just a 5 minute walk away.
The only time I offered anything fancy was to pick roses off the rose bush in the front yard to welcome a couple that I knew were honeymooners. Because of allergies, I avoid bringing many flowers indoors, but somehow I knew that their room door wouldnât be open very much.
Oh the irony of saying sugar cubes are a covid risk when traveling.
And all of this is in the context of pod coffee being the worst, least fresh, coffee period. Anyway I was only commenting on how impressed people are with name brands. No surprise to anyone here Iâm sure. I stock the room differently depending on how much the guest paid. If demand is high and I raise prices they get more and better amenities.
Itâs good to know that someone is looking after them. As Iâm sure youâre aware, I look after the quotation marks, @JohnF tends to the paragraphs and @KKC manages the run-on sentences.
Here is what I do for spices:
I bought a bunch of spice jars from Amazon and labeled and filled them. Put in a dessicant packet (weâre in the tropics). Then seal them with a band of Parafilm stretchy paraffin). That way I can tell if someone opened them and used them or not. Then I put them on a copco 3-tier Organizer so they were easy to manage.
My tea bags go in a bamboo tea box. I put in packets of Splenda, stevia, TruLemon and TruLime, too, in the tea box.
@PitonView
Thanks for the tip on the acrylic stands- I have looked for just such a thing since I started hosting! Seems like a small thing, but I have been hand making something similar with cardboard and tape - sounds tackier than it looks - but, stillđ
Those acrylic stands are sold at stationery stores like Office Depot, Staples, etc. I have one on the guest bathroom counter with septic/ what not to flush/ please donât waste water instructions.
@JJD I want to be in charge of the incorrect apostrophes before an s in a pluralized word, and using the past tense where the past participle belongs.
