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I recently stayed in an Airbnb for four guests yet there was only one mug and two drinking glasses. We did missed not having enough glasses or mugs.
I am totally puzzled how a host can be so… I want to say stupid, but I’ll settle for obtuse. How is it possible to be in a business where your success lives or dies on public reviews, and not anticipate the natural consequences of short-changing guests in this fashion.
How about the places that list for 10 guests, yet only have dining and living room seating for 6? And one bathroom.
Don’t know if that was the case with the listing Ritz booked, but I always figure that sort of thing happens with remote-owner places who have terrible property managers. The property managers almost never actually go to those places, they just send maintenance people and cleaners who don’t see it as their job to tell anyone if there are only 2 glasses and one spoon left.
Yep. It could be pushed against the wall, since it’s only for one person, but the mosquito net tucks in there when not in use, so there’s about 4 inches between the bed and the wall. But plenty of room to walk on the other side of the bed. The wall to wall width of the space where the bed is, is only 165 cm.
Speaking of trying to cram too much into a small space, just saw this the other day on one of those “Worst Design Ideas Ever” articles. 
I sent that to my son-in-law in Canada who’s building tiny houses, suggesting, kidding of course, that he might want to add it to his file of small house design ideas. The response- OMG!
Ken it would be thoughtful to call the bed in the corner problem to the attention to the host as opposed to downgrading them in a review . It may not have occurred to them. I never rate AirbnBs poorly unless they have CLEARLY misrepresented or if they failed to fix a significant
fixable concern within a reasonable period once it was called to attention
Since pretty much everyone sleeps in a bed, I’m not sure how one person having to crawl over the other to get into bed, in a bed designed for two people that’s not accessable from both sides, would be a case of it never occurring to the host.
If the host always just goes straight to sleep when they go to bed, never reading in bed, and never having to get up in the night to go to the bathroom, I guess the need for a bedside table and lamp might not occur to them.
But things like the bed placement, whether there are bedside tables and lamps, whether there is shelf or counter space for the guest’s toiletries, etc. should be visible from photos, so if they are, I agree that it isn’t fair to book and then give low ratings and reviews. If the photos aren’t accurate, then of course it’s fair to mark down.
While it’s nice to think that reasonable private feedback (not stupid stuff like suggesting the host add another bathroom or a pool) would lead to the host making improvements, that’s not necessarily true. One host who uses Airbnb a lot said he used to try to be kind and just give private feedback for things like an old uncomfortable mattress, or lack of reading lamps, assuming the host would take it onboard, but after checking back on the listings, only to find that a year later, guests were still complaining about those same things in their reviews, he stopped refraining from mentioning those things in the public review.
While I agree that the mentioned things are to be expected in an Airbnb (IMO) I’m surprised why a guest wouldn’t inquire beforehand about items that are important to them (despite being listed).
Actually, we frequently get questions before check-in if certain items are as described or pictured. This helps us to make sure that the guest will indeed find what they expect, in working condition and plentiful.
You won’t believe the type of “bedrooms” they offer in our city
Actually, let’s call them “nooks” somewhere in the living room where the queen size mattress just fits. There is NO walking space to either side of the bed and guests have to actually “get in” at the foot end of the bed.
Additionally, these accommodations have stellar reviews with no guest mentioning that this would have been an issue for them.
So, if guests actually read the listing and look at the photos (which both should be accurate of course) and decide that it meets their needs, I don’t see anything wrong with it.
I imagine that there are a few reasons. One is that if they’ve stayed in great rentals before (like those run by members here 
) then they expect all ‘Airbnbs’ will be similar.
If their first Airbnb host provided everything they needed, plus a few extras that they didn’t expect, then they’d expect other hosts to be the same.
I’m a bit like that myself, I’m afraid.
If a guest wants to know whether a host supplies something that is absolutely essential (for health reasons for example) then they should definitely inquire before booking.
But if it’s something that’s not essential (although to me a corkscrew is) they might not want to trouble the host with questions. And there have been several hosts here who have complained about potential guests ‘pestering’ them.
In some cases, the guests have chosen the rental because of its location or another factor so they will tolerate inconveniences such as poor lighting.
But many guests expect us hosts to have thought of everything and luckily for me, 95% of the hosts I’ve stayed with have done.
Interesting as answering to inquiries (or “questions”) from guests are a significant part of our hosting. We rarely get guests who are fully aware of our surroundings, customs or other things they aren’t aware of. We encourage our guests to reach out to us if they run into any issues or have questions.
We don’t have a problem with guests doing their own online research which French bakery in town is really worth checking out but it would be an easy to answer question for us so we’re always happy to provide recommendations or answer other questions like public transport which is also a little different than in most places.
I consider it a chance to shine as a host and there are also ways to hint to the guests once they would be “pestering” us.
It definitely is, yet so many hosts think it’s some sort of intrusion. Sometimes hosts see it as an indication of a ‘picky’ guest.
In all my years of hosting, there’s still one guest who stands out as the one who asked the largest number of questions before his stay.
As his booking was far in advance - I don’t remember exactly but getting on for a year - there were so very many questions and although I am pretty patient with guests, I was getting just a little exasperated with this bloke.
Most questions were ones I’m used to so could answer quickly and easily but I was slightly flummoxed when he asked for the height of the bathtub.
Does this indicate a picky guest? Not even remotely. He and his wife were perfect guests. They were quiet, pleasant, undemanding, left the apartment in great shape and, importantly, became regulars.
I prefer to have mindful guests who just want to be sure that everything is according to their expectations (as advertised in our listing).
Being prepared is something I grew up with and I truly enjoy hosting guests who arrive at our place, fully aware of how things roll, asking questions to make their life and schedule easier to manage.
Recently, we had a couple of young women who stayed for three nights to visit three famous Christmas markets in the area. They flew in from Croatia and had every single train ticket they needed during their stay printed and ready to go. They nailed that trip to perfection.
Ive learnt a lot from my guests as they suggest improvements. - eg a grater, use of cupboard space etc One asked for notepaper!! Who writes notes these days?! I left some never the less. Ive learnt a lot from below standard Airbnbs- eg throw away cutlery , no hooks in the bathroom, polyester sheets . I think about what id like in a space too.
My rental, which I purpose built and thought I thought of everything has no shelf in the bathroom. I would have to rip out the vanity and medicine cabinet and recreate everything to fix it. It sucks to be considering a remodel for a 2019 build.
RR
Cant you just put a shelf in there somewhere? it seems a shame to have turn it into a renovation job.
I travel with a CPAP machine and always carry an extension cord and power board for machine and devices. We also love to read! Therefore we have a power board beside each sleeping area (6) , reading lamps beside each area and several lamps in the lounge room. Am in our 10th season and all seems well!
I second Lozette’s response. Surely there’s a bit of wall space where you could put up a shelf. But the point is not that a bathroom shelf is necessary, what’s necessary is that guests have space to put their bathroom stuff. Do they?
My bathroom doesn’t have a shelf, either, but the bathroom countertop is long enough for guests to put all their toiletries on.
