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The OP asked for an opinion and I responded. I don’t feel the need to provide Rochester or Northeast bona fides.
I agree with everyone here, however, that it would be nice if folks traveled to have an authentic local experience. When my Florida and Texas guests come to the Catskills and turn on the AC when it is 72, breezy with no humidity, it drives me bonkers. But I would much rather be warm than cold.
You are right of course.
Last night a family from Ireland checked in. They needed to leave this morning at 6AM to catch a bus to New York City where they will spend tonight. To be nice, I reset the thermostat to turn the heat on an hour earlier. Very nice for them. Not so much for me. I woke up at 5:30 because I was so hot! And we have never, ever turned on the radiator in our bedroom. The point is, humans are comfortable at different temperatures and when you are talking about shared spaces, it isn’t always possible to make everyone happy.
Thanks for all the feedback. Where we live, we don’t actually get many vacationers. Guests are usually business traveleres or here for a funeral, weddings, or their kid’s hockey game. We’ve gotten a few vacationers from Europe who loved our place, but from what I’m seeing it is true that Europeans tend to be less fussy about first world problems than Americans. Although the vast majority of our guests appreciate the 1940s charm and character of our home, despite its lack of 21st century creature comforts like heated mattresses (creams fire hazard to me).
We’re not a hotel and I don’t pretend to be one. There’s a perfectly good DoubleTree Hotel down the street - I’ve refered people there already a couple times. On the other hand, we offer a unique accommodation where we live, and quite frankly one of the nicest, with many returning guests. Honestly, I don’t think there’s much comparison to other other Airbnb accommodations nearby. Other Airbnb hosts don’t seem to take this very seriously, charging $200 a night for a bedroom (trust me there’s nothing worth $200 a night around here - maybe Great Wolf Lodge). ANother listing charges $150 but it’s an actual B&B and has private baths. ANother host lists his bedroom and he sleeps on the couch. Others have pets. Frankly, we’re in aposition to call the shots, really. We actually turn guests away we’re so busy.
I think what we need to consider is do we provide long-term accommodations, i.e., 7 or more nights? These particular guests are staying 20 nights and are already increasing our cost by asking us to change our Internat plan (which is probably overdue anyway).
As far as major renovations as some of you have suggested, we’re not in a financial situation to invest $20-30k in an HVAC system. It would also require significant reno work, city permitting, and pausing our listing until renos are done. Until then, guests will need to appreciate all the New England charm and conditions our colonial-cape has to offer. After all, they made the booking.
My OP was an appeal for what other hosts in similar situations do, not asking for critique of what we’re not doing. Of course I know all that, and if I had a magic wond I’d change it, but magic isn’t real, but limited resources and the physical limitations of a home are real, so I’ve got that to work with.
My property is much older, I have individual thermostats that they can set in the Bedrooms and head the shared areas mainly with wood.
I think that if you list what temp you keep your place at, then if someone books, that’s what they should expect. Personally, if I saw that temp, I would not book. Anything less than 72 degrees F is cold to me. But I live in Hawaii.
I keep my house at 65 in the winter when I have guests (60 otherwise) and 75 in the summer (78 when I have no guests). I include the temp in my listing and do provide space heaters and blankets. My house is large with high ceilings and is a lot to heat in the winter.
We have a mainly 250 year old house, with gas central heating. This has a central, wireless thermostat and all the radiators have an individual thermostatic control on them. Do you have these in the US? They work on any radiator, gas or oil. When it’s cold and I have no guests, I close off radiators in guest rooms and keep the central thermostat in the kitchen, the warmest room in the house. If, as today, I have a sudden booking, I move the central thermostat to the guest dining room which is freezing, turn down the radiators in our parts of the house so we don’t boil, and ratchet up individual thermostats until the guest room is warm. Guests can then choose how warm to keep their own room.
It seems to work. Together with changing all light bulbs to LEDs, our energy costs are much reduced compared to the same period last year. I never cease to be amazed by people though. Two rooms have south-east facing windows and can overheat in summer (no a/c here…) so I use blinds and leave windows open. I’ve often gone in when people have left to find they’ve slept in an intense fug, with the windows shut all night, blind up, in blazing sunlight from 4 am!
Hi,
We are relative newbies and use our barn as a entire home for airbnb. Prior to starting we considered how to heat it. After taking advice we concluded:
Number one priority was to insulate, insulate, insulate. Our barn is made from recycled wood and was very leaky. The degree you insulate is directly proportional to the amount of heat lost, once you’ve decided on the best way to heat and at what temperature. External doors are prime candidates for draft excluders. We also use curtains which can be drawn across external doors as added insulation and they make a big difference and add a homely aspect to the internal decor. We do not have central heating and rely on a woodburner as they main source of heat, augmented by electric heaters (including and infra-red wall heater in the kitchen, which works really well). We also make the heating aspect very clear when answering enquiries (we don’t instant book). We also make it clear we’re not a five star hotel but we aspire to offer a five star experience. Hope this helps.
I hear you! I’ve come to the conclusion that people don’t want to live like they normally do at home. They are on vacation. They want to be pampered. They don’t want to worry about heating or electric bills. Of course that means that you do have to worry about it. I say build it into your price and be sure to write off the added utility costs on your taxes.
If they are on vacation. That’s the beauty of airbnb. You have everything from $10 couchsurfing or put a tent in the backyard to luxury vacation villas. Some are traveling for work or moving after they finish school or traveling for some other non-discretionary reason.
The key is disclosure. If you tell someone in the listing that it’s going to be 65F in the house and they book it anyway, they are at fault, not the host. It’s a shame that hosts are held hostage in their own homes for fear of a bad review.
what about the humidity in your house? We live in a damp climate and this is the reason why many of our guests might feel cold. We keep our place dry, our guest feel better and to warm up dry air cost less than warm up wet air
I had a guest check into my suite in Kona Hawaii and complain there was no space heater. Granted, we can sometimes get chilly in the winter, but at my elevation we would never need a space heater! 
Oh, and our houses here don’t have furnaces or central heating.
I think Tucker’s steam heater sounds charming, old school and kinda cool!
It was heartening to find some American houses that are drafty and creaky like our 1915 house. We never bothered too much with heating issues (lowest temp here is maybe 8 C). Eventually we got a “we were cold” review from some Europeans and realised they were right, the heating in their area was less than sublime although guests can turn it up if they listen to instructions! We added better instructions for the heating (3 systems: un-flued gas - quick & dirty, flued gas log fire, and timed electric; all costly) to the house manual upgraded the electric blankets and improved the bedding (double Duvet inners) which was all we could practically do. I am not sure when less guests at a higher price is better than a full house at lower margin during winter but I think I might go for less or even none at higher prices. Its hard to dry bedding in winter anyway, always needs a dryer so more costs! Fixing the heat losses would be thousands.
I pretty much gave up on hosting in winter. Maybe if it was a longer stay, but turning on the heating every now and then for a stay of a night or two simply makes no sense. Especially since the space is not being heated between the stays and you basically have to turn on the heating a day earlier. I’m also living in quite a mild climate, but still, heating is necessary. I even had guests asking me to turn on the heating in mid-May because the evenings are chilly and they obviously didn’t bring adequate clothes for that time of the year. Even in Mediterranean, May is not a month in which you walk around just in your shorts and bikini top the whole time.
Our place is next to Chicago and it’s a 90-year old brick two-flat with radiators. Most people just don’t understand that steam doesn’t work the same way as forced air–the radiators heat up slowly, warm everything in the house like an oven would, and give off heat for days. I have a rule that the heat is set at 68 because the thermostat heats the entire house (our personal home upstairs included) but to please tell me if it’s uncomfortable and we will have a solution. Nevertheless, there are always some people who just turn it up anyway as though we won’t notice. The worst example was my guests who set it to 82F (as high as it will go) at the beginning of February, when it was -2F. Ugh. I thought I was starting menopause the first night until I checked the thermometer.
There are thermostat locks… which sound like it’s the only option.