Why I don't provide breakfast anymore

:frowning:

I can understand but I am still sad.

Yes, yes, and yes, and I may add, responsiveness and willingness to actually book a guest. Oh, and a regulatory atmosphere that doesnā€™t make a guest wonder if their airbnb will be shut down before they arrive.

No need to leave the forum. Itā€™s likely you received an automatic notification from Tom (only because he is the forum owner). I donā€™t know that for sure. But a bunch of people did not flag your post. It is likely you received the notification due to an action I took. I will send you a PM and explain :slight_smile:

Okay, B&B has traditionally stood for Bed and Breakfast. This is a unique business in which a house is converted to having uniquely decorated, usually ensuite guest rooms with names. The person, couple or family who run the B&B have separate quarters within the house that are not accessible by the guests. The kitchen is used by the owners to make a fancy breakfast for the guests, who are served at a particular time. Often coffee is available all day, and perhaps cookies or another snack laid out in the afternoon.

Airbnb is a business model that was started by some roommates who rented out floor space to guests using an airbed. To attach ā€œbnbā€ at the end of the name of the business was just for fun, as it shows the vague meaning of a place to stay in someoneā€™s home.

If what you wanted to do was join a business that had definite, strict ideas of exactly what each host should provide, this wasnā€™t it.

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Same here! For some reason, the majority of our guests are super health conscious. (Maybe because we have in our listing that we are vegetarians). Guests always comment on how much they love the fresh fruit bowls or parfaits I do up. Sometimes however the Irish breads can get wasted, as most find them too heavy.

I complained that shmucks who give Airbnb a bad name are why I only have 70%.

I "bragged"about my high satisfaction rate from. Guests, if you want to call it bragging, so be it.

I explained my status. High ratings. Tons of rebooks, but nowhere near the occupancy levels I want. As for increasing my customer service model, I donā€™t believe thatā€™s it.

I am positive there are two causes.

  1. many AirBnB hosts give us a public bad name. I can not tell you the dozens of examples Iā€™ve heard.

  2. I am probably out of many peopleā€™s price range who really just want a $25 a night room, not a $300 a night ā€œresort like homeā€. Iā€™ve considered a price adjustment. But 24 days at $300 or 30 days at $200 doesnā€™t make me more money, and also risks more ā€œlow budgetā€ elements. Need to find a happy medium. Can I be full time at $250? I donā€™t know.

Itā€™s ridiculous to blame your problems on others, but take sole credit for your successes. I am tired of Airbnb hosts on this forum who blame other hosts for the public perception of Airbnb. Do people avoid the Four Seasons because Motel 6 doesnā€™t serve breakfast? Do people avoid Le Cirque because the food at McDonaldā€™s tastes nasty? If Airbnb guests are intelligent they will realize that listings vary. They can figure out what a listing will be like by reading the listing including the reviews.

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I donā€™t know, @EllenN - Iā€™ve stayed in airbnbs that had great reviews and were nasty. My sister-in-law recently said ā€œIā€™ve had some horrible experiences with airbnb, so I didnā€™t review themā€. I almost screamed ā€œWHAT?! YOU HAVE TO REVIEW THE BAD ONES, TOOā€. Iā€™m sure there are many people who try airbnb a few times and then just slink away, never taking time to review the bad listings. I know that, after my experience with trying to book rooms in Oslo I would have walked away from airbnb and never come back.

While I may not expect the same quality of linens and amenities at a Motel 6 that I would at a much nicer place, I would expect the Motel 6 to be

  1. Clean, without hair and mildew in the shower, and gobs of cobwebs everywhere.
  2. Respond when I contact them and actually book me if they have advertised that rooms are available.
  3. Have at least a minimum of tourist/area info in the room
  4. At least have decent, clean sheets on the bed
  5. Allow me more than one towel per person. If I need more, I can get more from the front desk
  6. Have a working A/C if A/C is advertised. To NOT be 86f in the room.
  7. To not reek of mildew
  8. To not have horses that have mental issues that chase my kids around and try to eat my dinner.

You donā€™t often hear someone saying ā€œIā€™ve had some horrible experiences with Motel 6/Holiday Inn/HIltonā€ but we all know someone who has had a horrible experience with an airbnb.

Iā€™ve stayed in relatively few airbnbs compared to others, but Iā€™ve experienced all the above. And I did read all of the listing several times over and the reviews.

_Iā€™m not saying that @Dru_Neiā€™s problem with occupancy (I was at 90% for this past October) is because of other hostā€™s providing poor quality experiences, we canā€™t deny that it is an issue. A friend just recently tried to book his trip through Ireland and had the same experience I had trying to book places in Norway - at least 50% of the listings contacted said the room wasnā€™t available though it was not blocked on their calendar, and in many cases, the listing continued to be open for those dates.

Even just shopping through listings is exhausting as we have to sift through dozens of unnecessary photos, poorly written, confusing verbiage, various details about check-in, even ā€˜bring your own sheetsā€™, etc. In my case I have to spell out that I have to collect their taxes in cash - what a pain.

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Iā€™m a bit confused by this discussion. Arenā€™t most of us suffering from a high level of competition these days as everyone and their dog is doing Air? So how do poor hosts affect your business? Surely if you have great reviews and provide a great place then your occupancy rate should increase because youā€™re better than the competition? @Dru_Nei, I would hazard a guess that youā€™re over-priced compared to new hosts who are getting started with low prices rather than ā€˜public perceptionā€™. Itā€™s a business and you have to constantly adjust to remain ahead.

I donā€™t think itā€™s reasonable to expect a very high occupancy rate, ie above 70% unless your location is in high demand.

Occupancy rates blog

Do you rent by the room, or do you rent the whole house? Did you ever say what you include in your breakfast?

For us if we want to offer breakfast we need to make a cleaning inspection by the city and itā€™s expensive plus we have to pay extra taxes. We have a large shop oppen all day 500 meters from our place.

I believe that most hotels in the world would be VERY happy to have a yearly average occupancy of 70%. But OKā€¦
If you think that your not-100%-occupancy-rate is the fault of other hosts on AirBnB, why donā€™t you use other methods to sell your product?
Use other platforms: Wimdu, MisterBnB, Booking, etc. ā€¦
Make your own website and donā€™t pay any platform costs anymore.

Iā€™ve just had a guy who was not shy about taking fruit. I appreciated it since I always have fruit on hand. Many times, I make a fruit salad for breakfast, depending on what else Iā€™m making it, and everybody always eats that.

I donā€™t understand why there are pages of posts that have nothing to do with the topic of providing breakfast. Why donā€™t you start new topics for other complaints or suggestions. I donā€™t want to wade through it all looking for the on-topi posts, which might be helpful.

I think youā€™re going to have to get used to threads wandering off-topic on here and go with the flow. In my opinion, itā€™s one of the things that makes this such a fantastic forum - no rigid draconian rules, just fair and careful moderation.

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Apologies. I think Iā€™m one of the worst people here for doing that. :slight_smile:

No need to apologise to me, I love the meandering. Itā€™s ChrisC that has the problem. Chris, I donā€™t use the search function on here much but Iā€™m sure youā€™ll find other threads about providing breakfast if you try it.

edit: hereā€™s a big one (thread, that is). Be warned, though, it probably wanders off into discussions about curtains or salad or the latest movie or something.

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It may well be that some forum members are annoyed more about questions that already have extensive topics than those who are irritated by people going off-topic. :slight_smile:

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Yes, thatā€™s another thing! Itā€™s inevitable though. Every forum has the same issue no matter what the core interest, the same issues keep coming up. Yet someone always comes up with some new take on it, whether itā€™s useful or so ridiculous that regulars can have a grand old time shredding it to pieces :wink:

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