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Did you charge extra for this? This is probably easier if you can use a dish-washer, mine’s now become a storage cupboard lol.
I might think of the paper plates though it’s a recurring cost - maybe I’ll just keep some and offer it only if I sense guest not keen on washing up.
No, we don’t charge extra. It’s to our benefit because they don’t leave food scraps around that attract bugs.
Oh my gosh, finish the story. How did they survive? Were they liberated by the Allies? Did they immigrate?
I would filter for a microwave!!! I don’t cook!! But I like to heat up leftovers and my coffee if it’s gotten cold.
Ha, I reheat my coffee in the microwave all the time. I guess I’m weird. I am a caffeine addict and will take it any way I can get it pretty much LOL.
I reheat YESTERDAY’S coffee in the microwave. Totally addicted.
(urrp!)
The good news is that the microwaves will kill the mold.
We have no kitchen but are fortunate that our place is in easy walking distance of downtown and restaurants. We literally say “why would you want to cook?” and then have good photos that show the microwave, mini-fridge, coffee maker, etc. We also provide a LOT of information and phone numbers for take out/delivery places. We have just the bathroom sink but I do provide a small folding dishdrainer. But then I also provide paper cups for coffee and paper plates (in addition to actual mugs and plates).
Guests (non-first-timers) who checked in recently were expecting access to the kitchen.
My response: “When you were looking to book, you actually looked for a place without kitchen before reserving mine.”
Her facial expression turns as though she just saw her exam results and she’d flunked.
I then mentioned each Airbnb place was different, some have a jacuzzi some a pool, it’s what they choose. They mutter an “Oh, it’s ok”, let’s see how bad a rating they give me.
They were East Asians. I mention this not because I want to be racist but I think those cultures place a lot more value on cooking food - although for a 2-night stay, I can’t see why it should be that disappointing.
What does this mean? How do you know the search criteria that a guest used?
I didn’t mean they explicitly looked for a place without kitchen. But implicitly. I’m tired of people booking without reading, coming here expecting kitchen access, and then rating me down - or even the risk of it.
So, this is a way of saying ‘Read before you book’.
Correction - typo in my post above: Not checked for, looked for.
It’s an odd response to tell a guest what she (actively) looked for. Your not having that amenity does not mean it was a criteria she considered in her search.
@Astaire. Have you considered adding “No Kitchen Privileges” as part of the new “Details guests must know about your home” section? If this is a repeated problem, perhaps you need to be forthright with this information. And if there is a picture of the kitchen in your listing, remove it.
The implication is that by not filtering her search to specifically find kitchen-access listings, she was happy to book a no-kitchen-access listing.
I’m trying to squash the assumption/presumption that every Airbnb listing has a kitchen.
We discussed this in the “You must acknowledge” thread if you remember, and nothing definitive came out of mentioning it in that section.
I have it mentioned in a few places on the listing, plus a House Rule that says please confirm you’ve understood what amenities are available and what aren’t.
It’s not that frequent a problem, maybe one in ten, probably much less than that. But it’s still annoying.
Needless to say, there’s no picture of the kitchen. To my mind, you only provide pictures of areas of the house you are allowing access to.
The fact that these guests did not know enough to filter their search to specifically include kitchen use perhaps shows their inexperience in this type of travel and accommodation. It might be wiser to consider this type of guest more the norm because they are newbies.
They would know that apartments and shared living quarters have kitchen areas and probably a laundry but it may not occur to them that they would be barred from use. I believe certain such amenities should be specified in a prominent manner in the listing rather than left unmentioned.
You said you are trying to educate travelers that not every rental has the same amenities. It’s an ambitious undertaking and will probably continue to frustrate because there is no universal set of rules being advertised out there for travelers/guests.
It’s far easier to remove all doubt than rely on the observation powers of potential guests to deduce that the amenity is omitted from the listing.
Many interesting points @SandyToes thanks, but I must stress I have very much indicated on my listing page that the kitchen is not available - several times.
In this particular case, they were not newbies, or at least not first-timers.
This is to provoke them into looking more closely into what is (mentioned as ) available or not in my place, and in general breaking their assumption that they can expect whatever they want to be in there.
Okay, understood. I haven’t seen your listing so I was not aware of the particulars, though I now see a couple of them were mentioned in separate postings. (Facts presented piece-meal are more difficult for me to absorb. My grey matter is in short supply.) 
Thanks for reiterating. I think this was established in a previous post of yours 
Just kidding! Your response has been insightful actually, and is appreciated 
I had a very similar encounter. A young Asian male who lives in LA now was traveling with his parents & Uncle who came to visit from his home country. It was an unusual check in. The rest of the family would not come in for the 5 minute tour, the young man said it was because they didn’t understand English/American, so they chose to stand outside in the 90° heat, while I showed him around the 2 bedroom 1 bath + accommodations. I had an ah-ha moment when he brought up the issue of cooking. (They were only staying 1 nite & I charge extra for using the stove/oven because of the extra cleaning & to be honest the horrible smells that are difficult to get rid of). When I first started hosting I let people have full use of the kitchen but it cost so much time & effort to clean up & the next guests sometimes complained about “weird” odors. I’ve traveled the world & it’s one thing to live with those odors when you’re in the country they’re common to & used to, but most people don’t feel like a place is clean if it has strange, strong odors. I’ve used cans of febreeze & other methods but finally gave up, lowered my rates a bit & said no oven/stove privileges. P.S. This is in a private unit, not shared accommodations. They have a kitchen, just can’t use the stove/oven unless they pay extra & make advance arrangements. I gave him the option then to pay extra but he didn’t want to. Later the other guests did speak to me in English…