dear airbnb hosts

[comeondover]

Enough of the plug-in air fresheners. They're foul a matter of personal taste. Also they make me very suspicious about what you might be trying to hide.

And if all the temperature and function settings have been rubbed off, what am I supposed to do, play oven roulette? Give me a fighting chance and leave me the manual so I can look at a picture of it.

Anything else?

Please provide a colander/ sieve in order to drain stuff- pasta, veg, potatoes etc...

A knife that is as sharp as a marble is not useful to chop anything other than butter!

One saucepan is not enough to cook a meal, especially if the oven doesn't get above the heat emitted from a lightbulb!

Earplugs might be handy if the property is above a nightclub.

Please ensure the outer door can actually be locked to prevent the drug dealers lurking outside aren't able to enter and murder us in our beds.

... oh, and if there's a microwave, some microwave bowls with lids would be helpful. Not everyone uses the microwave only for ready meals...

For those that have resulted in sleeping with an item of their clothing on top of a pillow . Take cotton tea towels away with you and place on the pillow. Not Sleeping on other people's pillows is my ' thing ' so that's how I get by when away from home.

I never use a ‘microwave bowl’ at home though….

The basics; tea, coffee, loo roll are a must

a bottle of wine or fresh cookies are inexpensive but go a long way to improving someone experience

Host in Madrid, don't tell me you will just enter and come in the collect that rug for cleaning when you want!!! What day, what time are you randomly coming in???

Black out curtains that don't leave a halo of light all around

Full length mirror

Corkscrew- I now have one in my suitcase all the time

Host in Edinburgh- the bed was so uncomfortable I slept on the sofa, I bought foil so I didn't dirty the grill, I bought oil to stop every single door squeaking, I vacuumed, emptied the bins and stripped the beds as requested. Please tell me why you accused me of moving furniture around, putting filthy glassware in the cupboard and leaving the place a mess?

Surely if you are just draping a teatowel on the pillow, its all scrunched up and likely fallen off by the time you wake up???

1500

Ughhhh

For how long?

@SM4713

Not for me , stays where it is.

Dehumidifier

I stay in Airbnb’s twice a week for work. My biggest issue is previous guests not washing up properly and plates/cutlery being dirty. Why can’t hosts check the state of them whilst cleaning. We pay enough for the cleaning fee!

Invest in decent mattresses!

I've had a few terrible nights of no sleep whilst staying in assorted properties, due to really terrible mattresses.

There was an awful memory foam one on a stay in Edinburgh. Then a couple of shockingly bad, dip in the centre mattresses in Llangollen and Haworth, the type where my Husband and I both ended up rolling to the centre of the bed due to the crater in the middle of the mattress!

I'm not sure whether it's cost effective or not but maybe replace mattresses more frequently than a normal household would?

Please stop renting out entire flats. If you don't want these randoms in your own house, what makes you think I want them in the house next to mine, creating noise and mess every summer's day God sends, whilst also driving up housing prices so that locals cannot afford to live in their own towns. If your dream is to own a BnB, open one. If your dream is to infuriate locals and rip off tourists... well, carry on I guess.

We (6 couples) stayed somewhere really quite expensive. Huge list of what to do on the last day before 10am we all pitched in like a military exercise, we're on holiday we don't want to deep clean a house especially when you have plenty of time before the next guests arrive and paid for cleaning!
More hooks in bathroom/bedroom
Big coffee mugs - not teeny ones
Enough glasses and chairs for the amount of people the place says it sleeps

Decent blinds or curtains that actually block out light. We take pop in blackout curtains everywhere.

At least 2x the number of people the house sleeps of cutlery, plates, cups etc.

Sharp knives.

Proper size towels.

@Ninacampbelltiled I like to greet/be greeted if the airbnb is an annex or adjacent to the host's home.

I run two airbnbs & never use scented products - the housekeeper makes sure to air the properties. We also have lovely pillows/duvets & linens & a very comprehensively stocked kitchen... We work really hard & invest a lot of money into trying to create something lovely (we do have guests in both places on their 3rd/4th visits so hopefully we're doing most things right!)

OMG air-fresheners are awful! We stayed in a flat in St Monans in Fife with two per room. I gathered them all up and put them all in a plastic bag in a drawer for the week, and replaced them on the last day.
There were also little hearts and signs "Live Laugh Love" etc hanging on string from doorknobs and even from knobs on wardrobes and chests of drawers we were using. Couldn't open anything without these bloody signs clacking against the furniture. Gathered them all up too!
Most annoying was the freezer crammed with food. I'd brought frozen meals with us and had to haul everything out and repack (and throw away big bags of ice-cubes) to get my own stuff in.
Oh and the DVD player didn't work. We'd saved up favourite DVDs to watch in the evenings (this was late October and we were planning cosy nights in) so that was disappointing.
We made the best of it at the time but I'm feeling pretty cross in retrospect ..

Airbnb owners should have to spend a month in the property before it goes on the market, that way they'd realise theres not enough crockery/ the shower door doesn't close/ there's nowhere for their blasted throw cushions and all the other things that you might not realise from a quick skirmish round between guests.
We've been lucky and stayed in some well appointed ones recently, but it's always a bit of a gamble.

@Mother87 I really appreciate good bedding.

Make sure there are enough mirrors including a full length one.

pizza cutters are useful!

let us know if you’re going to provide tea/coffee/milk/toilet paper/ dishwasher tablets etc… I have packed these so many times just to find that I need not have bothered. Completely defeats the purpose of providing them not to say it in the description.

provide extra towels or let us know we should bring some if there is a hot tub

provide super clear directions including photos of what we see from the road

Please provide a bedside lamp or some other lower lighting than the big light 😱 in bedrooms. Please provide instruction as to what to do with rubbish even if you don't want to provide a big general manual or greet guests in person.

Great idea but Airbnb hosts are in it solely to make money, they're not going to lose out on profit by having a friend stay there!

I mean, in low season and before they start renting.

We use them all the time for cooking vegetables, heating up leftovers, etc.