Visiting Five Airbnbs in Six Days: Tips from a guest for hosting a successful airbnb

As we continue on our journey to hosting an airbnb, we decided that the best way to understand what we needed to do with our place was to get out there and try a bunch. We have stayed at airbnbs before, but never with the mindset of starting our own. It was time to take a trip and see what there was to learn. With our bikes in tow, we headed down to Kentucky bourbon country. The plan was to bike to a new town or city each day, tasting bourbons along the way and staying at airbnbs. 5 airbnbs, 6 days, 165 miles on our bikes. We explored Kentucky’s rolling hills meandering through cornfields and by full tobacco barns. Black rail fences and pastures of horses guided us along to the tall bourbon rick houses where we learned about and tasted the sweet corn whisky. After a long day on the bike, a clean comfortable place to rest and relax was a welcome sight. Here is a list of the things we appreciated and came to expect from an airbnb, and also some of the things we decided we didn’t like.

The Good Stuff, must haves for our BNB

• Clean: There is nothing like coming into an obviously clean space. It makes you relax right away and feel at ease. Along with actual cleanliness, very little clutter is important and helps to quickly make the point that you are in a clean space. No hair or wet bath mats in your bathroom. We found that its style didn’t matter as much as how clean it felt.
• Sleeping comfort: Comfortable bed, dark, and quiet. It was rare to find a place that covered all of these, but a good night sleep in a place away from home is so valuable. You might not always realize when you’ve had a good night sleep, but you sure do realize when you’ve had a bad one. For our airbnb, that means black-out curtains (keep out the orange glow of the street lights), its worth making sure we get a good mattress, and possibly a white noise machine.
• Easy keyless pad for entry: Instructions ahead of time with the code was fantastic It is no fuss, we didn’t have to track down an owner or talk to the hosts. I know this might sound callous, but it was nice not having to converse with a person to get to your room. Texting was just fine for us. It was also nice not having to worry about keeping track of a key.
• Core amenities: I’m not going to list every amenity, but these things below stood out as important to us.
  • Welcome snacks and breakfast offered (this was Kasey’s quality litmus test, no snacks, no bueno). Water bottles in the fridge was also a nice touch.
  • Coffee: The places with a Keurig were simple and straightforward, I would say a Keurig is a must. Also include tea, cream and sugar, and of course mugs.
  • Soaps: It was nice to not worry about soaps and shampoos. The first bnb stood out because they had a nice little fancy soap from a local artisan.
  • Hairdryer: Every place had one and I was very happy about not having to haul one or stand for wet hair
  • Decent toilet paper: Doesn’t have to be crazy, just don’t skimp too much here. It was good to have Kleenex and decent paper towels as well.
  • Freshly rolled towels and a floor mat: Don’t just throw folded towels in a corner closet. It was nice to have towels primped and on the ready. We had one damp floor mat that just didn’t feel clean and it honestly grossed me out. Just providing a clean, dry floor towel like a hotel was fine. The first place we stayed also had a black facecloth for makeup, which I could appreciate for keeping white towels white.
• TV with a Roku: Only one place had it, and it made us feel right at home. We were able to sign into our Netflix and pick up where we last left of. Keep in mind that a lot of things close after 6:00 and for us, it helped strike a perfect balance to the adventure side of the trip with some quiet relaxation time. This trip also confirmed my suspicion that cable is completely useless. Most places had cable and after fumbling through a bunch of useless channels, we ended up watching stuff on our phone. I would say Cable TV is the biggest unrecognized universal shortcoming of airbnbs. Chrome cast might also be a good option.
• Wifi: One place didn’t have it, you definitely need it. The best places had the wifi password in a frame by the welcome snacks and other information.
• Menus and near by things to do: We heavily based our decisions on menus that were provided to us. We often came in tired and hungry and neither of us are particularly good at making decisions under those conditions. An array of hand selected menus by the host for restaurants close by made our visit to that town so much more enjoyable. A lot of places had a ton of brochures, but honestly, that was overwhelming. A hand written list was much better.
• Easy plug access for charging: Nothing was more annoying than moving furniture to find an outlet and to have your phone on the other side of the room. Each side of the bed should have easy plug access. I think it would be good to include USB outlet here as well.
• Easy parking: We were on bikes most of the time, but for the first night, having easy parking was so nice. No-one wants to have their car towed on vacation.

Above and Beyond, nice to have but not expected

• Fresh flowers were a thoughtful touch
• Hand written note with host contact information on nice paper (not a note-card)
• Easy light switches (sounds weird, but fumbling around the dark for a light switch that is under a table is annoying) Labeling is helpful
• Hanging rack for clothes, closet and drawers are unnecessary, but having a quick and easy place to hang a few items was convenient
• Consumables that were thoughtfully tied to the town (chocolate bourbon balls, artisan cheese, the soap I had mentioned). We were fine with any snack, but the local stuff was above and beyond
• Board games
• Beers in the fridge, I think the person before left them, but it was still a welcome touch

The Bad, stuff that we should avoid

In general, it is repeating the opposite of what is above, but these are the ultimate no’s we encountered that left us feeling negative about a place.

• Unclean bathroom: We stayed in clean places but its still not comforting to find hair, damp floor mats, mold in showers
• Rock hard bed: Not fun to toss and turn all night
• Weird smells: The smell of the place is one of the first impression setters. We had one place that smelled funky and it definitely set a negative tone. We also had one place that smelled strongly of cleaner, which was fine for a first impression, but was annoying after a while
• No food at all: Provide something for your weary travelers
• No wifi: I think everyone has come to expect this
• Cable TV: I might as well have not even had a TV. Call me a millennial, that’s fine.
• Talking to a host to get a key: We just wanted to get into our room after a long day
• Seeing padlocks: I know when you have a shared home space, you might want to lock away some spaces, but a padlock feels very unwelcoming