Airbnb Host and Investors Forum General Complaints 1 2 Next » A Short Term Rental (STR) Forum Community

[maldovix]

Title says it all.

As a host, I mostly stay in hotels but when I do stay at Airbnbs I’m always shocked at how stingy hosts are about things that wouldn’t cost much to provide. I'm talking full house rentals that aren't cheap. They market it as "starter" provisions. It's one toilet paper roll per bathroom and nothing more. One tide pod for one load of laundry and one dishwasher load. One garbage bag. And so on.

Expecting guests to go shopping as soon as they arrive so they can use the trash and wash clothes/dishes, etc is a bit ridiculous at these prices. I would never dream of leaving my guests so little. I always leave more than they could possibly use to be honest and to be honest it has never backfired on me. I leave out 20+ K-cups and most guests honestly don’t even use it. I don’t think a single guest has “emptied it out”.
Toilet paper at Costco is cheap as are pods for laundry and dishes (why not just leave the big jugs out, one unscented and one not scented for guests to choose? What are they saving per booking by providing the bare minimum on these items? $20 at most but probably more like $10? For stays that are $2,000+ for the trip?

[gineton]

You're not wrong but this is also how the professional "hotels" run their business. When have you stayed at a Marriot that leaves out a stack of coffee pods? It's always by the book - 2 decaf and 2 regular coffee pods. I can't remember the last time I had free water in my hotel room at the "******" hotels of the luxury chains. I have to fill up my own bottle in the gym. In Vegas, they don't even have coffee makers or water anymore but thats a different story. It just comes down to the business model being all about dollars and not customer first. If you've ever travelled to Asia you know exactly what I'm talking about. Slippers, hot water kettles, unlimited choices of tea and drinks.. not to mention friendly staff who are probably making a fraction of what the staff make.

[ChrisFromTheOC]

I agree 100%. It's ridiculous for guests to have to buy all these supplies, knowing they'll use just a fraction. When I go on vacation, I don't want to spend the first half of my day buying supplies.

[1minuteplz]

I feel like alot of Airbnb hosts are over leveraged "investors" who bought at the height of the market and are paying for 7% mortgages. At that point, every penny counts. We all know how saturated the market got in the last few years and how there are so many shills selling programs on "airbnb arbitrage". The basic law of supply and demand will work itself out and eventually terrible hosts just won't get enough demand and they will be out of business. This will be of great benifit to the good hosts.

[econ12]

Airbnb definitely knows that the experience isn't what it used to be once hosts started nickel and diming with fees, withholding of amenities on top of the exhorbitant rates Airbnb charges guests. This is why when I look and look at listings for my own personal use, all I see is once price at first.. I have no ideas what the individual fees are so it's just a big mystery box within the final price.

[micvite]

Honestly, I think the fact that there are so many of these cheap and stingy hosts it helps us out. When guest come to my property they can get "WOWED" when they see the snacks, waters, slippers and welcome basket (during longer, pricier stays) that I leave them. I doubt any of those hosts / airbnb investors are reading this forum.