The hardest part of hosting short term rentals if you’re hosting with all your heart.
Our #1 Hosting Challenge
For us, the hardest part of owning a short-term rental/being a host has very little do with the actual physical aspects of running the business. The hardest part is the (once in a while) unhappy guest.
Can’t Pleasing Every Single Human Being
It’s important to understand and accept that everyone will not love everything you do. And we get it. But it just isn’t any fun when something is not 100% pleasing to our guest, especially when it’s either something we can’t remedy because it’s a permanent fixture of our space, or it’s something we weren’t given the change to remedy (because we weren’t told during the guest’s stay).
A case on Point
I remember one group we had as guests over a year ago where this was the case. We could sense they weren’t totally thrilled with something, but despite our efforts to make sure they knew we were always here for anything at all, they never mentioned any problem.
Sidenote: We make it a very important message to our guests – and let them know in *many* different ways – that we are *always* here for questions or if they need anything at all. But even still every so often, something isn’t communicated to us.
It was finally in a private message attached to their review – after their stay – that we learned that they had thought we should have provided bottled water and were disappointed that we didn’t. We are not bottled water enthusiasts, out of concern for our earth. Nevertheless, had we had known they were expecting purified water, we would have happily provided them with an option.
We can’t fix what we don’t know.
The truth – we would move mountains to make sure our guests are happy, but we need to know if there is unhappiness before we can turn that around.
In our hearts, we believe that we provide an exceptional place to call home when visiting our area and that’s what gets us through. But, by far, it’s still the hardest part of hosting a short-term rental.
On the flip side, when our guests are happy and we know it, it’s the best feeling. This is what we always strive for.
