Give Your Guests Options: they will appreciate the gesture!
By: Brad Greiner, CEO of Open Air Homes and OpenAiRE Brokerage
August 24, 2022
We listed our first room on Airbnb in 2012, back when most had never heard of short-term rentals. The journey of the past 10 years has led us to continually try to source the best products for the home. We want to share our knowledge so that you too can have a leg up in the development of your own short-term rental property.
Our first product blog post about “The Best Bedding for Your Short Term Rental” was so popular (top search result on Google), that we thought we would continue the series by addressing everything to ensure great reviews from your guests.
Next up, is coffee (and tea). Guests have come to expect coffee in the morning when staying in a short-term rental, and our biggest tip would be to supply them with options.
What we have come to learn over the years is that with home rentals, if you show your guests that you care about their experience with things like coffee, when there is a small issue with the house, the guest is understanding as opposed to upset. There are small tricks to show the guest you care about their experience, and with 70% of Americans drinking coffee, this gesture often does the trick.
In this quest for the perfect set of coffee options, we asked ourselves a lot of different questions. Do we supply the beans? Do we go drip, french press or stick with Nespresso? If we go with Nespresso, what are the operational challenges involved with supplying the pods? The list goes on.
Whichever you choose from the list below, our recommendation would be to give at least two options to really enhance the experience for coffee lovers everywhere.
Choosing the right coffee items for your short-term rental property is challenging in that you ought to aim to please a variety of different people while also not creating clutter. A lot of this will depend on the size of your kitchen.
We will discuss the pros and cons of each option and give you helpful tips to really show you care!
First, start by creating a Coffee Station:
Drip Coffee is your easiest solution
Cuisinart coffee drip at our Thoughtful Design – Hollywood Hills Outpost, kitchen
You can’t go wrong with a drip coffee pot. It is the most convenient and well known way of simply making coffee. Next, think about the size of your home and the style of your kitchen when choosing a machine.
What is the occupancy on your rental? If two guests, go for a smaller drip pot. If 8 guests, you will want to go with one that serves between 10-14 cups.
We recommend you take a look through your kitchen and choose a pot that matches the colors in your kitchen. Do you have stainless steel on the stove and refrigerator? Well, your best option would be to get an appliance that matches. Are you going retro throughout your kitchen? Consider Smeg. All black? There are plenty of options so make sure that everything matches.
At Open Air Homes, we focus on the luxury market. We have had great success with Cuisinart. If your price point is a bit lower, we have also used Mr Coffee, but find that you will have to replace your machine more often. Keep in mind that when hosting guests, they are new to the machine, and may often clean it incorrectly or generally just use it incorrectly. The higher end you go, typically the longer it will last.
We recommend you buy a pot that has a permanent filter, to save you the trouble and waste involved with coffee filters.
Lastly, if going the drip route, we recommend getting a coffee grinder. Coffee beans stay fresh longer when sold as whole beans, and if you are also supplying coffee (we recommend you do), then our recommendation would be to buy whole beans and get a grinder. We are currently using the Beguko model, but have also used a more simple Cuisinart. Again, choose one that matches other appliances so there is uniformity in your kitchen.
The Nespresso VS Keurig – We have some thoughts!
The Nespresso and Espresso pods at our Thoughtful Design – Bungalow with Private Yard, Kitchen
Logistically, ask yourself if you have the operational bandwidth to continually supply pods to your guests. If the answer is yes, you may want to consider an easier to use system.
We understand that the Keurig machine is a popular machine in America. It is used everywhere. If your home is priced below $200 a night, this might be the best option for you.
If you want to impress your guests with a better cup of coffee in an effort to increase your chances of a better review and higher occupancy, the Nespresso machine is widely reviewed as a better cup of coffee.
There are two machine options: one for smaller espresso pods and larger coffee pods. We used the smaller espresso pods in our homes for years, but as of late, we have switched to the larger Vertuo machine. The Vertuo machine sells the smaller pods as well for espresso but makes a full cup of coffee with the larger pods.
Keep in mind that, as a good host, you will want to provide the pods and not just the machine. If you just provide the machine and your guests are there for three days, they will be frustrated that they have a machine that is unusable.
Pro tip: More niche coffee options and additions will show your guests you care.
Showing guests that you care tends to go a long way when they sit down to write a review. Your algorithm placement (does your listing appear on page 1) on sites like Airbnb will be largely determined by the reviews you receive. If you receive consistently great reviews, you will consistently be on page 1 and will have a higher occupancy rate as a result.
We highly suggest that you sprinkle in some of these options below so that your coffee station feels complete.
We LOVE The Nespresso Frother
Whether or not you choose to buy the Nespresso machine, you and your guests will love the frothing options with the Nespresso frother. We love the consistency of the milk this frother creates. It takes any cup of coffee and turns the consistency into more of a latte.
Sure, coffee aficionados will tell you a latte is espresso mixed with frothed milk, but this machine enhances the taste and texture however you make your coffee.
The French Press: A beautiful touch!
Adding a French Press to your short term rental, whether your guests use it or not, will show them that you care about their coffee experience, and overall experience, in your home. It’s a beautiful yet simple option, and your guests will be impressed by your attention to detail.
There are lots of sizes and color options to choose from, but we recommend choosing a more sturdy option like the Bodum.
Pour over coffee is In Vouge
If you live in a community with a larger hipster community, you might want to consider adding a pour over coffee option. These are pretty machines, and it could be your opportunity to teach your guests about the wonderful alternative coffee options available.
If you do go this route, our first option would be to choose a machine with a permanent filter like the Bodum. We also have used and love the Chemex, but this also requires you to buy the filters.
If you go the pour over approach (or plan to provide tea), you will also want to consider a tea kettle (we love the Le Creuset in Oyster) or an electric tea kettle (we like Cosori, but there are tons of options).
Dehydrated Coffee is making a come back
We truthfully do not know or recommend any brand of dehydrated coffee, but we are hearing that this way of serving coffee is making a comeback with new companies popping up. We can’t fully recommend this just yet, as we still believe consumers feel this is a lower end choice, but you may want to do some additional research, as this would be the easiest option to store for long periods of time for your guests.
Our favorite Bean
We have tried the majority of beans on the market. Our top pick in the entire industry would be the Intelligentsia Whole Bean coffee. Amazon sells this through “Subscribe and Save” for a 15% discount monthly, but it is definitely not the cheapest bean on the market. If you operate a home in the $500 a night or more range, this might seem like an expense you’re willing to take on.
We also highly recommend partnering with a local coffee shop in your area, as often they will see the benefit in giving your discounted pricing in exchange for having their beans in your home for guests to experience.
Tea
There are lots of tea options on the market, and we are not experts. Oftentimes, we recommend to buy a day time caffeinated tea along with a night time tea.
We have purchased Tazo often, but as is evident by this post, we consider ourselves coffee aficionados more than tea, so we will leave this one up to the experts!
Tea is used rather slowly (unless your short term rental is in say, England), so operationally adding tea tends to not be an operational challenge. The bags also last for a long time.
Do I really need to provide milk?
The short answer is no.
People have a wide variety of milk preferences. You won’t be able to find a solution that works for everyone.
If you want to go all out for your guests, we personally love Barista Blend Oatmilk in our coffee and highly recommend you give it a try yourself. Oat Milk can be stored for longer periods of time (you can buy it in bulk), and we have found that it is the only true taste competitor to dairy milk, yet I am sure some people will disagree!
Your rental is your chance to show your guests new ways of experiencing life how you live, and so giving them a true dairy milk alternative like Oatmilk may be something you want to consider.
In Conclusion
These are all the items we recommend to curate the perfect cup of coffee for your guests. We stay true to our recommendations, and use these same products in our own homes as well!
We would love to hear from you after you’ve given these products a shot in your own short term rental. We are constantly trying to improve all aspects of our service and make the best for our guests and our homeowners, so if you too have a good recommendation for coffee, we would love to hear about it!
For more products we use in our homes, visit our Shop.
Stay caffeinated,
The Open Air Homes Team
