One thing about me is that I don't like surprises, especially when it comes to accommodation.
When I went to MIPIM, I stayed at a Hilton in Nice, a 45-minute Uber ride away, rather than risk an unfamiliar villa closer to the conference. Did I potentially miss out on my own private hot tub? Possibly, but I also had zero drama.
When my budget allows, I'll generally choose a hotel with a familiar brand over an independent holiday rental. I'm willing to go to quite ridiculous lengths to avoid the unknown.
Last week I was genuinely delighted when our Airbnb host told us we didn't have to do anything on checkout
We spent half-term in Alicante and stayed in a lovely Airbnb. Great property, great host, no complaints. But the night before checkout, I realised we'd received absolutely no instructions. Naturally, I was worried we'd miss something and get fined.
So we messaged the property manager. Were there any checkout rules?
Nope. Absolutely none. He just hoped we'd enjoyed our stay.
I was floored. Imagine being so used to ridiculous checkout demands that you're delighted when someone tells you that you don't have to do their laundry. And this was before Airbnb's new rules had even come into effect.
I've had some fantastic experiences with independent holiday rentals, but also some pretty ridiculous ones.
None of these was a tragedy, but they're all things I could do without when I'm paying for accommodation. In no particular order:
An Airbnb that cancelled on me a couple of weeks before my brother's wedding in Canada, when I'd booked it for my entire extended family. Fantastic.
A freezer so full of ice that I couldn't actually fit anything into it, unless I fancied spending my holiday defrosting someone else's freezer.
A bizarre Japanese-style bed so hard and uncomfortable I couldn't sleep, during my wedding week of all times. Is this how our ancestors lived? (To their credit, they replaced it.)
An AirBnB in Marrakech that came with a property manager who was basically there ALL DAY (I was technically warned in the fine print). Lovely girl, but I hadn't realised I'd booked a holiday with a chaperone.
Checkout instructions that included stripping the beds, doing the laundry and cleaning the kitchen. Things I don't even do consistently in my own house.
And finally, I'm fairly sure I once accidentally spent the night in a brothel, or an establishment offering similar services. I only needed somewhere to put my head down for a few hours in central London. That particular experiment did not go well.
But Airbnb might finally be winning me back.
On 20 October 2026, Airbnb announced a new policy restricting the chores hosts can demand of guests, effective for bookings made from 20 November.
Guests have been complaining for years about paying cleaning fees and then being expected to do the cleaning themselves. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky even acknowledged the problem earlier this year, saying that people on holiday should be on holiday from their chores too.
I spend my working life helping real estate companies understand what their customers are actually telling them, so I find this really interesting. Not least because it's a great example of why getting the basics right matters just as much as creating fabulous experiences.
Airbnb listened to years of complaints about checkout chores, and it's finally changing the rules.
Airbnb's new checkout rules explained: What hosts can and can't ask you to do
There are some exceptions, but the general principle is that guests shouldn't be expected to do the cleaner's job. Hosts also need to disclose their rules before you book, rather than springing a surprise list of chores on you the night before checkout.
Personally, I'm delighted, although I do wonder why it took so long.
Airbnb has spent years selling us extraordinary experiences. Now it's tackling the ordinary ones.
Airbnb's appeal has always been about offering something different. Fabulous villas, quirky apartments, beautiful locations and experiences you wouldn't get in a normal hotel. I completely understand why people love that. But at RealService, we often talk about customer experience using Maslow's hierarchy of needs. First, does it work? Then, is it easy? And finally, does it delight?
There's not much point getting customers excited about a fabulous villa with its own hot tub if they're expected to spend their last morning doing the laundry.
People want good surprises, not bad ones.
What I like about Airbnb's response is that the company isn't abandoning the things that make it special. It's recognising that those things aren't enough if customers can't rely on the basics. You can offer something unique without making the fundamentals a gamble.
What are your customers telling you that you might be overlooking?
I see parallels with real estate all the time. Property owners invest in amazing amenities, beautiful spaces and exciting customer experiences, and those things absolutely matter. But sometimes the issues that are really bothering customers are much less glamorous.
When you have a mixed portfolio of properties, each with its own character and service proposition, how do you make sure the basics are consistently good? You don't want every building to feel the same, but you do want some fundamental standards that customers can rely on, regardless of who's delivering the service.
That's a big part of what we do at RealService. We help property owners and managers understand how their buildings are actually being experienced, what's working, what's frustrating customers and what needs to change. And sometimes the findings are quite different from what the management team expected.
If you're responsible for a property or portfolio and want to know whether you're focusing on the things that really matter to your customers, that's exactly what we help clients understand at RealService. I'd love to have a conversation.
About the Author
For more insights like this, follow me Chenai Gondo, PhD and subscribe to my newsletter. I am the CEO of RealService and Experience Makers. We help real estate owners and operators understand and improve how their spaces are being experienced by people. I write a weekly newsletter about real estate, entrepreneurship, business, human behaviour and occasionally, about my wigs.
Topics covered in this article
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