Domestic Intelligence
Essays on the space between host and guest
Most hosting advice is all systems and shortcuts.
But the stays people love? They’re thoughtful, intentional, and a little bit unexpected.
Domestic Intelligence is where you’ll learn how to solve real hosting challenges with creativity—not just copy what everyone else is doing.
Hosting well is a nuanced, thoughtful, and reaffirming process, and in my blog we get into its history and its complications. This is the stuff they don't put in the Facebook groups.
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The Great Strip Tease: Airbnb & the Hot-Button Topic of Stripping the Beds
Airbnb announced they were going to prevent hosts from asking for certain tasks prior to check-out, like vacuuming, doing laundry, and stripping the beds. They call these “unreasonable.” I've never asked a guest to vacuum or do the laundry (though I have asked them to start a load of towels), but stripping the beds is a task that I would encourage EVERY GUEST who stays at an Airbnb to do. Here is why:
In Praise of Cleaning Fees: Or, why making your Airbnb Cleaning fee transparent and visible matters.
Cleaning short term rentals shouldn’t be “hidden” work. Let’s foreground its value rather than try to hide it.
Oh, potential Airbnb guest and/or stockholder, fret not. Cleaning fees are your friend. Allow me to explain.
THE best part of Airbnb, in my experience, is that the platform allows hosts to host in way that feels comfortable, safe, and worthwhile to them. Cleaning fees are one tool hosts (like me) use to make our space available to more people.
Gone but Not Forgotten: The Airbnb Living Wage Pledge & Airbnb Cleaning Fees
Airbnb Cleaning fees are a powerful tools for hosts, but cleaning fees also matter politically.