The Hospitality Survey Results are Here!

We asked—you answered. A huge thank you to the almost 700 folks—691 to be exact!—who completed The Distinguished Guest’s Hospitality Survey. Our survey was the first of its kind in the vacation rental and home-sharing industry, with a goal of gathering data about the fine art of hospitality.

Have you ever wondered how many of your fellow hosts and managers are leaving welcome gifts for guests? Or what color sheets your peers are choosing? Or what cleaning supplies you should be stocking?

We think the below answers to these questions will surprise you!

Psssst: While we’ve got you thinking about hospitality, we’d love to share our newly created Guide to Hospitality. This user-friendly guide covers everything from prepping your place to accessibility with time-tested tips and tricks from those with decades of industry experience.

Now onto the quiz results!

The Respondents

72% whole house vacation rental owners

13% property managers

9% home-sharing/Airbnb hosts

69% have been in the business for 5 years or less

31% are veterans with 6-10+ years of experience

When people ask if vacation rentals can ever really compete with hotels, we can just show them this survey as evidence of our answer: YES. We learned that vacation rentalists and Airbnb hosts frequently go above and beyond to create top-notch guest experiences.

For example, 57% of respondents say they provide a welcome basket or gift for their guests. Who knew?! And long-gone are the days of “bring your own sheets”—98.7% of respondents provide sheets for their guests (and 75% follow TDG’s advice to choose the hospitality standard white sheets).

Another piece of evidence for our ability to take on hotels: 82% of respondents have a 5-star rating on listing sites like Airbnb and HomeAway. How many hotels can claim that same flawless record?!