Our Host Tip of the week focuses on how to best welcome visitors into your home! This is the first post in a series of ways to welcome a new visitor. Our veteran hosts tell us that an integral aspect of making a visitor feel welcomed from the beginning is to ensure that the outside of your home is easily accessible. Boston can be a confusing city to navigate upon arrival, from the beginning with Logan Airport all the way to finding the homestay, as streets and roads are often not properly marked. This can be stressful for a tired and exhausted visitor who has been traveling from overseas. Making sure your home is properly marked and easy for the new visitor to find will help ease the transition to their new home in Boston.
The outside of your home will provide the first impression that a visitor has about homestay. If the visitor is being delivered to your home by a car service or ride sharing service or is taking public transportation to your home for the first time, having the home properly marked and identified is crucial.
Here are some tips for making sure your the outside of your home is ready to welcome a new visitor:
- Make sure your house number is marked and visible from the street.
- If your residence shares two family homes, confirm that the two different neighboring apartments are labeled or easy to distinguish (especially if there is a shared entryway).
- Make sure your doorbell is in working order. If not, put instructions on the door of how to contact you upon arrival.
- How do you access your home? From the side/back door or from the driveway? Do you live in an apartment and need to be buzzed in to the building? If the visitor will need specific instructions on how to enter the homestay, make sure to inform us prior to arrival so we are able to inform the visitor or car service. The more information, the better!
- Put your last name by the doorbell or marked house number, so that your visitor is able to verify two pieces of information before entering the home.
- Are there special driving instructions to get to your home that might be confusing on Google Maps? Do you live on a dead end road or on a newly named street? Often GPS does not have new roads identified and one can easily get lost trying to get to the destination, especially a ride shared/taxi driver who is not familiar with the neighborhood. Make sure to tell us or the visitor in advance if you are communicating prior to arrival.
- Have the porch light or outside lights on and working when your visitor arrives, especially for evening arrivals.
Lastly, aside from the outside of your home, make sure your cell phone is charged and on when expecting the arrival of your visitor. Be ready and listening for the visitor to arrive to avoid mishaps with the arrival. Please answer the phone even if you do not recognize the number as the car service will call before delivery or if the visitor is lost and needs to speak with you. If you are going to be outside in the backyard and not in the house, put a note on the door. Remember, communication is key!
We have found that all of these small steps help make a big difference with a new visitor’s arrival to homestay. If you have been told by friends coming to your home it is difficult to find, then it will be even more challenging for someone from another country. Starting off homestay with a stressful arrival experience due to lack of identification on your home can easily be fixed. Take a minute and head outside to check to make sure your home is ready to welcome your next homestay visitor!
Have hosting tips and advice for other hosts? We would love to hear your thoughts! Please share your recommendations with us here.
