Curious what others do to create goodwill right at the start of a guest’s stay?
Just to be upfront, my business is around creating thoughtful welcome notes automatically, so I obviously think the arrival moment matters. But I’m genuinely interested in what else hosts do, beyond the note itself, to make guests feel looked after when they first arrive.
I’ve been reading through some of the older threads here and loved a few of the ideas people shared — fridge magnets with a property photo or logo and a QR code back to the direct booking site, bookmarks, and even Christmas decorations with photos of the property inside them. I thought the fridge magnet idea was especially clever, because it feels like a small guest takeaway but can also gently keep the direct booking site visible after checkout.
For our own guests, we usually leave locally made cookies that are genuinely delicious. If they’ve mentioned they’re celebrating something, we leave a bottle of bubbly. If they’re bringing a dog, we include some high-quality dog treats. We also ask what kind of milk they prefer and leave oats and muesli for breakfast.
None of it is extravagant, but I do think these small touches help guests feel like we’ve paid attention — and that can create a bit of goodwill before anything has a chance to go wrong.
What does everyone else do?
Small arrival touches: what do you do to create goodwill?
- Hospitable Partner
+3Free early check-in whenever it’s available. Offered in the moment, the day of arrival. As soon as cleaners are done, I send a message: “Hey Tom! What’s your ETA to Ocean City? Our place is ready for you ahead of schedule. Let us know if you’d like to check in early :-)”
It gets things off on a good note and creates instant goodwill.
For economic reasons, we stopped offering bottles of wine, even though we are located in the Bordeaux region… 😅
Right now, anything that costs us almost nothing, we still try to do as much as possible:
- free early check-in when possible
- late checkout if operations allow it
- and we don’t hesitate to make a small phone call when we detect a traveler profile that may need more reassurance or assistance
It sounds a bit cheap when written like this, but the market has become quite difficult economically.
That said, we still feel local touches matter a lot for the guest experience, so we are hoping to bring back a bottle from a local château in the future once we see how reservations stabilize this season.
A stylish postcard could work really well too - especially with a photo of the town, neighborhood, or a local landmark.
It feels less like advertising and more like a small keepsake.
On the back, you could add a QR code that opens a WhatsApp chat or contact page. If that chat is connected to an AI assistant, guests can instantly get help with things like WiFi, parking, check-in, local recommendations, or even a future direct booking.
That way, the postcard is not just memorable - it’s also genuinely useful. It combines a local touch, a practical guest tool, and an easy way to stay connected after checkout!
We offer free early check in or late check out if schedules allow. I also do some pretty extensive concierge services since we are in the highlands of rural Costa Rica (arrange meals, horse tours, farm tours, etc). We have two coffee farms in our village so we offer a starter amount of coffee from one of the farms as well as our logo postcard, stickers and some snacks. I was thinking we were not doing enough but typing it here certainly has made it clear!
I'm pretty new to this game. But i must be doing something right because we've already got the top 10% guest favorite badge.
Earliy check in and late check out are standard if we can accommodate it. Half the time the folks still arrive at the usual time, but definitely love the option.
We don't do up charges. None. Pool heat? Free. Firewood, free. Proprane for the grills, free. Starter bag of coffee, free. Stylized greeting card of a propety pic, with a hand written note, always. And we do not point any of this out. They all get it.
I think of how pissed inget at soending 1k in a hotel and being upcharged for early check in, every nickle and dime thing even at a high end place. Hatenit, gonna try to not do that.
Alcohol... Never. America and litigation and insurance... So, your guest tripped and fell into the pool? Yes, he was drunk. Well host, did you provide him with a bottle if wine? Yes, we did. Dis you know he was an alcoholic? Gavel slams. Guilty,. Give him your house.
- Hospitable Partner
These replies are really useful — thank you everyone.
A theme I’m noticing is that the most effective goodwill gestures are not always the expensive ones. Free early check-in, late checkout when possible, a quick reassurance call, local coffee, a thoughtful arrival card, not nickel-and-diming guests, or making the arrival setup easier can all create that feeling of generosity.
I especially like the point about offering early check-in as soon as the property is ready. That feels like such a low-cost, high-impact way to start the stay on the right foot.
The other thing this thread makes me think about is how much guests notice when you’ve actually listened to them. A small gesture does not need to be expensive to feel personal. It just needs to connect to something they told you — why they’re travelling, who they’re bringing, whether they need reassurance, whether they have a dog, or whether they’re celebrating something.
That, to me, is where the goodwill really comes from. Not just the thing itself, but the feeling that the host paid attention.
We have a welcome area with rack cards, chocolates, signage, etc. we don’t leave little gifts for our guest, generally speaking, but we do leave what I like to call Easter eggs throughout the house. Things we don’t mention in our listing, but our little perks like essential oils and bath salts at the bath tubs, and abundant bowl of Hershey’s kisses for snacking, fresh coffee, beans, and an assortment of tease plus an on-demand Hot water dispenser built into the sink so guests can enjoy a refreshment as soon as they get there. No wait. We also have things like nail polish remover, packets, earplugs, and art supplies. Here’s a photo. I’m not wild about the no smoking sign, but we found that it is necessary.
We have a little tray on the kitchen island right when they get there with a couple of water bottles and some snacks like lesser evil popcorn or flavor almonds, Little cookie packets. If they have a dog traveling with them. I have this cute wicker dog basket and inside of that I put a water and food bowl and some treat sticks, a thing of pet wipes and a poop bag. Another thing that is not immediate but people notice it their first evening. We have some battery operated candles on the mantle and they're set to come on at 8:00 and stay on for a couple of hours. Several people have commented how much they like that
We have a little tray on the kitchen island right when they get there with a couple of water bottles and some snacks like lesser evil popcorn or flavor almonds, Little cookie packets. If they have a dog traveling with them. I have this cute wicker dog basket and inside of that I put a water and food bowl and some treat sticks, a thing of pet wipes and a poop bag. Another thing that we did that people have commented positively on are battery operated candles on the fireplace mantle that are set to come on like at 8:00 p.m. And stay on for a couple hours
I'm pretty new to this game. But i must be doing something right because we've already got the top 10% guest favorite badge.
Earliy check in and late check out are standard if we can accommodate it. Half the time the folks still arrive at the usual time, but definitely love the option.
We don't do up charges. None. Pool heat? Free. Firewood, free. Proprane for the grills, free. Starter bag of coffee, free. Stylized greeting card of a propety pic, with a hand written note, always. And we do not point any of this out. They all get it.
I think of how pissed inget at soending 1k in a hotel and being upcharged for early check in, every nickle and dime thing even at a high end place. Hatenit, gonna try to not do that.
Alcohol... Never. America and litigation and insurance... So, your guest tripped and fell into the pool? Yes, he was drunk. Well host, did you provide him with a bottle if wine? Yes, we did. Dis you know he was an alcoholic? Gavel slams. Guilty,. Give him your house.
Exactly. I thought of providing locally grown wine because I do provide wine glasses but then I thought better of it. I'm sure many hosts do it with no issues but if there was going to be a problem. It would probably happen to us 😂
+4We have a welcome area with rack cards, chocolates, signage, etc. we don’t leave little gifts for our guest, generally speaking, but we do leave what I like to call Easter eggs throughout the house. Things we don’t mention in our listing, but our little perks like essential oils and bath salts at the bath tubs, and abundant bowl of Hershey’s kisses for snacking, fresh coffee, beans, and an assortment of tease plus an on-demand Hot water dispenser built into the sink so guests can enjoy a refreshment as soon as they get there. No wait. We also have things like nail polish remover, packets, earplugs, and art supplies. Here’s a photo. I’m not wild about the no smoking sign, but we found that it is necessary.
These are very creative! The Easter egg concept is perfect!
+4Free early check-in whenever it’s available. Offered in the moment, the day of arrival. As soon as cleaners are done, I send a message: “Hey Tom! What’s your ETA to Ocean City? Our place is ready for you ahead of schedule. Let us know if you’d like to check in early :-)”
It gets things off on a good note and creates instant goodwill.
We have a canned message like this too. Want to figure out an easy way to automate (via cleaning team acknowledging its guest ready)!
+3
I checked with Smarty and there currently aren’t any webhooks to use. Smarty’s gotten really good at offering to create really well-written Featurebase requests whenever you mention a “nice to have” feature. Here’s one it just created for me that you can upvote:
https://feedback.hospitable.com/p/webhooknotification-for-cleaning-task-completion
I also had a cool idea a while back that I never did anything with, which is to have a QR code inside our cleaning supply cabinet, that says “Scan here when unit is guest-ready” and that QR code would open a page with a button that lets the cleaners click it to trigger whatever sequence of actions you want (presumably some sort of notification to guest, or at least a notification to you, so that you can tell the guest).
+3
+4
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