This is resulting in coordinated efforts to Boycott Airbnb h...
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This is resulting in coordinated efforts to Boycott Airbnb hosts which will end up costing the people who support his sight t...
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Lisa, thank you for starting this thread, we need to remind ourselves how much good and beauty there is in hosting! We see and comment on so much negativity here that after a while it scares us into believing there is just no good side to short term renting. It's a bit drawn out but can I give you 4 examples of why I love and continue to host on Airbnb.
A/.......I had a reservation request from Lee. He had absolutely no profile information except one wish list item, and that was to stay at our listing. This is more often a red flag for a host when considering a booking request.
He had no reviews, no nothing! He was to fly in from the west coast of America, stay in our cottage for a week and then fly back out back home to the US……….Who does that? I smelt a rat, this guy was a ‘mystery shopper’, a company mole, and he was checking how well we colonials represented the company for accuracy.
I accepted his reservation request, and by God, let me tell you, I pulled out all the stops! This was going to be the hosting of all times…..I was going to leave no stone unturned here! Lee arrived and we had a great week, shared a few meals and plenty of wines from my wine cellar. He tried to convert me to Southern Bourbon whisky and I tried to talk him into Adelaide Hills Shiraz…..neither of which were particularly successful but, it was a really nice hosting.
But Lee wasn’t a company mole, he was just a cowboy from the Black Hills of Dakota! I asked him why he had come all this way to simply stay in one location, one experience and then return home!
Lee teared up as he told me his wife was an ultra-marathon runner, and a few years previously she was out training one day, was struck by a vehicle and never came home. Lee’s world was shattered and he has not been able to move on and every year he goes to a property he thinks his wife would have liked…….. and in 2017 he joined Airbnb, and it was our cottage.
B/......We hosted a French family and were invited to join them for a drink and to share the cheese plate I had provided as part of their stay. We got on well, so I cooked a meal we also shared . We had a wonderful evening with them and after they left, this is the review they left for us, and my review response…..
C/......I had a booking request from, ‘Marianne’. She booked to stay for the wedding of one of her past swimming pupils. When she booked, she told me she was regarded as Australia’s leading junior swimming coach, and the bridegroom had said to her, he could not get married unless Marianne attended. I thought, WOW, this is going to be good so I told her where all the training facilities were, close to us.
The day of the stay arrived, it was hot (middle of January) and this access van pulled up out the front and the driver helped this very large woman from the van. She had a crutch supporting one arm and with the driver at the other arm she gingerly made her way up the driveway. I stood there open mouthed…..this is not the woman I thought I was hosting. She was the largest woman I had ever actually seen mobile! We introduced ourselves and the driver and I managed to get her in on the cottage bed. She was sweating profusely and a sense of dread came over me……this had disaster written all over it. She was comfortable so I left her to it, I hurried to my computer and got onto Airbnb support and explained my situation and they asked if I wanted to cancel the reservation. I said….”I can’t, she is already here but I just want you to open a ticket and log this call. This person is not an accurate representation of the person I accepted for this stay. Just be aware that if I have an issue here you are aware that I have made Airbnb aware of my situation”!
She seemed to get on ok that afternoon and evening , the next afternoon I was sitting outside under the shade and she came out of the cottage and asked if she could sit and talk. I motioned her to sit down and she started going on about all her swimming successes and I was thinking to myself……’For Goodness sake shut-up Marianne, you would empty a swimming pool, not fill one’.
I asked if she would like a cup of tea which she accepted, my wife Ade came out and we started to talk. She suddenly started to cry! She told us how her genetic affliction had taken over her life and robbed her of her career, her family had largely abandoned her and she had ended up all alone in a country town in NSW.
She had hit rock bottom and from that point she was great company and we all had a nice afternoon.
The next morning the bridegroom and best man arrived to pick up Marianne to take her to the wedding. He was indeed one of Australia’s best swimmers, an Olympian with multiple medals behind him! They looked so comical, all 6ft 3 of him with his arm around 5ft ‘nothing’ of this little rotund Marianne. He looked me in the eye and he said….”I couldn’t have done it without this woman”!!!!
I thought, ‘well there you go, you never judge a book by its cover’!
It turned out to be one of the nicest hosting I have done. She stayed for 5 nights and both my wife and I were a little sad to see her go.
Here is the review Marianne left for us!
D/.....We received a booking from Nick and Hannah from London to stay for a week. They said as part of their booking communication they were a bit concerned about our dog Betts (an Aussie Shepherd) as Hannah had a lifelong canine fear having been bitten by a dog when she was young. I said to them in the message stream that the dog would not be a problem as I had a daughter living not 2 Kms away and we could relocate Betts to my daughter’s house for the duration of their stay.........
They agreed to book and see how things panned out.
Normally Betts gets excited and barks when guests arrive but, when Nick and Hannah arrived she just sat silent at the door and stared at these two people entering the cottage. We all agreed to see how things would work out with Hannah being somewhat concerned but, the third night of their visit we had drinks and a cheese plate at one of the outdoor seating areas and during the course of that evening Betts just sat next to us all, just pleased to be involved. At one point Hannah nudged a biscuit off the edge of the table….that was all, nothing else, no pat but Betts just looked up at her and sat next to her for the rest of the evening.
Two nights later Hannah asked if she could come out with me while I took Betts up to the local oval to play ‘retrieve the ball’! Hannah threw the ball (with the aid of a plastic ball thrower) and Betts would bring the ball back to her. After the week passed they were about to leave and Hannah had to give Betts the biggest hug goodbye. Here is the review that Nick left for us…..
I could relate dozens of others, like the 67 year old Japanese woman who sat at my piano as was the best Jazz pianist I have ever heard!
This is what we host for, you can't manufacture these experiences, they come out of thin air! But every time they happen I feel a sense of pride being an Airbnb host. It's not often we get a chance to share these moments, so Thanks Lisa for starting this thread.
Hosting is a numbers game, by my statistics for every 1 less than acceptable guest there will be 30 of the best guests God ever created and, any seasoned punter will tell you 30 to 1 is pretty good odds.
Cheers.......Rob
