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With this message from Ivano, ten years ago, I started my journey on Airbnb and exactly on December 16th I welcomed my first "strangers" at home.
I had only posted my listing live a few days earlier and to be honest, I didn't really believe in hosting strangers in my home, so the message took me by surprise. You know, the thousand and one doubts from when we started this activity: who was Ivano and why had he chosen my home and not another?
At that time there were only 300 listings in the whole island of Tenerife and only two (including mine) were in my beautiful but not touristic village of Tacoronte.
December is winter here, and although the island is known for its eternal spring, it has so many microclimates that we just happened to be in the "green and natural" but also "cloudy, rainy and humid" environment.
The booking came in, how nerve-wracking! How could I forget that feeling?
It's worth noting that ten years ago GPS was not a common feature on mobiles or in cars, so Ivano quite rightly asked me for directions. Let's get to work: motorway TF1, turn off on TF2, take TF5 until exit 19, left, right, right, left... In the end we agreed to meet in the town square, where else to meet for the first time?
How is your car, I asked. The profile picture didn't give me many clues so having identified the car, model and colour would be a great help. We also gave each other phone numbers although they were of little use as there was no roaming or easy internet access either, but that's something, I thought.
That Sunday, December 16, started off spectacularly, i.e. "raining cats and dogs". S***. All's well that ends well, I said to myself.
I took one last look at our garden house (originally arranged to host family and friends), and now accommodated for those "erbinbin" strangers (yes, of course, back then no one was quite clear on how to pronounce Airbnb correctly).
Everything seemed in order and familiar. The budget had been enough to buy everything we needed, and we had managed to save by reusing things from our own home.
We had put an unused electric cooker on top of the kitchen units I had assembled with my own hands (super proud, of course); the bathroom mirror was a gift from my husband on his 40th birthday; the dining table was an old teak table we had in the garden that we painted a bright English red for the occasion, making it look elegant and designer; the sofa we had in our living room now presided over the sitting area, and the little table at the front was nothing more than an Ikea shelf in a position for which it was not designed, with legs and glass for decorative support that is still there.
The bed was a mattress on a set of wooden pallets, concealed by a white structure that I also put together, and the television... What can I say? The television was almost the size of an oven, one of those big and bulky ones that were no longer in use, but it worked perfectly (or so it seemed).
I must admit that it wasn't perfect, but the overall look was very nice and it was put together with a lot of enthusiasm. Undoubtedly, the photos in the listing must have been attractive enough to make this "Ivano" want to stay at home.
Well, or maybe he did it because of the photo of our beloved Moma, a very young Maltese bichon at the time, who until her last days (she left us in 2021) was the star of our listing.
In the end, for one reason or another, he had chosen us and there was no turning back.
Before going to meet him, I mentally reviewed the phrases and words written in English on the bathroom wall (post-it notes always worked well for me in the most unexpected places): "Welcome to Tenerife, this is Daniel, your host"; "Is this the first time here?"; "Do not doubt to write to me if you need any recommendation", etc. Just thinking about it made me blush again!
The silver Toyota Yaris appeared in the square, I plucked up my courage, took out my umbrella and went to meet him. Greetings and nervous smiles (I think on both sides, of course: they were also going to stay at a stranger's house!)
I must say I was lucky, Ivano and his wife Marlene, although living in Germany, were Italian by birth and our language roots facilitated communication. This allowed us to understand each other from the first sentence (or so I wanted to believe), so I relaxed a bit and explained to them what they needed to know about the flat, as well as what they needed to know to get around and get to know the island. Now we had to hope that everything would be perfect during their stay....
I was pleasantly surprised that already on the first day they sent me a message telling me what they had done and what they had discovered about the island. We passed each other in the shared car park and after exchanging a few words I invited them to visit a "guachinche".
A guachinche here is a typical place to dine with family and friends, a place that could be a private house or a garage, where the owners themselves prepare traditional dishes and share them with their guests while offering the local wine.
I needed to find the right place, one of those that you can only get to and discover if you are driven by a local or a GPS, and early one evening my husband Eduardo and I went with our guests to a place recommended by a friend.
Impossible not to remember his face of surprise at the unusual and typical place, the dishes they brought us (I admit that it is not normal to be brought a plate of chistorras on fire), the kindness of the waitress and most importantly, the pleasant company and the feeling of dining with friends.
Marlene, Ivano, Eduardo and me in the famous guachinche, in December 2012
The experience was unforgettable for everyone and before they left we met again, this time in our main house where we enjoyed again that wonderful atmosphere of sharing your space and our time with acquaintances, with whom a priori you would never have crossed paths in life, but who suddenly arrive to stay as friends.
We talked about family, travel, experiences and work, but above all we shared the same enthusiasm for life and the incredible encounters that generate synchronicities and connections that are difficult to explain.
That's the reason why, as a personal bet, I kept and keep my spaces exclusively on Airbnb and I don't regret it. I am not a landlord and I don't consider myself a rental provider either. For the most part, the guests who choose us are people with whom I find an important harmony when it comes to communicating, contributing and sharing their life experience and the discovery of this incredible land in which I chose to live.
Ivano and his wife Marlene were not only my first guests, they were the ones who made me see what Airbnb could offer me: the possibility of connecting with people I would never have imagined meeting otherwise.
As I always repeat, Ivano and Marlene taught me that as much as you give trust, you also receive it and that a better world is possible if we understand that respect is the basis of every relationship and that we can still trust ourselves and those around us.
In these 10 years we have spoken numerous times through the chat that has been active since 2012, we have celebrated birthdays, personal and professional achievements, holidays and even the birth of their son (whom we hope to meet soon), not to mention the sad news of the disappearance of David Bowie, of whom they are huge fans.
And although they haven't returned to the island (I think the burning chistorra in the guachinche was traumatic, hehe) we have gone to visit them at their home in Hamburg and shared dinner in a typical place there (without anything burning in between).
Today, December 16, 2022, exactly ten years after their visit, they are also here reading this post because I will make sure to share it with them: they are part of my Airbnb family.
To say goodbye and celebrate with you, let me say that in these years many guests have passed through our lives, arriving as strangers and leaving as friends, teaching us the value of respect, education, diversity and coexistence between strangers who share the same world.
I send you all a big greeting, happy holidays, and above all, wishes for many "Ivanos and Marlenes" in your lives.
Happy hosting!
Thanks @Jenny
I feel very lucky after all these years to receive guests who are already part of my Airbnb family ❤️
Yesterday afternoon, I received a message from Shok and Annie, from England, sending me a photo about the portrait of Moma next to their Christmas tree in U.K.
Shok and Annie were very special to Moma and every time they visited the island they took her on an excursion. In fact, with the help of their son Damian, they made a song for Moma.
Our beloved Maltese is no longer with us, but as you can see, she has left lasting memories!
