My husband and I have been hosts since 2013. We first started hosting based on our own travels with airbnb and how much we enjoyed the interaction and experience staying with locals. Over 450 guests hosted so far and still going strong despite multiple moves. The vast majority of guests have been easy peasy and a delight. A handful have been problematic based on unrealistic expectations and or “entitlement” attitudes and not reading our descriptions. So overall we are thrilled with the hosting experience and grateful for this amazing lifestyle.
Most of our airbnb memories involve wonderful guests but in all our years hosting nothing compares to this:
Our guests, parents from China, were staying with us to visit their daughter, an international student studying at Colgate University where our airbnb was located. They messaged us after they left saying they had left a small bag under the bed but didn’t say what was in it. Because new guests had already checked in, we had to wait till they went out to look for the bag. Because they did not say what was in it, we assumed it was something private like underwear or maybe personal hygiene items. When we picked up the bag, it fell open, revealing about $15,000 in cash, neatly bundled up. With our eyes popping out of our heads, we took the bag with the money and called the owners to make arrangements to pick up their cash. What we didn’t know was that our new guests had quickly checked out because they had already found the bag of cash. Finding it suspicious, they assumed it was was some kind of drug money stash and not wanting to put themselves in danger, packed up and left our airbnb. They also stopped by the police to let them know what had taken place.
Luckily the local police knew us and came up to find out what was happening. Turned out the money was not a drug stash but honestly earned cash. Our previous guest brought money from China to pay their son’s bills he racked up over the past semester!
We wrote to our second set of guests explaining what had happened and apologizing for the scare though we never heard from them again.
Such is the life of an airbnb host. - We love every minute of it and keep a sense of humor every time we host.
We hope you all have a Blessed Christmas and New Year.
Kelly & Dan
