Hello everyone!
Welcome to the Community Center! I'm @Bhu...
Latest reply
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the Community Center! I'm @Bhumika , one of the Community Managers for our English Community Ce...
Latest reply
There is a certain similarity in finding true love and being a great Airbnb host!
I don’t have a high opinion of Tinder, E Harmony and other dating sites……. and I think it’s for a good reason.
You can’t find love by searching for it!
As soon as you start searching you lose a part of your integrity, you turn yourself into a poor copy of that great person that you in reality are. The successes are a minuscule percentage of the searchers. In reality online dating doesn’t work!
Love starts with loving yourself, having confidence in yourself. It’s one of those, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher appears” kind of things. Like attracts like.
And if you don’t think you are awesome, work on it, don’t expect someone else to provide you with that inner self esteem!
Do something for yourself, go to the gym, start a discussion group, read, or even better, write a book, paint a portrait of yourself. You don’t have to be perfect at it, you just have to have the inner courage to have a go! Try to do whatever gets you closer to that person you would like to date yourself. Remember, the only person you are going to spend the rest of your life with is…….you!
I was lucky, I didn't search for it, she just appeared one evening and my confidence won her over!
So make sure you are in great company.
How does this relate to being a great Airbnb host?
Everyone will tell me how I could do things better…..
* ‘You don’t have to supply 6 pillows on the bed, 4 is enough’!
* ‘Don’t make hard work for yourself, don’t supply fruit and all that stuff in the fridge’!
* ‘Don’t put those books and paintings out there, they will only get stolen’…..
Everyone has got a better way of running my listing than I have. But over the years I have stuck to my guns, I back my judgement, I learn every day and I have become confident in what I do.
You can’t skip to the end and be a success!
You have to work on being confident…..and we have gone from strength to strength, it has lead me to the point where I think I am a great Airbnb host and my reviews back that up!
Here is my latest.......
Love yourself and love what you do.....and you will be a success!
Cheers........Rob
@Bhumika ,
Bhumika, I have always tried to practice what I preach.
When I was an 8 year old I pointed a gun at my cousin and shot him!
My parents were given a 2000 acre farming property as a wedding present and each year Christmas lunch was held at our farm. On the day all the family gathered and we kids were sent outside to play so the grown-ups could get on with preparing the Christmas feast.
My father had this idea that he was going to convert a large rectangular unused concrete water tank into a family swimming pool. Over the years grass had built up in the base of the unused tank and a large brown snake had taken up residence and each time dad went past the tank he would take a .22 calibre rifle with him and if the snake was visible he would take a shot at it......never actually managed to score a hit though!
Here we were, all us kids outside having fun looking forward to opening the mass of Christmas presents, I noticed the gun up against the back door and for a bit of a laugh I picked it up and pointed it at one of my cousins and said 'Put your hands up' and pulled the trigger......the gun went off and the bullet went through Ricky, my cousin!
Fortunately the bullet didn't hit any major organs, Ricky was rushed to hospital but pulled through okay,
But I never really got on with my father after that day. He thought I was a bit of a ** playing around with a loaded gun, and I thought he was a bit of a ** leaving a loaded gun where an 8 year old kid had access to it!
It wasn't until Ade and I got married, at the reception when I as the bridegroom had to give my speech, I said that 'Over the years Dad and I hadn't really got on but, when I needed him he was always there for me'!
He started to cry and I think we mended a few bridges that day!
That episode taught me to be strong and build my own confidence, I could not expect it from my father, the one I so would have craved it from!
I said in my OP........ read, or even better, write a book, yeah I have done that which I detailed here in another post. Paint a portrait of yourself........yeah I have had a crack at that too. I watched 100's hours of U Tube 'how to paint eyes, chins, hair videos and when I felt confident I had a go at it. Here was my subject photo......
And here was my oils rendition of it........
It's not perfect but Bhumika, I had a go at it, and I was proud of the result. It hangs in my mancave and funnily enough those guests that see it say....'Is that you'! which makes me wonder is it not as good as I think it is!!! I would have thought it was bleedin obvious, but there you go!
We have all got something special in us, we need to concentrate on our successes, not our failures. My feeling is, that's what makes us great people!
Cheers.........Rob
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Nothing like a bit of slow response time!!!!!
Bhumika, I have hosted a human rites lawyer from Brussels with his lovely family, a cowboy from the Black Hills of Dakota, a strawberry farmer from one of the southern provinces in China, an engineer who worked on the NASA Apollo moon landing project, a 'lady of the night' who had escaped from the degrading streets of Mumbai, an actor who stared in a long running OZ TV series (the Secret Life of Us).....
I have seen and met a huge cross-section of humanity since I have been hosting and I have been honoured to hear their stories, like the cowboy from Dakota. When he booked there was nothing on his profile except one wish list item.....and that was to stay at our listing.
He was to fly in from the west coast of the US, stay here with us for a week and then fly back to the US. It seemed rather odd but I accepted his booking, we had a great week. At one point I asked him why he had come all this way to simply stay with us.
He told me his wife was an ultra marathon runner and a few years previously had been out training, had been struck by a vehicle and never came home! He feels his loss terribly and every year he goes to a listing he thinks his wife would have liked, and in 2017.....it was ours!
Bhumika, every guest has a story to tell, and I am the richer for having the privilege to hear their stories.
Cheers........Rob
