New to the Community Center? Introduce yourself here (Updated)

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

A warm welcome to the Community Center. 

This discussion is for introducing yourself to your fellow Airbnb Community members, as well as welcoming and saying hello to newcomers in return. Thanks to all of you who have already introduced yourself and contributed in our previous thread, here.  

I'm Lizzie and I am the Community Manager here, along with my teammate @Quincy. I have been managing the Airbnb Community Center since it officially opened in November 2015. It is fantastic to speak with amazing community members here. 

To kickstart this topic, I would like to share a few things about myself:

1. I love to travel, hot or cold it doesn't matter - I'm ready with my sun lotion or a raincoat! 
2. I play several instruments, but my main one is the flute. I always enjoy a good conversation about music. 
3. Lastly, over the past year I have become very interested in all things eco/sustainablilty related.

How about you? Any interesting facts or hobbies?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. 

Lizzie

[Saleh16]

Hello Lizzie/ Quincy/ all,

My name is Saleh and this is my first contribution. Hope everyone is doing great. Am writing from Amman-Jordan; a small country with exceptional old wonders, including Petra (see Indiana Jones), Wadi Rum (see Star Wars), the Roman city of Jerash, the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth), among other exciting tourist attractions.

Come visit us. It will be a trip of a life time in a very safe country among some of the kindest and most generous people on earth.

[Quincy]

Lovely to meet you @Saleh16! I've always wanted to visit Jordan :-). 

[Marie1638]

Bonjour, je m'appelle Marie, je suis devenue hôte il y a un an, j'habite en Gironde au nord de Bordeaux.

J'aimerai suspendre temporairement mon calendrier, comment faire sans bloquer les jours ? Merci pour vos réponses.

[Quincy]

Bonjour @Marie1638, Bienvenue au centre communautaire!

Excusez-moi pour mon vocabulaire français, je ne suis pas un locuteur natif :-). C'est la communauté anglophone. Vous pouvez accéder à la Communauté Française en cliquant >ici<.

[Gail287]

Hi I am Gail, and together with my husband Glen are the very proud owner's of Knysna Manor House, situated on the beautiful Garden Route, on the Western Cape in Sunny South Africa.

We purchased our guesthouse 12 years ago as a way and means of getting my parents out of Zimbabwe.  From being a Manager at a Band to running a dairy farm my mom, Brenda took up the challenge and what a challenge it was.

The guesthouse was originally built in 1896 for the then Mayor of Knysna.  Throughout the years it has undergone many changes, from being an orphanage, a nurses home and since the late 1980's a guesthouse.

Our team is different in that Brenda at 80 runs our guesthouse, and I do the marketing, listings etc for it from a town nearly 1200 km away.  Keeping it in the family, my sister Mandy and her husband Richard will be taking over the running of the guesthouse from mid September, giving my mom a much deserved rest.

Glen and I do go to visit often, and I love the interactions with the guests.  I spent two weeks down in Knysna during their annual Oyster Festival, which is a great attraction during the colder months of winter for our area.  The fist weekend has two Cycle Races, one a Mountain Bike race on the Saturday and the 2nd a Road Bike race on the Sunday.  Many food festivals go on throughout the ten days, and the 2nd weekend consists of either a 42km or 21km Forest Run, during which participants are taken to the top of the forest and run to the sports grounds in the town to the finish.  I had 3 different AirBnb guests during this time, and I must say that they are of a different calibre.  Not full of nonsense, nor or are they demanding.

So not too much about me, but our guesthouse is my passion, so in the end all of the above is about me.  I strive to be able to keep my superhost status for many years to come.

[Lynne206]

Hi Lizzie and Quincy! We just purchased our condo in Carolina Beach, NC in May and had our first guests. I am so happy to report a 5 star review from them and likewise for them! We have our 2nd guests coming on Friday. So far, off to a good start! Still trying to get bookings and setting the price and minimum days for the area.

We have a great cleaning service that is prompt and does a great job! They can't take on our linen service at this time though so we do have a challenge that I would like some help from the Carolina Beach community group with. I would like advice as to what others are  doing for linen servicing in the area. Is there a laundry you recommend for drop off? Do they offer pick up and delivery? 

We are not local, so it makes the turn around a little more difficult.  My co-host and daughter and her husband live nearby and are handling it all for us. Thanks for any advice!!

[Quincy]

Hello @Lynne206, I apologize for my rather late reply to your post! It's so great to hear that you've had a positive review from your guest :-). I think that if you're looking for tips and tricks, it would be best if you create a topic in the community as there are a lot of fellow hosts out there! 

[Lynne206]

Thank you Quincy! July and August were very successful. We do have a pick up and drop off linen service now so it is great! After 3 different cleaning services, finally found one that was a great fit and we have been using her since the first of August. The nightly rate is still a challenge and smart pricing wasn't adjusting so well since we are new so I removed it for now.

Thanks for responding and I will take your advice on putting in a topic if I ask another question! 

[Rayisha0]

Hey everyone ,

My name is  Rayisha but I go by Ray... I live  in Maryland in the Washington DC area. I am a "travelista "I have been all over the world and the states... Everything I do influences travel... so naturally I joined the community so that I can learn more from guest and host while  I prepare to list my property in the  Washington DC National Harbor. 

SO I travel 

I WILL host

I Have BAG TAXI - a mobile luggage storage and delivery service...which is super beneficial  for guest coming to the DC area and Air BNB  Host...

[Park9]

Hello Community Center,

I'm Park and with my wife, Lyn, have been hosts for one year and have learned a lot about renting our second home in Vermont and about the people who have been our guests. I built our home myself some years ago; and, now we are inviting guests to offset our expense in keeping a second home. We have gathered some great advice and opinions from Community Center and hope to use this benefit to our advantage and to enhance the success of our guests' stays.

We enjoy traveling, particularly to Europe, and have also had great experiences with home exchanges. We thank all who unselfishly share their experiences with us.

[MangoandEeg0]

Hello this is Mango and Eeg from Taiwan , we host for many years now , meet lots of people everyday , its more fun than fun 

, here is our sweet home

https://www.airbnb.com/users/23809228/listings

and us 

[Quincy]

Welcome to the Community Center @MangoandEeg0 !

Feel free to create your own topic if you have anything you'd like to ask or share :-).

[Christy137]

Hello my name is Christy.  My husband and I built our home in Calgary Alberta Canada in 2017.  When  we built we built a basement suite,which is it's own dwelling.  We always planned to Airbnb the suite and in March 2019 we began doing this.  We are very happy with how this is working out.  We are renting it out far more than we had even hoped we might!  There is a lot of room in this market for this business.  We knew that our city was saturated with Airbnb rentals and many seem to not rent out too often.  But with competitive pricing and also great reviews, this hasn't been a problem.  We would love to connect with our hosts in our city.  I know there is a group who meets regularly, but I don't know how to join them.  I'm looking forward to learning more in this forum.

[Alexandra848]

Hi ABnBC!

I'm Alex, my husband Jason and I just posted our home in Lake Arrowhead, CA. It's been a journey to get the place ready and we SO love our home, as it's offered us much peace and tranquility outside the hustle and bustle of LA life. 

A little bit about us -- Jason works in the film industry and I work in education so our schedules rarely ever align, and spending time together in the mountains has been limited. When we can share time together we love to hike, camp and just generally enjoy the outdoors (given SoCal has pretty amazing weather year-round). When we can scrape together both the time AND money we love to travel and AirBnB has actually been a huge resource for us as we've traveled both domestically and internationally. 

We're excited to share it with others and I look forward to getting to know this community as I'm sure it is chock-full of great experiences and wisdom around P2P rentals. Thanks in advance for the conversation and advice!

[Denise834]

Hello,

My name is Denise. I became an Airbnb Host after Christmas of last year. Normally I've had a renter, but after nine months of no response, and my savings dwindling, I decided to push the button. I'm glad I did, I've met amazing people.

I was born in Great Falls, Montana. Out side of three years in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the mid 80's I've lived most of my life in the Pacific Northwest and raised my children there. For the past 11 years I have lived outside the beltway of Washington, DC on the Virginia side in a little community called Burke. Origionally I worked downtown but now work from home. 

I've always been a person who used Airbnb as a guest. I am now glad to be a host and understand why some of the places I've stayed were the way they were. I try very hard to make sure my guests have an excellent experience without me feeling like I've given them my house to do with what they wish. The extra income has been a blessing since I am on a tight budget. I am able to do repairs and upgrades to my home in a pro-active way instead of waiting for things to fall apart. A real blessing to me!

I do not have pets because I don't want anyone to experience allergies. However, when my kids lived with me we had a dog and cat. I miss them, but I enjoy the freedom to come and go. This is another thing Airbnb has given me is the freedom to mark out days I don't want anyone in my home. Something I always thought about when I had renters (not too much, they were always cool). 

I'm glad to be a part of the Airbnb world and look forward to learning a lot of others.

~Denise