New to the Community Center? Introduce yourself here ‌👇

[Bhumika]

Hello everyone! 😊

Welcome to the Community Center! 👋  I'm @Bhumika , one of the Community Managers for our English Community Center along with my lovely team members @Quincy @Paula @Rebecca  and @Sophia and we are thrilled to have you join us.

Let's kickstart this thread with a little about us Community Managers:

@Quincy : I'm from the Netherlands 🇳🇱 I have been on the Community Center for 6+ years, and have been an Airbnb Host myself. I love cycling🚲, playing football⚽, and travelling🌏 . I love how dynamic and diverse the Community Center is as we meet Hosts from all around the globe. 

@Bhumika :  🌍 I was born in Gujarat, India 🇮🇳 , and shifted to Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦 last year! 📷 I recently realized my love for photography and aesthetics. I love to capture mundane life and candid pictures. 🌆 When I'm not working, you'll find me binge-watching thriller movies or exploring history.

@Paula : I am from Colombia 🇨🇴 and currently living in British Columbia, Canada 🇨🇦. I have a passion for Latin American culture (I love to dance 💃) . I've had the opportunity to visit around 20 countries 🌎 and plan to visit many more. In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities, especially mountain biking 🚲 and hiking 🏔.

@Sophia : Born and bred in the UK 🇬🇧 but my roots are Bangladeshi 🇧🇩. I love cats 🐱, enjoy eating crisps (also known as chips) and enjoy baking 🍪. I also love travelling ✈️  I have worked in Community ever since I graduated and to put it lightly, people are my passion! 💖

@Rebecca : I'm from Cardiff in Wales originally but being a military child and a veterans spouse, I've travelled and lived in a lot of different places in the UK and Europe. I'm an environmentalist 🌿 and like to minimise my impact on the planet 🌎 as well as volunteering in my local community.  I love sea swimming 🌊 yoga on the beach 🧘‍ and I'm a children's yoga instructor too! 🙌 

Now it's your turn! Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? And is there something special about the location of your accommodation that you'd like to share?

Looking forward to getting to know you all!

Warm regards,

Bhumika

[Sophia]

A big warm welcome to you @Daniel13054 🎉
I love your enthusiasm for community 😀
How is your hosting journey going so far?

Thank you for sharing your story. I'd also like to introduce my dear friend and fellow

Community Manager @Paula 💖 who is also originally from  Colombia 🇨🇴

Please do share your experiences with the wider community by creating a post here, I bet you have lots of tips that could help new hosts 💡

[Marie-Lyne3]

Hi everyone!

My name is Marie, and I am located on Canada Hill Lake situated near the beautiful beach town of Lockport, Nova Scotia. Born a "Military Brat" in Lharr, Germany, we moved to Canada when I was 2 and since then I have experienced living in the mountains, near the sea, in the prairies, the jungles of Nicaragua, and have now purchased our first home in the small, peaceful town of Canada Hill, population 10 people (year round) surrounded by wilderness, green foliage, tall trees, rivers and waterfront. 

We are just beginning the  transformation of our garden shed into a lakefront, wilderness retreat, while I continue educating myself more and more through my professional cleaning/property management and contracting companies in BC and NS. I am hear to soak in everything I possibly can regarding the vacation rental experiences from around the world. I love the diversity involved in this community.

Thank you for having me! And if i can help in any way, professional cleaning and vacation rental staging is my profession and we hold a 5 star rating. Happy to be of assistance!

[Sophia]

Hey there @Marie-Lyne3, wow 😮 that's incredible, you have lived in such diverse and unique places. What has been your favourite place to live in so far? 🏡

How are the renovations going so far? What did you get up to before you dived into the world of hosting? 😎

If you would like to you can join this discussion where fellow hosts share their hobbies & interests 💬

[Anton7298]

Hi, 

I am from Philippines but working in Middle East at the moment. I have been hosting for around 11 months. We do not plan to have a second property but it happened that is why I was looking for ways making it useful and found AirBNB.

I am not alone in this venture, me and my wife run it, but mostly, my wife. Those 5 stars is the fruit of her excellence in setting up the house and keeping things together. She is taking care of the house as if she will be booking it the next day. She wants things to be perfect. My role in this is basically the IT guy 🙂 keeping the account and making sure the property have internet.

I decided to come to community center to ask for guidance and advice how to overcome our our 33rd review which turns out to be our first "false review" of 1 star.

We were devastated. Especially my wife. She cried a lot and was shocked! I am actually considering to close the account.

So much for that, I will be posting my case in another thread, I just want to drop by here to say Hi to everyone. I read some of the post before I started doing mine and it was so relieving already knowing others stories.

Kudos to all!

[Heinz181]

Hello Anton, I lost my badge because of one bad evaluation also. You should not call it “false” evaluation people are the people they are, some try to mess up. In my view, Airbnb administration should be more considerate and not only let the math reign, but also the amount of badges you got doing the last two years at least. Cheers, Heinz

[Anton7298]

I think you're right, history should be considered in reviews, especially if it will make a huge difference. They should allow the bad review but should not allow the stars to be taken into account.

No matter how good is the reply and explanation to a bad review, the 1 star will do its damaged.

[Sophia]

Hello @Anton7298, Welcome to the CC! Great to have you here 🎉

It's heart-warming and sweet to see how you're showing your appreciation for your wife 😀

I love the dedicated play corner in your listing 🙌🏽

Sorry to hear about what happened, I'm sure plenty of hosts will offer their advice and share their thoughts with you 🙏🏽

[Kathy1455]

I am Kathy.  My husband and I live in Roy, WA.  We have a 30 acre working horse ranch.  While not new to the short term rental business, we are new to Airbnb.  We have a cottage and a 5th wheel which are listed with Airbnb.  We are not only looking to provide accommodations for our guests but to also encourage them to participate in one of our horse experiences. 

I am a certified riding instructor with well trained, well mannered horses, who has gotten burned out in the lesson business.  I am now changing focus and offering short term experiences to the public interacting with my full sized horses or my miniature horses.  Many of my horses are true rescues, having been removed from abusive or neglectful situations, as opposed to being purchased from a horse auction.  

I hope I won't be needing too much assistance.  It is good to know there is a place I can go for help should I find myself in a situation.  I look forward to working with everyone.  

[Sophia]

Welcome @Kathy1455 to the community 🎉

It's lovely seeing that you are still able to share your passion and love for horses through hosting experiences 🐴❤️

I hope you have been enjoying it so far 😊

Do share your experiences with the wider community, I bet you have plenty of wisdom to share! 🙌🏽

[Kathy1455]

@Sophia

So far, other than meeting my horses, chickens, geese, ducks and potbellied pig, no one has taken advantage of our experiences.  But, from what I am learning, those who have booked with us, did not realize we really are a working ranch.  They are happy to learn we are exactly what we say we are, with no hidden surprises.  So, I am definitely up for any suggestions you or the community has to offer.  

[Sophia]

Hi @Kathy1455, please feel free to start a discussion about it. I'm sure many fellow hosts will find it interesting and have lots of advice to share 😊
You can create a post here ✍🏼

[Kathy1455]

I clicked on the link you provided in your post.  It opens to a 404 error message.  Should I just start a new thread?  Thank you.  

[Jesze0]

Hi Kathy, I love this, sounds lovely… my daughter is a rider and so am I… she’s a show jumper and would love an experience like that.
Where is your cottage? Would love to find your listing and wish list it for a future trip. 
Will give you a search on the app. 🪻

[Kathy1455]

Our cottage is in the United States, specifically, Roy, Washington.  You can find it under The Cottage at Rusty Bar Ranch.  One thing we have which is unique to the west coast is our Dressage Simulator, Sheena.  There are only 5 in the US who are used publicly.  The rest are privately owned.  Sheena does everything a real horse does except buck, bolt, bite, kick and rear, although I do inform people it would be an ugly day in any of my live horse's neighborhoods should they ever think to act that way.  

While I love to jump, and I could teach jumping, the increase to my insurance rates just having it on my teaching certificate, preclude my offering it.  Sheena is flat as well, although she will jump the wild boars when you are "riding in the forest".  In addition to the teaching screens, she also has 4500 acres of riding.  Go to my website, www.rustybarranch.com and click on Sheena's link so you can see what I am talking about.  

I have been a certified instructor since 2008.  I had a thriving business until COVID hit.  Now I have a handful of clients because it appears everyone wants instant gratification.  Taking the time to develop a relationship with a horse is no longer what the public seems to want.  So, we are changing our focus and offering horse experiences.  Now, I am working on how to appeal to our guests so they will treat us as a destination and want to book an experience while they are staying with us, so I am open to any and all suggestions.  

Thank you for reaching out.  I hope you will make it to the ranch.

[Catherine3596]

Hi! I'm Catherine and I have put our house in Mouans-Sartoux on AirBnB. The Community Center has already been really helpful as I am new to all this. Catherine