ORDER ME A PIZZA, CALL ME A TAXI AND KEEP THE NOISE DOWN

[Sean433]

I have seen it all... mostly. I try not to get worked up about things anymore so now I just try to laugh about them. I noticed a lot of hosts said they had interesting Christmas guests. This one takes the cake for the funniest one.

They came for 7 days from the Bahamas. Why someone would leave paradise to come to our cold country in December is odd especially since they had no family here. They spent their entire time inside our walk-out basement located in the same house as us but is totally separated and private from our unit. They literally had nothing to do here. Did not go downtown, did not go out anywhere. Except for the grocery store.

They asked me to order them pizza 3 times and call them a taxi. I did so, each time within 15 minutes of their request. I was so confused as to why they could not order pizza on their own either via phone or online (they had wifi). Also, uber would work to if you have wifi but she said it did not work for her.

So get this, she did leave me a 5 star review but also left me a critique in the review of recommending that I get a phone for the unit. What airbnb offers a landline phone??? Who even has a landline phone anymore is another good question??? An even better question, who leaves the Bahamas to come here in winter to stay inside all day???

Finally, in the private feedback section, she says try to keep the noise down, we could hear everything during the day making it difficult to nap. I am not even home during the day. I am home sometimes, I do live there but not home during the day. You spent thousands of dollars just to go somewhere to take naps and eat pizza every day?? Mind boggling!!!

[Linda-And-Richard0]

Hi @Sean433  Christmas must be the season for weird guests.  Our holiday family arrives and the husband immediately heads to the master bedroom and shuts the door.   Prior correspondence with this man had been minimal at best.  Next morning I send a message to make sure all is well.  No reply til 9:15 pm when I receive message of no hot water.  We check to find the hot water faucet on in the bathroom.   Appears to have been running for quite some time and emptied the 40 gallon water heater.  Guests have used more water in 24 hours that was used in the prior month.   Wife comments plenty of hot water night before.   Day of check out I ask grandmother how they enjoyed Christmas.  She replies son and wife were sick and never left the house.  Funny, no car in the driveway during the 3 day stay.  During make ready for next guests, discover all the velvet hangers missing from the master bedroom along with the emergency flashlight for same room.

[Ashley678]

It's almost like guests who DON'T  hosts themselves expect , " butler " like service from us. I love this company, but i hate to say it... i truly believe their advertising  put's their Hosts in this exact situation. It's no longer the days of ,  " stay like a local ", it's become an , Experience stay...even if that isn't what you're offering. With the confusion of , " plus and luxury " stays on their platform, it's no wonder the guests want me to build them a campfire in 4 degree temperature. 

[Sean433]

@Ashley678 

It is known for attracting cheapskates or if I can say it more nicely, the price conscious folks. They come to a nice home at about half the price they would spend at a hotel for an equivalent amount of space and some of them expect you to go way above what a "budget" place is supposed to offer. I do go above but is not interesting when they still ding you in a review after being so helpful?

On other sites, I also get dinged here and there but at least I don't get nearly as many requests for unreasonable discounts or unreasonable requests.

[Ashley678]

yup, cheapskates.. 

[Rowena29]

@Sean433 

She sounds a bit clueless.   I think you were enormously patient - and you're right I think, learning to laugh is a great strategy.

Like a few others on here I do have a little empathy for the phone scenario ( I wouldn't suggest a landline  but perhaps landlines are quite common in the Bahamas? Only 15 years ago, there were still landlines in most hotel rooms in Australia, so maybe that's still the case over there?? I have no idea).  We've not down a lot of travelling, but I once booked an airbnb right up north in Norway.  We were terrible guests - but not intentionally.  We missed a ferry by about 30 seconds, which made up nearly 40 mins late. When we tried to ring to alert the host, we just kept getting an engaged signal. We'd been in the country 2 weeks already and had no phone problems with whatever system we were using.  We were in a car, so couldn't email.  We finally arrived at the address, quite late, only to discover it WASN'T the address, it was the PO address. It was about 9.30 at night, in a very remote part of the countryside, no street lights, no people about and we couldn't' communicate with the host.  We found him eventually (about 12 kms away, long story.) He has hysterical and cross. WE were hysterical and cross. He didnt' believe we'd been trying to ring.  We showed what happened when we did....  just one of a number of disaster stories with phones when travelling overseas....

[Danielle476]

Haha I laughed so hard at this!  Order me a pizza?!  You're MUCH nicer than I am.  Someone asked me once where the slippers were and I had to bite my tongue - the Ritz doesn't even provide slippers, how am I supposed to store dozens of different sizes for guests in a 500 square foot home?  If I got this request I might have fallen right out of my chair laughing.  I'm glad you got the 5 star review you very clearly deserved at least!

[Sean433]

@Danielle476 

It was New Years evening. I didn't have the heart to refuse her the pizza. But common, its New Years, live it up a bit, at least Swiss Chalet?