Social media is evil.

[Robin4]

@Kath9 from Albany made a great comment today! She said...."Hang in there @Airbnb - this to shall pass!."...and it will.

My concern is that social media sites...and I guess we could put the CC in this category, search for dud content.

If I use America as an example, over here in Australia we only see the best and the worst of America, we don’t get to hear or see that vast middle ground where nothing newsworthy happens. For that reason outsiders tend to see the US as a nation of extremes.

For argument sake, a Utube video will show a street interviewer in Chicago, Memphis, Wichita, asking those that pass on the sidewalk, “Where is Australia?” and half of them don’t even want to volunteer an answer they just shrug their shoulders. Of the other half, 50% of them will say it’s in Europe or in the south Atlantic ocean, only 5% will have a stab at where on the globe Australia is.

We in Australia look at this and go….”You have to kidding, how does the bulk of that nation actually make it to adulthood!

The thing they don’t reveal is 80% of the people stopped knew exactly where Australia was, the video producer just didn’t think that 80% was worth showing in the video clip.

We don't get an accurate representation on social media, we see the extremes.

Airbnb has done sh*t loads of good, I have loved my association with Airbnb, and they have never done the wrong thing by me.....they send me guests and pay me....all 370 of them over the past 4 years, never missed once!

I am cross that the management try to fudge their way around issues, but @Kath9 has a good point, the company have been good for us, sure it hasn't been perfect, and there are many legitimate complaints in any business venture, Christ, I copped enough in mine! Running a business is hard, you can't be all things to all people.....and at times I think we need to remember that! 

Social media does not necessarily makes us better informed, it just polarises us!

Cheers.......Rob

[Ute42]

.

@Melodie-And-John0 

I'm impressed. Where did You find an "ü" and a "ß" on an american keyboard?

[Melodie-And-John0]

I cheated a little bit  @Ute42 , I Cut and pasted it from Google!  My German 30 years after my 1.5 year visit to Katterbach is not so Gut.  Good thing for The WWW!!!!!  JR 

[Robin4]

@Ute42 

Well, to the contrary Ute, some of the finest food I have ever tasted is German...where would the world be without the ......'Schnitzel' in it's various forms. Beef Stroganoff is spelt exactly the same in German as it is in Australian. Our local town here, Hahndorf is a world famous German tourist town......

Hahndorf village shops

Great German entertainment

Here in the hills we have a large German community and I was the Kitchen coordinator for a meals delivery service (Meals on Wheels) for 6 years. 

Each week we send out a menu for meals the clients can select from for deliver in two weeks time.

One of our clients, Gunther Eikerling said to me one day...."Rob, I wish you had menus in German!" My initial reaction was 'Gunther, this is not Germany, this is Australia'  but suddenly I thought....why not, lets humour Gunther!

Here was the menu for that week in English.......

And here was the version of the same menu I made for him in German.....

He laughed like hell when he saw it, grabbed my hand and said ....'Wunderbar'!!

Ute, I don't have to go to Germany to know what it feels like....Germany is all around me here!

Sie könnten nicht mit einem Känguru abstürzen, aber wenn ich hier nicht aufpasse, könnte ich einen Deutschen überfahren!

Cheers......Rob

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Robin4 ,   Ja, Ja, Ich Leibe Jager Schnitsel und pommfritz mit Hefeweizen Beir!  Prost Mein Freund!

[Robin4]

@Melodie-And-John0 

Every time I go to Sydney, eldest daughter (Sarah) and I have our 'pilgrimage' to a German restaurant in Darlinghurst called Una's. 

Una's has....hands down, the best Chicken Jaeger in the world, with a potato Rosti on the side....and I have eaten a few, let me tell you! They boast...."If you can eat more than we put on your plate we will give you another one free"! I have never managed to take them up on that John, and I struggle to imagine anyone who could!

Cheers......Rob

[Melodie-And-John0]

Making me drool @Robin4 , I would love to give it a try !  We no longer have a good German eatery around these parts now that the Air Force base has closed.  I remember the German Gasthouses would feed you like you were 2 people and some would be offended if you didn't eat everything on your plate, "Vat, you don't Like your Food?" I don't remember leaving any hungry or thirsty although I may have had some balance issues on occasions, not sure that had much to do with the Schnitzel!  Best, JR 

[Suzanne302]

@Robin4  I see certain people constantly complaining in the CC and I always wonder, "Well, if it's so bad, why don't you just leave Airbnb??!!"

But, then again, I've always been the type of person to follow the philosophy that you must be willing to accept what you aren't willing to change.

No company is perfect. And I have some complaints, too. But overall, as you mentioned, Airbnb provides a platform for us to make money. And, for those of us who are in it for more than just money, a fun way to interact with people.

[Robin4]

@Suzanne302 

You put that so beautifully Suzanne, you are more than a human....you are a dog lover. I don't need to say any more than that!

Cheers......Rob

[Stephanie]

Dogs are the best people.

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Suzanne302 , True, some there are a variety of types of complainers, most arent looking to fix things and many would do better if they prayed the serenity prayer a little more often.  The ones that really give me the most Agida  are ones that put all their eggs in one very shallow and poorly constructed basket.  No small business plan is complete without backup and alternatives.  Or as My Grampa would have bluntly said, "Piss poor planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on our part".  JR

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Lol~~ Where is Australia or Canada and Sweden vs. Switzerland...... exactly more or less how people responded when Henry and I replied "We're from Seoul, (South) Korea." during our trip to Paris and London in 2012. 

- is that the one with the dictator? Oh I hope I didn't offend you by calling your leader a dictator. 

- Is that China? / Are you Chinese then? 

- (giggling) konnichiwa~ did I say it right?!?!? 

- Do you know my friend Minsu? He's Korean too. 

And my sisters say people will suddenly turn music on then be asked to dance like a K-pop star.

And if they know BTS (or any other K-pop or K-drama star.)

@Robin4 @Ute42 @Melodie-And-John0 @Sarah977 @Inna22 @Kath9 @Sandra126 @Fred13 

[Fred13]

I spend a year in Osan (USAF) and when back in the U.S., people would ask me how did I like being in a communist country. (rolls eyes)

What is funny is I technically been to North Korea, by mistake; I got lost and ~walked~ through a South Korean mine field at the border and stepped into North Korea (north of Kansong) momentarily, turned around and thankfully was talked back through the mine field by South Korean soldiers.

[Melodie-And-John0]

Holy Krap @Fred13, your a very lucky fellow, well not completely lucky considering you served in VN.  We once sent a  RATT Rig to set up near the Hoff Border in W Germany and somehow the Team Chief missed the giant signs warning he was driving into the 1 K zone.  They got set up and running before they got visitors on an APC, luckily it was our MP's 50 cal they were staring down that found them not The Czech's .  They even got to come home once  they realized it was a mistake and not purposeful or they might still be residents of Leavenworth.  So glad I wasn't on that trip....  JR 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

OMG~ @Fred13 Funny now.... but at the time..... I'm sure you and those S.Korean soldiers were NOT laughing. 

If you are into romcoms....... I recommend this K-drama. I did a weekend marathon watching all 16 episodes in 2 days. Lol~~~ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Landing_on_You

[Sarah977]

There's many an American traveller who will say they are Canadian, as Canadians tend to get a better reception in some places.A friend, who lived on Vancouver Island, told me a story about this when she travelled to Thailand. She was having dinner in a little Thai restaurant and struck up a conversation with the English speaking people at the next table.

"Where are you guys from?" 

"Canada."

"Oh, where in Canada?"

"British Columbia."

"Oh, where in British Columbia?"

"Victoria Island."

"You are so  busted!"

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, and is on Vancouver Island. There is a Victoria Island- it's way up in the Arctic, has a population of less than 2000, most of whom are Inuit. No way those people were from there.