The joys of hosting!

[Robin4]

In a way I am frustrated by my involvement here on the Community Centre because, all we see here are negative posts!

We don't get to see any of the nice side of being a short term rental host.

We are currently hosting Greg and Peta, and tonight we had them in for a drink and a chat, and we have had the loveliest night!

Sure we knocked off a bottle or two out of my cellar ......

But we invited them into our lives, and we into theirs.

It was a beautiful experience, and one that we have had so often with our guests.

Entertaining is hard for Ade, she struggles through each day with her MS, but we all enjoyed this evening and it made me acutely aware ....as hosts, we are only as good as our ability to interact with strangers! 

Cheers......Rob 

[Robin4]

@Ahmad159 

Hello Ahmad, and welcome to the Airbnb community. I have just had a look at your desert camp and my God it looks amazing! I wish you every success with it. 

You are right it is a wonderful experience to make others happy and as long as you can keep doing that I am sure you will make a great Airbnb host. If I can give you a tip, the starry sky from your location must look absolutely amazing at night and this might be worth promoting in your listing description........'a star watchers paradise'!

Goods luck mate, you have a great set-up there and I would like to shake your hand one day, take care and all the best!

Cheers........Rob

[Ahmad159]

Thank you Robin and I would also like to shake your hand and thank you for your rating 🥀♥️

[Ahmad159]

These are some of the landscapes in my camp 🌞

[Gillian166]

@Robin4  We've also had some lovely kitchen chats with wine with some of our guests. And people who bring their dog tend to also generally be lovely types and it's a hoot watching their (city) dog run around like a loon with our country boys. Sometimes I think my dogs get more praise than the other amenities. 

[Robin4]

@Gillian166 

Gill I just loved that 4 poster bed that you posted on @Jenny 's favourite piece of furniture thread but when I saw those fabric drapes....I knew just what was going on here.

As beautiful as that 4 poster looks there is a practical side to that fabric.

You and I host in a 'near city' country environment and hosting in the country means you have to deal with nature in all it's forms.

I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong but those drapes are in fact mosquito netting which keeps the odd mossie from disturbing guests night time slumber. You just do it in a far more elegant way than I do it Gill!

But hosting in the country means you are forever having a battle keeping wildlife from taking over!

I had a guest stay for 5 nights and on the morning of their departure I casually asked them how their stay had gone and the both of them said, it had been great....."Oh, there was just one thing, last night in the middle of the night we heard this scraping noise, and when we turned the lights on there was a possum on the kitchen bench eating fruit in the fruit bowl. We herded it into the bathroom and let it outside this morning" !

How in the hell it got in there God only knows but, nothing is as tenacious as a possum on a mission!

I felt like bloody Basil Fawltey in that 'hamster' sketch, but I had to make a comment so I said to them...."There is an extra charge for wildlife entertainment you know"!

We all had a laugh and parted happy!

But I never cook on the barbecue without using a barbecue mat......you never know what has dined on the hot plate since you last used it!

But many of our guests come because of that wildlife and no matter what the time of year, like you, we give them the warmest Adelaide Hills welcome possible.

We are currently in Autumn so here is our Autumn welcome...... 

Cheers.......Rob

[Jenny]

Ahhh today I learned something!  I didn't consider that the fabric might have a practical purpose as well as looking lovely.  We're lucky over here in Scotland, as we don't have to deal with mosquitos, just the onslaught of midgies which thankfully are only outside.

I had such a laugh at the possum story, @Robin4! I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation!  Are they aggressive or are they fairly friendly?  I'm assuming this one wasn't a huge drama if your guests only needed to let you know as they left.

Your leaf art is awesome as well, I've shared that with the team, what a great way to welcome your guests in-keeping with the season!

[Robin4]

@Jenny 

Naaah, people seem to think Australian wildlife is out to kill you but, in reality it is just the opposite, I can't think of one native Australian animal that is aggressive towards humans. They accept us but keep us at arms (claws, fangs) length! 

No possums are not aggressive Jenny, in fact around caravan parks they become something of a nuisance, they are scavengers, they seem to know they are protected by law ....you are not allowed to kill a possum. But they hang around food tables waiting for the opportunity to pounce on any fruit or vegetable (they are strictly vegetarian) that might remain untouched for more than a few minutes!

No, Australians regard possums as a bit like butterflies, penguins or seagulls, you don't necessarily want to get up close and personal with them, you just accept them as a part of nature.....but from their point of view, they are happier living with us humans than without us.

We make the possums life a bit easier, they would far rather live in our nice comfortable insulated roof-space than live outside in a cold wet windy tree hollow! 

Cheers........Rob

[Gillian166]

@Robin4  yes it is mosquito netting but we have screens on the windows and the door, so hopefully bugs are at a minimum in the guest studio (not so lucky in my house! half the screens fell off years ago and they were all custom made timber things).

only 1 guest has ever pulled the netting down, and it's a bit time consuming to thread it all back through the loops and arrange it just so. 

omg, your leaf welcome is adorable!! 

and yes, i imagine at some point we'll end up with a possum inside, although they seem to not be around so much now we have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I imagine they've chosen to live somewhere safer. 

[Biagio-and-Jane0]

Totally agree, we've made friends,  shared meals and met some beautiful  people.

[Malcolm196]

Our experience has been overwhelmingly positive. We began doing Airbnb in our garden-level basement suite in 2016. We had such positive experiences that we started renting rooms in our home above. We’ve hosted over 500 trips, and only several guests have been an issue, and those were mainly just inconsiderate and left a mess. Someone left a burn mark in an antique dining room table while smoking in the suite, totally against the rules. Airbnb will reimburse you for damage. We didn’t ask for reimbursement then, but I wouldn’t hesitate to do so in the future. We also didn’t leave negative reviews for inconsiderate people, we just said nothing, but I wouldn’t hesitate to do that now, either. We do have a strongly worded statement about leaving the space clean, and the majority of people leave it spotless. 
 
We ended doing short term rentals in March 2020 due to the pandemic and not wanting new people to come into our home, which is also shared with several tenants. (We had stopped using our basement suite several years earlier due to city regulations against short term rentals.) 

This month we returned to hosting with the change to only hosting trips of 30 days or longer in two bedrooms in our residence. It has been a bit nerve wracking because we’re out of practice, have to remember the previous room set-ups, and live with new people for a month or more.

(We’ve gone to 30 days or more stays to get rid of GST taxes, have less turnover disruptions to the people who live here, and to have less cleaning expenses.) 

Thankfully our first guests from Mexico were lovely. They were here taking an English course and enjoyed chatting and practicing their language skills. They also enjoyed sharing some of their delicious meals (one is a chef). When they left, we had a joint party with them and our tenants, two of whom were leaving. We made a Latin American theme because one tenant was also from Latin America, and we invited one of our last Airbnb guests from 2020 who had been moving here, and was originally from Latin America. We all had a wonderful time, and enjoyed great food, music and dancing. Something everyone enjoyed together and will remember. It was a great way to get back to enjoying the great things that come from inviting complete strangers into one’s home.

We have made many long-term friends of people who stay with as as their first home when moving to Canada. It’s so nice to be referred to as their “Canadian family”, and to introduce them to each other at times. It is truly a highlight to have these relationships enrich our lives. So there are so many benefits to hosting people from around the world ~ from interesting conversations to life-long friendships. And when people say they’d like to live here, or are hoping to stay after their initial visa, I always tell them Canada needs more people. Being the first friendly, encouraging family they meet here is a great privilege, with rewards that go both ways. 

[Cora29]

Thanks so much for sharing the positive joys of hosting. I too have had so many great guest. One that is currently staying with me deserves a super guest of all time award. I am wonder how to do something special for him. I hope airbnb starts encouraging guest like him with super guests awards and credit stays soon. I have been a super host for years. This time I just thought I would see what happened when I pressed the airbnb logo under sharing and it led me to you all. Also so thankful for all those who are helping Airbnb host in Ukraine and those who need emergency housing. Tried to share a fun photo of our place but internet is not agreeing. Hope you will be able to come see our old farmstead someday. Thanks in part to airbnb guest we get to keep staying here!