[April 29th] The Host Talk - Sustainability

[Liv]

Hey everyone,

After the CC social’s success, a few members have shared their desire to have a new type of online get-together where we could have more Hosting focused conversations.

With that in mind, we have decided to give your idea a go! 😊

Apart from the Social meet-up, we now have The Host Talk, a Community Center meeting for sharing and discussing pre-chosen Hosting related topics. 

We plan on giving you guys the chance to vote on your preferred subjects in the future, but to kick things off, this first session will have the theme of Sustainability.🐛

@Anna1403 , our sustainability focused HAB member, will be joining the conversation with fellow hosts who are interested in sharing their experience and coming up with insights for a more sustainable way of Hosting.

The meet-up will take place on Thursday April 29th, 3:30PM (BST).

Timezones:

Thursday April 29th, 9:30AM (Kansas City / Pensacola, Florida)

Thursday April 29th, 10:30AM (New York / Toronto)

Thursday April 29th, 4:30PM  (Spain)

Thursday April 29th, 11:30PM (Seoul)

Friday April 30th, 00:00 AM (Darwin)

Friday April 30th, 00:30 AM (Melbourne) 

If you would like to join, please register before the start time by clicking here.

Not sure how to use Zoom? Check out this CC guide. 

Have you got any sustainability related questions you would like to to ask fellow hosts? Is there any specific discussion you’d like to have around this theme? 🌿

Let us know below so we can pick a few  suggestions to get our conversation started.

I’m really looking forward to chatting with you 💚

Thanks a lot and I’ll see you there!

Liv

[Michelle2475]

I started with scent free detergents (I'm allergic to all fragrances) but then realized that guests may not think the sheets are clean unless they "smell" clean.  I've switched back to regular detergent only for that reason.  I do have a washer/dryer and detergents available to guests so they can always re-wash if they want to.  It's very difficult to anticipate every guest's needs or wants - I'm happy to accommodate within reason but I live 3 hours away.  It would be nice if there was a pre-booking way to find out before they submit a booking request as opposed to an inquiry.  Perhaps a mechanism that encourages guests with special requirements to send an inquiry first.

[Sarah977]

@Michelle2475  It's a really sad state of affairs when people have been convinced by advertisers that something isn't clean unless it has some artificial scent.

I'm lucky in that I live where the weather is such that I can line-dry everything. I don't even have a dryer. I use normal laundry soap, but after hanging out on the line for a day, there's no scent left but fresh air and sunshine.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah977 @Michelle2475 

"Smelling Clean" means to me not smelling of anything at all. I use only fragrance free products on my skin, for dishes, and in the laundry. I have a particularly keen nose, and if I smell anything on fabrics, particularly a fragrance, besides sneezing, I seriously wonder what that is hiding.  Before I can use a perfumed item I have to soak it in vinegar to remove the smell and then rewash. Here in California fragrance free is common, often mandated - including personal fragrances. 

[Michelle2475]

@Kitty-and-Creek0  I wish it were that way here!  I have severe allergies and can’t even tell you how often I’m gagging in a store over some lady who bathed in perfume. I get short of breath, itchy and sneezing at the least little scent. I keep two different laundry detergents in the house (one just for me) and can’t use many household cleaners. 

[Sarah977]

@Michelle2475  Funny how you can't smoke indoors in public places, yet you can stand in an elevator or eat in a restaurant or shop in a store choking everyone out with your slathered on perfume.

Walk down the street on a Saturday night in a Mexican town. The men drench themselves in scent, far more than the women 🙂

[Michelle2475]

@Sarah977   Here’s the funny thing (although not allowed in my Airbnb) I’m a smoker but have such a sensitive sense of smell my husband says I “could smell a flea fart”! 😂

[Sarah977]

@Michelle2475 I am also a smoker, but all those chemical scents gross me out and I also have a good sense of smell.

But I must say, the times I have quit, the smell of cigarette smoke also grossed me out.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah977 @Michelle2475 

I'm thinking of what is "clean and green" and what is not -  I do not consider so called 'fresheners' to be "clean and green" rather the opposite - they are anti-clean-air devices. In my house rules and house operating manual I continue to list that no non personal scented items such as candles, incense, etc are to be used in my house, just as smoking (anything) is not permitted. 

[Sarah977]

@Kitty-and-Creek0  I'm lucky in that where I live, doors and windows can be left open year-round, and the construction is cement and tile. I don't have upholstered furniture, heavy drapes, carpets, or anything else that retains odors. 

So I've never had to make rules about guests not using scents, because they don't permeate anything. At worst I'd have to wash the simple curtains, and the small rug in the guest room, but even when the guests have left a scented room, use lots of essential oils, that's not been necessary- a room cleaning and airing out does the trick.

I can appreciate that it's a whole different ballgame if you live where windows and doors are often closed and there's central heating or AC.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah977 

You are so fortunate in Sayulita, which is one of my favorite places on that coast.

We have no curtains or drapes, only an upholstered sofa and the bed, plus a valuable 100+ year old area carpet on the floor, for bare feet to enjoy. We have fabulous cross ventilation here, with windows that open on 3 sides of the guest room, in addition to the huge panes for viewing the sunset. These are usually open unless it is raining or snowing. The window on the 4th side doesn't open, as it is for admiring the sunrise. Imho, when people come here for our absolutely fresh air, they are not going to want to spoil it with anything other than more fresh air. If they are all into incense and perfumed products, they can stay elsewhere, perhaps a place where smoking is allowed. I do not want anything smelly in my home.

If a guest wants a massage, my personal therapist can come here, with her own linens and fragrance free oils, she uses our house massage table. That way the "oils thing" is professionally controlled.

We likewise have a rule about open flames of any kind, indoors or out, as the fire danger here is always very high. So any kind of candles are out. If someone wishes to BBQ anything, we have a Zojirushi tabletop electric grill that guests can use outdoors on one of the tables on the deck. It produces professional grade results while not generating smoke to harm the environment. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Michelle2475 

I stay out of soap aisles in stores and do not frequent shops selling scented things. Yes, I itch too, and it is no fun. Fortunately every place I have had the privilege to stay has been into fragrance free cleanliness, so I've not had to put too many smelly things outside in order to stay inside! 

[Greg122]

@Valerie27  I agree with you. There are many hosts who run their listings with sustainability in mind, but I do not think this is the space to go through all the details of how to eg. go solar or insulate more effectively. I believe this conversation should be about letting Air BnB know, loud and clear that they need to change the platform to enable guests to search for sustainable accommodation. You mention adding filters, I think this would be easy and effective. I have mentioned this many times to Air BnB in feedback and to Community Centre Facilitators. Any ideas on pushing this message further with Air BnB?

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Liv 

Thanks for bringing this topic!

We are thrilled to be hosting in our Frank Lloyd Wright school designed, all solar home, on top of a mountain on 180 wilderness acres, surrounded by wilderness on all sides, with a view to the ocean 25 miles away as the ravens fly. Public utilities have never been here, so we are  totally off grid, and without having to "rough it". We have all the modern appliances and conveniences. We have 77 solar panels, both manual and automatic trackers; an Outback power system with 2 industrial deep cycle battery banks;  a deep, pure water well, pumped by solar when we have adequate sunshine. We have a 2 acre organic garden, wildflowers, trails, abundant forest, and all sorts of wildlife - from wonderful birds, & bats, to mountain lions & bears.

Do we recycle? Of course! We have no trash pickup here, so we are fastidious. There is no sewer system either, so we have low flush toilets, efficient shower heads, and have been known to reuse grey water for ornamental irrigation, according to the dictates of county codes. We also have a firefighting system with large water storage tanks, which we fill with collected rainwater. Our regularly tested drinking water from the well is pumped about 500' total, with solar, to storage tanks on the highest point of the mountain, where it falls gravity flow to the house with 60 lbs of pressure at the tap.

We have a solar hot water heating system on the roof, low wattage/ high output  lighting everywhere, electric heat on cool but sunny days, and solar powered A/C in summer when needed. In summer we maximize electrical power use in our kitchen with induction cookers and microwave. For drying laundry we have the option of a gas powered clothes dryer or the clothesline in the sun. In winter we love to augment heating the house using passive solar heat collected in our solarium. Our broadband internet comes to us wireless, from a tower on another remote mountain. We provide locally handcrafted bar soap in our guest suite, the same as we use it for ourselves. We provide and use cloth towels and table napkins, real dishes and silverware.

Our wilderness location, with no neighbors,  has a dark night sky for viewing stars, planets, and meteor showers. 

Our guest suite was built with reclaimed redwood and oak milled on our property from a down tree. The hardwood floor is sustainably raised red oak, sprung for comfort. 

We've lived here full time for 30 years, so we often, when asked, give educational tours of our off grid systems. Living off grid is definitely not cheap, nor is it simple, so this is a working example, to a lot of off grid hopefuls. 

[Liv]

@Mary996 @Christine615 @Debra300 @Laurelle3 @Alexandra316 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Paul1255 @Samantha-and-Bruce0 @Kitty-and-Creek0 @John5097 @Kemi9 @Lawrene0 

Hey everyone, 

Hope you're excited for our meet-up in a couple of hours 😊

I'm really looking forward to our talk, see you soon!

🌿

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Liv 

I'm online and eager to participate, to learn and to share!