The first guest never gets forgotten

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Do you remember your first guest? The moment they stepped into your home, the first opportunity to show your ability as a host – all of this marks the moment you officially became a host.

What do you remember of that day? What were your emotions that day? Any tips for new hosts before hosting their first guest?

Looking forward to hearing your stories!

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Sandra126]

Can't remember who were the first but in the first few weeks of doing this business I had three very odd happenings, disasters never to be repeated. They were such strange events I cannot imagine them happening often or ever. In fact I will not even tell you what they were, that is how strange it was.

So for all you new hosts who might have an odd initial experience, it may all get smoother/better/more normal from here on.

[Lorraine132]

Yes, it was 3 weeks ago. I focused on the Tatoo on the neck of the guests guest and immediately realized wanted to know who the “other” person was that is in my home. I’m still not sure how to do that. 

She informed me that they actually live live in air bnb’s Because rent is so high. That statement killed my hopes of meeting tourists.  

8 towels a day smoking in the room and has 3 children in the area she entertained in her off hours. My place says not set up for kids... THREE

It sort of went downhill from there.  

I’m really not sure about this anymore.....

[Stephanie653]

Hang in there, change your booking parameters,  I found out if you do auto book you can add questions,  and if you do not feel comfortable with thier answers you can cancel reservation without penalty.  Also, to avoid long term stay you set length of stay parameters.  You are only required to supply 1 towel.....so that's an idea. 🙂 

[Daniel-and-Marsio0]

Lorraine - Wow, that sounds like a really rough experience! You do realise that the situation you had is not normal? If you don't want smoking in your room, make sure you have that rule clearly in place on your listing House Rules and description. Same goes for extra (univited) guetsts! You are well within your rights to have Airbnb intervene if your guest does not respond to your polite request to refrain from whatever they should not be doing on your home... Don't give up! It gets better! 

[Lizzie]

Just @ mentioning in @Lorraine132, so she is notified about your nice replies here @Daniel-and-Marsio0 and @Stephanie653 🙂

[Lorraine132]

Thank you. I had started with no controls, so I had 4 groups of Los Angeles trailer trash. 

My last  few guests have been wonderful. Live and learn. 

Thank you for the support 

[Ned-And-Laura0]

Our first guests were this very young couple that had recenlty become engaged and they were getting married nearby and needed a place to stay as a home base while they looked into locations, flowers, etc.  Their bedroom ceiling is our bedroom floor.  It's well insulated so you can only hear loud noises....then were, um, very loud and very frequent.  Pratically non stop I'd say.....ah, to be young and in love!

[Emily140]

@Lizzie I sure do remember my first guest.  A delightful young couple with two dogs.  I recommend to everyone who is having a hard time getting that first brave guest to stay without prior reviews:  accept dogs!  The wonderful people who travel with dogs (99% of them) are so grateful.  And have limited choices so a great way to start. (That said, I do NOT recommend accepting dogs in a location where you are not present/nearby to watch the situation.)

My first guests came for New Years' Eve, to celebrate with a chef friend who worked nearby.  This is Napa Valley--I'm a winemaker, foodie and dog lover, so I was happy that my listing spoke to someone with my interests.  I knew they would love the place. 

She wrote the most thoughtful, detailed review.  I couldn't have written it better myself.  Then, before I really understood the default and what *Instant Book* can do, I started receiving way more reservations than I planned!!!  I had to start *snoozing* the listing to stem the tide.

If I recall correctly, my first guests also had no prior reviews, so I was able to recommend them and re-assure future hosts that these were lovely guests with well-behaved chill pupdogs.  This was a picture-perfect Airbnb experience.

So many challenges with Airbnb for us hosts, but the good guest experience is wonderful.  Every time you're ready to throw in the towel with the awful support from Airbnb CS (not you Lizzie, you're delightful), a guest comes along who is so grateful, and delighted, and enjoys their stay so much, it re-warms your heart.

[Lizzie]

Aww thanks for your nice comment @Emily140. 🙂

It is amazing to hear about your first guests and that they shared so many of your interests. It can be so special when you just get on so well with people you would never normally crosspaths with. 

It is also great to hear you were receiving lots of bookings, too many by the sounds of it. Which is certainly a nice problem to have. It is wonderful to hear so many people want to stay in your home. 

I wish you well with all your future guests. 

[Akanksha3]

Hey guys,

My first guest was from Chennai and the second was from London. You i spent the whole day arranging and rearranging the things. My whole family was on call with me, everyone suggesting something or the other. I tried some 5 sets of bed sheets to see which looks the best. It was so crazy. 

when we recieved them, we felt like any of our family member has come. We live away from family and when the guests visit us, we feel family like. We want them to get maximum on the available time period. Me and my husband are from different cultures and we even cooked for our guests, recipies from each of our cultures. 

The best part of the whole excercise was the review, more than anything, the review and the feedback left by the guests gave me so much of confidence. I felt like an entrepreneur. It somewhere also put a pressure on me to do better for the next guest. Ohh, its such a lovely thing to get people from all around and share our little world with them.

[Shashank4]

Thats nice.

[Tanya207]

Our first guests - we had everything “almost” ready to go. We had our suite online and had a request to book from a group of 18 year old young men from Southern Ontario - telling us that their parents had bought them their alcohol so it was ok if they drank. We were VERY hesitant to accept their reservation. In the meantime a couple from BC sent us a request to book while they were in town for their son’s graduation. They were perfect first guests! Seasoned AirBnBers and understanding that we didn’t have the door hung on the bathroom! (Wrong hardware). They gave us a great review. They loved the space and the ocean view - and we didn’t need to worry about underage partying or a group of “kids” trashing our labour of love! 

[Damon14]

LOL, very interesting reading through everyones first time experiances..my first go at this I was like WTF am I doing letting peoiple i have never met come and stay at my home??

Cleaned and organised for days in fear of judgement and then when the day arrived I went and booked into a Hotel and left welcome note for guests saying I had been called away for work,,

Oh the memories, since then have hosted over 50 guests, added a rental propety with no negative "judgement" received from anyone. I love Air and its awesome a platform like this is here.

[Carolyn-And-Don0]

We're absentee hosts, but I remember the correspondence with our first guest -- a seasoned Airbnb host from New York City. We were still in the process of finishing the entry to our beach cabin, but she said she'd be fine with making her way around a table saw coming and going, and she graciously contacted us at the end of her stay to say everything was fine!

[José70]

My first guests was a young couple from Europe . Stayed for one week. Arrived 3 hours after the check-in time limit, no explanation or apologies given. Couldn´t actually speak any good English, so communication was hard.  Broke the washing machine, damaged the king size bed, left scratches all over my freshly painted corridor and demanded daily fresh towels and linens. Oh, and they asked (or should i say, demanded!) for me to get them more coffe, but of a different brand, since the one i had was not  "good enough" to their very exquisit taste.  Yep, it was one to remember... Ah,memories!