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!!!

[Sean433]

By the way, this wasn't the only odd guest I had on Christmas. I had 2 other incidents but I rather share one that is a bit more comical and one that maybe many hosts have not come across.

[Sarah977]

@Sean433  She seems to have thought that an Airbnb comes with concierge service. Nice of you to accommodate. Does seem strange to come all that way and never go out. Maybe they just needed an R&R break and thought Christmas in the snow would be cool (pun intended). And I guess when you live somewhere where other people go on tropical holidays to the beach, Toronto might seem exotic.

[Emilia42]

I had a young couple who stayed for 5 days over the holidays (left on Christmas Day.) I'm in a college town in a super remote area so it basically shuts down when the students are gone on winter break. They came from North Carolina to 10 degree fahrenheit. I was nervous about it but they had a blast. Doing what, I don't know. 

In this women's defense, when I travel to Quebec, my phone completely shuts down. I always rely on the landline or concierge to make me dinner reservations, etc. Old school I guess. 

[Ute42]

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@Sean433 

Here's another pizza story:

• Complaint about a cold pizza
  
  So last evening around 10 pm my guest is texting me how he got a cold and uncooked pizza from a restaurant that delivered the food and he actually asked me to do something about it and get him a refund. On day of checkin I gave him recommendations from where to order food, and not only did he not listen, he ordered it from the only place I told him not to because I had bad experiance from this restsurant already. What would you do in my position? What to tell this kind of individual, I wanted to kick him out last night when he text me about this, I barely kept calm.

Read the whole thing:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Complain-about-cold-pizza/m-p/749209

[Colleen253]

@Sean433  Yes, people are very definitely ‘interesting’. Maybe a bit of a stretch, but I could see someone from the Caribbean coming here to try out the snow, snow sports, learn and try something completely new and different, but yeah, all that way to  spend their time sleeping in your basement suite is weird, for sure. 

[Heather133]

@Sean433 THIS IS HILARIOUS! Thanks for sharing it! Just wanted I needed today!

[Sean433]

@Heather133 

You're welcome :). I just came from a Miami and Bahamas trip 3 weeks ago. I would feel so lousy had I gone there just to sit in the house all day/all night. To have pizza be the most action I had and the highlight of my trip 😞

[Kaylee18]

@Sean433   LOL. Thankfully they only stayed a week!! 

[Michelle2137]

well I know I would not have been ordering pizza for a guest but in my experience travelling back and forward from oz to the us if I don't get a us sim for my phone I can't use it at all including uber which is a big pita so I get a sim when I'm in the us from metro pcs

[Steven65]

I think they are taking the pissa!!

[Lauris-and-Gene0]

The phone thing! When we lived in Latin America, getting cell phone service in the US was a disaster. The US was the only country we traveled to where it was almost impossible to find anyplace to guy a sim card. And then it was a big deal to get it connected. In the countries we traveled to in South America, we could walk into any grocery store or corner store and buy the sim card and we were good to go. Hopefully that has changed in the states now,  but I don't know.

[Stacey147]

I imagine they tried to order it themselves but the pizza places would not take their order because their phone number was not local. I can see why the guest asked.   😄  

[Sean433]

@Stacey147 

They ordered at least 1 pizza online plus asked me to order it on 3 different occasions. They were capable of ordering online. It was not so much the fact that they asked me to do it for them, it was that they actually wrote in the review that I should put a landline phone in the house.  I never stayed in an airbnb that had that nor would expect it nor would make a comment about it in a review if a host was as nice as I was with them.

It is the guests responsibility to call their service provider to ensure their plan will work in the country they are visiting.

[Luana130]

I have the same problem here. My units are in Salvador, which in a recent research it was the most sought after destination in Brazil for the summer. But most of my guests spend most of their time inside with the airconditioning on. 

I do not undestand... Most sleep until noon leave for 2 or 3 hours and come back. Why would you pay to travel just to sleep and stay inside? When I travel I leave the place I'm staying at 8am the latest, and only go back to sleep. I really don't understand...