When in a Rome, do as the Romans

[Sean433]

Hosting in general has been a great experience where we get to meet a lot of interesting and nice people with the added benefit of extra income. On the flip side, the hospitality business is extremely difficult and although I have found ways to get better and better, there are certain things that are unavoidable which are people who are not well traveled or don't travel with this very famous quote in mind.

The guests who tend to be hard to be please are those who come to a new country and expect the exact same standards as their native country. I am from Toronto, Canada a first world country but we do some things a little different then say the U.K or even the U.S.A. Not differently in a bad way but just differently. Yet, occasionally we have international travelers who complain of these differences not understanding it has nothing to do with us. In general, guests from all over the world love our standards here, I find it is only the U.K and American guests who have a hard time adjusting and I am not sure why that is. Maybe a sense of national exceptionalism.

When I travel myself, I always keep an open mind. In Italy for example, every airbnb and hotel I stayed at had small showers and weak water pressure. I understand this is the norm in Italy and that their plumbing system is a lot older. Some guests would have rated the hosts harshly because of these things and I think those guests are the ones that need to adopt the saying of "when in Rome, do as the Romans". This saying should apply any country guests visit. 

I often hear suggestions that are impossible to address such as the frequency of city garbage collection or our house being too cold when it is set at 23 degrees and additional heaters (multiple) have been provided or too many leaves on the deck (leaves fall on a daily basis especially as the season changes) etc etc

I am thinking of having this quote in our house books now except modifying it to say, "when in Canada, do as the Canadians" although I am not sure how many people understand the meaning of this quote or whether it will have any benefit. Are there any quotes or language you write in your house book to help educate the uninformed to certain differences they may experience so that they don't judge you for them in a review?

[Alice595]

@Sean433 Great article! Thanks for sharing. I could feel the difference of guests from different culture or country background as well. Their expectation and living habit are different. That will reflect to their general feelings and thoughts of services and amenities host provide.

[Emilia42]

@Sean433 

You could write something like:

"Welcome to the Canada, where it gets pretty cold (but we have plenty of heaters), where the colorful leave fall willingly all over the deck and where our trash is collected frequently."

For many things, I put the onus on the guest.

For instance, where I live in Maine, you really don't need AC (I didn't know what central air was until like 5 years ago.) But people coming from warmer areas do not understand this. The temperatures will drop pretty low at night so I tell them "if YOU want to keep the house cool, open the windows after sunset to let the cool air in and shut them again first thing in the morning." If guest don't want to stay cool that's fine by me. 

We have bugs, and many bugs in Maine. If the guests do not want bugs in the house then THEY need to enter and exit quickly without leaving the door open for long as the bugs are attracted to the lights. My hope is that if they notice some bugs flying around they will think to themselves "who left the door open." So far so good.

[Sarah977]

@Sean433  Liked your post. I read on another thread where you mentioned finding an iguana in your room in Costa Rica. You'd think that when people are traveling, they'd be interested in how things are so different, and done differently in different places, but as I've said before, some people should never leave home, or else stay in a hotel chain, where the rooms would look pretty much the same, no matter what country they're in.

I remember reading that Bill Gates, who could eat in a 5 star restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, eats at Mcdonalds no matter where he travels. Some folks just have zero sense of adventure and hate surprises.

A Canadian friend who's been to visit me in Mexico a few times was telling another friend of hers in Canada about the scorpions, and other bugs that live here. The other person said "How can Sarah live there, with scorpions and stuff?" My friend said "Yeah, and we have bears and cougars?"

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sean433 

Exactly as you and @Sarah977  said - you'd think that when people are traveling, they'd be interested in how things are so different, and done differently in different places ,but we soon realized a lot of people expect the same things and appliances in some 35 - 50€/day apartment as they have at their milion  $ homes on the other continent.  

To shower with hand-held shower rose? To cool and ventilate the apartment by opening the window? Shocking!!! 😄

[Helen427]

hello @Sean433 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Sarah977 @Emilia42 @Alice595 

How about , "In Toronto, Canada" @Sean433  "when it's cooler, we put on a nice hand knitted Made in New Zealand sheeps/ lambswool jersery/ jumper/ sweater 😉 "

Or if you prefer opossum fur you can throw that line in the mix!!

@Emilia42  We all used to have bugs and more bugs and moths all over the world.

Remember when you were younger and the lights attracted them to one's car when driving at night time and they would stick to the window & vents?

Bring back switching off lights in the cities where they are not always needed, or at least dime them.

There's really no need for all the 24 hour lighting we have, especially on trees, is there?

Another good saying to use is simply "In New Zealand we do xyz....or we don't have instant hot water supplied with Gas in our homes like in some countries" - useful when people come from countries where most power is sourced through Gas.

@Sean433  Love the lilac tones in your profile photo

All the best

Central To All Home & Location

Auckland, NZ

[Sean433]

@Helen427 

Thanks Helen for the compliment on my profile photo. I actually did that to make my profile appear "softer". I noticed before that I had a disproportionate amount of male guests and was losing out on a large pool of potential guests, female guests. Not only that, but I found male guests to leave short and uninteresting reviews.  This made sense since previously I just had a profile pic of myself and female viewers would assume i was just a single host and based on that, maybe felt concerned. A few months ago, I read an article that stated the vast majority of females only book with females which I understand is for safety concerns however I live with my wife and she often interacts with guests on check-in so I thought why not add her to the pic if guests will likely see her anyways. We don't rent shared accommodation but we do rent our basement as a seperate unit. Still, I sensed a lot of females avoided me because they thought I was a single host.

even though my profile always stated I host with my wife, adding the picture of us plus the lilac tones helped us a lot.

[Marina910]

I agree different cultures have different expectations... but some no matter what you provide still knit pick and even contradict themselves... which is rather amusing and any potential guests see this as I discovered recently with the outcome that they actually read my detailed listing, booked and gave me all five stars. There are serial complainers in this world even if everything was gold plated the place would be the wrong shade of gold 🤣🤣

[Sam3555]

You know it's normal, because every country is different, but maybe not for all, it’s always interesting to see the difference between countries. Southern peoples differ in everything, first of all it's culture, italians, greek, armenians, lebanese etc.

Of course, there are some general global standards.

[Helen3]

. @Sean433  it's a little difficult to comment as I am not sure what you are saying US and UK guests find difficult about a Canadian set up.

I think in general it's always best not to generalise  about a country or area. For example, it's not true at all to say that in Italy smaller showers and weak water systems are the norm, just because you have stayed at some accommodation in Italy which has this.

I do agree that people should research the countries they are visiting before they visit a new place, particularly when it comes to cultures and social norms.

[Sean433]

@Helen3 

After having hosted so many guests, I can see trends. The most difficult and critical in their review guests I have hosted are from USA and U.K. That's been my experience.  In general, I find Latin American and Asian guests do far less complaining and are more polite when they need something. I do not think this is a coincidence. If you have ever visited Latin America, you will notice that people in general, are friendlier and happier than North Americans. That being said, I have difficult guests of all cultures/countries but that is the trend I have experienced.

[Brooke290]

I was just speaking with a friend who also hosts on Airbnb and she said she’s always had great guests but that Americans are the worst! And, we are Americans. 😂 She said there is something about the ones that have stayed that makes them feel entitled or as if she works for them…and she doesn’t, she is a hostess, not an employee. I have only had two guests so far, (this is my 2nd week) and they have both been American and I have not had any problems. 🤷🏼‍♀️ But, she’s hosted hundreds of guests so maybe I will see a trend as well, like the OP has suggested.