Do fellow hosts make poor guests?

[Laura2592]

Just curious. I always identify myself as a fellow host when I book, and I had another host tell me that they have had bad experiences with hosting hosts (say that three times fast.) No one has booked with me thus far who seems to also be a host, so I have nothing to compare this to. Wondering if I shouldn't lead with "I am a host" if there is some kind of stigma. So have you hosted other hosts? Good experience? Poor experience?

[Gordon0]

I've stayed with and hosted fellow-hosts. No dramas, @Laura2592. 

[Yadira22]

@Laura2592 

Hiya 

I think the following- not all from personal experience but from speaking with other hosts when I use Airbnb. 

-have become hyper-critical, which is expected as we have trained ourselves to look for faults before anyone does. This is particularly true when cleaning.
-hosts know how to exploit the system and unfortunately some choose to

-expectations vs reality is scewed, some compare what they offer (“gold standard”) to what is actually offered even though no two hosts or locations are completely the same. 
-a lot of hosts also do the same that guests forget to do such as read the entire listing and rules including location and research if it works for them. 
-


These are only some of the points. 

obviously there are some hosts who make fantastic guests- are communicative, clean and respect the house rules but I think like with anything it’s a case by case situation and generalising people from one experience is taking into account what that taught you but also a means of limiting future experiences. 

good luck to you! 
yadira 🙂

[Mark116]

@Laura2592   Although I've hosted some great hosts, I find that other hosts, counter intuitively, are more messy than other guests, and tend to be all around not that great, not that good at communicating, not that neat, and sometimes also extremely picky.  I would much prefer to host a person new to airbnb than another host.

[David3267]

the only one I remember was a nightmare, indifferent and un-true review. When I looked at her place's reviews they were awful so she obviously was on some mission to ensure no one hosting on Airbnb got good reviews. Personally I wouldn't say up front if I was staying that I was an experienced host. I might say it in private feedback if i felt justified.

[Laura2592]

@David3267 I think I won't mention it up front in the future. I just figured people would look at my profile and see that I was also a host. Sad to see that many hosts aren't gracious guests 😞

[Beth80]

@Laura2592 

I usually identify myself as a host. If they look at my profile they're going to find it out pretty quick. I like to stay with new hosts if possible and hopefully give them good reviews. But regardless of who I stay with I treat their listing as I would like them to treat mine and try to be the perfect guest. So far the hosts that I've hosted have been good guests over all. I think maybe on the messier so of average. 

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592 I've had both... really great host and really terrible host, as guest

Also, I've had reservations that ABB listed the person as "host" but there were no host reviews and no listing... So glitch I suppose.

there's no magic 8 ball that tells you who will be good/bad. If only!

[Susan1404]

@Laura2592I have hosted one host in the year I've been on Airbnb.  She was a pleasant person and was a good guest.  We had a very good rapport.  Much to my surprise and shock, she was the very first guest to leave me a 4 star review and virtually picked at anything and everything.  When I checked her listing and reviews, I found that she had no reviews on her listing and had apparently had no guests.  I am sure there are many good hosts out there who would not have her attitude, but it would make me leery in the future of hosting any hosts.

[Alexandra316]

@Laura2592I don't like hosting other hosts. I don't discriminate against them, but I dread hosting them. My worst ever review came from a fellow host, and I don't think I've ever gotten a 5 star review from another host. Also, a lot of hosts have a better grasp of the Airbnb system  than the average guest, so they're better able to use the rules to their own advantage. I've also found them to be excessively picky, even if their own listings aren't overly fancy. 

I'm hosing another host as I type this, and they asked me to book a car rental for them. Uh, no? Just a really strange request. I really hope it's not reflected in their review. I explained that I wouldn't be able to do it because I didn't have access to their credit card and driver's license, which would be required to complete the booking with a car rental agency. They said something passive-aggressive about being sorry to have bothered me. 

When I visit another Airbnb as a guest, I'm always careful to be a good guest, and that includes leaving a good review. I don't know why some hosts seem to be determined to take others down a peg by leaving a less than perfect review, but it does seem to happen a fair bit. 

[Alice595]

@Alexandra316  if a host has stayed in other Airbnb before, you can read the reviews the host as a guest  left. You probably can get determine if you want to host.

Hopefully we all can get good guests from hosts:-)

[Alexandra316]

@Alice595  I have the Chrome extension and always check their previous reviews, but that doesn't really help if they've said okay things but given less than 5 stars, unfortunately. It also doesn't help if they don't have any reviews yet.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I've only hosted one other host, very recently, and she was a fine guest who left a 5* rating. She didn't mention that she was a host when she booked, but I saw that right away when I got her request and checked her profile. So I admit I was a little apprehensive after reading so many "hosts make the worst guests" stories, but that didn't prove to be true.

What I did find odd, though, is that she asked a couple of pre-arrival questions that obviously meant she hadn't thoroughly read the listing description (Would she be able to cook? I state in my description that guests have full use of my kitchen, as well as it being listing in amenities, and there was another question that I can't remember at the moment).

I have another host booked in for Xmas/New Year's week, so we'll see how that goes. So far his communication was great, and it was obvious that he had read the info provided. Both the host/guest I had and the upcoming have similar listings to mine, in that they rent a private room in their own home- maybe home-share hosts are more laid-back, less critical? 

I honestly don't see any reason for a guest to mention that they are also a host when booking as a guest- it seems like it would be relevant, but to me it's not, since we know that there are hosts out there with quite dissimilar styles of hosting. Just because someone is a host doesn't mean they are necessarily not complainers by nature, have an entitled attitude, good communicators, friendly, etc. There's plenty of people who have a professional demeanor developed to impress their clients, when on a personal level you realize it's all an act.

[Alice595]

@Laura2592  I hosted four Airbnb hosts so far. One was extremely bad. Two are good guests and one did not leave a review. It is still a very small sample to be representative.

It was in the first two months after I started hosting when I had this lady who was a super host and booked for three nights. About four hours after she checked in, she texted me that the Airbnb guest couple in other room was fighting and she was terrified. I called police to help and in the meantime I drove to my Bnb listing. It took me 15 minutes to get there. And I waited another 5 minutes outside of the house till police came. And the police went in the house and did not see the lady. And they knocked on the bedroom door which the guest couple stayed. It was around 10:30  pm. And the other couple were already in bed. The police checked if the girl was hit by her boy friend as said by that lady. Nothing was found. The lady booked for two nights. Because she left, I called Airbnb support to refund her fully. On the next day, she messaged me and asked me to refund her fully. I told her that I have already asked Airbnb support to do it. She left a vicious review three days later even though I called Airbnb to fully refund her. I called Airbnb about the review she left. Airbnb decided to remove it due to the language she used in the review.

I was terrified when she messaged me about the fighting. However, police did not find any trace of fighting between the other guest couple in the other bedroom. Later I thought that she must want to get a full refund because she found some other alternative. She had a same day booking early in the afternoon. I met her during check-in.

I think that @Yadira22 has made great points explaining about a host's behaviours as a guest. I have been guests five times myself either booked in my account or with my friends account. We left all 5 stars to hosts even though one host did have a little cleaning issues, which I sent private message and rated a 4 in cleaning.

[Alice595]

@Laura2592  To add on my post because past the time for editing it. I had a host who sent an inquiry for getting further discount. I did give her a special offer. Eventually she did not book. And she did not bother to respond to my special offer.