@Quincy
I actually put a potential new host off hosting (for now anyway as she is consdiering it for the future). Although I would not have minded receiving the referral fee, I thought it would be dishonest to tell this friend of the family that hosting in your own home is 'easy money', which is the perception that many people have outside of the hosting community.
This lady had just had a baby and was looking for some extra income before going back to work. Before I spoke to her, she thought all she needed to do was pick a price for her spare room and then people would pay to stay and that was all there was to it.
I talked her through what was involved, e.g. listings, marketing, admin, cleaning, laundry etc. Also, not all guests will enjoy being woken up in the early hours by a newborn! She did not know about the review system, let alone the importance of postive reviews, so this wasn't something she had considered either.
She decided she just wasn't ready for any of that. She already hated cleaning her apartment and did not have budget to pay for help, was exhausted from being a new mother and her husband was not keen on the whole idea in the first place.
She said she would reconsider it once the baby was older and, if she does, I will be happy to offer advice and help her put together her listing, but the last thing I wanted to do was to mislead someone and for them to bite off more than they could chew.