If it wasn't for the money...

[Zacharias0]

If it wasn't for the money I really wouldn't be a host. I give my applause to those who allow couch surfing for free or are doing this out of meeting new people and so forth, but some of these guests can ruin it for the whole lot. I enjoy those guests who arrive after check in time and leave before check out time, I also enjoy those who clean up after themselves and know how to live independently without asking questions which are found in the listing. I really like those guests who after I pre-approve there requests 5 minutes after sending it actually accept it. Those are the guests that make a hosts life easier and I hope that by them staying with me I make their life easier in some way vis a vis money saved.

Then you have those "uninformed" guests who by one form or another teach you just how to be a better host, for lack of a better phrase. They use all 10 towels in the bathroom so now you only leave 2 for them in their room, they stain the white bath mats so you switch over to bamboo mats with a plush backing, they cook curry and fry fish in the kitchen even though you state it time and time again- PLEASE do not cook-so you remove all pots and pans from the kitchen and then there are those that lose the house key so you install a key pad entry. We like to think all guests enjoy a free breakfast, but buying danishes and cured meats in a world of people who are on health kicks and gluten free just seems a waste of money and effort.

I suppose being a successful host is about being nimble, realizing that some things work great in theory, but not so in practice, and focusing on the main reason the guest booked your place- it was cheap, location was great and it was clean. Sticking to those three things and offering little else has become a winning strategy- at least for me.  <End Rant>

[Anna446]

@Rob0

ain't gonna do no cloud seeding here. When they leave I will say GOOD! I am polite and correct with them, they have a clean place and when they need something I help them. But I do not chat with them, there is no point in my view. They come to be left alone, with their families and friend, I am dispensable, this is not about me, so I get out of their face entirely, some days I do not even see them, and I have an annex little hut next to them....and to tell you the truth is fine with me, I can read my Henry Miller books and Ernest Hemingway. hugs. anna

[Annette33]

 @Anna446 , I do think guests can sense the general disposition of hosts - and that makes for great reviews and happiness. while I totally agree that it's not about us hosts but about the guests and their experience, and thus too much talking/too much small talk is no good, I also think that we are definitely not dispensable/replaceble as hosts. A good host knows just the right amount of interaction, welcome greetings, etc to bring into the equation, and it's different every time! We had guest that definitely didn't even want to say hello or good bye to us, but we also had guests that we have great conversations with, have them upstairs in our house and enjoy a drink or two together. That makes it fun and enjoyable to me, and the host experience rewarding.

[Amy38]

@Robin4@Anna446. Hand helds are live in a bracket at any height in the shower...Europeans sit in the tub and use them or they are  in a holder atteached to a pole and can be adjusted....usually used as an adjunt to the main head...very useful for cleaning tub or washing dog.

[Robin4]

@Branka-and-Silvia0....Girls, you are right but that doesn't stop us from trying to get that 5 star. Across three sites with almost 90 reviews I have had 8 who for one reason or another did not leave a review....and there is nothing I can do about that! Most were travelling and did not have access to be able to leave a review in the timeframe, but two guests just did not get around to it! But I have only ever had one four star review, all the rest have been 5 star! And that 4 star review was my fault, I forgot to turn the cottage hot water heater on! That one bloody four star sits there and glares at me whenever I look at my reviews.

Sure we should all say, forget the star rating and just get on with what we do but ABB are not geared that way. We are all the time expected to provide nothing less than that 5 star experience. Your listings look lovely and I would stay there in a heartbeat....so clean and neat and you obviously take what you are doing really seriously! But that's me, I would give you a 5 star on presentation and your reviews are wonderful which tells me that your guests love you and it appears you girls go out of your way to provide a great experience for you guests and good on you for that...you are true 'hosts'!!

You are never going to please everyone and there will always be that one guest that will make you doubt what you do....but don't change a thing girls.....you are on a winning formula

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Anna446 well, hand held shower is attached to a tap and you can switch from shower rose to the tap, you don't have to turn off the water flow, so it is not so economical and environmentally friendly as you think 🙂

Our Argentinians did left us the review, 5 words actually 🙂 but I have no idea what the last word means: "Very Good. Place well ubication" ...maybe you know?

@Robin4  You received just one 4-stars? I am impressed! Bravo! And thank you for your kind words and support, comming from an experienced host like you, it means a lot   🙂

[Anna446]

@Branka0and silvia;

UBICACION means the place, the locality of your home, they liked where is located. But they should write it in Spanish the review, airbnb accepts all languages.  cheers!anna

[Anna446]

@Branka0 and silvia:

At least you got 5 words, I doubt that brazilians will give a hoot of a time to write a review on my place. I will be very surprised. They only communicate to book the place for them to stay and that is it, they hardly talk to you, they hardly comment, they say good morning and that is it. Brazilians are very much for themselves and friends, everyone else does not matter. You don't exist basically, neighbors here don't even look at each other, and once in a while when they cannot avoid it, they say good morning, usually they say nothing at all. This is part of the culture, is elegant to ignore everyone, you see? lovely ain't it?  In case you wonder why I am in BR, I have 3 family members, that is it.  No other reason to be here.  cheers!

[Anna446]

@Branka0 and silvia:

Excuse me but they gave you 4 in communication? you booked them for the Davis stuff, you tried your best to communicate in english,  you were cordial and helpful and that is what they do? Amazing!  Central America they are very friendly but the south, is in my personal view, very unfriendly and uncortious. But you may ask Robin about it, he has a broader view of BR as he has visited here, he seemed to be enchanted with this place, why?? beats the hell out of me! I have an entirely different view.  Maybe he got lucky with the few he met. I basically talk to no one here, my friends are in the USA. I know a few political personas here of influence, but they are businesses' connections because I worked for the World Bank for many years.  cheers!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Anna446 I don't know, maybe because of the language barrier 😄 I think it's time to learn some spanish hehe

I have never been to Brasil but I imagined brasilian people ( and all central and south America) as outgoing, open, energetic latino people, you know the stereotype- music, dance, Rio carneval etc... :)))) I didn't know that they are so closed. 

[Anna446]

@Branka0and silvia:

They are closed to me.  I am very American in my ways, so they don't like it. They love Europeans, so you would be fine. YES, they are much into parties, dancing and all that. I am very private also, so maybe that is it, they see me as an outsider that even though was born here does share their ways in the culture, and they resent that. But to be fair, there are lovely people in BR, there are genuinely good people here, visionaries, and progressive. The problem I have is that I am a jew, and even though we have a huge jewish population the christians are the majority and are very family oriented and homophobic. They promote having kids, and it bothers me, also, the homophobia thing gets to me. You would be fine with them, this is my take and my experience only, many foreigners love it here. cheers.

[Lisa367]

i could not agree more!  our last guests actually left period blood on the bathroom mat.  WHAT?!  id say about 20% of our guests are perfect, whereas the other 80% are horrible - not the stuff of nightmares, but rude in general.  some guests walk into the house and grab themselves a bottle of water.  um, did you ask?  we don't offer water!   and no, we don't want to offer water because then we'll have to always have water.  we dont offer breakfast anymore either because, exactly like you said, people demand.  last month a guest demanded we have fresh and dried fruits along with soya milk for his vegan girlfriend.  we flat out told him "no".  you pay 30 bucks a night for a room, its not going to be a 5 star hotel.  we have also had guests who take it upon themselves to go into the laundry room and grab whatever they can find.  one guest took our dehumidfier out of storage and used it - without asking.  why did they go into our storage anyway?  we also no longer offer the kitchen for cooking either.  guests have broken things, never clean up, and the worst part is that they use our kitchen when we need to use it.  we live here, we have priority over the kitchen.  we have tried giving them kitchen times, but they dont follow them.  the worst part about all of this is that airbnb has taken it upon themselves to add even more review options to guests so now they can leave comments about "odors" or "sounds".  LIKE WTF?  the last thing a host needs is to get super passive-aggressive rants from guests over absolutely nothing.  one guest complained the house smelled like grilled meat on a night we didnt even cook.  she was obviously smelling the restaurants in the area on a saturday night.  sigh.  hosts need to have priority when it comes to airbnb, not the guests.

[Jay77]

Lisa, thanks for your post! I thought it was just me who was having these problems with guests. I have a guest now that demanded I prepare him the most expensive breakfast I have to offer. I stopped him at fried eggs and told he'll be getting cerial and yoghurt. His "wife" snooped through the cupboards and found the mixer and blender I was hiding. They both get very upset and angry when I told them they could not use those items. I have since hidden them in the garage. 

[Chad-and-Jennifer0]

Great post!  We have a ranch in the Sierra Foothills next to Sequoia National Park and rent out two rooms in our house.  Most of our guests are foriegn travelers who respect our space and things and then there are people who want to take advantage of everything.  By trial and error, I made both of our profiles pretty bold and straight forward letting the prospect know that we are a working ranch and don't put up with BS.  Ya, it may offend some people, but I don't want easily offended people to stay here, so being clear in your profile what you will tolerate and what you won't seems to do the trick.  We also qualify the prospects by their verifications, reviews,  and not using instant book.  I want to have a conversation with my prospects and make sure they are the quality of people that we want to stay in our home.  In almost 2 years as hosts, almost all of our reviews have been 5 star, so this method seems to work.

Cheers!

Chad and Jennifer

[Ellen33]

I have been following this for quite some time. Thought i would make a reply as well. 

For sure we are kind of newbies because we only started last june. We had around 30 booking. 

My husband and i we see it as an enrichment to our lives. And then i am not only talking about the money. 

For sure it is nice to save up some extra euro's. But we find it very nice to be able to share some lovely experiences with our guests. 

In summer we would invite them for aperitive and some snacks in the garden. Sometimes it even happens that i would invite them to have diner with us as well. 

Now in wintertime we dont have as many bookings as in july-august but once and a while we do get a booking. 

I would say that now its harder because guests tend to be around the house longer (less daylight hours, colder,...) and that kinds of puts presure on your privacy. 

But then on the other hand i am happy when our guests are happy. 

We try to give every guest a good experience. 

In the room we provide a bottle of water per person. 

We provide touristic info on the region. Where to park for free or cheap in the main citys nearby. Where to eat? 

They have their personal key. Myself i would not want to book a place without having my own key. 

The water, glasses, key are in a basket. For each guest i write "Name, welcome at our place "

We also have a guestbook in which people can write their experiences. 

Breakfast is also included. Depending on the season/ holidays i make an extra. 

Depending on how many days they stay i change the 'menu'. 

I always offer bread, jams, chocolate spread, butter, cheese, ham. Milk, instant coffee, tea, chocolate milk. Fruit

In summer when we have i bigger turn-over i also offer granola and yoghurt. 

When i am around i propose to make them eggs. Or offer cake. 

Again, when my guests are happy we are. 

Up to now we have had some lovely experiences. With one of the ladies who stayed at our place we still have contact by texting and we also have visited her once. 

With a lovely lady we stayed at in Napels 2 years ago we even made friends. 

We have been to visit her twice after our stay, as friends and staying over for free. Next year we will have her around at our home... We are greatfull that because of airbnb we have met her. 

For me airbnb is all about making it personal. No matter if you are in an independent unit and the hosts not being around. Or sharing a house with your hosts. 

You can always make people feel at home and give them the feeling they are welcome. That its not only their money which you are after. 

Also in a couple of weeks we will 'close' for a couple of weeks to repaint and decorate our 2 guestrooms. Again, thats a big gift that airbnb provided us with. If we didnt start up airbnb maybe we couldnt be bother to really make nice guestrooms. 

[Kate195]

I do agree.  I especially am upset by guests who wipe their mascara off on new plush white bath towels and facecloths cos they couldn't be bothered to bring cosmetic puffs with them, or would not even use the tissues provided by the host.  I also just love guests who say the tv is" not working"  - i.e.a brand new smart tv - just because they themselves do not know how to use it -but then proceed - craftily  enough - to rack up a cable bill for almost seventy bucks using the "demand" button.

the guests who give unfair reviews - complaining about their impressions of what an "entire space" should be categorized as.