@Robin4, I'm so sorry about your wife's illness. I wish I had a magic wand to wave so I could make it go away.
So here's my happy story -- and it involves Australian guests. Bonus!
Over this year's holidaze, I was feeling a little downhearted. A friend had booked our little cottage (on our property) for her daughter and teenaged grandsons to stay for a week over Christmas. At the last minute the mom (friend's daughter) had a family emergency and could not come. Long story short, I allowed the young men to stay in our cottage anyway, with assurances from their grandmother that all would be well, and she would check on them every day and make sure they kept the cottage tidy. You can see where this is going: It was a disaster. In the middle of their stay we had our first snowstorm in decades, lost our power for a day and the cherry on top: my excellent cleaning helper pulled up out front with all of her stuff in a rented truck and announced she had suddenly decided to move across the country. Perfect! The state in which the boys left the cottage almost brought me to tears. It took me over 8 hours to put it back in good shape for my next guests, who were arriving that evening.
My guests, too, had had a rough go of it. Three lovely folks from Melbourne (a couple and their best friend) had their plans of a leisurely tour through the American south scuttled by the same storm that whacked us. They were in that strange limbo of cancelled flights, icy roads and no way to plan more than a day ahead because of the airlines' indecision on opening the airport again. They reached here exhausted, jet lagged and unsure. Their luck had been so bad. Would it continue?
They fell into our beautiful little city like they were landing on a soft mattress. They loved everything about Savannah -- the trees, the food, the history, our crazy little beach town (Tybee Island) -- but most of all they loved our neighborhood and the cottage. They wanted the full details on where to go and what to do, so we sat before the fire with a bottle of wine and planned out their time here. My dogs thought they were the best thing to happen to them since the day the turkey wing fell on the floor. We ended up hanging out at our house the next night, too, telling our life stories and a few tall tales.
By their last day, we were collaborating on the perfect dinner menu and swapping book recommendations.
I hated to see them leave, but I know they will be back. We had a really interesting talk about the direction Airbnb is heading, and I loved hearing feedback from people who have been using Airbnb since the early days. Their insights into how the platform is changing, from the one on one experience type of stay to something more akin to a hotel or executive rental were very interesting. It's been my experience that about half the guests I get want a brief introduction and then being left to their own devices. That's fine with me, too! But I love having folks visit who want to share good conversation and an occasional bottle of wine.
They validated for me the thing I get the most joy from -- sharing my wonderful city, anticipating guests' needs so they are comfortable here, and making real connections. And their kindness took my mind off the rugged experience of the days before they got here.
99.99% of our guests are good eggs - thank goodness.
Hope this helps! My next Australian guests arrive in 2 weeks. I know, it's not all koalas and kookaburras, but I have a feeling they will be a lot of fun.