Living La vida Local in Australia

[James314]

                                                Airbnb and Living La vida Local In Australia

The successful Airbnb host is the thoughtful one. Define ‘thoughtful.’ How’s this? Someone who anticipates the needs and wants of guests.  Are they young, active, sporty-looking? Pump up the tyres on the mountain bikes. Get out the kayak,SUP, scuba,  and

night-life brochures, along with the ‘No Loud Music after 9:30pm’ sign. 

Maybe they want to eat out, but cheap and cheerful?

-”There’s the Bowlo and the Rissole.( See Glossary) Don’t worry about driving or taking a cab.  They each have a Courtesy Bus. Pick you up and drop you at the door. And yes folks, they do have pokies, lots of’em.  There’s karaoke  on tonight at the Rissole and the Weekly Texas-Hold ‘em Poker Tournament at the Bowlo .  They're clubs, but visitors are welcome, just show some ID at Reception. Let me explain how to order food in the bistro.”

Your Airbnb guests know nothing of this . Oh yes, they’ve got Trip Advisor’s Top Ten recommendations don’t they? But you’ll never guess who wrote those reviews.  Same all over the world. The farther you go from the Trevi Fountain, for example, the cheaper, the better, the more authentic, the food. Yes, the menu’s in Italian only, but pause, think, there’s a reason for that.

  So, when my guests ask me about their online choice for dinner, I could go along, knowing that within an hour they will be consumed by a growing sense of guilt as they pick over their trussed baby  tomatoes, their smashed avocado, their dehydrated or reduced beetroot, and their  frozen sheep’s yoghurt and I shudder at the thought of what that might mean. Or, I could mention that back off the beach, ‘Da Mama’s’, known to locals and to locals only, as Da Mamas and Papas, will be  going off tonight and that yes maybe I could book a table for them.

 That’s what people want, -the local experience. And, as James Taylor and I like to say, “That’s why I’m here.”

So, that’s what I mean about wants. Needs now, that’s a different thing. When guests come back after a long, hot day in the sun, what do they want.? They want a cold drink, maybe a beer.  When do they want it? Now. But what do they need? This thought came to me, recently, on recovering from a fainting fit after a long hot day in the sun and too much beer immediately afterwards. What do my guests need? Same as me I suppose. Those hydrolite ice- blocks my doctor told me I’d need to start taking when I went to see him a few months back about some fainting fits I’d been having. There they were in the back of the pantry, 18 left out of a packet of 20.

I had a few ready in the freezer recently when a couple of guests returned from a long hot day in the sun. “Helps replace the salts and electrolytes you lose through exercise,”  I explained to  Chris and Louise who, I found out later, were  both professional  lronman distance triathletes, having  met while undertaking MA’s in  Health Science.

-“That’s very thoughtful of you,“ they said.

Wants and needs.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Glossary of Terms for Overseas Guests. These are found in every  Aussie town.

Bowlo: the local bowling club – as in Colo Bowlo. Cheap drinks and obligatory Chinese restaurant.  Cheap and cheerful par excellence.  The beef with black bean sauce is good. Lots of pokies.

Rissole: The local RSL (Returned Soldiers’ League) Club -as above but with Roast Dinner Specials Friday Night and Sunday lunch, Schnitzel Night Wednesday  and All You Can Eat Pasta Deals Monday and Tuesday (may vary depending on location.)  Sometimes known as the ‘Ary’. As in ‘Taree Ary.’ Lots of pokies.

Courtesy Bus: Yes, it’s true. A bus will pick you up at the door and drop you home (see below-Pokies). The term courtesy need not necessarily apply to the driver, but we’re good around here.

Pokies : poker machines, slot machines. The reason for the Courtesy Bus and the cheap drink and food. But who am I to judge?

[Robin4]

@James314

Love your photo James. You can't get a shot like that in the centre of London!!!

I am getting a reputation for having a few Crocodiles in the lake!!!!

We are getting a lot of Koalas since they started relocating them here into the Adelaide Hills from Kangaroo Island 6 years ago! Not many nights you won't see one or hear one in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately they don't mix well with possums so we don't actually get them coming down into the garden but most tourists want to get a 'selfie' with a Koala in the background....and more often than not, we can oblige!

Good post James, I have always subscribed to one theory....If I was the guest how would I idealy liked to be treated.

And I think my reviews show that lots of other people think like that too!

Good on you mate....cheers.....Rob

[Huma0]

Hi @Robin4 and @Lizzie, no you are right, we can't compete with that in Central London. We do, however, have a bit of wildlife (and I'm not referring to my cats or those pesky squirrels).

Fox in a flowerpot anyone? He was sleeping there on my terrace all day, much to the amusement of my guests.

[Lizzie]

Aww it looks rather cute @Huma0 and is very much enjoy your plant pot...I hope there isn't a plant under there??! Is he/she a regular to your garden? I do see quite a lot of urban foxes in London, never in a plant pot though. 🙂

[Huma0]

Hi @Lizzie, no that pot just has grasses in for my cats to nibble on. I guess that's why the fox chose it, because it was soft and comfy.

when I first moved here, there was a fox that used to sunbathe on the terrace and he/she was not bothered by us at all. It would even press its nose against the French doors and watch us watching TV. You would see the same fox pottering down the street in the evening, totally nonplussed by all the people passing by and I live on a busy road, so no @Robin4 they are pretty relaxed here.

Then I got my cats and even though they were only little kittens, the fox stopped coming to the garden and I hadn't seen it in years. I have no idea if it was the same one, but it didn't seem bothered by the cat's and they were not fussed about it either. I heard fox noises last night so he/she must still be hanging around.

[Robin4]

@Huma0 @Lizzie

Hey Huma, that is super cute! Are they really that tame in London that they will come into a garden like that. Here they are very wary of humans and give us a wide berth....Unlike Crocodiles!!

Had to have a laugh because each morning I need to have a cuppa from my favourite cup!!

Keep up your great hosting Huma....

Cheers.....Rob

[Helen3]

Hi @James314

Is this pasted from a blog post you have written elsewhere?

Lovely photo by the way.

[James314]

Thanks, Helen. No, I just made it up today. I do have a blog and might stick it up there.

Jim

[Lizzie]

Great post @James314 and what a fantastic photo too. Do the kangaroos often pop around to your garden? As @Robin4 mentioned, I can vouch for not seeing any kangaroos in central London! 🙂

It is really interesting to read this. Have you always tried to host in this way or is this something you have picked up over time, learning from what your guests have said?

[Robin4]

@Lizzie @Huma0 @Andrea 

Lizzie, it is what you can do with your life here in Australia that is so important!!!!

I have kissed the most beautiful woman in the world!

Thats's Ivy in the front and Madison behind.......I have helped a complete stranger for the common good....my Meals on Wheels! Driven a Porsche 911 Targa! (biggest heap of cr*p I ever owned)! Been on the Great Wall of China! Dined in Hong Kong! Seen Rome! Laughed till I cried! Visited Stonehenge! Witnessed something truly majestic, (Antarctica at sunrise) ....... Yeah, and I can cross this one off 'The Bucket List' too!!!!!

https://youtu.be/FO39w91qntI

@Lizzie I can't begin to tell you how many beautiful things there are in life....one day I will tell you when I met the Beatles.....for real, not just on a road somehere but got to shake their hands....well, all apart from Ringo Starr. He did not come here for the Adelaide concerts.....we had a stand in drummer called Jimmy Nicol!!!

Lizzie I hate where I am in life because there has been so much of it.....I still feel 25 inside but hell, I have had a good life and patting Kangaroos and Koalas have been a big part of it......I love being an Australian!!

Cheers.....Rob

[Lizzie]

Aw wow @Robin4. This post is like a sensory overload of amazing information. Also, such a cute photo. 🙂

I clicked on your video link, is there anything you haven't done...how did it feel to do a skydive? It is on my wishlist, but I think it would be very scary. 🙂

Plus, meeting the Beatles...I saw Paul McCartney live a few years back at the Isle of Wight Festival, which was amazing because as soon, and I mean literally as soon, as he finished singing the rain started as if it was all planned! 🙂

[Robin4]

@Lizzie

I, along with some friends, bought tickets to the first Adelaide concert of the Beatles in 1964!

Adelaide wasn't originally on the Beatles tour schedule, but a local DJ (Bob Francis...who ironically died about 3 weeks ago) got a petition together with about 40,000 signatures and sent it off to Brian Epstien, who was the Beatles manager at the time and, the next thing you know....bingo, Adelaide opened the Beatles Australian tour season. And you know Lizzie if you google it you will find 250,000 people gathered outside the Adelaide Town Hall to welcome them, and it was regarded as the biggest reception The Beatles ever got anywhere in the world!

There were all sorts of competitions going around Adelaide and Aust at the time, and one, which the girl I was going out with at the time and I won (along with twenty two assorted others) was to meet the Beatles at an after concert party!

The concert was held in Centennial Hall, which was the largest building Adelaide posessed at the time for holding entertainment of this nature and.....you know I used to hear people on talkback radio say they went to see The Beatles and they sat somewhere or other, 'bullsh*t'....if you went to see The Beatles you stood! Not a seat anywhere in Cetennial Hall for this event!

There was a support group called "Sounds Incorporated"....Oh hell Lizzie, I will remember this moment so vividly until the day I die! Bob Francis compared the night and when Sounds Incoporated finished their set they got up and walked off the stage and Bob came out and stood centre stage and just stood there with his hands behind his back....never said a word! Slowly all the lights in Centennial Hall went out one by one and the noise gradually died down until in the end you could have almost heard a mouse fa*t, and there was just this one spotlight that shone on the skin of the base drum with Sounds Incoporated scrolled across it.

Bob slowly turned and walked across the the lit base drum and peeled the skin off...... and there on the skin underneath it was.....The Beatles!!!!Bugger me did that hall erupt, this was it, we were going to see The Beatles. And really, that's all we did, see them! Sound amplification the was nothing like it is now and you were struggling to hear anything above the screaming but after the concert the alloted two dozen of us who had all been marshalled into a specific area of the hall were ushered backstage and yeah, yaeh, yeah, we got to shake their hands.

At the time Lizzie I was a bit disappointed...... they were just kids, same age as me, could have been any of our friends nothin special about em, just 4 guys in a room with a heap of others. It was a disappointment that Ringo did not make it here. I think he had tonsilitis or something and we had a stand in drummer by the name of Jimmy Nicol!

But I got to shake the hand of Paul, John and George......in that order.

The skydiving...listen Lizzie, it's no big deal when you have this bloke strapped to your back that has done it about 4,500 times before...you sort of think you are in safe hands! the freefall was over too quick....about 45 seconds and then there was 6 minutes under the canopy and that was fabulous! The guy your strapped too (Dave in my case) gives you the control ropes and you can guide the capony where ever you want!!! To go left just pull down on the left rope, go right pull the right rope, pull both to go up, let them out a bit to go down. I steered myself over to where Kate was and we spiralled around each other (from a respectful distance) and laughed and joked to each other.

Lizzie it is definitely a 'Bucket List' item and yeah I do have to say my life has been a 'life well lived' and Airbnb is still keeping the wonder in it for me.

I know you don't want to hear this but it will be just a touch cooler today! We have had three days of 41c and today is forecast for 35c but the whole eastern half of Australia is in the clutches of a massive heatwave!

Cheers.....Rob 

Cheers....Rob