If, like me you had never utilised Airbnb as a traveller yourself, only a host, how are you to know what sort of trials and tribulations your guests may have gone through to get there; especially if they don’t inform you? So, I thought I’d share my first trip with you. You can make up your own mind as to what you will do with that information.
Flying from Perth to Melbourne sounds lovely, right? Yeah, well, not so much. This trip wasn’t for work, or a holiday. Rather, it was to arrange my uncle’s funeral. Further, until an hour prior to my attempting to locate a place to stay, I’d been hoping to make it to the hospital in time so he wouldn’t be alone. However, that wasn’t to be, instead I’d be arranging his funeral and putting his affairs in order.
As you can imagine, it’s a pretty fragile state to be in.
As a host and first time user as a guest, I’d already joined Airbnb, so there was’nt the need to go through the application and verification process etc. which was a boon.
Considering that, it should be a cake-walk for me right? I’m a host… a Superhost and that for a few years now. So using the Airbnb application if not daily, then at least a few times a week, I should have no problems...
Yet still I battled with the Airbnb booking application.
The problem...
The issue I had was the need to locate accommodation within walking distance of the hospital. He may have passed away that morning, but he was still in the morgue and his things were still in the hospital; these needed to be collected before I did anything else.
So, this isn’t a holiday. I had no forewarning, and I needed to get on a plane and get over to Melbourne as possible. I also had no time to go strolling through all the accommodations available to me in Melbourne. Rather, I needed it to be specific, and I needed to find something fast. I had a plane to catch and needed to book before I took off - my husband insisted.
So, after selecting all the specifics I required for my stay, and there weren’t that many - all that’s required is a place to stay for one person in the hospitals suburb with no sharing.
I hit the ‘search’ button and waited.
Imagine my surprise when over six-hundred places were made available to me?!
I scrolled back up to the top, and double-checked my selections - yep, nothing there that was off, or wonky. Hmmm. I was certain that there weren’t that many places to stay in the suburb I was looking in.
So I checked some of the places on offer.
None of the properties on the first few pages Airbnb offered me were even in the suburb I was looking at.
Yeah, I wasn’t happy, just frustrated and on the verge of tears… again.
Regardless, I threw a few more items into the filter to try and narrow my search further, then had another look again at what was on offer.
There was still a plethora. The majority of which didn’t suit at all.
I didn’t want to share, I was in mourning.
There would not be any light-hearted chatter, nor did I desire to know where the best restaurants were, et cetera.
Yes I’d already filtered the system to show me standalone properties, and yet I was still being offered rooms or suites.
As a guest, it was annoying.
As someone in a fragile state, it was frustrating.
Again I scrolled back up to the top and verified my selections, certain that I was doing something wrong.
I realised that I had no choice. I had to go through all the properties it offered me.
Amongst the suites and rooms there were a few standalone, and none of them were suitable. Not one of them were near the hospital.
Fair enough. I narrowed my search once again.
The application was still proffering places from outside the suburb I needed.
Fast running out of time I finally went with a room that had a separate ensuite with shared kitchen, dining and lounge facilities. It also had a lockbox for the key, so I wouldn’t have to deal with anyone unless I bumped into them in the shared facilities. As I planned on holing up in my room, I decided this wouldn’t be that big of a problem.
I figured I’d only have to do it for one night, and if I needed to book for another night or two, I would just extend it.
My plane was delayed and we landed after eight in the evening. I then went through the whole process of locating the best way to get from Tullamarine Airport to the suburb I was staying in. I settled on a cab. I’d be there sooner than if I’d taken the StarTrak into Melbourne and then a train to the nearest station. Considering that I was a woman travelling alone in a strange (to me) area at night, I thought it prudent to do this, rather than StarTrak - even though it would have saved me about forty dollars Australian.
The driver was fantastic. I was collected and my luggage was loaded into the back, and then took me to my destination with no phaffing about. He also allowed me to stop and purchase a few items like bread and butter et cetera from a convenience store so I wouldn’t have to leave the accommodation once I arrived.
When I finally arrived at my accommodation late that night it was pitch black. Wandering around the outside I checked the building against a photo to ensure that I was at the right premises. Why? Because I couldn’t locate the apartment they had designated me.
The address, instead of being listed by apartment number, then street number, was listed back to front for a start.
It will come as no surprise that I ended up with a headache five minutes after locating the premises.
They had given me the lockbox number of four, which was also the number of the apartment - a fact that initially escaped me.
I don’t know about you, but when I go to an apartment building, I’m expecting each studio, suite and apartment to be given an individual number. So, each number is only used the once.
Not so in this building. There were four number ones, four number two’s, four number three’s, three number fours, and two number fives.
Confused? Yep. Me too.
So when I came across the first pole that had a number four. Stupidly, I assumed that it was the one they had designated for me. I then put my luggage down and dug my phone out so I could turn the light on and (attempt to) open the lock box.
Yes, that’s correct. Even though I had notified the host I was arriving late that night, I couldn’t see anything.
Worse, the battery on my phone was registering at about three percent. Now this is my fault, and I wasn’t prepared, but I wasn’t thinking too well given the sudden and unexpected death of my uncle just that morning.
Back to that assumption of mine about it being the lockbox they had designated for me. It wasn’t.
There was another pole further down that was also numbered one to whatever.
As was the next pole. And the next.
How I was I to know the difference between the poles on the same building at night time is still something I’m struggling with.
After calling and texting the host a few times, she got back to me, and I was informed (like I was stupid) that I was standing outside the wrong set of apartments. I needed to move down two or three more poles.
To give you a better picture. The building had a path down one side of the building. There were five staggered doorways that opened up onto the path. Outside of each of these doorways was a pole. Upon the poles were the lock boxes. Those lockboxes pertained to the rooms/suites/apartments available through that door and that door alone.
Got it? Good.
Perhaps they could have had each door/pole listed A, B, C, D and E. Then given numbers one to five. So room/flat or whatever you wanted to call it thus:
A1, A2, A3, A4, A5
B1, B2, B3, B4, B5
C1, C2, C4 and so on and so forth. Then the guest (namely myself) may have realised that they were attempting to open the wrong lockbox if they’d been given lockbox E4 and they were attempting to an open lockbox B4. I know I would have realised that it was the wrong box straight away.
So, what did I learn from this?
1. I can understand now why some of my guests are annoyed when trying to locate a place to stay. (Google leads my guests astray - even though to overcome this I have registered my place on Google… all to no avail.)
2. I know now why the guests are annoyed when I send them a long winded ‘welcome to Serenity Cottage’ email, telling them what they can expect… it astounded me the amount of messages I received from Airbnb (I’ve since beefed up my House Manual, and slimmed down my ‘welcome’ email).
3. It would be great if travellers had the option to select a suburb and then perhaps a range of kilometres or miles outside of that area if they so desired.
4. That Airbnb could have a selection of a specific area only, which would make the travellers booking so much easier.
Because not all travellers are on holidays. Some are working or going to that area for a specific reason - like ballooning for example.
5. Always have a photo of your accommodation from the street on your advertisement to ensure the guest knows without doubt that they are in/at the right place/building. This was my only saving grace that night. I bless the host for doing so.
6. Always ensure lighting is available, so if arriving at night time they can actually find the place. I recommend solar lights along a pathway at the very least.
. Mark your premises and do so clearly. Share a photo of that too with your guest so they know what to look out for. This is even more important if the guests are driving. (I had one guest attempt to drive up our creek.)
7. If you are going to split a building into rooms, studio’s, suites and apartments, please remember to give each of them an individual number. For the mental health of your guests if nothing else - one building, one number per room, studio, apartment etc. Thank you in advance.
8. Don’t talk down or be condescending to your guests, no matter how stupid they appear to be to you. Different cultures do things differently. That doesn’t mean it’s any better or any worse, it just means that we as hosts need to be more understanding and forgiving.
9. Go stay at another Airbnb. Find out what you maybe doing wrong and fix it. I know I have. If, like me you had never utilised Airbnb as a traveller yourself, only a host, how are you to know what sort of trials and tribulations your guests may have gone through to get there; especially if they don’t inform you? So, I thought I’d share my first trip with you. You can make up your own mind as to what you will do with that information.
Loving the Airbnb community and it’s diversity❣️
