Love me a map!

[Patricia55]

One of the most frequently-asked questions by our potential guests is: how far is it from your place to, for example, the university, or, can you walk to town from your place? So, given that I love playing with Google Maps, I mapped the walking route to town and the metro journey, took screenshots and put the resulting pics into our listing photos.

*[Personal information hidden from photo for safety reasons]

I thought this might be a useful function for others, for all sorts of different routes and methods of travel – obviously being careful not to too closely locate one's home!

Well, I had fun with it anyway 😉

(Sorry if this has already been covered.)

[Patricia55]

@Alison122

Also, historic maps of your town! So fascinating:

[Bianca156]

I love google maps. I did a printout and had them printed in a shop, because I no longer have a printer, had them laminated. It has all the places that they can reach walking from the apartment. 

All my guests love it. Normally I let them know personally all the information about the neighborhood but it is too much to say when they are checking in.  Google Maps comes in handy  

[Patricia55]

@Bianca156

Wow, I'm in awe! That is a thing of beauty 🙂

[Lizzie]

This looks really impressive @Bianca156. It's a great idea to laminate them, so that if your guest take them out or spill anything on them, they still remain in good condition. 

[Kenneth12]

Are we now allowed to post map links?  We've been able to say "Google" again for a while ...  !

[Patricia55]

Wow @Kenneth12 - I hadn't realised 'Go*gle' was once a dirty word 😉

I'm assuming that Airbnb are just being cautious, ie trying to protect hosts from revealing the precise location of their listing...  but I'm pretty wary of doing that myself - sometimes wonder if someone will figure out where we are from one of our photos showing the view from the window, using trigonometry!  Paranoid?!

[Kenneth12]

We couldn't type Google,  we couldn't type Google Maps,  and we couldn't even type Goo*gle.   I wound up typing Goo gle,  which must have confused guests or made them think I was dyslexic etc.

I can also tell you, FWIW,  that local codes and tax enforcement offices,  are pretty good at finding the location of Airbnb listings,  alas.  (The tax on stays in Chicago is nearly 45%,  but hey,  the city is in essence bankrupt).

Good luck on the maps,  when I get a chance I'll see if the kinds of routes you suggest can be sent in message links. 

[Patricia55]

@Kenneth12

After recovering from the shock of hearing “nearly 45%,” I decided I should look into our local regulations. Couldn't find anything specifically on our city, Newcastle. Admittedly, my research was half-hearted – I just don't want to find out that we'd have to pay more tax 😞 Think we'd have to throw in the towel and sell up if we did.

Re links in messages, that would be handy to know. I haven't had any need to try it yet. Have noticed, though, that I'm not getting those “redacted” messages as often as I used to, when I type in certain info...

I spent a few months in Chicago in the '70s – in a frat house at N/W Uni BION - very exciting times!