What are your best tips for hosting international guests? [Updated]

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

What are your best tips for hosting international guests? [Updated]

Welcome

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I hope you are are having a great week. 🙂

 

On a daily basis you welcome guests from all over the world into you home and in doing so have gained some amazing experiences. To celebrate this, Airbnb would love to write a blog article on our community’s best tips for hosting international guests! What are yours?

 

Are there any particular things you have updated in your listing to help welcome folks traveling from afar or perhaps you may have adjusted your hosting to anticipate what they might need? 

 

Please share your best tips here and we'll include some of them in the Airbnb Blog and in the Host Newsletter! 🙂

 

Thanks so much,

 

Lizzie

 

-----------------------Edited Sep 15th 2017----------------------

 

Update:

 
Hello everyone,
 
Some time ago you may remember I created this thread here asking you to share your tips on hosting and welcoming international guests! I am pleased to let you know that a selection of tips were collected from here (along with the other CC languages) and were turned into a blog post: Hosting International Guests
 
I want to thank everyone who shared their tips and participated in this discussion and congratulations to @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0@Helga0@Huaai0@Momi0@Kim-and-Jen0@Louise0@Beth44@Nina115@Anastasia5@Paul154@Amy38@Josie23@Mariann4 for being included, please feel free to continue sharing your tips, it is fantastic to hear them! 🙂
 
Enjoy!
Lizzie
 
 


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

108 Replies 108

I get a lot of British guests, and I always like to make sure there's milk and tea available for them so they can have a cuppa when they arrive. Most of the rest of the guests from Europe drink coffee, and I leave either half and half which is cream mixed with milk or whole milk in the fridge for them. Thanks for your advice on the milk choice, I think I'll go with 2% which is what I also drink, although not in my coffee! All best wishes, Susie

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Sounds great @Susie5, if only I lived a little closer I would pop around for a cuppa now! 🙂 


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Lynnie1
Level 5
Foulkesmill, Ireland

I would say whole milk, as anything less would water it down. For example, my mother-in-law, who uses low-fat milk for everything, keeps whole milk around for her tea.

Alicia176
Level 1
Le Castellet, France

Very Nice! 👌

Sue238
Level 2
Market Drayton, United Kingdom

I have a house information sheet that details all the silly little things you forget to tell people when they check in.  I run it throught Google Translate and print it out for them.  It helps break the ice, because some of the translation is pretty dire, word order all wrong etc.  and I ask them if they can understand it!!  Many a rude comment back!  but fun , because you are seen to be helpful but can take a bit of fun being poked back at you!

@Sue238   Great idea!  I did the same., but now I run it by a human translator for the final check.   The machine translation does not always pick up subtleties.   

Baruch-And-Elyse0
Level 2
Toronto, Canada

We have a "where in the world are you from" map with push pins as you enter the suite. Guests love identifying where they have come from and seeing how many have come from similar places on the map—and far away as well! We usually leave 2 bottles of local craft beer in the fridge for them as well. 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

This is lovely to hear @Baruch-And-Elyse0, I love that the guests add the pin themselves. Do they ever ask about other guests? 🙂

 

Has your map got quite a few pins in it now? It would be great to see a photo if you are happy to share here. [If so, click on the little camera icon on your tool bar].

 

Thanks,

Lizzie


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Fifty (50%) of my guests are from all over the world, and the other 50% from NA. They love reading the stories left by other guests in the Guest Book, that always goes over well.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

I agree with you guests @Fred13. Even though you can read the reviews before your stay via the listing, if I stay somewhere and there is a guest book, I love scanning through it to find out where other guests have come from and what they got up to during their stay. 🙂 

 


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Edward225
Level 2
San Mateo, CA

For hosts in San Francisco, I just created a travel solution that could be beneficial for your international guests. Its called ARRVL (www.ARRVL.co) and it provides some basics that every international guest would want for their trip - SIM cards, transit pass, and some pocket money. 

 

If anyone is interested, i'd love to experiment with offering it to your international guests. I've been offering it to my family and friends who visit me from Shanghai and Taiwan and it seems to be a hit. Maybe you'll find it useful too.

JoLynne0
Level 3
Syracuse, NY

Hello

I have had international guests. However I haven't done anything differently. I always try to meet my guest then I walk them through my place and show them around and explain things.

Thank you community JoLynne 

Mirjana15
Level 2
Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lijep pozdrav  iz prelijepe Banjaluke . Banja Luka or Banjaluka is the second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the de facto capital of its Republika Srpska entity.      Zelim da Vam malo opisem nacin na koji ja docekam goste i nije mi vazno da li su strani ili domaci gosti . Obavezno u apartmanu imam caj od kamilice i metvice (Menta,mentol) .,Turska kafa i secer u vrecicama. U frizideru se nalazi instant supa,nudle ,biljno ulje i sirce od divlje prirodne jabuke koju mi beremo u ekolosko cistoj sumi ,a u ostavi so ,biber,mljevena paprika ,riza ,nudle za supu ,spageti . Gost se uvijek doceka sa nekim picem ,Banjalucko  "Nektar " pivo (Banjalučka pivara je osnovana 1873. god. Osnivači pivare su redovnici samostana Marija Zvijezda iz reda Trapista.).domaci likeri od visnje ili mente,domaca rakija ,vino ,mineralna voda  Domace sezonske salate (ajvar,marinirane paprike,krastavci,sarena salata....itd Kad pisem 'Domace' ti proizvodi su iz nase proizvodnje ,koju ja i moja porodica pravimo. Uglavnom u apartmanu su uputstva na engleskom jeziku za strance. nabavila sam mapu grada i flajere restorana i ugostiteljskih objekata koji rade kucnu dostavu .Nabavila sam telefon sa pripeid karticom za goste koji dolaze u podrucje rominga .U toaletu se nalaze sredstva za odrzavanje higijene .Ako gosti ostaju 10 ili vise dana imaju rezervnu posteljinu i preko 20 peskira .Kad gosti zatrebaju moje usluge na vrijeme me obavjeste i tad dolazim u apartman i odradim ciscenje apartmana i mjenjanje posteljine .Svim Domacinima zelim uspijeh i srecu u poslu i veliko HVALA  za sve informacije i iskustva koje ste podijelili !

I’ve created a printed guide of all the local cultural places to enhance their experience and boy does it get appreciated. 

JoLynne0
Level 3
Syracuse, NY

Hello community,

I had a couple just the otherday and I thought about adding  pictures to somethings. That's a great  idea! They didn't say much just smiled a lot. 

Thanks for the tip JoLynne