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.


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108 Replies 108
Tassos4
Level 2
Agia Paraskevi, Greece

I made a guide in our listing, which I also have as a hardcopy in our place.

Some great low-cost restaurants with fresh local fish or meat near the beach or the mountain, beaches and some sights.

The most important of it is that this are places that I Like.

Oomesh-Kumarsingh0
Level 10
Pamplemousses, Mauritius

@Lizzie Most of my guests that i have the pleasure to host are international guests and one of the best tips that i can give to other hosts is to pickup the guests at the airport and bring them at your place. This is always the best way to connect and create bond with the guest before arriving at your property and this will also make the guest more relax and stress free as he/she is sure to arrive at the right address. Another advantage in doing this is that you can make some extra money by charging the guest for the airport transfer. That is definitely a win win situation!!!

Em4
Level 10
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

@Lizzie @Bruce43 @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0 @Nutth0

 

to date, without exception guests from countries whose first language is not english, are atleast bilingual.  many like to know about this area, region and about nz.  i didn't realise how much i actually knew until i became a host.

 

when i reopen i have organised a number of activities particularly with international travellers in mind:

- artist residency program.  every month a nz artist comes here to work and will from time to time make themselves available during this period.

-monthly artist exhibitions.  local and south island artists organise 2x exhibitions in the Hukawai Art Gallery. 

-3x monthly art exhibition cocktail openings.  the food focuses on locally produced/grown/farmed/hunted/gathered foods cocktail-style plus complimentary glass of quality nz sparkling or nz beer.  tickets for purchase.

-on average every fortnight we intend to have a weekend market bringing together local artists, craft artisans and other activities typical of this area such as competitive wood chopping.  entry fee for those not accommodated at Hukawai Lodge.

-our cafe The Faultline opens and is based on home grown, local, wild foods, maori and nz fare and fresh homemade goods such as foie gras, seaweed, eel, duck, rabbit, quail, homemade cakes, desserts, mini cakes etc.  also NZ sparkling wines, highly regarded nz pinot noir sauv blanc, chardonnay and NZ boutique beers and the beer locals drink (very important), nz award winning coffee and a large selection of teas.

-we're also hoping to hold an event every month.  in dec xmas.  in jan music.  in feb a cultural day to tie in with chinese new year, including kapa haka (maori performance) and other cultures.

-souvenirs specially selected to reflect maori culture and pounamu (nz jade) from the west coast, NZ, Hukawai Lodge branded gear, NZ cultural iconography.

-a garden walk which takes in different garden styles and hopefully takes around 20-30 minutes to get around.

-farm tours which focus on farming in nz - rotational grazing, all and only grass feeding, high genetic merit with a very special herd plus small animals for petting and feeding - poultry, bermin cats, farm animals, rabbits, peacocks etc.

- we hope to have regular kapa haka performances.  if we can it will be in the form of a performance concert and tickets for purchase.

- all the above will grow and modify over the course of the next 5 years.

 

🙂

Em

Bruce43
Level 10
Kfar Blum, Israel

@Em4 my wife is an x South African, many of her family moved to NZ in the early 90s

I hope one day to fly there when I can buy a first class sleeping cabin on the plane.

Em4
Level 10
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

@Bruce43   its always nice to hear other's connection to nz. 

 

🙂

Em

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Wow, this sounds amazing @Em4. It sounds like there is a hive of activity going on. 

 

What do your guests think about all these wonderful activities?


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


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.

Em4
Level 10
Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

thank you @Lizzie

 

i don't know yet what guests staying at hukawai lodge will think.  this is not just an attempt to bring the local culture and nz culture to them but also to the other tourists in franz josef.  but once i have a season under my belt i will be in a better position to judge and to make changes where required.

 

i guess my hope is that its precisely what they'd be interested in.  however, its not free.  from this perspective its a way to make the entire enterprise economic and to justify 90 to 100% of my focus away from what provides my income.

 

on another level, it is also an attempt to focus on more than just franz josef glacier as a destination.

 

having said all of the above, i don't know if it will work, or what further modifications are required to make it work.  but i am looking forward to seeing how it will go and how i work out how to cope.

 

🙂

Em
hukawai lodge

franz josef, nz

https://www.airbnb.co.nz/manage-your-space/15418840

Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

I'm afraid I'm not much help on this one, @Lizzie. With no electricity or plumbing involved in my listing there are no adapters, for instance, required. Most guests are hikers, and hikers are already a sort of community. A European or Brazilian hiker will understand the place better than will a local non-hiker who booked out of curiosity. 

So no tips. I do have an international adapter at the farmhouse, but no one has needed it. They bring their own. They're awesome.

My current and all future guests are international (exchange students). Since I have been in their shoes, I thought about what I would have liked and then tried to factor in individual preferences 🙂

Also I wanted to differentiate my listing from dorms or home stay places. 

 

My ultimate goal is to provide guests with a home-like, private environment while being available to help when necessary. My current guest recently told me that staying with me is like staying with a cool, laid-back, much older sibling or cousin. 

 

I think also the fact that I'm bilingual and I work as an interpreter so I meet with a lot of foreigners on a daily basis helps me to anticipate how I can help my guests ease into life in Seoul, and answer questions about culture and conceptions that they would not be able to ask their friends. 

 

I have traveled abroad for work and vacation quite a bit so I have a fairly good understanding of cultural differences and I try to be as flexible and open minded as possible. 

 

I'm still hosting my first guest who will be checking out next week....with my 2nd guest checking in a couple days after. I will have to see how I need to adjust for different guests, but I think I've had a great start 😄

Paul154
Level 10
Seattle, WA

I try my hardest to spell correctly and use simple English in messages.

It's hard sometimes. No "c u soon" or "thx". And I can't imagine how google translates misspelled words!

 

I also try try try not to assume cultural norms and practices. Very difficult. 

When I say "Make yourself at home" I mean it.

You want a glass for water? Search in the cupboard and find one - don't bother me!

Also difficult: Our tap water comes from glacier fed lakes in the mountains and it's delicious. I am not killing you when I offer you some!

One fun thing I do is make icons for house instructions, instead of words.  Google images is fun for this

 

Huaai0
Level 10
British Columbia, Canada

@Lizzie

 

Hmmm, this is the topic for me, as I have had lots of international/cross-cultural experiences through Airbnb and mostly other channels. 

 

Tips:

 

1) Language 

 

I can greet people in many languages including Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Swedish, French, German, Hindi, Thai, etc. and I can also sing in Arabic and Urdu. I have sung Fariruz's (the most famous Lebanese singer in history and still alive) songs and Nancy Ajram's (the Celine Dion in the Arab world) songs in Arabic and make Arab people drop their jaw! They will just fall in love with you and call you habibi! They are just like "WOW! How do you know Fairuz and Nancy Ajram???" I have also sung a famous song from a Pakistani film, The Eternal Love,  and Jeevey Pakistan (Long Live Pakistan, a song known to every household in Pakistan) in Urdo, to my Pakistani guest and friends, and they just worship you! Singing in their language suddenly brings you sooooo close to them!

 

My very first Airbnb guests were a Russian couple. When I opened the door and greeted them in Russian, "Privet!" They just looked surprised in a lovely way. During the following days, whenever I ran into them, I would just pop up some Russian phrases, and continued to surprise them. But they were reserved and didn't ask me how come I knew Russian. 

 

Swedish people can also be excited if you greet them in Swedish, because it is such a small language that few people are interested in learning, plus most Swedish people speak English.

 

However, I find that if you say Namaste to Indian people, it does not please them as much because Namaste has been widely known worldwide. 

 

2)  No judgements!

 

Judgements are a reflection of character. Some people tend to judge you just by one message that you have posted! Some people judge you just by a tattoo on your arm! I read that lots of Airbnb hosts here complain that Asian people are "anti-social" and thus perceive them as rude. Likewise, Russians are often perceived as "anti-social" and rude to people they don't know. No "How are you today?" No "Hi." No pleasantries. 

 

My Russian guests did not exchange with me any pleasantries when then checked in, just those two "poker faces." But I didn't mind, because I know Russians soooooo well--they are a wonderful people with such a depth of thought, an ocean of spiritual wealth, and rich feelings. In fact, once they know you a bit more, they can open their hearts and impress you with their world-famous hospitality. Russians generally just don't want to say anything not from their heart. For exmaple, if they do not care how you are today and do not want your answer, why would they ask you? This is a typical attitude among the Russian people. They consider the Anglo-American pleasantries totally hypocritical. I also read Dutch people are pretty much the same in their mindset.

 

About Asians being "anti-social," I think that most are just shy due to their limited English--especially Japanese and Koreans (Hong Kong people and Singaporean can speak English, though with a heavy Cantonese accent and weird vocabulary mixed with their oen language, such as okla?). USA and Canada are not like France. In France, even if you speak broken French, people can be so tolerant and encouraging. But in USA and Canada, in general people assume you speak English and will not be excited or surprised if you speak their language as well as they do, but if you have an accent, it can be a big deal, because people will imediately think you are foreign-born or a tourist and that you might get lost in translation. For exmaple, if a policeman catches you speeding, asks you to pull over and wants to talk to you in the USA and if your English is broken, most of the times he will not slow down his speech for you and will most probably become a little impatient. They will either let you go or give you a ticket without hearing more. That has scared away lots of Asians who do not speak English well. 

 

 

 

 

that was a brilliant post 

its quite amazing people who are hosts and good ones do all sorts of positive and friendly small things for our guests.it really puts a guest in a good mood.

Huaai0
Level 10
British Columbia, Canada

@Bruce43

 

See you are in Israel. I'm looking at Airbnbs in Jerusalem. Was there 2 years ago and have always wanted to go back, maybe many many times. Am looking at Airbnbs around Church of Holy Sepulchre as it was my fave spot and a kind of mystical power took me there three times while I was roaming in the Old City. 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

I love that you create little icons @Paul154. What kind of icons do you display? 🙂


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


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.

Vera331
Level 2
Biessenhofen, Germany

Sadly I have learned that I need to put up pictures on how to use a toilet and cleaner brush. With some guests it really is just a mess. Footprints on the toilet seat etc 😞

So that too, is my tip.