@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.