Interesting opening lines from first time guests

[Melodie-And-John0]

I don't know about you but I've been getting lots of really short and somewhat meaningless requests to book by lots of first timer guests.   They immediately set off my spider senses when the profile is incomplete and has zero info about the possible guest.  No one liner gets a confirmation at Bearpath Lodging, this is not a party house, hosts live within!!!!!!    

Heres a couple recent ones, "Hey is this available" from a person that had no reviews and no location and really nothing but her first name, I thanked her for checking with us and asked her my normal barrage of  questions including where are you from (we have a statewide qt on guests from 30+ states right now) and expressed expectations and expected I would hear nothing.  The suite booked nicely from a guest with 25 perfect reviews for her dates 20 minutes later.  About 2 hours later she wrote "I’m from new York Syracuse to be exact do u guys except cash",  my last reply to her was "Hi ________the suite has already been booked I’m sorry, and no we don’t ever except cash payment we only work through Airbnb".  

Another prospect guest named "Angel" wrote, "Hey love , is it possible to see pictures of your hot tub ?"  This is the second person BTW that has wanted to see pictures of 1 person walk in spa tub we include in the listing in the bathroom, IDK why they cant just look at the pic's, its in there!   This Angel  had almost no info in their account info and Love isn't a standard intro in upstate NY (London maybe).  I sent my list of questions and pointed to the pics in the listing and never heard back, that's okay with us, we need more than that or no key code for you!

in the last 3 years, I've become a super sleuth hound dog when it comes to smelling a rat in a request or weeding out scammers and party barge guests.  I know you have had some odd opening requests, what are they and how did they turn out?   Safe hosting Folks!  JR

[Mark116]

A good one from last week:

We'll be arriving at 3pm.  Are there any waterfalls near by?

Um, what?  Are you sure you intend to go to Jersey City, New Jersey? An urban area across from the country's largest city? Waterfalls? 

[Ann72]

@Mark116  Dying  🤣🤣🤣

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Mark116 , how about a review that says they were uncomfortable that our place had no streetlights around and The Uber service was poor, Did I forget to mention the name of our place is Bearpath Lodging?   Someone needs to remind them that bears, coyotes and other 4 legged vermin  dont need street lights or Ubers....   Ha ha ,

[Laura2592]

Oh my goodness @Mark116 , I am dying laughing. 

That's like our guest who wrote in our guest book "lovely place except that there were a lot of lightning bugs that landed on us when we were outside at night."  Our place is called Firefly Cottage for a reason....

[Helen427]

@Mark116 

Auckland is a city & has waterfalls in the same region, around 30 minutes away from my place and less than 10minutes away from others who are in Auckland City at a place called Karekare near Piha, West Auckland and Hunua Falls in South Auckland.

There's a small one on North Head, Devonport that appears with heavy rainfall.

Alas they are very small waterfalls compared to some in the world.

We used to have them scattered around Auckland City until it got covered in concrete, houses & roads...

As an aside there is an awesome photo circulating of a waterfall in reverse due to the strong wind pressure on the water over the last week - sorry I can't 100% recall which news website I saw it however @Robin4 might know as from memory it was in Sydney, Australia.

[Natalie294]

Our home is right next to the lake and a guest asked me how far of a drive it is to the lake.

I told her we are right next to the lake, no need to drive, it’s just a 100 meter walk to the water.

She then asked me how far is 100 meters.

[Sarah977]

@Natalie294  When I explained to a tourist once that her watch was set on the wrong time- that Puerto Vallarta, where she flew into, is actually a different time zone than here, an hour away (the time zone changes at the state line) she asked how that could possibly be as it's "so close". 

I guess she thought there was some giant area between time zones where it's no time at all.

[Helen3]

@To add another London-ism to the mix.  @Natalie294 

I would sometimes like to respond to guests 'are you're having a giraffe?' in response to some of their questions.

[Fred13]

You guys have come up with some real good ones indeed.

Mine would be - "Are you near water?". It is an island.

[Melodie-And-John0]

OMG @Fred13 , thats someone who just isnt reading your listing, must be.  Wow, 

[Fred13]

I send them a response with a single dot (.); I bet to date they are still confused. 

[Ann783]

I got a request for two separate 4 day stays. One in September and one in October. They wanted a "friend" who lives in a nearby town to see the place first. Also,  wanted a discount. I told them airbnb doesn't allow me to disclose the address without a booking and that our rates were competitive and fair. They disappeared.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

I got a request a while back in Korean which said......

"안녕하세요. 1월 5일부터 14일까지 묵을곳을 찾고있어요. 3살 여자아기가 한명 있는 3인가족입니다. 자금이 여의치않아서 문의드려요. 방을 1개 임대 이 가격인지요?? 열흘정도 기간인데..혹시 죄송한데 좀 다운은 안될런지요."

Hello. I'm looking for a place to stay from January 5th to 14th. We are a family of three with one 3-year-old girl. I'm inquiring because we are on a tight budget. Is the price for just 1 room? It's for about ten days.. Sorry to ask but can you bring the price down?"

Henry and I couldn't stop laughing after reading this cause SERIOUSLY!!!!! 

We have at the top of our listing.

- No locals, we only host foreigners. 

- Single occupancy private room, no 2nd guest allowed regardless of age 

Also..... at the time our nightly rate was set at around $36/night, with a 10% discount for stays longer than 1 week and no cleaning fee. Even the absolute cheapest fleabag motel you can find in our neighborhood will start at around $45/night. 

So our reply was a simple "1인 외국인 여행자만 받는다고 설명에 있습니다. (Our description says we host only one person, and only foreigners)" which was the end of the conversation 🤣 🤣🤣

[Helen3]

Hi @Jessica-and-Henry0 

Are you allowed to put on your listing that you won't host your fellow Koreans? Genuine question as I thought we are not allowed to discriminate.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Helen3 

Following the law isn't discrimination 🙂 

Unfortunately, most Airbnb's in Korea are breaking the law one way or another which is one reason why many local residents automatically think having Airbnbs in their neighborhood is BAD. 

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180913000758

"...According to current law, a home-sharing platform like Airbnb is mostly illegal in Korea with a few exceptions. Some of the few cases in which one can legally operate a lodging business includes when a host accommodates only foreign travelers for tourism purposes."

Some of the other conditions that need to be met to be legal is that the host(s) has to live on-site, and the home where the listing is located has to be their main residence. And hosting income cannot be one's main source of income and cannot exceed a certain amount.....something like us$8K/yr.