Is it common for guests to complain to get a free nights stay?

[Kathryn277]

I had a most distressing experience with a guest recently and I’m beginning to hear that this can be a common thing to acquire free or cheap accommodation. 

I had a group of 3 stay in our cottage and when I checked on them the next day after they arrived (they were staying 2 nights), one of the group absolutely tore shreds off me for having such a filthy, tired and dated Airbnb. I was absolutely shocked as every other guest I’ve ever had has been lovely and I frequently get feedback remarking how clean the cottage is.

I ended up relenting and refunding the second night, but I stand by our cottage being absolutely immaculately clean and tidy, I’m at an absolute loss around her reaction. They did not leave feedback (and it’s now too late) and I didn’t leave them any in fear of what they would write. 

Is this a common thing for people to react like this to get free nights? I am curious to know, also still hurting over her rude and nasty comments. The whole thing has us completely dumbfounded.

[Ben551]

@Michelle-And-Michael0  hey that's good to hear.  Oh hey, my wife's Dad has an Airbnb down there and it's amazing!  We are heading back there in April and can't wait.  Glad to hear you haven't had issues.  Touch wood we haven't either, but we are super cautious so I guess it helps a little.

[Robin4]

@Michelle-And-Michael0 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Sarah977 @Ben551

I am coming up to 328 bookings (260 of them here on Airbnb) and I haven't had a scammer yet, and I don't know of any other Aussie hosts who have come across one. From my experience and what we read I thought the scammers all resided in the US and Europe......or Nigeria!!

I think it is a case of us taking distance for granted here, this country is large when compared to Europe. The shortest distances between Australia and New Zealand is 4,155 Kms ( 2,581 miles) and yet we still refer to NZ as being 'across the ditch'  

Cheers......Rob

[Ben551]

Hahaha so true @Robin4, I've heard my wife saying "our cousins across the ditch" when she refers to Australians... and I'm thinking bloody hell woman, it's miles away!  I thought it was like the UK to Europe kinda distance before we moved.  We used to pop over to Germany every summer, with a max 2 hour flight time.  I thought it would be like that, but to get to my cousin in Cairns from Wellington it's an 8+ hour trip!

[Sarah977]

@Ben551 Haha, yeah I'm aware they are totally different countries, I'm actually not that bad at geography. And my brother lives in Australia. I was just responding to what Branka and Sylvia had said. And for sure any host, no matter what country they host in, can get bad guests.

Speaking of geography, here's one- most Americans and Canadians seem to be clueless that Mexico is part of North America, not Central or South America. I used to get international calling cards in Canada back in the day before Whatsapp and other easy, cheap ways to call other countries. The calling cards had one price per minute "For North America" and different prices for Mexico.

People in Canada ask if if I don't miss "the change of seasons" living in Mexico. They seem to think Mexico is on the equator and every day is the same length and the weather is always the same. In fact, I'm at latitude 20 and while it doesn't snow in the part of Mexico where I live, there are most definitely seasons. And Mexico is huge country- there are all kinds of climate zones, some where it actually does snow, some places are desert, some are tropical, some are high elevation, some low. But people just see the classic photos of people sitting on the beach drinking margueritas under the palm trees and think that's what the whole country looks like. 

[Ben551]

Hahaha that's classic @Sarah977 - I might have known you'd be more wordly than me.  Yeah I felt geographically challenged when I arrived in this part of the world and it wasn't an island I could drive across in a single day... I dunno what I was thinking, but frankly I think what they were teaching me in British school is to blame.  I felt like a moron.

[Robin4]

@Ben551

You tend to subconciously associate distance by what you are used to . 

Met a lovely girl from Basingstoke in Hampshire when we did a Meditarranean cruise in May/June 2011 and she said she had always wanted to come to Australia and when we said our farewells  at the end of the cruise she said to get a bed ready for her! 

We thought that would be like almost all ship board friendships where you leave as the best of friends and never speak to each other again, but Tracey true to her word sent me an email about 6 weeks after we returned to Oz saying she had booked her airfare for September to come over here. We spent a lot of time planning and I wanted to show her as much of this country as possible . I gave her the use of the apartment in Sydney where I would go to meet her and after seeing Sydney and my daughters who are both over there, Tracey and I would then go to Yalara, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and when she was putting together a timetable she said to me quite seriously "If we hire a car and leave Yalara at 9 in the morning what time in the afternoon should we expect to get to Adelaide"??? .....It's 1,700 Kms from Yalara to Adelaide. She struggled to comprehend that covering this distance was a full two day trip. Her idea was we do all these far flung places over a couple of days, like driving around the foot of Cornwall!

That trip opened her eyes!!

Cheers.....Rob

[Ben551]

That's classic @Robin4 - that's a great story, I bet she really appreciated you taking care of her like that.  It's daunting when you realise you've mis-planned an entire vacation.

I was just like that when I moved to NZ.  When we first landed I was confused when my wife said we should get a hotel for a couple of days before hiring a car to drive onwards.  I was like "can't we just save the money and drive straight to your Dad's place in Wanaka?".  We landed in Auckland and... somehow I thought it was a couple of hours drive away to her Dad's.  When she told me it would take roughly 24 hours diriving, without stopping...including a ferry crossing.... I handed my credit card over and said "I'll just let you make all the decisions from here out." 

It's been like that ever since 🙂

[Robin4]

@Sarah977

So often we don't realise how others see us.

For many years when I was younger we used to think that all of Mexico was like this, where the world stops every afternoon for a Siesta!!  :-))

Cheers......Rob

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Robin4 @Ben551 @Sarah977

I've met people who were surprised to learn Chinese, Japanese and Korean are completely different languages and they were shocked to find out knowing one of the 3 languages did NOT mean we could automatically understand another one of those languages - we don't even have the same alphabet. (Technically, Chinese doesn't really even have an "alphabet" - just lots and lots of characters.)  Many westerners like to group us all into "Asia" and think we are similar. I usually tell them it's like saying Germany, France and Spain are all the same because they are all "Europe" or assuming Canada and the U.S are the same country since they are both North America and both countries speak English, or assuming anyone who is a native English speaker can pick up and learn French or German or Italian very easily with little to no effort since they call have the same alphabet 🙂 

[Sarah977]

@Robin4 That's such a classic image. Acquaintances in Canada who've never been here think that I spend my days on the beach drinking margueritas. I have to explain that I have a full time job in addition to hosting and looking after my house and gardens and sometimes don't make it to the beach for 4 months straight. 

One of my daughters also lives in Mexico. People up north say, oh, that must be so nice for you to have her so close. I actually haven't seen her in 2 years- she lives in the southern Baja peninsula. To get to her place from mine, it's a hard 12 hour drive to the ferry, an overnight ferry ride ($350 with the car) , then another 2 hour drive. I could fly there, but too busy to get away and would need to find someone to house and dog sit.

[Ben551]

@Jessica-and-Henry0@Sarah977@Robin4  see this is what I love about meeting new people.  I never would have thought that grouping things into "Asia" could potentially offend... or that some parts of Mexico are a friggen 30 hour journey between them... dang.  I think I could live a thousand lifetimes and not learn everything there is to know about this spinning ball we all live on and the people who live on it.

[Sarah977]

@Ben551  A 30 hour journey? That's just between my place and my daughter's, which are relatively close as the crow flies. It takes about 5 days to drive from one side of mainland Mexico to the other (not including the Baja ). Its border with the US is 5000 kilometers long and it's the 13th largest country in the world.

[Ben551]

@Sarah977Holy..... **bleep**

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Ben551

Not exactly offensive........ but depending on HOW you group us together just completely ridiculous 🙂 since we are 3 distinctly different countries with different languages, cultures and food that happen to be neighbors located in the same region. 

[Ben551]

@Jessica-and-Henry0  that makes perfect sense too, why would you be at all similar when your civilisations evolved over different periods of time.  I think the lesson here is that geographical proximity means absolutely nothing in the ways of the world!