The nice but totally clueless guest

[Laura2592]

And I mean TOTALLY clueless. Vent....

So I have a guest who has confessed that they have not been out of town in 30 years. Not only that, this guest has never traveled out of their state since young adulthood (the state is a neighboring one.) Its an older man who is very nice but my goodness! This is more than I signed up for. 

His son created his profile and showed him how to book a space-- no reviews, new user. He sent a lot of messages prior to check in-- how to work the lock? What is close by? Does he need to download other apps like Lyft or Uber? What is the layout of the space? I somewhat knew that this would be a high touch hosting situation.  He is very polite and pleasant but clearly has not been out of his comfort zone in a significant amount of time. At booking he said he is a caretaker for his wife and this is the first time away in decades.

This morning at 6am I got a message about how to work the remote. He can't find a way to mute the tv. He doesn't have a remote at home-- he still has a TV with knobs. I had to actually send him a picture of a Roku remote with an arrow to the volume control. There is extensive info in the house guide about the remotes and TV operation but nowhere do we do a diagram of the volume button. No other guest has ever asked this. He is totally unfamiliar with Netflix or any streaming services/smart TVs. He is confused by the record player because it has the ability to play things on a bluetooth speaker. I explained the operation in full and that he can just play records without any other function. He finally got that and at least is enjoying some music.

He's not used to the noises. The noises at his house are different-- he can hear cows and the neighbor's rooster at our cottage. Its pleasant but he thinks he needs to buy earplugs. Where should he go for those? How can he open Chrome in his phone to get to Google? This is his first phone that isn't a flip phone. Where is my landline?

I am trying to be patient as I sympathize with this gentleman living in a bubble of caretaking for many years. But its just way too much. I finally said "Oh I am sorry! I don't know what kind of phone you have. Can you perhaps ask a family member to help with navigating to Google?" Its the opposite of some tech challenged guests who get huffy that they don't understand things. He just seems very lonely and needy. I am not sure what I will say in the review. 

[Laura2592]

@Mark116 I would never leave a bad review for this guy but I do feel like other hosts will need some kind of indication that he needs a lot of attention. This is not your typical guest. Some situations will not be suitable. 

[John2406]

@Laura2592 Your Guest hasn't stayed anywhere for such a long time, and hasn't been allowed to move with the rest of the world due to his caring for his wife.

The reason his son directed his father to you is because when he stayed, he had received such excellent attention, he "knew" you would be good to and for the old guy.

I am but weeks away from my 75th, and apart from a few creaks here and there consider myself not only to be young, but also really au fait with most modern technology, and often are asked to help others. My wife is handicapped, and yet is the carer for her two much older and far more handicapped than her, sisters, neither of whom are tech-savvy, neither have a smartphone, and the phone they do have they fail time and again to answer in time! My wife also calls on me often to help when she has problems with her laptop.

I don't believe that it's anything to do with age, or even looking after anyone, but it is all down to being given the chance to discover how certain items can make lives easier, keep in contact, see more of the big world outside, and something I'm really proud of my daughter for, using a certain video channel to find out how to do something herself, instead of waiting for her husband to do something this year, next year, never! and her doing it, and doing so well!

Your guy sounds as though he could benefit from some of that extra help (if it's only he and his wife at home, it must be quite a lonely existence, even if their son checks in with them frequently, or even if he lives with them, he possibly isn't with them all day?

Whilst Hosts are not expected to sit down and chat with their Guests, by the same token a little bit of "therapy" by way of words, guidance, help etc goes a long way, and that he feels comfortable with you, because  YOU listen, will have allowed him to  partly "come out of his shell".

Whilst not advocating the following - cos no-one could know where it might lead you - there's an element in me that sees the old guy's need to find out more about the world outside of which he's just had a taste at your place.

Perhaps hosting breaks where people could find out how to operate/use specific items (where someone you know could come in on a one-to-one basis to explain how-to-use, or what-pressing-this will do (or not) etc?

Shouldn't require you to do any more than you usually do, and might even help you by helping less, but it could result in more $s for you, and more Guests staying to learn more?!

Just thoughts from another oldie whose mind remains extremely active with thoughts, even though I do t remember much from pre-1994 when my mind had most of its hard-drive stolen!

Have a great day everyone!

[Laura2592]

This guest checked out. Its clear they smoked-- smell and cigarette butts in the fireplace. 

They also apparently had a pet with them that was not mentioned. We are pet friendly but do ask that a pet be disclosed. There were several odd things-- sheets left over some of the windows and curtains displaced/knocked down, not putting towels and sheets in the laundry hamper, etc. 

So this guest was very nice, has a bit of a sad tale, needy and communicative but did not follow house rules. I will wait to review and ruminate over what to say.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  Smoking indoors, bringing an undisclosed pet, curtains knocked down doesn't qualify as "very nice" to me. Nor just needy and clueless. He was disrespectful. 

[Mark116]

@Laura2592  That's a shame.  I hate when you give someone the benefit of the doubt and they are unable or unwilling to live up to those expectations.

[Eleonore32]

I agree about letting this go of this guest… I have had someone writing morning and night to me, throughout the day but not getting any closer to making the long term booking, I just had to let it go. My error was to communicate via whataspp to sens him a video of the place, which I regret… my bad. 

[Gillian166]

@Eleonore32  be very careful, this sounds like a scam, not a genuine booking. 

[Eleonore32]

Thank you for your support!  it’s my first time hosting and this person writes to me with a translator, from China (!) and the answers come out in Spanish, my gut feeling it that some things don’t add up. But I think you are right, because  he makes daily conversations, but in the end no talk about actually renting the place. And always answers besides the point. I redirected him to answer on Airbnb, but he continues on WhatsApp. The guy has no history. Weird.