OMG. Don’t perm your daughter!!
I can’t believe they would expose toddlers to those chemicals.
Regarding the Chinese being thinner:
This is starting to change. In the 15 years I’ve been traveling to the PRC I’ve noticed people getting heavier. Many are what I would call skinny-fat, meaning they don’t weigh much if you put them on a scale, but everything is kind of flabby and no muscle tone.
They also have a problem with central obesity, which is when your belly and waist are too big in proportion to your hips. According to an article I read, around 30% of the adult population in China suffers from central obesity, and the numbers are rapidly increasing.
People are simply obsessed with food. And they eat entirely too many carbs.
Of course, you don’t see the morbidly obese people in mobility scooters like in the US. China is definitely catching up, though.
I wish I had invested in Rx companies that market diabetes medicines over there.
Is there the same trend in Taiwan?
That is tragic, really. I hate seeing Asian stars with those huge doll-like eyes. I tell me kids - that’s fake, they have missed the point of beautiful Asian eyes - they are trying to look western, but why? Asian beauty is beautiful. I would be heart broken if my daughter wanted some kind of surgery like that. She is beautiful just the way she is. Why try to conform to a foreign beauty? It’s like the western world has conquered the Asian world, but from within.
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Hola Sandy. My daughter in law destroys a kitchen, uses every pot and utensils, cooks at least 6-8 entries every time and all of them are blazing spicy hot, which I am no fan of. It got so bad, I once hid the stove burners (the little circular things) so she couldn’t cook before I got there. She bought new ones! She thought I threw them out because they needed replacement. The torture continued till they left, so I grinned and bared it. LoL
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You men are sooo dramatic, honestly!
I presume she cooks Szechwan or Hunan style with lots of peppers and I assume your son is able to take the heat (and the grandkids as well?). Anyway, I hope they are not trying to ‘do’ you in for what’s in the safe deposit box. (ha!)
Props to you for removing the range elements though…mucho creative! But as you may well know, a woman will out-wit.
Sandy! I was hoping I would grab your attention. You do know I lay it on thick for the intent of always giving you a good laugh. 
Honestly, I did hide the range elements and felt like a sneaky kid, but being my daughter-in-law I had to get diplomatically creative, but she did outwit me! Next time I am taking out the range before they arrive, and say we only eat raw fish; if that doesn’t work, the whole kitchen will disappear! I trust you will are doubly impressed with my new ‘Master Plan’.
Don’t count your boobies! But I must say, I am chortling myself silly and can hardly type with my eyes watering.
Hoo-hah, that was fun.
…now, back to the topic at hand, “Guest in my room”. Nope, I don’t have anything to add since I only have my one ‘invitee’ or ‘encroacher’ (ha) so I’ll turn over the podium and check out the other topics.
Carry on all.
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I am back, my fellow hosts. I was busy with si many things can’t start listing here.
An update for the story of the guest who entered my room when I was naked.:
We didn’t have booking , inquiries at all after her review. It was 2 weeks even though we had lots of page views. Her review was an eye sore stuck there at the top so eventually we wrote a public response to her review. We said the guests did this and that and why of course they would never be back and are not welcome anymore .
I only write reviews to those who write to me first now. And I learned from the members here, since the early beginning,to not respond to reviews. However, in this case, after I responded to her review, bookings started.
Originally I thought it was from the season, demand, etc etc. But now I know it was the response because I asked (very smoothly in the middle of some related conversation) my Chinese guests who booked after that, and most told me they saw it and found my response very appropriate.
Go figure.
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Thanks for updating us Vera. I agree that it is not always in the host’s best interest to leave a negative review standing with zero response. Depending on the number of bookings already in the pipeline…a negative review can stop a business dead in it’s tracks.
It should never be assumed that future travelers will reason that the guest was a nut case!
Was it your husband who shared another experience when bookings halted until he responded to a negative review? I thought it was Joseph.
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I’ve had those sorts of responses too. It’s possible Airbnb is now using robots to write these, often comically inappropriate, responses. As a cost-cutting measure. They certainly sound mechanical enough.
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I always reply to negative reviews.
But I always try to describe our view of situation, and stick to the facts.
If we made a mistake I apologize, else I do not.
I do not blame guests or retaliate, it just looks bad.
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Hi @Mearns,
Couldn’t you ask her nicely to make her food less spicy? I’m no fan of spice myself, and I’m quite vocal about it. And despite what some people say, I don’t think it is healthy either.
When I cook for people, I expect them to eat what I cook or eat elsewhere. I am willing to work around dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, etc.), but if someone told me how much spice to use that would be the last time I cooked for them. I certainly don’t tell people who cook for me how to season their food. I have one friend who in my view uses too little salt which makes all her food taste bland. I would never in a million years ask her to use more salt.
Salt isn’t spicy.
There are many people who don’t like spicy food and Faheem said he doesn’t even think it is healthy. If someone asked you nicely to make their food less spicy and you objected to that reasonable request then you can’t say you are cooking for them, you’re cooking for yourself.
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Does that mean that if I ask “nicely” for people who are cooking for me to make their food more spicy they should?
Well I asked her to make at least 1/6 entries non-blazing HOT, to no avail. What was to her ‘non-spicy’ was to me still pure torture, so needless to say I stopped having dinner with them. End of that culinary nightmare. 
Yes, that was him. We have a large apartment so we now out 3 private guest room in Air. His response was to another private room, not this one.
I think it is still valid, with caution, to respond to mad inaccurate review.
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Indeed, they must be robots. I try to rarely call them now.
Super host since the beginning going on to the 3rd quarter now, most likely to continue superhost status, and this is the treatment I receive from them.
Superhost does not increase bookings, does not prevent nit picked guests, does not grant better CS with Air. I think superhost means nothing (expect for the 100$ voucher you receive on the 4th quarter) . It maybe would have some profit reflex of the search engine was set automatically to superhost as default. Otherwise, not increasing anything moneywise here.
If they claim to be cooking for you, yes they should. If they are cooking for themselves, then no.
You are “willing to work around” dietary restrictions like vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, etc., but “less spice” crosses your imaginary line. And putting more spice or more salt is easy. Taking it out so it’s tolerable to eat isn’t.
But both you and Mearns agree on the solution, the spice intolerant can just quit sharing a meal with the spice lover.
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