Hosts are the worst guests!

Just to say that all the hosts I hosted were brilliant guests :). I also liked my Dutch guests :slight_smile: :heart:

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I just had a superhost last night. He isnā€™t hosting now because he is moving. 5 Star guest.

Itā€™s called premium pricing and itā€™s a well known concept to anyone whoā€™s ever been in sales or marketing!

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Hmā€¦I have a masterā€™s degree in economics but Iā€™d never heard of premium pricing. On the other hand, I earned my degreeā€¦eons ago! Looked it up and yes, youā€™re right.

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Economics, from what I understand of it, is a bit more clear-cut (supply and demand etc). Marketing has a lot of basis in the psychology around consumer perception.
The two subjects work very well together when applied in practice!

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I would imagine itā€™s not an Econ thing but more of a marketing thing!
I used to sell encyclopedias (donā€™t laugh, I made enough money to put a down payment on the house I currently own!) and the sales executives used to use that term. Itā€™s all perception. Which is why people are lining up to pay mega bucks to buy Tesla cars.

It depends who they are! I had a gay couple who left a brochure that I did not remove, guess what: next guest destroyed the tray that this brochure was in.
The Dutch couple that I had, in addition was also super duper cheep.

In private life I am not even remotely politically correct. But as a host, I feel that business is business. We also have to remember that this is a public forum that anyone in the world can read this forum and I donā€™t like the idea that the public can get the impression that Airbnb hosts are prejudiced about certain races, religions or nationalities. Things can be taken out of context if weā€™re not careful :slight_smile:

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Thereā€™s an entire field called behavioral economics that basically marries traditional/quantitative econ with psych. Itā€™s fascinating! Wish I got a BA in econ with that as my specialty rather than my BS in the subject. Wouldā€™ve had more fun.

I have just received a reservation from a SuperHost. He began with an inquiry since location was important to him. We have exchanged about 8 messages. He is charming. We have already found about 3 things that interest both of us. I am looking forward to their visit [as much as I look forward to any of them.] It will be disappointing if he turns out to be a jerk. His place is WAY more expensive than mine, located in Hawaii.

My location is so perfect for him, it is ridiculous. His cousin is getting married at an event all located about an 8 minute walk away. Doesnā€™t get any better than that, does it?

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Where in Hawaii?..

Kailua, HI

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OMG! I hope he is legal. Kailua is one of the places they went to just close places down and throw guests out into the street.

I have no idea of course. He built a new home with a second floor studio that he rents out. I am not going to worry about his legality.

Actually, it does. :slight_smile:

We had a couple who booked a long weekend with us last year. They too were attending a wedding. It was right next door! As you know @smtucker, buildings here are pretty close together and I would estimate that the next door building is about four yards from where Iā€™m sitting right now.

During the evening of the wedding, there was quite a lot of noise from the post-wedding party next door. My husband kept looking at me because he knows how particular I am about noisy neighbours who might annoy our guests - he couldnā€™t understand why I wasnā€™t hurling myself around there to tell them to be quiet ā€¦ until I told him that the guests were at the party. :slight_smile:

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I had the same thing happen with some guests I had for the Christmas week two seasons ago. They paid my highest price and I was concerned that a loud gathering next door at the home of my neighbor (who is German) would disturb their Christmasā€¦ well pretty soon I heard German coming from next door and then heard them both talking! The neighbors had invited them over to their house for Christmas dinner!!! The neighbors tell me how these guests keep in touch and send them cards every so often. Too funny.

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Iā€™m a superhost just four reviews short of 200. I absolutely agree with you about hosting other hosts. Fortunately I donā€™t get very many of them, but the last one I hosted gave me all 5*s and a decent review, but only a 4 overall. WTF? "Leslie was very accommodating and gave us lots of information about the area. Though it was a short stay, we really enjoyed it. ā€œ
Public response
However in the private feedback there was a little clue
Private feedback
"Thanks Leslie for being accommodating with the check in time. We loved the coffee! One idea maybe is to have some small area rugs on the floor. The ceramic tiles were cold to walk on. Chris and Nuria.ā€ (Wah, wah) Youā€™d think they would be more appreciative of me letting them check in early, but no. And they canā€™t plead innocence. Every host knows that as far as the Company is concerned, the only rating that matters is the Overall. I call jealousy!
In this case I didnā€™t leave a response, but occasionally when Iā€™ve had an unfair review after Iā€™ve left a nice one, I will leave a public response. I craft it carefully so as not to go overboard and sound nuts, but Iā€™m pretty good at cutting them down to size. Thatā€™s what I would have done to the guests that you had, marika. They deserved a snarky response!

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Uggg. They sound smug and self important, docking you a star because their tootsies got cold. Eye roll.

I cringe every time I see a host requesting, but my last few hosts have been great guests. One knew the value of a gushing review and was all to happy to give me one. I did the same for him.

One mistake I keep seeing is hosts responding to private comments publicly!
Itā€™s unnecessary and alerts readers to issues that were never apparent in the first place until the host responded!

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I always feel sorry for the poor sods when I see that!!!