Guests show appreciation by PAYING YOU! You’re leaving a few bucks of coffee and snacks and rolling that cost into the booking fee. There are no “gifts”! This isn’t couchsurfing!
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You sound like my former housemate who expected his tenants/housemates to be his friend. Typically hostel rooms cost less then Airbnb rooms. Hostels are generally medium to large buildings with over 50 guests, not houses. Hostel guests tend to be under 30. There are not hostels in all the places that Airbnb has rooms. Everyone wants to save money and not have to work when paying money. That is part of life. A paying customer owes the vendor nothing but payment and adherence to the agreed in advance contract. Not sticking to 100 rules foisted at the last minute. If you want love and comradeship from your guest then get on Couchsurfing and stop charging RENT.
You seemed annoyed at everything that your guests do. You complain and complain. Nothing is ever good enough. Why would anyone ever stay with you? This is the main thing people hate about BNBs, the owners don’t get that they are renting a room for better or for worse.
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Our rental is more expensive than a lot of hotels.There are many reasons why people don’t use hotels.
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wow. that a kind and thoughtful response from another host. i really appreciate your input and clarity. i have now taken my listings off airbnb, as per your generous advice and gone on couchsurfing… perhaps you would be kind enough to be my first guest? i think i could love YOU.
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I will avoid any guest that frequently WRITES bad reviews. You can always wipe out a messy room but the black spot of a bad review will stay in your listing forever. It is hard with newbies but if the guest has already a few reviews I suggest everyone to track what review they have left on their host account. Sometimes you find more about them there that on what they say directly to you.
This post is SO long that forgive me if someone else has mentioned this before
How do you check reviews that guests have written? Is it just by seeing where they have stayed and working backwards from there or am I missing something?
Exactly. You need to make a reverse search by going throw each host profile and search for that guest’s specific review. In some cases, you find a lot of information about them like for example how tolerate they are to noise, how can they accomodate in small spaces, what kind of areas they like, or just if they are gentle or ungratefull with their host. There is no limit of the things you can find here but in general I prooved that most guests talked with open heart when they leave a review (whether they like their stay or not)
Bummer - I was hoping there was something obvious I had missed! (Wouldn’t be a shocker.)
These are not my views, but what if someone wants to be “Ageist” should one let em? If a 30-yr old host, doesn’t want to have 55yr-old couples(like there parents) in there home big deal, get over it.
What I find confusing is why old fogies stay with younger hosts rather than people in there own age-group. What do they think they can bully or push around younger hosts is that why they stay with younger Hosts,or is jealousy an issue if they stayed with people in there own age group. Haveing hosted and travelled as a guest with Airbnb it doesn’t surprises me how I read horror hosting stories/guest stories, as the Host-Guest are clearly not compatible, and never in the daily-life/real life would socialize. Yet the guest books with a Demographic they would likely clash with. What does a 50-55 yr old guests expect if they stay in a 21-yr old host or 25-yr old host or 28? Of course there will be generational differences, and tension from that and power struggles. Oh and with other stuff, often it’s the choice of the Gay and Lesbian couple, but sometimes I find it strange when a Gay couple choose to stay with straight Hosts, when there’s an ample supply of Gay Hosts in the same location and same quality of accommodation. Maybe some demographics out there e.g. Aging or old people should look at who there staying with and wonder why maybe problems might happen.
^^^ Interesting post. I agree, its their choice who they want to stay in their place.
I would guess that it wouldn’t occur to people that they would not be welcome in an accommodation that is being advertised publicly and that, most likely, has a warm and welcoming advertisement. For example, I would hate to think a gay couple would hesitate to book (or clash) with me because I’m not gay. What a sad thought! 
When I read this forum it seems, especially from very long-term hosts who do home-sharing rentals, there is still an expectation that guests should 1) read carefully and 2) understand the unwritten rules of home-sharing (“this is not a hotel”). Maybe they should, but they don’t and they won’t. That’s a fact. We have to work around that as online marketers (which is what we are).
I can tell you from decades of experience doing software and user experience that people do NOT read so you have to plan around that (choose your priorities, mine is noise). You also have to be responsible for working with the platform you have chosen. Your platform is Airbnb and, whether you like it or not, they are growing their market and reaching out to people who are not familiar with the original subculture that Airbnb was a part of.
It’s only natural to try and categorize/exclude “types” in order to get better results but it won’t yield what you want. A more effective approach when it comes to online marketing (which is what this is), is to position yourself in a way that you are reaching out to people who can exhibit certain behaviors. For example, my booking says something to the effect of, This house/apt/whatevs is offered exclusively to QUIET groups, blah blah blah… "
I’m going to add that, for those who are home sharing, it might be effective to create a ‘model’ of your ideal guest that echoes your house rules (we call that a “persona”). It might attract some people and be a turn off for others. “Because my house is cozy and private, and my rates reflect that, I must limit my invitations to only select quiet guests who need a bed to sleep on and not much more. Your showers must be limited to 15 minutes and you should plan to eat out.” If you feel that guests should not treat you like a hotel, then say that in your ad.
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^^^ A very, very bright post. Coincidentally, for the exact reasons you said above, I just did that, included on my message from the outset to ANY and ALL inquiries, what my place is about and is not about, in a palatable way of course. In this way they definitely have had to have read it.
Because my place is the opening act in AirBnB’s new ‘Love This, Live There’ that started in February (the one with Bear Grylls), AirBnB got thousands of hits per month on it; I in turn received dozens of inquiries trying to book all at once per day, from people in which 99.99% didn’t have a review and really JUST joined AirBnB (meaning in February). It all presented a new challenge, for my island certainly doesn’t ‘fit’ everyone, nor I needed to be. The upfront-description approach has helped immensely, and perhaps applies to other hosts just as well. Again good post.
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I’m in total support of this claim. I have a couple about 63-64 staying with me right now. I woke up at 7 to get my shower out of the way and got a knock on the door about 1 minute into it. Come out no more than 5 mins later to the woman rinsing out a vase, saying that she had to use that instead of waiting.
Forget about high expectations, old people will pee in your vases!
Hey @Yana_Agapova,
You seem to have a good attitude towards your guests. Congratulations. 
We have a water shortage here too. But I’m not sure I could bring myself to tell anyone to take shorter showers. I like long showers too…
Why would a gay or lesbian individual even consider what the sexual preference is of their host? I certainly don’t consider theirs! This makes absolutely no sense. It would be illegal to even consider this! I would not care if my host were transgender, bi, black, asian, young or old. I am one of those “older” people you refer to, and I am straight. If my host were 25 or younger, and the accomodations were pleasant, clean and comfortable, then I don’t see any reason for a power struggle. I would be happy that they are able to be mature enough to take on the job of hosting, and wish them well. I just don’t understand where the tension would come from. Young people are generally delightful.
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My current guests are teenagers. My previous guest were 55+. I get a huge variety as regards age and they have all been lovely regardless of what age they are. Some have been seventeen, some have been in their seventies. No problems either way.
As for sexual preferences, what on earth does that have to do with me??? I’m renting them somewhere to stay. Their sexual preferences, their politics, their nationality, their race, whatever - nothing to do with me. I just want them to enjoy their stay and appreciate our area in the same way I do.
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Your talking in such an innocent almost hard to believe way in my view. Why wouldn’t a Gay guest care if the Host is gay or straight e.g. Homophobia does exist wake up/also there maybe tension and who says all gay people like straight people, discrimination against straight people from gay people happens too. Many Gay people all there social network and friends are just that Gay. So let’s not pretend all Gay people like all straight people as they don’t. And as shown with homophobia not all straight people like gay people, let’s not pretend it’s a divided world many people live in.
And I find it surprising how you say there politics and religion has nothing to do with it and why would you care? There are hosts who want people to stay in there home who there comfortable with for “whatever the reasons” let’s not pretend unofficial discrimination doesn’t exist,even though technically one is not allowed to discriminate. Already there have been articles I have read, with the topics being alleged racism from Airbnb Hosts e.g. your allowed to reject a booking enquiry, and some black people in these articles have said multiple times there Booking request was rejected from the Host(once booking rejection is pressed you can’t make contact) or Host making up frivolous excuses as to why they can’t take booking e.g. saying stuff like a family event has come when in truth it’s a total lie no family even has come up. Also some have complained they have had a high rejection request e.g. based on there sexuality or religion. So unofficial discrimination exists on Airbnb and favouritism let’s not pretend. An article I read this week, said good looking women Hosts(or women with physically attractive pics) were getting more bookings from male guests travelling alone than average looking women hosts. So “jaquo” you seem in my view to be pretending that there are both Host and Guests who don’t discriminate(I could be wrong but it sounds like it). There are ways around the system to get away with “silent discrimination”, and one of those ways is to not accept Booking request then tick the box this “potential guest” doesn’t make me comfortable. And Airbnb doesn’t force you to give a reason why you uncomfortable. So it could be anything, e.g. there homosexual/skin colour/religion/country there from/ there physically unattractive/there politics/the socio-economic status/the age of the guest making the booking “Ageism”. So rightly or wrongly Hosts get the right to be selective and exercise there views on who they want in there Home or Homes they advertise on Airbnb. A lot of “silent discrimination” under the table goes on, that in reality makes a mockery of Airbnb’s anti-discrimination policies.
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AirBnB is a private company trying to balance between the laws of the presently very complicated, confused and absurd United States and human nature. A tall order.
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Well said Mearns. So much silent discrimination happens in real life “that human nature one” and people manipulate discrimination rules all the time. Like at Nighlub interviews they give the job to the hottest bartender often not the most experienced. And they say things like that person who got the job was very vibrant personality, that’s why we hired them, all lies but it gets around discrimination laws etc.
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