Ugh… Trying to bargain you down by saying he could stay at the best western cheaper would have earned an immediate decline from me
Thanks for the link. It was fun to read this.
I find it hard to avoid the “Be My Friend” type. But I am making an effort. Usually, I don’t connect with guests on Facebook, even I they send me a friend request and although Air seems to encourage this kind of behaviour.
My experience so far: family with kids most likely cause lots of mass, and some parents do not fix problems caused by their kids, some do not even mention the damage (drawing on wall, damaged plant, food or drink spill on carpet/wall…) also there’s usually food residues everywhere, sofa, underneath sofa, even underneath fridge…I only have two samples so far, both similar, kid’s behaviour and parent’s behaviour. So I take it as normal?
How do you go about denying people who are staying for more than a few nights? I really prefer it when people stay only a few nights but I always feel bad rejecting people if they want to stay longer because there is really no reason other than that i don’t want them. I guess i worry because of the new “anti-discriminatory rule.” Currently have a mother and daughter here for 12 nights, and while they are very nice, the mother is home ALL the time and I work from home so it gets a bit annoying. She also speaks no other languages than Indonesian and she wants to come to the market with me and stuff. It’s getting a bit too much and they still have 6 nights left.
Yesterday I had someone wanting to stay for 35 days, while we have put a 2 weeks maximum in place. I solved it with the following message: "Dear xxxx, The maximum stay in our apartment is 2 weeks. This is due to the fact that we share our home and living space with guests, and one can never know in advance if there is enough mutual understanding to spend more time together. It’s a really small apartment and we really live together with our guests. I hope you understand the dilemma.
You will however without a doubt find offers of places with slightly more independence that might suit your needs better."
First, don’t you think it is age discrimination to talk about your guests this way? When if you replaced “50+” with “Darker Skin”?
Do you realize that we are in the HOSPITALITY BUSINESS, and that trying to game getting 5 stars or reviews will not only make your AirBnB fail, but will eventually make AirBnB itself fail? I cannot believe that people worry about 4 star ratings! I fully accept them and I know that I am not perfect. I also frequently stay at other AirBnB’s and cannot believe the lack of hospitality and misdirection that is perpetuated by a lot of hosts.
I stayed in an AirBnB that had the OWNERS BROTHER staying in the shared room. He smoked so the room smelled like smoke and he worked a night shifts o the room was essentially off limits during the day. And they kept shutting the heat off in the house even though it was 30 degrees outside. None of that as explained in the ad and when I talked to them about the heat they said they needed to save money. Yet every review on that listing was 5 stars. It was not a 5 star Airbnb stay. It was a 2 star stay. Like a 2 star hotel, you know? There is nothing wrong with a two star hotel, you stay in them because they are cheap and the too stars tells you what it will be like.
AirBnB does not exists to help people get out of their own bad economics, it is a hospitality business, and unless this is realized by EVERY one of us, AirBnB will fail.
Do you know why the younger kids all leave 5 stars? Because they know the ratings game is bullshit and that leaving less than 5 means they might not get bookings in the future. This will all bite them in the ass, if not with their next booking, it will with the future of AirBnB.
You all need to put yourself in the shoes of your guests a little bit more and stop complaining about people YOU SELL YOUR SPACE TO.
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You worry about having to be not discriminate against people?
I share my home and don’t care what age they are …I am more interested in whether there is a good fit in terms of how they intend to spend their time and their interests.
See, to me this is weird. You are looking for a good fit? Why discriminate even on that level? They are PAYING US to stay. This is a BUSINESS. Until you respect the fact that they are giving you money they will not respect the fact that you are renting to them.
It is not weird at all @EdAbram
Yes they are paying to stay in my home. And I will consider guests who meet my house rules - about one in 4 who apply to stay with me don’t !
I work from home sometimes so don’t want guests who want to hang out all day in my shared open plan living space, so I will not be likely to host to those who want to do this, as it would mean I can’t work and they will feel uncomfortable about hanging out there. Not being a good fit is from both a hosts and a guests perspective.
If I receive a booking from a man who makes me feel uncomfortable I will not accept their booking.
I have lots of very happy guests, who very much respect the fact I am renting to them 
Do you see the sneaky language that you are using? You call them “Guests” but they are not guests, they are renters and you are exploiting them for money. That is not a judgement, it is the truth. And of course you have happy guests, because renting from you is tacit approval of who they are as people. Your approval of their request to rent from you is psychologically meant as an approval of them as people. And you are doing AirBnB to make money, to make a profit. Couchsurrfing was around long before AirBnB, do that if you want to pretend to be nice. With all your rules, like what to cook, etc, I would only be charging 20 in Bristol. You charge 900 a month for that flat when that is we’ll below the rental rate for a one bedroom in Bristol. Why not just charge people the same as a roommate? That’s what I do.
The words “sharing” and Guest in all of this talk of AirBnB and Uber is just a cover for the exploitative nature of this business. And unless we start acting with more love AirBnB will be done.
The Couchsurfing site began in 2004, the Airbnb site in 2008. I don;t know why you consider that a long time.
You’re being a little old fashioned here, don’t you think? Any business in the hospitality industry refers to its clients as ‘guests’. When you go to a restaurant, you receive a ‘guest check’ not an ‘I-am-being-an-exploited-for-money check’, right?
Nobody is forcing guests to use Airbnb and ‘make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource)’ — which is the dictionary definition of ‘exploit’.
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Oh please @EdAbram
BNB refers to them as guests. As you say I am running a business. How is this exploiting people.? If hosting through BNB is exploiting people - then you must be too 
As you know Bristol so well, you will know my rate is very much in the bottom quarter of what similar hosts are charging.
If you want to charge 20.00 in Bristol please feel free to go ahead and do so.
You have no idea why I do BNB - a large part of it for me is to support Bristol Nighstop a charity that supports young homeless people. I also host young homeless people in my home.
Why are you making assumptions about me.? You know nothing about me?
And why are you being so aggressive and personal in your comments?
And why are you hiding behind an anonymous profile - why don’t you provide a link to your listing.
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In tech, 4 years is a long time.
And you have the export backwards. Sorry, but I am an economist and dictionary definitions call short. Only people in power can exploit. Since the Host can refuse the renter, only the host has the exploitative power.
And to say that no one is forcing guest to use AirBnB is silly. Take, for instance, the Hostel that just shut down in Tucson because of AirBnB rentals.
Yes it is but it isn’t a long time in the hospitality industry
I’m not sure quite how Airbnb ‘shut down’ a hostel. There are many places with many Airbnbs, hotels, hostels, traditional B & Bs, VRBOs, Homeaway rentals, Wimdu rentals and many many more accommodation options. These places survive perfectly well. To suggest that because one hostel closed in one city ‘because of Airbnb rentals’ is not exactly a good argument. Hostels and Aiurbnbs are like apples and oranges. Hostels cater to a particular sort of guest, Airbnbs to another. Hostels are usually a lot cheaper than Airbnb rentals. You really can’t compare the two unless you are making the mistake of lumping them both together as ‘budget accommodation’.
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I have a B.S. in Economics, that is how I know you AND I are exploiting people. I am just being honest about it instead of bullshtting myself with terms like “Guests” and “Hosts”. And yeah, we have been using those terms forever, so maybe it is time we stopped? The use of the word guest was appropriated because it is better for people think they are guests and not customers. Guest assume they have LESS rights than customers. As soon as AirBnB customers see that they are not guests we are all screwed.
Helping the homeless…whatever. You are contributing to it. Why not rent your room out at market rate for a ROOM in Bristol that you have to share with someone who doe snot want you to cook “smelly food”? And everyone on the internet is a saint. Do yourself a favor and be honest with yourself.
I am being aggressive and personal because of this thread and the fact that this forum allows the room for the idea of age discrimination to be acceptable.
I don’t have the faintest idea why this makes you an expert in hospitality and yet you keep banging on about it. Why is that?
Please explain this.
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And the link to your listing is…?
As you have read my listing so carefully you will know it is my son’s room.
I’d love to know how I am contributing to homelessness
I know of several, and stayed in several AirBnB’s that said they were “more like a hostel”. Here is one right in Tucson. I do not know if you ever stayed in a hostel, but this is a hostel:
And even hostels are using AirBnB to book beds now.
The Economics degree is re=levant because it goes to the fact of understanding economic exploitation. Most people do not understand that it is talked about a lot in economics texts. To say that a business does not exploit customers is non-defensible in modern economic theory.
As far as age discrimination, ho is it that a hotel or a landlord cannot discriminate on the base of age yet AirBnB landlords feel like they can. And even if they could, wow, that’s just shitty to humanity. That someone came on this board and thought first that as a question to even ask, and then to have no one here say, “crap, that is age discrimination” is just gross.