Where are the Americans?

I’d LOVE to have more American guests (only two since we’ve been hosting) but they don’t come here because the awful Rick Steves dismissed Malaga in two sentences in his book. Yes, we have a Roman amphitheatre, Arab Fortress, stunning cathedral, Picasso Museum, exciting bars and restaurants and a beach but all he mentioned was the “reasonably good” shopping centre next to the train station!

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As I think I have mentioned before, we really loved our 5-days in Malaga. We never would have stayed with you though, since we did not want to rent a car during our 4-week vacation in Spain.

Here is my most favorite photo of Malaga. Hope it makes you smile.

Somewhere I have more, but beats me where.

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Quite a few of them seem to be in Ireland as well, we’ve happily hosted eight different family groups from all over America since the beginning of June.

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Am close to Dublin airport, still getting plenty of American’s in my airbnb.

Don’t agree with the generalisations in the article below but an interesting read

Ah, the famous dog fountain … lovely isn’t it! (Haven’t seen it with the bucket before, though!) I have friends who live two doors away from this. Glad you enjoyed your stay - spread the word to your friends!

I didn’t know it was famous. Just ran across it, and that became the theme of my 5-week Spain visit. And, I actually mention it to everyone! Quite a few of our AirBNB guests have been as well.

Hi There: I’m your neighbour in Hamilton. I don’t have anything but Canadians and Americans this year. No-body from Europe, or the Far East. Go figure.

OMG…90 percent of our guests have been Aussies the last two years. It must depend on where you live. They seem to LOVE Hollywood CA for some reason. :slight_smile:

“Does your PM pull stunts like this?” Yes! Ms May didn’t want Brexit so when the vote (why do so many people just believe the Bovine Excreta fed them by “the media”?) went against her she threw her dollies out the pram and said ‘you want Brexit so you’ll get Brexit’. Now we are lumbered with this childish petulance that pushes for a “hard” Brexit, rather than a common-sense approach to try and give us the best of the situation. These people are not Leaders, just power hungry children who have a lot of growing-up to do! (IMHO)

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TRUE. Pretty much what I was thinking. This is also the exact reason why my Airbnb business has suffered since the election. I just had Canadians who told me that their friends heard they were coming down and told them they would in no way go to the U.S. We used to get so many Europeans but not now…

I loved Malaga. I never read anything Rick Steves wrote

I’m an aussie and I’ve been to America, and by America I mean LA. :joy:
Yeah nah I did round out that experience by also doing “the circuit”: Vegas (got married there!) and SF!

I think they’re all escaping winter and coming to Australia because I’ve hosted 3 in the last 2 weeks!

Have you checked the exchange rates? Going to the US has been too expensive.
Look at the chart: https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=USD&view=5Y

On top of that the vetting process implemented by Obama (not Trump) has put off many Europeans. No more spontaneous weekend trips to the US.

Now that the exchange rates start to rise again, you will see that Europeans will start to visit the US again.

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No it wasn’t Chris. Obama’s review related to small group (refugees from Iraq) and happened after a specific threat. It wasn’t a blank ban on people from seven countries and it wasn’t permanent.

I haven’t seen any research that showed it put Europeans off travelling to the U.S, whereas there is plenty of evidence that Trump and his ban has put off Europeans, Asians, people from the Middle East (apart from Israel) and others from travelling to the U.S.

The Trump executive order applies to seven countries with total population more than 130 million and to virtually every category of immigrant other than diplomats, including tourists and business travelers.

For example, my sister and her children have been banned because they have dual citizenship from one of the banned countries.

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Just pondering:

To tour parts of Europe is on the bucket-list for many of us in the USA. Maybe because we currently have a decent economy & housing prices are recovering, people are traveling to their dream destinations.

A friend, who like me, owns a 1BR 1BA condo sleeps 4, not oceanfront, and I discussed our 2018 bookings are slow compared to prior years. Premium priced, oceanfront properties are booking very quickly on Airbnb & VRBO. It seems a sluggish economy is better for our type of rental because people/families are going to take vacations, so when the budget is tight, our properties become desirable.

BTW: Like @TuMo I think the USA will weather to the next elections. It may be bumpy but ultimately the devisiveness will get better.

I raised my rates to my highest ever and got booked in the High season faster than ever. I am in a beachside community in Hawaii. don’t feel guilty for raising my rates as my mortgage jumped $400 a month in two years. It ain’t free to live in Hawaii, let alone at the beach.

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@konacoconutz

Hawaii is a dream vacation too!!! I’m glad your rental is doing well.

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Here is a great article that outlines how out of control the USA border agents are and how much digital information they can legally request. This is one of the many reasons that travel from other parts of the world to the USA has declined.

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This seems to be a ratcheting up of regulations that were already in existence. IT departments in the know, are already sending business travellers to the US with clean laptops and phones to avoid just such issues.

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