This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Grew up in VA but spent 39 years in the Seattle area. While I was liberal, the NW sealed the deal. With guests or when I’m traveling as a guest, my policy is not bring up politics unless the guest/host does.
When traveling in France several years ago, I can’t tell you how many hosts brought up US politics and I was happy to engage. They were not shy about it and I can tell you they knew more about the US than we would ever know about Europe.
Back in my hometown now, but I’ll always be a westerner.
I’ve seen interviews with European teenagers, just kids interviewed on the street, not selected because they were studying that stuff, who were far more informed about world politics and history than the average adult American. Or Canadian, for that matter.
I’m really really happy to hear that! I do know it’s the case, however it s great to have it confirmed.What I read about the US is quite frightening as its policies and attitudes impact on a lot of the world.
This is a topic of great interest to me and I’ve been away and will be away again. I’ve been a host 9 years and thought about this a great deal from 2015 on. I host in/at my home; for the last 7 years, the room is attached to my house but separate from me. I am lesbian and this is not a hypothetical. One political party tolerates candidates who would deny me all rights, including the right to exist. That is unacceptable to me and the idea that I’m the bigot, not those candidates or their supporters, is gaslighting.
That said, I accept all while making my own preferences clear in my listing. I gladly take the money of those I disagree with and transfer it to those I agree with, a win-win. If a hater guest chooses my place they either didn’t read the listing or their beliefs aren’t that strong. Where I discriminate is against hosts. I carefully read each listing looking for signs of problems like certain phrases or religious imagery. Not all crosses are a sign of a bigot. Not all US flags mean Trumper. And sometimes giving my money to a possible bigot over a corporation that supports all kinds of policies I disagree with (Marriott, Hilton) is the best choice
Here’s a real world story about how this can really work in practice. I recently spent 5 nights at a lovely KY farm that has been in the family over 200 years. They are white, with the US flag flying out front. The family owned slaves. There were a couple of comments that would lead me to believe that this couple votes GOP, if they vote at all. One night I was sitting on the porch listening to the frogs and cicadas and sipping. C., the owner came out to smoke. We were chatting about Brandi Carlile, a singer I had seen at the music festival I attended. Much to my surprise, he casually mentioned that his daughter and her wife out in Montana were big fans and had gone out to the Gorge, WA to see her at a 3 day show she did there in June. Maybe he spoke so easily because I was “wearing the uniform,” so to speak. I’d like to believe that he did so because this country is always changing for the better; because it just doesn’t matter who she loves. Sometimes it’s two steps back or more, but ultimately, the haters will lose. As Carlile’s song goes, “the joke’s on them.” We also spoke about people taking care of one another which I read as “we don’t need the government doing it.” But the kind impulse is there and that, I believe, it the way forward. As another person I admire said, “When they go low, we go high.”
@Superhost44 I hope this discussion has helped you make a better choice. I was so angry during the reign of 45 and I’m angry still about the way so many are treated, especially the way in which a fetus and pregnancy is romanticized while grown ass women are terrorized. That said, if Lauren Boebert or MTG booked my room, I’d cancel them. LOL.
The one that really burns my ass is championing the “rights” of a fetus, yet the same people support politicians who vote against free school lunches for hungry kids, financial assistance for single moms and low income families, and won’t pass gun control laws. They want all these unwanted children to be born, only for them to be suffering for a decent meal and get gunned down in school.
As Trae Crowder so succinctly put it, “How can they so love the fetus, yet hate the child”.
And 45 even more so, right? I’m confused. I thought O could’a done a lot better, but what came after almost had me and my wife expatriating… but we couldn’t decide between Canada and Mexico.
Really, my first thought was to say something like - what if people from states with less crime, lower taxes and more opportunity for recreation due to less restrictions told people from the states that champion those things to stay away. AKA, republican states telling the liberal guests to stay out. The vitriol would be dripping. But that is also would be discriminatory and intolerant.
Florida senator Rick Scott did exactly that. He put out a video telling “communists and socialists”, which is right-wing speak for liberals, to “think twice” before planning a vacation to Florida because Florida doesn’t like us types.
Yes, and there was no mandate, right? And then, how did that make you feel? This is really kind of how a lot of people feel in Republican states. But the Liberals keep coming because there’s less crime, lower taxes, more opportunity overall. But then they want to dictate their policies and beliefs in a broad sense beyond their communities. Honestly, it just doesn’t make sense. But the non-liberals are tolerant and friendly despite the changes that happen to their communities people come with other opinions and lifestyles.
Oh, please. Sure, plenty of people are friendly and tolerant everywhere but don’t pretend like harrassment and even violence against newbies who don’t think like them doesn’t happen.
Democracy means that everyone has a voice- demographics change constantly over time, as does what party stands for. If Lincoln were alive tiday, he’d be a Democrat and if George Wallace were alive he’d be a Republican.
Are you proposing that if liberals move to red states, they somehow shouldn’t push for what they feel is right on a state level, they should just be humble and blindly accept laws they don’t agree with, because they used to be from somewhere else?
Awwww, see now you’re getting offended. Republican states do wonder why people from others come, not liking where they came from, but wanting to change where they are going where people don’t want those policies or changes. But alas, we can stick to the airbnb topic. That being said, discrimination and intolerance is ugly everywhere and this original post seems incredibly intolerant and discriminatory. That’s all.
What I read about the US is quite frightening as its policies and attitudes impact on a lot of the world.