Oh my vgoutsos. Are you saying you had Chinese guests that did this? Although people don’t like to discuss the different cultural tendencies of guests that travel, it is actually an important topic to be aware of, and no different than brushing up on knowing what to expect culturally when traveling to a particular country on your travels. Is it racist to learn about the different habits of the Chinese before visiting China? No, and so is it not racist to learn about their habits before you have some Chinese guests in your home. What better place to learn and share experiences than here, amongst other hosts who are hosting guests from around the world.
I’m very sorry you had such a terrible experience with guests staying in your home or apartment Vgoutsos. No matter what cultural background they are from, it feels like you have been violated when you open your home to guests in a caring, generous way and they choose to abuse your trust by treating your home like a dump. Emotionally it is hard to grasp how or why anyone could behave this way and not be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately for some people this kind of behavior is totally normal.
cs2015 sounded like she might have some explanation for the kind of behavior we keep seeing from the Chinese, and I’m certainly very interested in hearing some ideas on why they seem to believe it is ok to treat people and their property this way. It won’t make them any better guests for anyone, but it may help us have some empathy about the reasons they are behaving in such an inappropriate manner. Perhaps there is a way to provide Chinese instructions about what kind of behavior is expected in an Airbnb? There does seem to be a serious disconnect.
Personally I had a terrible experience with Chinese guests that I would never want to repeat. I have had awful experiences with non-Chinese guests too, but the Chinese guests sit up there in our minds as by far the most disrespectful guests we have ever hosted. Not only did they treat us appallingly during their stay, these self professed Christians lied shamelessly also. Obviously this is not the norm, but I would never expose ourselves to any of the dynamic that this couple felt was ok to treat others like, and if not hosting Chinese people again is a way to avoid another experience like that one then that’s what we’ve chosen, knowing that some wonderful people will be missed along the way.
I don’t just feel that it is only the Chinese who take advantage of others and are disrespectful btw, but due to my experience living in that part of the world for some time and also my experience thus far hosting Chinese, it is the best choice for me, as I do believe that many Chinese do not get the concept of peer to peer communities, and see using Airbnb as simply a cheaper accommodation alternative. These are not the guests I hope to attract as guests in my home, even though this is not enough to explain the behavior as many are now using Airbnb because it’s ‘cheaper’.
My time in Singapore and traveling around Hong Kong/China was one where I experienced horrible racism as a young Australian woman. I could never find any help when I asked, and even shop assistants wouldn’t tell me where the bathrooms were and would lie and say they didn’t know, only for me to turn the corner and see it was right there. Bits of nastiness like that day after day will wear you down. In the two years of loneliness I sought to make friends, it was impossible. I could make friends only with other expats. It was depressing for a friendly and outgoing person such as I was in my 20’s. I had never experienced racism, and coming from such a multicultural country, I was shocked. I believe the racism doesn’t stay at home. If you have trouble respecting other cultures and races, you are not going to respect their home and things. I truly believe this lies at the heart of some of the problems (it certainly seemed to be an issue with our worst guest). Here’s an article on what the racism issue is like there: http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/singapores-foreigner-problem/2/