Hello everyone,
This topic has gone cold, which seems a pity. I’m hereby bumping it!
So, does anyone have any Happy to report? 
Yes, I am currently hosting a wonderful guest for 25 days. She is a Ph.D. candidate taking a summer class at UCLA. She’s staying with us for 25 days. The first words out of her mouth when she arrived were, “Your house is lovely.” She asks for nothing and is appreciative of everything, even coffee in the morning. She loves our dogs. When I told her to let me know when she needed her room cleaned she said that she would clean her room. I’ve hit the good guest jackpot.
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Grad students tend to make pretty good guests, by and large. There’s no guarantee they are going to give you all 5 stars, but at least they won’t trash the place.
I assume that you didn’t ask for happy stories so that you could burst the happy hosts’ bubbles, but that’s how your response sounded.
Hi @EllenN,
Sorry, what bubble was I bursting? That there’s no guarantee that a random guest will give you all 5 stars? If so, I apologise.
We have a lovely family who is staying in our apartment while they wait for the closing on their new house. They were living in CA and the husband got a job here in STL, so he’s been here for a few months while the kids have been staying with grandparents elsewhere and the mom stayed and sold their house. When they all pulled in last week it was their first time all together in 2 months! Their kids are the same ages as mine and they play together occasionally. They’re so polite and taking great care of our place.
Yes! I love hosting. All my guests to date have been excellent! We vent here about the occasional problem but on the whole, hosting is a wonderful thing.
I’m hosting for the extra money. However guests will never know that that is my primary motivation… They will only see the helpful happy side of me.
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Me too 
Isn’t that true of all of us?
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Last summer a couple stayed at the island, and the fellow wanted to test and play with his new drone which the wife got for him for his birthday. It is he who took the overhead shot of the island and atoll, which has been in many, many publications since, and perhaps did more for that little island than any other single thing.
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But when Air and their agency did the production on the spot, didn’t they bring in a helicopter? Or did they use a drone?
They did, two drones in fact, but they took film with them and used it for zooming in whatnot for their ad. And the picture the guest took I been using since last summer, 6 months before Airbnb. I wonder if it influenced Airbnb choosing that island in the first place. Will never know.
All of the grad students I’ve hosted, and there have been many because I am close to UCLA, have given me five stars across the board. The profiling of guests on this board is discouraging. I don’t have problems with trashing the place because I live here too. However, that’s a huge generalization to say that grad students will or won’t trash the place.
For the record, I have no idea what you are talking about. “Profiling”?
Do you mean that you aren’t familiar with the term profiling? If so, here’s a link.
All the posts on “the problem with older guests”, or I don’t accept under 25, and the broad characterizations based on nationality. I get the having to be comfortable with the people staying in your own home. I think Air needs to be careful in it’s discrimination policy because they don’t want to burn hosts again because the host and guest need to both be comfortable. But you can write your description in a way that makes it clear who would be comfortable without being discriminatory. I get driven nuts by private businesses getting sued for not providing some benefit or not wanting to make something for a specific event…there are plenty of businesses out there who’d love to have that business. Go ahead and make public that they don’t want your business, but don’t ruin their lives because they won’t make a cake.
So yes, we have to find a balance of comfort in our own homes because a guest that doesn’t fit will just leave both parties unhappy and bad reviews all around that could have been avoided if the guest read the review beforehand. Which is why I don’t have IB and I’m clear in the communication exactly what they’re getting. Thankfully it’s a separate structure, so as long as they leave my place clean I don’t care what happens behind closed doors. If they were in my home I would not allow couples because I have kids.
I have someone coming next week for a romantic evening with his GF. He looks like a creepo, but he has a fair review previously and I get that a nice hotel is expensive. I made it clear that it is a separate structure above the garage and that there are children on the property but I’ll either keep them indoors or go on a field-trip. Communication!
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Yes, I’m familiar with that term.
It sounds like you find my characterization of graduate students as not likely to trash your apartment as offensive. I’m just guessing, because you’ve not said anything clearly.
If so, I don’t think it is offensive. But you’re certainly entitled to your (hypothetical) opinion.
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You characterized grad student as unlikely to give five star reviews and unlikely to trash the place. Both of these are broad and inaccurate stereotypes.
Why shouldn’t people who bake wedding cakes be subject to anti discrimination laws? That’s the same thinking that plagued the segregated South where African Americans were told to limit themselves to patronizing businesses where they were welcome.