I’m probably done with Airbnb. The reason is not because of the company: I find Airbnb does a good job. It also is not because of any terrible experience: the guests have been clean enough and polite enough. The reason I’m quitting, is that I’ve noticed over the last four years that the guests are increasingly keeping to themselves and avoiding interaction. They walk into my house, head to their room, and as soon as they possibly can, they have their lap top computer out and are streaming videos, playing video games, doing skype, or such screen time things. My guests rarely come out of their room, and when they do, they rush out the door, as if human interaction might kill them. I was never hosting Airbnb to be a hotel, or for the money. I’m not blaming anyone, or trying to shame anyone. I’m just saying the culture is changing, and people are not the same as they were even three years ago, and it is a sad thing. It is possible that I’m the one who has changed the last four years, but I don’t think so. It is all disappointing.
Perhaps revamp your profile to encourage social interaction and discourage those hermits you don’t like. I bet there are lots of people that would like to use Airbnb as guests but think they would be imposing. If they read your listing showing desire for this interaction maybe they would book you.
I experienced the reverse a couple of weeks ago. Unable to get into the Airport hotel in Southampton (fully booked for 300 police pre-Trump UK visit…), I booked into a lived-in Airbnb nearby. I didn’t meet the host, only her partner, who was distinctly unfriendly, making it clear that it was room only, don’t use the kitchen, let yourself out in the morning without waking them up. No please, just firm instructions.
So I showered and stayed in the room. The host, whom I didn’t meet, left me a speedy review subtly over praising that I was so quiet, they would never have known I was there. It seemed to indicate I was unfriendly.
I enjoyed leaving her review.
Depends on what you want. I personally would be one of those quiet guests. What is wrong with keeping to myself? when i travel i head out in the am and return at night. I’d talk a little bit with you out of politeness but that’s it. I am a hermit. It’s rare when I engage in lengthy conversation with the host and only if they start or in one case, the host invited us to have a drink in his bar, downstairs. Otherwise I try not to bother the hosts at all, like I am not even there.
As a host, i would love my guests to keep to themselves because I am usually tired - work full time and have another separate ABB house to manage - and the last thing I want is a chatty guest.
But I don’t know how, i get a lot of chatty guests. The old people are the chattiest, because they remember the past and have a lot of stories to tell. Beautiful stores and everything but i put on my polite smile and in my mind I cry, i want to go to bed but I can’t…
And I don’t know about you but I am not in this business for human interaction - i have hobbies, friends, coworkers and meet-up groups for that. I do ABB for the money.
I understand how you feel but I quite see that other hosts, like @adrienne12 may feel differently. Personally I’m in-between … earlier this week our two lovely Millennial guests from Holland (one Chilean, one Iranian-American) invited us to a barbecue (on our terrace!) and so last night I made Paella for us all and we had a great time. We don’t do this with all guests but will invite about 60% to at least have a glass of wine and tapas.
I’m pretty good at gauging which guests want interaction and which don’t, but most of ours are couples on holiday for 4 - 10 days and are keen to explore Malaga and chat about where they’ve been and what they want to do. If you have mostly single travellers for work that could be different.
Is there still a section on the hosts’ questionnaire about whether you want social interaction with guests? Also, I’m thinking that in your welcome letter, as well as the nitty gritty about house rules, etc you could put something like “We enjoy getting to know our guests a little, so do stop by and tell us how your day went!” Then the invitation is there but the hermits can ignore it if they want.
Feel free to send them all my way!
I stayed last month in an SH home where everything was totally automated. There must have been at least 6 rooms. The rooms were spartan but clean. It was a crash course in keeping it simple, and I loved it!
It’s under:
Listing–>Listing Details–>Title & Description–>Guest Interaction
Where you will find this with a text box so you can put whatever you want (e.g., you could say that you have a social hour with drinks and snacks at a specific time, or whatever).
But, I doubt most guests actually read that far before booking, so you’d still have to disable instant-booking and try to determine if guests are suitable via inquiries and requests.
This must be relatively new or region specific as none ignored my 3 year old listings had that option.
Come to think of it I have never seen those phrases when looking at other listings to book as a guest either.
Do you see it on your listing now? I’ve been hosting only a little over 6 months and I’ve seen a few new features and options to specify things about my listing appear.
Nope.
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@chris2 I think your guests stay in their room not because they are unfriendly but because they don’t want to impose on you. I think you should make it clearer that you welcome the interaction with guests. I think that younger guests may not want to interact so perhaps you need to make your listing more appealing to older folks…
Since you aren’t doing it for the money maybe you could consider alternatives like donating to charity (like refugees who need housing) or something like couchsurfing.
It was there when I listed two years ago, in the UK.
Ahh. I am in the US.
OMG, everything automated that’s my ideal!!! Dont get me wrong, i as a host had a few guests i cooked food for and became friends, but thats 2 out of 200! But you kind of sense that from the initial conversation; you kind of know they are your kind of people. On the other hand, at least in the beginning, when I was breaking my back offering even breakfast for all of my guests, I had a few who despite everything, gave me a 4 star review and since I am not an extrovert and for me is quite hard to entertain complete strangers I have no bond with, I told myself, what the heck am I doing this for, and I still dread human interaction with my guests.
Not to mention that one middle eastern guy who took my hospitality gesture of offering him a Turkish coffee as something else and wanted to book me for a whole month which of course I denied and then blocked him.
I am extroverted but the PTSD is unpredictable and sometimes I just need to stop busting my butt for a $20 booking. These people showed me how it’s done.