Generally, I would say that one of the things we enjoy most about hosting (and traveling!) is that it provides an opportunity to learn from others who have had different experiences to your own and thus reached different conclusions about how the world works and what our place in it should be. We currently have a couple staying with us (private room in our house) who are eloquent conversationalists but definitely do not share our worldview! It’s actually quite entertaining and happily, they seem to enjoy robust debate. Indeed, they instigated the conversation. But has anyone actually seriously fallen out with a guest who has differing values to your own?
No because we haven’t talked about it. I also haven’t had a problem with any of my dog boarding clients. I have a sign in my front yard that says Beto for Senate. He is the Democrat running against Ted Cruz in Texas. So the opening is there. I have only had positive comments. Any conservatives haven’t said anything. I have more business than I can handle so no damage there. I’ve found that face to face I can have conversations with people with different views. I did it professionally for 28 years. It’s online that doesn’t work well for me.
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No, never fallen out, in the end I adopt the customer is always right (even when they’re wrong) philosophy and bite my tongue. However I would avoid subsequent political discussion with such people. I recently had a guest who had an extreme harsh view of his daughter and grandchildren, I thought it was really unhealthy but bit my tongue once again.
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do not discuss politics or religion with paying customers.
Not wise.
Keep it void of value topics.
My suggestion
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I keep it professional. I don’t share my personal views with them and keep conversations short and to the point.
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We avoid like the plague any hot button topics, especially in the current political climate. However, we do have a good number of guests who seem genuinely interested in our views and they probe. I’m not sure why, but we find our international guests are especially curious. Like K9, we live in a city that leans liberal in a conservative state, so we get some inquisitive Americans, too. We have never had a falling out with a guest over such issues, but we have felt the familiar chill that blows over the conversation when you know you are headed on divergent paths. We head that off at the pass as quickly as possible, and move on to other controversial topics–like the weather forecast…
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Like @georgygirlofairbnb says, don’t discuss politics, religion or sex, and don’t allow it to be discussed. If one of those subjects comes up, just tell people that in the interest of avoiding conflict you do not discuss X
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Hi @Geddy3,
I feel similarly.
I regularly discuss politics and related topics with my guests, at least those who are willing to talk to me. I can’t say how I would cope with different values/opinions, because mostly we seem to agree. But with STR the guests aren’t around that long, nor are the conversations long. So perhaps we don’t find points of disagreement in time, before the guests leave.
Regardless, I don’t see a problem with differing points of view. Obviously, if they are too far apart, there won’t be enough common ground for a conversation. For example, I doubt I would have much to say to fundamentalist Christians. But this doesn’t seem to have been too much of a problem in practice as of yet.
For no particular reason that reminds me of a Christian meeting I went to many years ago at the home of the CS professor Fred Brooks, author of “The Mythical Man-Month”. It was quite scary.
I’m curious about how the viewpoints of you and your guests differ. Care to give an example?
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I usually don’t let myself be drawn into conversations that challenge my values, however angry they might make me. I recently had an Australian couple who thought it okay to have a rant about immigrants, legal or otherwise, with the assumption that I would be in agreement. I simply told them that I didn’t share their views, that my experiences were obviously quite different to their own, and left the room.
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I don’t say shit to my guests unless it’s more casual topics than that. My worst experience so far is having Christian literature left for me to read. Which, in terms of hateful behavior, is low on the list. When you live in a Christian-majority city, state, country (planet probably?) you get used to people forcing religious conversion on you. It’s just a thing that happens in America, and then I look like the asshole for complaining about it, so I just don’t engage. No good comes from it! I’m broke enough that I’ll take money from bigots, know what I mean? Gotta make house payments here.
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