Great guest and wanted to share :)

It’s such a mixed bag isn’t it? Wanted to post an uplifting interaction ! What’s yours?

Just had a lovely guest return from 1000 km away to spend time with family.
He told me he had just started on a health kick, going to the gym etc at which point I apologised for leaving him chocolate.
He confessed he had already eaten half the block. Oops.
We had a good laugh at that.
Photo of a bush track near home.

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Love it! We need some uplifting stories!

My last two guests were such fun! One is a Japanese woman who is retired and traveling the world. She shared some of her stories and her YouTube channel of her adventures. We had a delightful chat over tea and she left a glowing review saying she wants to come back here when she has time to be a tourist. This trip she was just passing through but our conversation encouraged her to visit as a destination. She had traveled to 45 different countries!

The other one was in town to speak at a convention. Turns out she is doing what I want my next “bonus careeer” to be. She was enthusastic and generous in her comments and advice.

Both left glowing reviews.

Recently bought a book written by a past guest - found my OH and I were thanked in the Aknowledgements! He stayed with us while researching and by chance discovered I am well versed in his topic and was able to point him in the right direction for additional resources.

There are days I LOVE hosting!

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I have repeat guest coming in for Medical treatments. HIs last review was so lovely:

A surprisingly generous amount of space, including a sitting room and eating area with a microwave, toaster oven and fridge in a quiet neighborhood near to a memorial park for walking. Also convenient to downtown Melrose. this is a real find.

And privately:
Oh I love your values and your subtle messages outside. You have a lovely way with plants. Just keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s working

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I’m enjoying reading your wonderful guest stories. I was afraid the world had changed too much to see these again.

I am blessed to have developed good relationships with many of my guests with a couple of special ones every year—except summer 2022. The market has changed in my area. Things were much more transactional, less personal.

For now I will enjoy hosting vicariously through your stories.

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We do forget to highlight and be grateful for the many wonderful guests. We share our home so get to meet all guests. We used to travel, but now we bring the world to us with guests from over 40 countries and over 40 US states. I greatly enjoy the positive reviews while my husband can’t wait to read entries in our formal guest book. We get academics, athletes, entertainers, tourists and an endless list of guests with professions and interests that are new to us. I talk business and education with them while my husband plays music with and performs magic. Our kids provide a source of pride as well as angst which both parties share. We avoid politics, religion and COVID. There are many laughs and occasional surprises. When we eventually give this up it will leave a void.

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@MountainGirl1 I firmly believe that chocolate is an aid to exercise and healthy living and nobody can tell me otherwise :slight_smile:

I’m pretty new to Airbnb – I think we’ve had maybe 8 or 9 guests to date – and I was so scared in the beginning. I read ALLLL the horror stories. But aside from one dirty guest who stressed me out, everyone else has been LOVELY. Like, I couldn’t just single out one to say “S/he / they were great” because they’ve all been great! Our 2 most recent guests:

  1. We had a woman staying with us who was in Sydney to train to swim the English Channel. (Amazing! I’m in awe!) Her daughter (who lives nearby) was going to visit her over the weekend so I offered to lend her our precious street parking permit. She brought me a jar of honey from their own bees as a thank you for that. And I left heaps of snacks and food for her (figuring that she would probably welcome lots of calories after all that swimming), but when I went in the apartment after she’d left, not only had she not eaten the pile of Lindt chocolate (why, I don’t know), she’d also left behind heaps of (sealed, unopened) food: honey roasted macadamia nuts, gatorade, potato chips, Golden Gaytime ice cream bars (if you non-Aussies don’t know what Golden Gaytime is, it’s sort of like chocolate eclair ice cream bars, or strawberry shortcake ice cream bars, but with a great name), etc. Some I left for the next guest and some (the Golden Gaytime, of course) I took home to the family. I made out like a bandit! And she was so sweet and lovely!
  2. A male model was celebrating his anniversary with his girlfriend. They were both young (22 and 20) and that made me a little nervous as I imagined them partying and coming home drunk late at night and pissing off my neighbours, but I said to myself, “Lisa, you will not be ageist, just because the last 22 year old who stayed with you was a slob.” They left the place spotless, and they were sooooo sweet!
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I’ve just had a lovely young woman from Hong Kong staying with me for three weeks. While she was here I taught her how to cook some traditional British meals such as shepherd’s pie and rhubarb crumble.

She cooked me some Chinese meals.

She was moving to the UK and when she left I potted up some cuttings from my indoor plants to take to the new apartment she had found to live in and she gave me a lovely candle .

She’s coming over for a coffee this weekend as she loves my area.

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that woman should have gone to Vic or Sa to train, Sydney is far too lovely to prepare oneself for the Channel. :joy:

I actually have in my checkout message “please remember to clear out the fridge, unless you’re leaving us beer, wine or ice cream, haha”, and surprisingly we’ve had about 4 groups leave us ice creams this year.

We see about 40 guests per month (3 listings) and i think in 2022 we’ve only had 4 groups who were a real pain (and i’ve pinpointed a few red flags to avoid these groups), but we’ve never had to kick anyone out.

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Now I have serious cravings for rhubarb crumble AND shepherd’s pie. That’s so lovely!

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oh! that is best friend material right there. :heart_eyes:
i make rhubarb crumble for my mother-in-law, for some reason she has fond memories of eating this in boarding school. I am not quite a fan.

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A guest called to complain the prior guests had left food in the freezer—individually wrapped ice cream sandwiches! Me: “you are lucky-enjoy!”

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I am now 3+ months into hosting our Family Property in Incline Village, NV. Have hosted previously with our property in CA. Just got this amazing review, made my day!!!

'Stop. Look no further. This North Tahoe home offers an Incredible view of the Lake and the National Forest but is also awesome in so many other ways. Don’t overpack for the kitchen or other supplies (as cooks we unfortunately did) because the Host has got you covered and then more. EVERYTHING is there! From the overstocked kitchen supplies to the most fluffiest towels, super comfortable beds and pillows, easy floor plan, and plenty of relaxing seating and dining for a large group are just highlighting a few. You don’t even have to leave this home bc there is plenty of comfort and fun things to do right there. The large deck offers more than incredible views like eating meals cooked on the Grill, snacking, playing Backgammon and cards, and just hanging out and watching the vistas with the home binoculars. The Rec Room/Bar is awesome to enjoy hours playing rounds of pool and listening to music. The neighborhood is quiet but friendly and there are plenty of good walks to be had and beautiful vistas to take in right in the area. However, if you do want to explore, the Host has put together an incredible Resource Guide. If you have any questions about anything, the Host is super responsive and friendly. Don’t forget to make use of the large gas grill - bacon on the grill at Sunrise with Bloody Mary’s will start your vacation off perfectly! Last but not least, your furry friend will love this home with the wrap around deck, easy access, and friendly neighborhood friends. Comfort, Majestic Views, Super Clean, Easy Location, and Everything you need plus Super Hosts should make you planning to book this Tahoe Magic right now and then immediately plan to book a return. Don’t Second Guess! Our group of 6 adults only wished we had stayed longer!

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Although I haven’t hosted hundreds of guests like many of you have, I can honestly say that of the 50 or so guests I have had, only one took some liberties that were not okay. All the rest were lovely, both as guests and as people (as I homeshare, and most book at least a week, I get to know many of them).

My guests have done things like ask if there is anything they can bring me that I can’t get in Mexico, brought thoughtful “hostess gifts”, one brought a flash drive loaded with TV series she thought were great that I could download to my laptop, one insisted on taking me out to dinner, one loved to cook and insisted on making enough each evening to feed both of us, one volunteered to help me hook up hoses to my neighbor’s place to fill my cistern when the city wasn’t sending me water.

I closed for 2 years due to Covid, and was reading all these horror stories about the new breed of terrible post-Covid guests, but my guest when I reopened not only answered in the affirmative right away when I asked if she was Covid vaccinated, she sent a copy of her vax documentation without me asking for it (I would take guests at their word- I would have no idea how to tell if someone sent a fake one).

And she was a delightful guest with a fascinating life as a marine biologist who lived on her small boat. We stayed up til 1am almost every night, sharing a bottle of wine and talking and laughing.

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I would have replied: “You want a refund? For free ice cream?” :rofl:

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What a wonderful review! Kudos to the guest for such a thoughtful, generous and appreciative review and Kudos to the Host who made it all happen!!

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A good many of my guests are here either to buy/build a home at the beach or meeting with contractors checking on the progress of one they already have under construction.

A recent couple were building a few blocks over and told me stop by anytime and walk through their home saying it was very similar in style to mine and they thought I would like it. I took a tour and loved it. I’ve been looking to repaint my interior and loved their choice for the great room/kitchen and asked if she would mind if I used her selection.

My painter just finished this weekend. I used their color and absolutely love it and have gotten rave reviews so far. They’re due to stop by soon and see it and have a glass of wine.

There are several other “former guests” who are now neighbors and we see each other often.

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Thank you! And my view rate went off the chart after this review! Didn’t result in more bookings - yet…

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That is so nice to hear !!
Meaningful human interactions, facilitated by technology. :slight_smile:

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Wow. Amazing and long review. Sounds like you’re doing a great job! :muscle:

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You should hire this guest to edit your listing. What an excellent writer!

You know, a lot of hosts here – and you’re obviously one of them – work pretty hard to make the experience for their guests . . . wonderful. Of course, we want to make a profit but it’s often as much a labor of love.

Many guests don’t seem to notice. Maybe they think 'Hey, I paid for this." But for most of us it’s not all about the money. So when you get a guest like this, one who ‘gets’ you, it’s really a very good feeling.

Nor do I begrudge the guests who take it for granted or just don’t have the command of the language or don’t recognize that an important reason why their trip went so well was because the venue they chose was special and marked with a kind of love. If we did it just for the reviews it would be kind of crass. But when one pops up like this, it’s validating. It’s important.

I hope you wrote/write to this guest how appreciative you feel for their verbal/cognitive talent in articulation but mostly for their generosity in spirit to invest themselves as they did in their thoughtful, kind and appreciative reflection and review. That you and others like you, and your teams, work just for such feelings, whether stated or not. But that the guest was able to state it, and so beautifully, resonates and echoes beautifully and far beyond.

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