I’m a new host and just hosted my first guest, but the reservations are piling in rapidly, and I’m trying to keep up while learning from my experiences.
The first guest left me a great review saying I was the “best host ever”, and then sent me a private message saying, since I’m a female host, he thought it wasn’t safe for me to help guests find the apartment, and then show them how it works (since I live in Japan and host international guests, I show them how to turn on hot water and use the air conditioner.)
I suppose I can prevent going inside the house by creating a guide that explains how to do these things, but is it really dangerous to walk guests to my house if I’m a woman? Is it really dangerous to be showing foreign visitors where I live? Maybe I’m naive and believe that because Airbnb guests have to pass security checks and I always check their reviews, profiles before accepting, that they wouldn’t try to hurt me.
What am I supposed to do then? I can’t change the fact that I was born a woman? I honestly didn’t think anyone would try to harm me until he said that, but now I’m kind of worried. Luckily the rest of my bookings for the next two months have been made by female guests–something that I also think is attributed to the fact that I , too , am female and my apartment is more catered to women anyway.
Are there female horror stories about inappropriate male interaction? How did you solve it? It’s kind of difficult for me to find someone to meet guests in my place, as I’m a freelancer and most of my friends have full-time jobs with zero flexibility.
Another question I had is that an upcoming guest is asking to add me on Facebook. I’m extremely private and my facebook is strictly for friends, family, and people I trust (because I’m a freelancer, with a few jobs in traditional media such as television and radio, I’ve had problems with ~untrustworthy~ friends reaching out to clients I’ve worked with, either thinking they can get jobs for themselves, or trying to hurt my reputation, or people reposting photos/information of me on anonymous message boards in an attempt to talk about my ~much guarded~ private life.)
So you can understand why accepting a random airbnb guest that isn’t coming for another month, is entirely out of the question for me. But I’m wondering if I’m being unreasonable? I always respond quickly through the app, and would give them my phone number if necessary upon arrival, but how do I decline to give them my facebook information without giving them the impression that I’m untrustworthy or a “cold” host?
Advice is appreciated. I really want to have fun with this.