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So we all have occasional guests who give this gig a bad rap, but I’d like to share some success stories that I believe set everything in it’s right place.
We’ve been so blessed here in Anchorage, Alaska to have great guests making up 95% of our folks.
Last year we had a lovely couple from France invite us down to enjoy drinks with them. We ended up staying out past 1am with them enjoying conversations.
Last month I had a great couple with a teenager who dealt with a water leak like champs and were very apologetic when their grill fire caught a hanging basket on fire.
Right now I have a pair of PhD students working remotely. Lovely couple experiencing the Alaska dream.
Last spring I had an older couple up here for their first grandchild. They were awesome and took exceptional care for the place.
This winter I had extended guests who were also up here for visiting grand children.
And just recently I had guests who came up here to elope.
As much as poor guests get their doing on this site, I want to make a hard push for the amazing guests I get by default.
I love hosting and meeting new people and somehow I’ve been blessed to get the top tier of guests.
You are very lucky Deacon to have only positive experiences with guests. We too have had 95% excellent guests and very much enjoy the whole hosting thing.
Reading through the posts on this forum may give the idea hosting is one nightmare after another. When in actual fact we mainly only post here when we need help with some aspect of hosting, or in some cases somewhere to vent/ rant to help us stay sane.
I hope it continues the same way for you but when the time comes… there are experienced hosts on this platform with wise advice.
We all talk about what goes wrong more than things that go as we hoped that they would. We have made some lifelong friends in our ten years as hosts. The bad ones become a good laugh once we get past the moment.
Like others, I think you’re getting typical Airbnb guests. I’ve probably hosted 1000 guests and only had a handful of negatives to even mention. And none of those were truly bad situations.
I also notice you have a very positive attitude and probably brought a naturally good skill set to the task. There are people who post here who don’t seem well suited to the hospitality business. And they will have one problem after another or that’s the way it seems. And many of them aren’t open to improving. Everything is always the guest’s or Airbnb’s fault. What is it about them that seems to attract the “low tier” guest?
I’ve had the same good luck/happy experiences with guests and love making people feel comfortable, safe, and giving them a nice place to recharge during their travels.
I’ve adored my conversations and bottles of wine with many of my guests and even have made friends with folks moving into the neighborhood.
I do a “GBU” during their stay and when they’re about to leave - please tell me the Good, Bad, Ugly so I can be a better host.
It’s been fun and I really like it. Pre-Covid I had the most fantastic run of guests and filled up a lot. I miss that. Hard work, but worth it. And not just for the “easy money!”
@Rolf
Hey man, I laughed as well. He apologized and let me know when it happened and left me $15 to replace the basket. What else are you going to do? These things happen and I was happy that it was so minor.
I’m a generally happy guy and found I’m well suited for hospitality. It’s like waiting tables at a restaurant: get them seated, get them what they need, leave them alone, but check in once in a while to make sure they feel cared for. No sweat.
One “bad” experience with a guest wasn’t “bad”, but strange.
We’re on a multistage treatment septic system with a control panel. During her stay, this guest must have been in the shower for over an hour because I was getting high level alerts from the septic panel. Not a bid deal, but definitely stressing the system. Unsure how to communicate that in the house rules without losing that touch of hospitality. Then again, why make a rule for the 1% of 1% of showers that stress the system?
Then she was late in checking out; we had a single day turn around, so I needed to get in there right after checkout. I knocked on the door about an hour after checkout and she was pretty grumpy with me for some odd reason.
After she checked out we realized that she took all the Christmas decorations (it was December and my wife seasonally decorates the apartment) and shoved them deep into a closet. Except a single candle which she burned down nearly completely in the shower.
She ended up not leaving a review, though I left her 4 stars. Unsure about that one. Not a bad experience, just a strange one.
When first moving to AZ I knew I was going to set up the house so I could host. At first it was off the community website then a friend said I had to get on Air.
I told people the job of getting the place divided, making a garden out of a dirt patch then greeting and talking to guests was right up my alley. I attracted lots of like minded outdoor, birder types.
In the East, I wondered what the guests would be and it’s been a range of people coming for music and Shakespeare to hikers/birders. Feel I’m attracting the right sorts for me.
Did just have a women who’s father is in hospice ask if she could book for a month (my limit 7 days). Tried to help her find something without luck. She then asked if she could book 7 days, go away, back for 7. I would have liked to help but someone in the space within my house for a long stretch is not something I want. Told her I would be happy to book her for a week, haven’t heard back.
I definitely believe that when a host believes in what they do and gives off positive vibes, the guests feel that and mirrors that energy. As a guest, I generally aim to keep the place cleaner than how I found it, but with the hosts that show they care about me as a person, I do any little thing I can to help the rental out (restock seasonings, clean the floors, etc.). Keep doing whatever you’re doing, because it’s working!
