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Thomas David Keho, an Airbnb Superhost for five years, took to the Facebook group “Airbnb Host Community - Vent, Recommend, Discuss,” a forum typically used to complain about rowdy guests or strategize how to appeal Airbnb for a better rating, to ask what he considered an innocuous question:
“How do I offer a 50% discount to vaccinated guests?”
Within a few hours, the post had garnered over a thousand comments, was entangled in several webs of disinformation, and was, as Keho described it to The Daily Beast, “a shitstorm.”
I thought it was funny when Keho said in the article:
…when a disagreement occurs with one of his guests…
I’ve been doing this for a hundred years (well, it feels like it sometimes) and I’ve never had what I’d call a disagreement with a guest. He makes it sound as if he does on a regular basis.
It’s not a very wise business practice to offer a 50% discount to anyone. Mind you I seem to live in a different world - I had to Google ‘sweat lodge’.
At hair salon last week woman was loudly announcing she would not be vaccinated because no one knew the long term effects of the vaccine.
Nurse Anne here foolishly interjected, “we don’t know the truly long term effects of any vaccine”. MEasles, mumps, rubella (MMR), Shingles, Chicken Pox, & pneumonia vaccines have all been used less than 40 years. Most less than 25 years. We live much longer than that. You either choose to risk terrible illness that WILL have long term effects on the body like heart damage, brain damage, male infertility, and death or choose to get vaccinated.”
As usual some forum members love to pontificate rather than give the poor forum member an answer to the original questions. I’ve had that type of response, but fortunately not of that magnitude.
No one in particular today. The original post seemed to be looking for help with the process of offering a discount, not whether one should be given. Opinions on discounts are expected but the article talks about a torrent of debate on the issues surrounding getting a vaccine. I’ve probably gone off on a tangent myself occasionally. That’s no big deal unless it gets rude. My personal example was asking about pest issues and being told that I had no business renting if there was any chance of mice in my unit. Thankfully several other forum members responded with real advice on discouraging posts, a few funny stories, and a few pointed out that rural listings and those in very old houses can have very responsible hosts and yet have an occasional pest challenge. Your own comment about the wisdom of discounts is certainly worth thinking about and backed by your experience.
I’ve noticed a number of people on twitter basically stating a variation on this theme. They post something and are deluged with unsolicited advice. For example one woman’s dog was dying and when she posted her feelings about it she got a lot of advice like “feed him pumpkin.” Anyway, it really irritates some people, others of us, not.
I have to delete at least one post per day because I’m way out of my lane.
I like to think that people have an impulse to help that comes in the form of wanting to “fix” things. So we don’t answer their question, we tell them what they are doing is wrong, i.e., we think we are going to the source of the problem. Like the problem isn’t that you have mice, it’s that you are trying to Airbnb an old house! LOL. Some of the most well meaning members here do it regularly. (looks in mirror knowingly, lol)
While the difference in attitude, empathetic or instructional, certainly isn’t always, it tends to be gender based. I read a fascinating book years ago called “You Just Don’t Understand”, by a sociologist who studied the difference in the way men and women communicate.
Her research showed that when someone shares a problem they are having, women tend to empathize, mention similar experiences they had, and what worked or didn’t work for them.
Men tend to assume that when someone talks about a distressing situation, they are looking for a solution on how to “fix” it, and offer just that.
Women tend to be intuitive in conversation, reading into it what is not specifically said, men are quite literal. What you say is what they hear, they don’t “interpret”.
Of course these are general observations, not everyone fits these trends.
One of her conclusions at the end of the book was that it’s a wonder that men and women manage to communicate at all, as they almost speak a different language
One example she gave in the book re women reading more into what is actually said, and men being more literal, was that if a woman is with a friend or her partner and the other person asks “Are you hungry?”, she’ll assume that the friend is hungry and might reply “Not really, but if you are, we can eat soon and I’ll just have a salad.”
If a man is asked the same question, his answer is more likely to be “No, I ate a couple hours ago.”
It isn’t that he wouldn’t be willing to sit down with his companion for a bite to eat, but that wasn’t what he was asked to respond to.
That book wasn’t just about her findings, but also offered advice based on it, to facilitate male/female communication. That men should try to just listen when a woman is talking about something that’s bothering her, and empathize, and only offer a possible solution if she indicates she wants that. And that women shouldn’t expect men to respond to, or intuit anything other than what was said. If you’re hungry and want to eat soon, say that, don’t ask him if he’s hungry.
