This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
So weird! This guy was travelling with his girlfriend, was her company not good enough? To make things worse I left them a good review, then only found out when making the bed for the next guest there were blood stains all over the sheets. They’d stripped the bed and bundled the sheets up to hide it, and being a new host I didn’t think to check. So stains set in and sheets ruined! Their review felt like a slap in the face.
There was one other guy he said he was disappointed we didn’t give him a tour of our house. Why would we show him around rooms he doesn’t have access to? He was odd in many other ways too.
Can’t believe you got marked DOWN for your place being bigger!! People just… blow my mind sometimes
@ChrisC - that is an amazing idea and I encourage you to suggest it to airbnb. I know our suggestions may end up nowhere - but it’s still worth doing, especially with the furor over what the ‘sharing economy’ actually is.
I understand your feelings. I think it’s a lesson of how you want to search listings in the future. The reviews told you you may not meet them. Many listings have reviews that rave about the friendly host.
As others have said, you have no idea why they didn’t interact with you - they may pride themselves on giving their guests lots of privacy. But I don’t think it’s wrong to just mention it, I’ve seen it lots of times, “though we didn’t meet host we enjoyed…”. It’s not a complaint, but good info for future guests.
As a host who likes to get away when I can, I think these hosts feel the same way, especially since it was a weekend. I find it odd that you’d have such a strong expectation that you were going to socialize with them and then be disappointed that you didn’t. Also, if I were a guest I wouldn’t mind in the least if I didn’t see the host, but that’s just my personality.
I’ve had a few guests whom I never met and it’s worked out great. They enjoyed the privacy and quiet and I got a break.
It’s great that you have that experience and I’m not trying to take away from that, however for most hosts (I’d imagine anyway) we do this to supplement income rather than sell friendship.
I’m happy to chat to guests when our paths cross, but that doesn’t always happen. I had two guests leave this morning (after a 4 night stay) who I never met at all. It just so happened that I was working when they arrived and we were never around at the same time. It’s just the way it falls sometimes - I’m not going to call in sick to work so I can chat with a guest who may or may not want me to.
Jeez I am not ‘selling friendship’ as you so nicely put it.
I was responding to your comment that when you started out you had many guests you would socialise with but that things had change and now this doesn’t happen.
I was simply explaining that wasn’t my experience.
Where did I mention that change my schedule to accommodate my guests?
I am perfectly capable of understanding how much interaction a guest wants.
Settle down. Wasn’t attacking you. I straight out said that it’s great you have that experience. Again, good for you that this sort of interaction suits your setup.
As a whole, I would say hosts are offering rooms/apartments/houses for rent. In response to the OP, I think it is unrealistic to expect that a host will be there to socialise with them - especially on a one night stay,
I mention in my listing that I work, have a busy schedule, and may not be home. However, after they book and before they arrive I let them know if I am going to be away while they visit.
I think it’s somewhere in the middle. I think that guests are staying at Airbnbs partially because of the hosts’ knowledge of the area. Our guests appreciate our recommendations for eating, shopping and sightseeing. I tend to socialize with our guests, but I think it’s unfair of guests to expect that hosts will hang out with them.
I agree, and I think it’s particularly so when people are visiting from a foreign country and may not speak the local language, as is the case with almost all our guests here in Spain, who are also usually staying at least 5 days. Since we live sandwiched between our two listings (they are the garden flat and the loft and we are the sandwich filling in the middle!) and we share the garden and pool we inevitably have more interaction with guests.
On our visit to Cape Town last month we stayed in a gorgeous Airbnb cottage in beautiful surroundings, where the charming young woman host met us, texted us every day to find out if we needed anything, and came to say goodbye when we were leaving and that was all. She was perfectly friendly but just busy … I wouldn’t have dreamt of criticising her but it did make us realise that we find it disappointing not to have more interaction with the host. Part of why we travel is to meet people and find out about how they live and their ideas about their country, although it mattered less in this instance because we have friends and family there.
However, Airbnb did set up certain guest expectations with their recent “Live like a local” marketing (which I see they’ve moved away from) where you see lots of happy socialising going on and even in their terminology - “host” having replaced “owner” for holiday rentals, so they must bear some of the responsibility for guest expectations here.
I just had a guest who left a nasty review and basically one of the reasons he skewered meat is because I did not have lots of face-to-face conversations with him. I thought to myself you know what I have a kid to take care of and a whole lot of other stuff to take care of too. I am not here to babysit you.
I’m not saying that you expected to be babysat . What I mean is that one must temper their expectations according to the details of the listing and the reviews that that host has I definitely agree that part of thr fun of staying at an air B&B is getting to meet people and learn about them. But if the listing doesn’t say much about the host hanging out with guests then I probably would not look that listing if that’s what I want.
The problem is that they did not provide accurate information. So I take it back that you just say “disappointed.” Say that they told you they’d meet you upon arrival, and they did not. Sorry, but they shouldn’t be hosting if they are that lackadaisical. Airbnb only works if people accurately review.
Well, the thing is, Airbnb’s ads all show hosts happily “sharing” meals, walks, and living rooms with their guests. Their big ad in their front page usedto be “Meet hosts like Mina” (the Asian female wearing an apron while standing in the kitchen like she’s ready to cook a 3 course meal for you). It’s a little misleading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtjOKph7-k. Airbnb’s original idea to sell the concept was to say, hey let’s all learn and share and have more than a sterile hotel experience! Turns out all some people really want ARE sterile hotel experiences at the best price.
You’re not selling friendship, AIRBNB IS selling the idea of hosts’ friendship, to get people to book there. Then they arrive and everyone is disabused of the notion of what Airbnb is “supposed” to be.
My guests don’t really want to hang out with me. They want their space.
I just had a wonderful couple who stayed with me before once. They walked in and gave me hugs and brought treats for the furry ones. They stayed 3 days and played with the dogs each day. My dogs knocked over the trash and my guests cleaned it up, which I would have preferred to do myself, but I was away at a friend’s house and they just took care of it. They were just wonderful people.
So I think there are some guests that want that, and that’s cool. The guy who wanted that but gave me no cues as to what he wanted, I’d have been happy to chill with him. He was brilliant. But as a host, I really have to follow their cars, right?
I think also that maybe AirBnB didn’t think about well what if you have guests 30 days out of 30? I often do. Certainly that much socializing gets tiring. Anyway! I’ve gone on too long.
