Apparently Sarah Michell Geller aka Buffy the Vampire Slayer stayed at one of the exclusive island resorts for her honeymoon off the tropical North Queensland Coast and asked for a gecko to be removed (they’re everywhere). The staff member recognised her and said something like “maybe we need to call Buffy the Gecko Slayer”. I kid you not SMG cracked it and her and her husband left the island she was so incensed as she had SPECIFICALLY ASKED for staff not refer to her role as Buffy. That was 20 years ago and I’m guessing having done nothing much since she’d probably love it if she was recognised anywhere. I’m a huge Buffy fan btw but even I thought this was peak Hollywood entitled behaviour.
5 Likes
I hope you will take care of him in the reviews 
I plan to knock down stars in observance of house rules rating to any guests who demand things after booking. Early check-in AND late check-out is 1* from my perspective.
Recently there was a thread discussing a guest who asked a lot of questions. Someone pointed out that anybody who asks a lot of questions will end up finding something they are not happy with. Many hosts (including me) think that rather than hosting a guest who has specific needs, and who will end up being unhappy and leave a bad review, it is better to wait for a guest who doesn’t have as many needs.
I’m guilty of not answering questions if there are too many. IME guests who ask a lot of questions, don’t stop asking questions until they are gone.
Was the hotel able to meet your needs?
Yes. The hotels had just what we needed. But they were boring.
We have found two Airbnbs that had everything we needed. One was well northwest of Seattle. It was lovely and just where we needed to be. It was also the only Airbnb in that area. The other was outside Bowling Green KY. We’ve stayed at that one twice
Buffy. Sigh. Sigh again.
1 Like
A couple weeks ago this was true for me.
I needed
Pet friendly (2 dogs 8 lbs each)
Clean
Convenient drive to a specific location
I tried to book an Airbnb. The $95 night rental was $320 by the time taxes, pet fees, cleaning fees, Booking fees were added.
I ended up booking a Holiday inn express. It met my requirements plus a nice breakfast & easy access to grassy area with pet station for an all in cost of $146. I’ve made snarky comments about not liking Holiday inn express-I take it all back. I was very pleased.
I have all those. Help me understand what you mean “point out”.
Here’s what I have:
Other than inclusion of no steps in the title, this is all standard in Airbnb-exterior pictures, pictures by room, & a/c under amenities.
Am I missing information presentation that is needed?
Yes, I would need more info. That’s clearly a multi-story structure. How would I know whether there are steps inside? Are both bedrooms on the ground floor, requiring no steps?
The pictures show all on one level & the Airbnb amenities includes “one level”.
And the listing says there are no steps up to that level?
When you live in a bucket list destination like Alaska, you rarely get return guests. The most I can hope for is a referral.
Since we have to fly or take ferries between most communities, Zoom and Facetime have replaced business travel post-COVID.
1 Like
This trick worked. I got a five star review from her but 4* on check in. I told her that early check in will not be possible a day before arrival but she still showed up at 10:30 AM expecting that the unit will be ready.
I took care of her in the review to warn future hosts about her tactics.
2 Likes
Luckily we don’t get too many questions and have mainly had great guests. When traveling ourselves sometimes we prefer the anonymity of a hotel room and other times have had amazing full house Airbnb’s. Depends on price and needs. There is a place for both.
@house_plants This pattern of asking questions in “sets” reminds me of a gentleman that seemed to be very anxious. He got more and more anxious as his visit drew near. The sets of questions ran together, finally, into a steady stream. He was not entirely satisfied with everything during the visit, either, as he had not absorbed my answers properly. I came to the conclusion that this gentleman had an unusual and challenging way of thinking and expressing himself. I have worked with young adults and children who have challenges in this way and I try to adapt to them, so I was able to adjust my responses to this man in a way that helped me be patient and helped him and his family enjoy their vacation. I’m not sure he gets to enjoy very many vacations. My rental is geared toward accessibility so it sort of fits and I’m mentally prepared for it. Not always, but somewhat. He gave us a five star review that talked about us as hosts instead of our place, which was kind of disappointing. His wife wrote a glowing thank you note in our guest book.
1 Like
There are more people on the autism and adhd spectrums than one might imagine. Your guest might have been in one of those demographics. I have a granddaughter who has adhd and one of her behaviors is that she anxiously anticipates scenarios without any basis in reality. So she has a lot of questions and gets anxious and upset about things that haven’t happened and will likely not happen.
Example- I was visiting and staying with my daughter’s family and we had decided to make a picnic dinner and go to the local park on the lake. So my granddaughter, who was about 9 at the time, asks her older sister, “Will you play with me when we get to the park?”
Older sis shrugs and says maybe. So the younger one comes into the kitchen where me, my daughter and son-in-law are making this picnic dinner, laughing, everyone in a good mood, and has a full-blown hysterical crying meltdown about how her sister hasn’t agreed to play with her when we get to the park, so it isn’t going to be any fun for her at all. (Of course her sister played with her, as did other kids who were at the park, and she had a great time)
I read a guest post on another forum where the guest wanted feedback on what questions would be okay for him to ask the host of the home-share he had booked. He listed a bunch of things and was unsure of whether those questions would be appropriate to ask the host- one was if they would give him a walking tour of the neighborhood. I can’t remember the other things, but they were all a bit odd. I answered his post and said for him to please not take offense, but was he perhaps on the autism spectrum, as I got the impression he was generally uncertain as to what sorts of questions and interactions were appropriate? And then tried to answer the specific things he had mentioned as gently as possible. And suggested that if he was, in fact, autistic, it would be a good idea, in a home-share situation, to let his host know that, as it would help to make them more understanding, rather than wondering why he was asking them unusual questions and maybe feeling uncomfortable with him.
He responded that he was indeed autistic and that it was pretty astute of me to have picked that up and thanked me for the answers and suggestions.
There can be real, legitimate reasons for odd behavior or questions that might never occur to us as we tend to expect people to be “normal”.
3 Likes
We had a couple book with us over the winter, and shortly after they checked in I got a message asking if we could turn the heat down. She said her boyfriend had a medical condition that made him overly sensitive to heat. We have a two family flat with radiant heat and the thermostat is in our unit. I turned it down, but then got another message requesting if it could be set closer to 62°.
I ended up going up to the apartment and shutting off the radiator in his room and others around the apartment to help drop the temperature. He was super apologetic and said he was working with numerous Dr’s to try to figure out what was causing this issue.
I was a little nervous about the review, but they left us a wonderful five star review. They even booked with us again a month later, still during the winter. I made sure to have all the radiators adjusted properly in advance.
1 Like
@muddy Over the years I have met quite a few people that I believe fall on the autism spectrum that would not like to admit it. It is a shame as it would probably make everyone’s life less complicated to be able to recognize and deal with the challenges.
Ah, and in my own life, how many difficult issues could have been rendered impotent had I avoided “anxiously anticipating scenarios without any basis in reality”?
And some people, if they are high functioning, may not even be aware that they might be autistic or have an adhd brain. It’s only relatively recently that those, what they now call neurologically divergent, people are getting recognized as having different brain chemistry and methods developed to teach them and their families to cope with the difficulties it presents.
My granddaughter was 12 before she got diagnosed. She’s lively and intelligent and funny and lots of fun to hang out with, and seems like a normal, high energy, very talkative kid until something sets her off. I could tell there was something amiss- everyone expects a two year old to occasionally have tantrums and meltdowns, but when an 10 year old has what seems like a 2 year old’s meltdown, not even being embarrassed to carry on like that in public, or in front of her friends or classmates, it was pretty evident to me that it isn’t normal behavior.
My daughter was very protective of her and thought she was just “very sensitive” and emotional. But she was disruptive in the classroom and her teacher told my daughter she wanted to have my granddaughter assessed, which was when it was determined that she definitely had adhd.
I’ve had a couple of guests I suspected were on the autism spectrum. Fully functional, not in the least objectionable, but seemed socially uncomfortable, took an extra beat to process verbal communication and reply, had difficulty making eye contact, etc.
1 Like
Blockquote It’s only relatively recently that those, what they now call neurologically divergent, people are getting recognized as having different brain chemistry and methods developed to teach them and their families to cope with the difficulties it presents.
Actually in the GenZ crowd it’s almost a badge of honour to be diagnosed. My teen daughter is being assessed this week actually, she wants it, and had found it to be very helpful to help her function. There’s a lot of stuff on youtube where people are sharing strategies on how to function “normally”. Interesting times! Like your granddaughter, my daughter is also fun, bubbly and a quirky young woman, we always knew she was a little bit different, probably should have had her tested years ago, but then again, they would have plonked her on medication I think. I feel that this is a better time now.
1 Like
My granddaughter did go on medication after she was diagnosed, but since she was already 12, it was her choice to take it or not, it wasn’t something she was being given. It was something like Ritalin, but a newer version, that apparently only stays in the system for 8 hours.
So she did take it in the morning during the school week, as she found it helped her focus and she wasn’t always in trouble for being a disruption in the classroom.
But she didn’t take it for long, as it has unpleasant side effects and made her feel not like herself, of course.