oh for us, 2 nights is an excellent booking! we are in a wine region, overnighters are our bread and butter. I set a min 2 night stay like 2+ weeks ahead, and then about 7 days out i’ll take that away (still perfecting that balance). We only get longer bookings in Dec/Jan which is Xmas/summer hols here.
Ah yes, I just love the Silicon Valley terms that twist what the company wants into words that convey that you are missing out.
“Opportunities” - as if they are trying to help me, when they are all things I would never use for my listing.
I have had the admonishment on my dashboard for years, that I have not taken 83% of my “opportunities” on board.
There’s a new one on there as of the past couple weeks- to offer “dedicated workspace”. Well, guess what, I did until Airbnb chose to paste it on the top of my listing, when I definitely do not cater to digital nomads, so I had to remove it entirely from my amenities list. Instantly “Free Parking” took its place, when only 3 guests since 2016 have arrived by car.
Agreed - these pages that profess to give ‘insights’ and ‘opportunities’ feel just like MLM pitches.
I watched an interesting video where a professional psychologist dissected an interview with Elizabeth Holmes, of Theranos fraud fame, another product of the Silicon Valley doublespeak. He pointed out when she strategically uses the word “we” or “I”, the buzz phrases, as well as her body language, the “tells” when she is lying or misrepresenting, how she deflects, etc.
A lot of the techniques these young “entrepreneurs” use grew out of NLP, (neurolinguistic programming), a pseudo-science popularized back in the 70’s.
“Although the original core techniques of NLP were therapeutic in orientation their generic nature enabled them to be applied to other fields. These applications include persuasion, sales, negotiation, management training, sports, teaching, coaching, team building, public speaking, and in the process of hiring employees.”
(Wikipedia)
There’s a really interesting and shocking CBC radio podcast series “Escaping NVIXM” about the MLM scheme disguised as a self-help organization, whose cult leader, Keith Ranier, was recently convicted of a whole slew of crimes, including sex trafficking, sex trafficking of minors, racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud, and who is currently serving a sentence of 120 years, after being caught hiding out in the Puerto Vallarta area.
It’s fascinating to listen to how otherwise intelligent and educated people fell for this (which included physical torture of women in the form of having his initials branded on them) for many years, as he was adept at playing into their self-image of wanting to be a good person who worked to better themselves and the world, and their ambitious nature to rise to the elite top of the organization.
Prior to Covid, guests were happy to provide where they were from, why they were headed to our part of the world, what they wanted to see, and asked a lot of questions. Since Covid, much of what we get is silence. From over 90% high communications to around 10%. We still try, but apparently the travelers we get are mute.
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I think the very small number font is deliberate by Airbnb, so frustrating to have to enlarge the screen to see it. I need to know if my guests need double or twin rooms and I LIKE to know their vague plans so that I can use my local knowledge to help them. For example, a local pedestrian bridge is currently closed as it needs repair, I had some walkers who planned to use it but hadn’;t realised that it was unusable, they were able to replan their route–because they replied to my request.