I’m a host for nearly a year now and started reading this forum about a week ago.
I was hosting 50+ people from 30+ countries so far.
I did several improvements on my listing due to your useful tips and experiences.
So again: thank you!
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Welcome 
I look forward to reading your hosting stories
Me too, it’s invaluable.
We just had our first AirBnB guest and the evening was ok, we were exited an d a bit nervous too.
A year ago I stayed for the first time in a family for two weeks in France. I was a bit suspicious beforehand, but it all went great. I became friends with the family, I still talk them once a month. (I speak fluent french and we went together to the theater, had long discussions etc. But in the house I stayed in my room, didn’t cook in the kitchen etc…) If I didn’t have this experience, I would never have even considered to become a host.
Our first guest stayed only one night. She wanted to do her laundry/twice. Otherwise the evening went well. She said she would check out at 12:00 and we told that if she wanted, she could leave at 11:30 at the same time that my husband and children, they would show her the way to the railway station. Excellent! Thank You, that’s a great plan, she answered.
At 11 she ate in the open kitchen/lounge and argued loudly on the phone with her boyfriend to China. At 11:30 my family left: I said to her, that now they are leaving. “Ok, I’ll go in 30 minutes. I won’t be going with them.”
At 12:30 she was still yelling on the phone to her boyfriend, I tried to work on my computer. All her staff and laundry were unpacked, just before 13:00 their loud discussion stopped, I said to her: “I did put your laundry to the guest room.”
“Ok, thanks, where can I heat my chicken? Do you have more plastic bags for my package? How can I clean my shoes?”
I became desperate: will she stay forever? I just thought the work I should have been doing at the moment. Finally she left and gave us excellent evaluations. But I questioned myself: is this for us? I started to google hosting experiences and spend the hole evening making some new house rules with “light cooking” etc.
I gave her good valuations, but felt bad, when I wrote to her, (she said that she would come back in couple of weeks, but we’ll see) that I liked her as a guest, but as I work from home I would appreciate if the next time she would use the phone in the guest room. (Instead of yelling in our lounge for two hours:)).
This really is about finding your own boundaries. I removed the picture from the kitchen from our announcement, (one pan was scratch with the cheese slicer so badly that it was damaged), made the house rules and added the check-out time. I wouldn’t have founded these boundaries this quickly if there wasn’t this group with great advise. Thank You all!
I love this forum. Its saved from quiting after my non stop cooking, everyday laundry doing, 4 times a day shower taking, shouting guests from Chili.
I learned a lot . Before i started hosting i travelled as a guest for 5 years. I like yourself never cooked in my hosts’s house in fear of damaging something plus i was always shy of taking up someone’s kitchen and go through it like my own. I only did my laundry if i stayed a week or more, and i never dried trying to dry my clothes on chairs in my room. I never hanged out in common areas as i did not want to interfer with my host;s every day life. I thought it was common sense and i thought everyone was like me. But when i started hosting i discovered that there are many people out there who think totally different.
And you are right, it is finding your own boundaries. Hosting i discovered a lot about myself, what i can tolerate and what i cant.
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I share my kitchen as well and never faced any problems.
50% of my guests don’t cook at all. Some brought precooked food and just warmed it. Some prepared themselves little snacks or light cooking food. Sometimes we cooked together and had lots of fun. I had Chinese guys making different kinds of dumplings for us and an Indian family cooking curry and lemon rice for the whole crowd. Other guests I invited for dinner.
I enjoy this very much. I even started to note recipes to have some kind of airbnb cook book.
To make things clear I invite my guests to a drink after arrival and explain to them what airbnb is all about to me. Depending on the guest I tell them to imagine to visit a friend or their parents in law.
I like to share my place and see that people often feel uncomfortable using a strangers kitchen. So I have to encourage them that they are free to use it.
The infrastructure of my house makes things easier because my guests are living in the ground floor and have to walk around the house and knock to reach the kitchen.
Laundry I do not offer at all in my listing but if they ask kindly I let them use it.
Costs for water are very low at my place and I have a geothermal heating system that doesn’t need much energy what means my guests can shower as long as they want to.
After ten months of hosting I can say: it’s still a lot of fun and we earned more than we thought at the beginning.
But the best thing is: I’m in Israel right now visiting friends I made as a host. We have so much fun meeting the people, enjoying the hospitality and feeling like family members.
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I have really enjoyed meeting new friends such as you! x
That is a terrific idea!
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