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I just received a request for a 3 week booking via TripAdvisor, has anyone ever had experience with them? I am only accustomed to AirBnb and I am a bit uneasy as this is my first request through this website.
From what I can tell, there is no way of vetting the guests like AirBnb.
Also I never had anyone stay more than 4 nights before so I don’t know what to expect for such a long stay.
I am in the midst of my first “long term” booking of 18 days. She stays in the AirBNB rooms which are part of our house. Before we finalized the booking we had lengthy discussions via the AirBNB message system about expectations such as use of the laundry, how often I would trade out her sheets and linens, breakfast preferences [no reason to bake a ton of bread that she wouldn’t enjoy], and her expected daily schedule. She had already volunteered why she was in the area and she wanted to know how far I was from her class building, confirm that there were coffee shops and decent restaurants with vegetarian fare, etc.
This young woman has been one of the lowest impact guests we have ever have. She brought her own tea, doesn’t use the coffee or want breakfast, in fact, when her bananas started to over-ripen I had to push just a bit to make them into banana bread for her. I am a fairly direct Yankee; she is a Southern young lady. I say what I mean, and she is nice. I finally had to tell her that I never offer anything that I don’t mean, and since then, she has felt comfortable saying no to kind gestures and yes to those she wants to enjoy. I made her soup one night because she was miserable and cold. Tonight we are having salmon steaks on the grill to celebrate how well she has done in the course.
For me, my early discussions with her were really not about vetting, which sounds ominous, but instead to ensure that she would feel comfortable here and that her expectations were not outside the boundaries of what I could provide. I did block off the three days after she leaves just in case I needed some time to vent and de-stress. In this case, not an issue!
Trip Advisor has been hit or miss for me. They tend to send travelers who are expecting a different experience of Hawaii. Only two guests have ever walked off my property. And both of those were TA. so before you accept makes sure they confirm that your house is a FIT with them. Three weeks is a long time for a guest to be miserable. Also be advised that their customer service is in India. All of it.