THE WOZ? The Apple Woz??? I think he has a house here in Kona.
Yea. That one. 
He was post-Apple when we were introduced.
age·ism
ˈājˌizəm/Submit
noun
noun: ageism; noun: agism
prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person’s age.
When you characterize Boomers as non-tech savvy, that is a pre-judgment based on age.
If you were to talk about the tech-impaired in general, regardless of age, that would not be ageism.
I’m 62 and a former programmer who navigates the digital world with ease.
I also know not to type a space before the comma and period.
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Hi @Alia_Gee,
That’s an interesting and perceptive post. Where do you host, the United States?
I think the net is making some difference here. Bringing people closer together. Improving communications. It’s also possibly the most effective time-waster in history, but hey, nothing is perfect.
I remember life before the net. It was a whole different world.
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There are exceptions for every case , some boomers have done wonderfully and can show Millenials a thing or two . But there is a group of Boomers that seem to find it either hard to access the tech or to operate the UI .
I presented no ageism when dealing with potential guests , just the opposite , however the details of those stories are endlessly long and for whatever reason
thats not been discovered or revealed , that particular group of boomers has just been the high numbers for me for guests booking my listings in which it was a circus
communicating everything to the guest .
Also, Health issues of guests are paramount to Hosts that have physical areas that may not be “Walkable” friendly due to slopes, hills , stairs etc . This also applies to families .
As far as being a grammer nazi , thats just plain nasty bit of trolling !
Yes, I’m in New York City now, but I grew up mostly in land - locked Pennsylvania. (In 3rd or 4th grade, I had a teacher who impressed upon us that we should have gotten New Jersey’s coastline, but mean King George took it away from Us because he didn’t like William Penn and wanted Penn’s colony to fail… which was more likely without ocean access)
We were pretty isolated- though I visited that school 5 years later and they did have shiny new computers, so i think they too were getting pulled into the digital age.
Whee, connectivity.
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All those freaking capitalization errors are driving me crazy! But hey, I’m not judging it’s just my experience!
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As a child growing up in Bombay, I felt pretty isolated too.
I think of Bombay as being a lot like New York City - the world comes to you.
That definitely was not my experience as a child. I don’t think it’s true today, either. Bombay is very different from New York City.
VERY VERY very very different. I have a friend who took a job there. Wow! The stories she tells!
Storytime!
(Post must be 20 units long)
Not sure about Americans but we had a Canadian couple who left me a glowing review but then I got an email from Airbnb saying I had misrepresented my property.
How? You’ll love this… my bathroom sink was too small!!! They had an oversized bath & large walk in shower but the sink was a corner one which they found ’ unacceptable!'
I often wonder what it was they wanted to do in the sink apart from brush their teeth?!
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This is key insight; people treat you accordingly based on the way you present yourself to them. If you act like their servant they will treat you like one. If you act like they’re lucky to be able to stay with you, they will be grateful. If you thank them profusely for choosing your place then they’ll feel entitled.
My profile picture is fairly serious (as you can see) and I always communicate in a friendly yet professional and firm manner. I ensure that all the basics are well stocked, but I don’t really offer a truly luxurious experience. I’ve hosted dozens of American guests (I’m Canadian) and have never had any issues with people nitpicking or treating me with disrespect.
The worst guests have been from countries with large wealth disparities (Mexico and China are two in particular) as those guests are used to having domestic servants and they (correctly) assume I have a cleaning lady who will take care of the mess they leave behind.
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Actually @designconsortium2003, non-tech-saviness is not your only criticism of older people: [quote=“designconsortium2003, post:125, topic:15008”]
They don’t care about anything other then the price and how they can milk every penny of it even if you are a Budget Stay Listing
[/quote]
I’m very sorry if that has been your experience of my generation (and at 70 I’m way beyond “retiree” age!) but can I suggest that if you have already made up your mind that older travellers are going to be a problem, then they probably will be!
I accept the fact that some older people are not as familiar with technology as younger people, I in fact teach basic computer skills to this age group (and I also taught my granddaughter to design a website!) and they are very keen to learn, but sometimes our brains just don’t learn as quickly as younger peoples’ do. However, it seems to annoy you out of all proportion … could you not perhaps show a little compassion and understanding? I don’t actually agree that a great guest makes a great host, I think one can still be a great host even to the Danish Girls from Hell, but if you don’t feel you are able to host those guests you find more difficult, surely there’s always the Decline option …
Re Americans: I have not had as many guests as some hosts here, because we only host in the Summer and most people stay more than 5 days. I think the reason I have had few problem guests (we’ve only had a few Americans but we also have many French who usually turn up in surveys as the worst guests!) is that being English (and also speaking French) we’re a kind of halfway house, so guests can experience Spain (we don’t live in an expat area) while knowing that we’re there to help and advise in their language if they need it.
Oh, and @designconsortium2003, please look at my guest and host reviews and you will see that, baby boomer though I am, I am totally adorable …
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I am not Ageist at all , if you look at what I wrote before , I was writing only about a few specific issues that had popped up with some Boomer Guests that were not Tech Savvy , nor did they care to be .In addition to that , they were only interested , not in a Great Airbnb Experience , but only the cheapest price regardless of what platform it was booked upon . In other words , they were not interested in a Original style Airbnb stay . I have plenty of professional and personal experience with Boomers and I live with a 69 yo , that is the Epitome of a Technophobe , and has some problems adapting to all forms of it .
It doesn’t annoy me out of any proportion , (Compassion and Understanding ) are you kidding me ? what ever gave you that notion ? I have spent countless hours trying to get some of the most hopeless cases to be able to book with me , so I consider what you say highly insulting .
I’m The Top Rated Lasting for my Class in San Francisco and I do not experience 1/10th of the issues I see here on this board . So I must be doing something right .
I have had two groups of American guests so far. The first group was easygoing and a nice guest overall except they didn’t clean the dishes before check out. He left me a glowing review and I only left an average one (mainly for the unwashed dishes).
The second group is the current guest who plan to stay for 5 weeks, there are three teenage boys who were very excited at the check in. The mother seem very nice and easy to communicate with. Fingers crossed everthing goes smoothly.
I’ve had a few guests complain about things, I improved based on some valid feedback. But two are just nonsense and they complain about something I don’t advertise in my listing, it is obvious that they didn’t read all my description before booking. By the way, both of these two are not from the US.
Do tell. What are those stories?
Well if you give birth in NY, you’ll likely not have a malaria cup affixed to the wall above your hospital bed to catch mosquitoes. But apparently, you will in Mumbai. And you’ll also have your doc come in and yell at you that diapers are unhealthy and demand you not use them. She talked about the women in beautiful saris splashed with urine & feces from their babies. My friend and her family lived in one of the nicest hotels in Mumbai while awaiting housing. Marble floors in the bathroom, crystal lights, and an open sewage trough that ran the length of it- the maid tossed a strongly scented urinal cake in it everyday. And, after they all got intestinal parasites, the doctor said that the water for the showers, sinks, none of it is treated. Comes straight from the river.
So no, not at ALL like NY.
This sounds a little over the top, even for India. I’ve never heard of a malaria cup. And an open sewage trough? Not even India is that crazy. What this perhaps a really long time ago? In Bombay, at least, and I’m sure most of India, piles of garbage are a common sight. But not open sewage, not that I’ve seen.
Having said that, Indian attitudes to hygiene are bizaare, so I’m not saying it’s impossible.