Would you charge this guest extra money?

Nice way to misquote me to make your point. I didn’t say that mentioning these things never adds value. I said that they shouldn’t be mentioned if they don’t add value. Which was the case in @Ping ‘s post.

Why don’t hosts ever read things carefully :wink: ?

Other than that I mostly agree with your post, by the way.

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@Ping this is not a closed group of hosts. Anything you post here on the forum can be read by anyone. It comes up in internet searches. The owners of the forum also have a Facebook group.

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I’ve only had one incidence where our housekeepers noted the presence weed. Our cleaning team is a young Millenial couple so they would be familiar with the smell. Our Texas guests (Texas guests are very problematic for us) denied smoking in our house but then we inexplicably found our pots/pans and hand towel in the outside trash. Hmm.

I would be easy prey because I can hardly tell the difference between Americans and Canadians or Australians and Kiwis.

It’s also important to note that these stereotypes about certain Chinese guests are ever changing. China has a very large, healthy, middle and upper middle class that travel a lot. The ones who shop at Louis Vuitton and leave the place a mess might be perceived as “rich” in the States (so I use the word rich contextually) but the truly, TRULY wealthy have manners and do more than shop. For example, we just hosted a MOMA artist from Beijing and his architect friends and they were lovely. As messes are appropriately called out to the actual guests, behavior will change. Especially if they’re young. One shouldn’t tolerate spoiled, new money behavior. Raise your rates. In the case of this post, I don’t really think the guest’s race was necessary to mention to achieve their management related answer, but so it goes…

Absolutely agree …

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a few times I have correctly identified South Africans as Australians.
Or ‘incorrectly’, as they pointed out.

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I don’t think it was a matter of race. It’s more like a matter of age (lack of maturity). Seems like they were college students. Probably used to mom cleaning after them. When my kids lived at home, they were piggies no matter how much I nagged. It always amazed me that to them that was acceptable despite being raised to be neat. It got so bad that I simply started closing their bedroom door so I would not have to look at their mess. After so much nagging they would clean about once or twice a month their rooms. Now that they’re in their mid 20’s and have their own places, they keep them clean and clutter free. Now I enjoy making a mess when I visit them : )

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@Jodes Thank you. I agree completely. A messy/destructive/bad guest’s nationality or ethnicity is completely irrelevant, and naming it (intentionally or not) is an invitation to racist conclusions & comments. It’s a lot like the way the newspapers used to routinely mention the race of Black offenders and never mention the race of White offenders. In so doing, they (intentionally or not) generated a phony public notion that it was always Black people committing the crimes. This was a huge part of the foundation for the rampant police brutality, hair trigger violence, hiring prejudice, and sweeping exclusions of all kinds against Blacks that we’re still coping with today. So, I think it’s in all our best interest to just stop naming ethnicity/origin in these posts about problem guests.

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@jodes @AmyB and all others…
When my cat pushes over my vase and breaks it, it was not my dog. When I tell the story to my friends I will mention that it was the cat, this isn’t stereotyping all cats. It’s just stating a fact for my cat. I’m sure as hell smart enough, just like most other people, to know that not all cats push over vases and that also dogs push over vases.
If my friends cat also pushed over a vase or maybe a flower pot, that friend might chime in to tell about her badly behaved cat. Most people will know there also exist well behaved cats that don’t push over vases.

Can we just focus on the topic starter’s situation instead of focussing on the mentioning of a nationality? Thank you :roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:.

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@GutHend is this an apt analogy? Comparing cats/dogs and humans?

Perhaps it is. People certainly stereotype dog breeds. I’m not as familiar with stereotypes of cat breeds. I know I hate it when someone tells a dog bite story and it’s about a pit bull attack instead of just saying dog bite.

If we are going to be required to be tolerant of people mentioning nationality even when it isn’t relevant then we also have to be tolerant of people who don’t like to see or read that kind of ethnic stereotyping. We can’t only be kind to the people who love to talk about nationality and cultural differences. If the OP doesn’t want nationality discussed then they should leave it out of the description.

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Yea, that’s a good story, @GutHend, but we don’t live in a world where cats are shot on sight because of the stories that are told about them.

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Actually, they are, sad to say. :crying_cat_face:

But we’ve had posts on here like ‘99% of the time it’s the cats’, or ‘it’s always the young cats’. The generalising is what makes it catist.

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Yes, and most certainly they are being shot because of questions, legitimate questions, that are being asked on this little forum. This is sarcasm, in case anyone is wondering.

@Guthend makes a GREAT analogy here re: the cat/dog broken vase. The way I see it, people on this forum are simply asking questions about (for example) ethnic groups that they are not aware of, and don’t have a lot of experience with. I take it as being simply, “how can I host XXX better?” Aren’t we all trying to learn here and moreover given a supposed safe place in which to vent? Must we watch every word we say? Boy oh “boy”, (offensive) I feel “gypped” (also offensive) by this forum. It is such a great place to gain the knowledge and support that that I so desperately need as a host! Does anyone who uses the word “gipped/gypped” really conjure up notions of gypsies? The origin of this word has lost all meaning when I say it. LOL to me is a WORD that means ‘I’m amused’ or ‘this is ironic’, not “laughing out loud”, in reality. Not the best analogy, but you get what I’m saying.

Sheesh. Where do we draw the line.

What about the “Mental Patient” thread, about the rude nurse who was an absolutely horrid guest? Stealing keys, being late, and a general PITA. I did not see anyone take offense to the terminology “mental patient”. Could we? Absolutely. Did I? Hell no. LOL, no, I’m not a mental patient. YET. But yet there was another thread where someone took great offense to someone making a reference to a mental disability and making light of it.

It seems somewhere along the line we are getting to the point of conversation and common sense being a lost cause and a dying art.

Oh give me strength. If there are hosts here who are categorizing a whole race/ethnic/religious/sexual preference/gender association as a group that they hate and won’t host, I’ve yet to (really) see it here. And if there are hateful hosts, I’m sure they will get pushed out of business by their own stupidity and bias eventually. Economics 101. Funny how that works itself out, for the most part.

I’m sure I’ll catch holy hell, for this post, which is fine. I was a reader for almost a year before joining, and am fine going back to that.
Or
Maybe it will just be crickets! Either way…I’m very happy I found this forum. I enjoy it very much and have learned a lot from all of you.

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Who is to decide wether it is relevant to mention that they were Chinese? Can we just give each other the benefit of the doubt? In this case: Maybe the Topic Starter was wondering (totally undecided) wether it was relevant and just decided to mention it.

I have never had trouble with any certain kind of nationality, but I probably have mentioned it in my posts when talking about a certain guest. This is just to give some extra information. This is not stereotyping, being racist or discriminating. Sometimes I will mention if it was a man or a woman. This is just to give some extra information. I’m not being sexist.

And to add, in our case sometimes nationality is absolutely relevant: There is a certain perk that certain nationalities are more or less likely to get from us. It also depends on their BnB record. Now kill me for that.

EDIT:

Two interesting examples about nationality:

  1. I once stayed in a Colombian hostal. They gave discounts to people with an international passport. The reason: In their experience the national guests were always ruining something so something had to give. Result: Nationals paid 30% more.
  2. In Belize internationals pay double for public transport. Now if that isn’t discriminating.
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In Thailand- to visit the royal palace, locals were free, international visitors paid.

That sounds fair. Presumably locals pay taxes.

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@yecatsr

I wish I could “like” this post a thousand times.

Frankly, people constantly looking to be offended are tiresome.

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When I toured China for 3 weeks, I learned that non-Chinese pay a premium for everything.