Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2016 17:44:55 GMT
Aloha bsuze and Welcome,
I had to add another two cents before you get to pondering too hard.
Had you found us earlier, you would have seen our frequent grumbles regarding the 'star' system.
Forget about it!
You are now The Captain of Your Ship. Please don't worry if you've offended a future guest, or if they leave less than 5 stars on the sub-categories.
We are renting rooms, not inviting the mother-in-law over for a lovely stay.
You will find that it is impossible to please all of our guests, and some go to great lengths to find something or anything (true or untrue) to grumble about.
We all love the mark-down for 'location'. Like there's anything we can do about that one.
We didn't twist their arm to select our home, nor are we responsible for their decision to not do their 'homework' prior to booking.
'Arrival': I frequently get lesser stars for such. It's usually people who thought they were going to convince me to allow them to check-in before check-out, or earlier than stated check-in.
A couple of times I've searched their other places of stay, and they've had the same check-in time as me.
So does that make me the bad one that I insisted on maintaining my check-in time in order to properly prepare the room and house? Nope.
Nor does it allow me to properly finish my work in a timely manner, as they never 'just drop off' their luggage, thus my time spent welcoming them and directing them what to do in the meantime has taken away time that I truly needed to finish my chores.
I had a check-in yesterday, anticipated time of arrival 6 pm., then phoned stating perhaps 7-8 pm.
Arrived all apologetic.
I had a busy change over and had just finished 99% of my chores at 5 pm, thus I was grateful for the late check-in.
They stated they had read most restaurants close in my area around 8 pm (I had similar situation earlier in the week); thus, instead of picking up dinner first, most guests have to hurry to the house and then leave for dinner.
This makes no sense to me, but you will find many oddities in people's expectations that are clearly off base with the Airbnb concept.
We are sharing our homes, not our entire lives.
Most of our guests do not realize how hard we work mentally and physically in anticipation of their arrival.
I don't think it's too unfair to ask for some personal family time for dinner. I'm sure everyone of our guests have such in their own homes.
I believe we have all amended our rules at one time or another with the intention of pleasing our guests and granting their wishes.
Unfortunately, not very many appreciate it; and in the meantime the whole day got thrown out of whack to have your good intentions totally ignored or forgotten.
It's also unfortunate that the more we offer, the more the guests expect. The more we 'mother' them, gives them the impression that we shall continue until their time of departure. Sad but true.
I also appreciated some of the wording in the advises you have received, and might attempt to update my multiple listings one day or another in order to have my listings as clear as possible which makes everyone's stay the most enjoyable. That will be another 1/2 day spent with paperwork, only to find that 95% of our guests don't even read the house rules anyway.
I wish you much success in your hosting experience.
Just go with your instincts on how you want to run your business as well as live your life, and attempt to stick with your decisions in order to maintain your sanity in this constant meeting and welcoming strangers into your home.
With much aloha,
Rhonda
I had to add another two cents before you get to pondering too hard.
Had you found us earlier, you would have seen our frequent grumbles regarding the 'star' system.
Forget about it!
You are now The Captain of Your Ship. Please don't worry if you've offended a future guest, or if they leave less than 5 stars on the sub-categories.
We are renting rooms, not inviting the mother-in-law over for a lovely stay.
You will find that it is impossible to please all of our guests, and some go to great lengths to find something or anything (true or untrue) to grumble about.
We all love the mark-down for 'location'. Like there's anything we can do about that one.
We didn't twist their arm to select our home, nor are we responsible for their decision to not do their 'homework' prior to booking.
'Arrival': I frequently get lesser stars for such. It's usually people who thought they were going to convince me to allow them to check-in before check-out, or earlier than stated check-in.
A couple of times I've searched their other places of stay, and they've had the same check-in time as me.
So does that make me the bad one that I insisted on maintaining my check-in time in order to properly prepare the room and house? Nope.
Nor does it allow me to properly finish my work in a timely manner, as they never 'just drop off' their luggage, thus my time spent welcoming them and directing them what to do in the meantime has taken away time that I truly needed to finish my chores.
I had a check-in yesterday, anticipated time of arrival 6 pm., then phoned stating perhaps 7-8 pm.
Arrived all apologetic.
I had a busy change over and had just finished 99% of my chores at 5 pm, thus I was grateful for the late check-in.
They stated they had read most restaurants close in my area around 8 pm (I had similar situation earlier in the week); thus, instead of picking up dinner first, most guests have to hurry to the house and then leave for dinner.
This makes no sense to me, but you will find many oddities in people's expectations that are clearly off base with the Airbnb concept.
We are sharing our homes, not our entire lives.
Most of our guests do not realize how hard we work mentally and physically in anticipation of their arrival.
I don't think it's too unfair to ask for some personal family time for dinner. I'm sure everyone of our guests have such in their own homes.
I believe we have all amended our rules at one time or another with the intention of pleasing our guests and granting their wishes.
Unfortunately, not very many appreciate it; and in the meantime the whole day got thrown out of whack to have your good intentions totally ignored or forgotten.
It's also unfortunate that the more we offer, the more the guests expect. The more we 'mother' them, gives them the impression that we shall continue until their time of departure. Sad but true.
I also appreciated some of the wording in the advises you have received, and might attempt to update my multiple listings one day or another in order to have my listings as clear as possible which makes everyone's stay the most enjoyable. That will be another 1/2 day spent with paperwork, only to find that 95% of our guests don't even read the house rules anyway.
I wish you much success in your hosting experience.
Just go with your instincts on how you want to run your business as well as live your life, and attempt to stick with your decisions in order to maintain your sanity in this constant meeting and welcoming strangers into your home.
With much aloha,
Rhonda
