u/MoosieMusings

This has been our first year as hosts and we’ve learned a lot.

We have a full house setup next door to our own home. It’s two bedroomed with its own toilet and shower, and a large open plan living, dining and kitchen area.

We live in a very quiet tourist town that appeals mainly to families with young kids and we tried to lean into that a little bit.

Here are a few things we’ve learned.

- Reviews have a big impact if you don’t have many and you score low in one of them. But there’s no point overly worrying because there really is not much you can do to sway or predict the outcome.
- The bad reviews you get will rarely be for what you expect. We had five stars across the board except for two guests. One was because there were a few spider webs due to the weather bringing spiders indoors and the other was retaliatory because we had made a claim against them due to damage being made to the property.
- That brings me to my next point, AirBnB support for hosts is abysmal. They refused to remove this 2 star review despite the guests specifically saying that everything about the house and their stay was perfect but they gave us two stars for the claim.
- Little touches are appreciated. We provided little LEGO mini figures or small sets for longer stays. The kids loved them.
- It’s more stressful than anticipated. We were always wondering if we’d left the house clean enough or with enough amenities. We did all the cleaning ourselves as we need the income to help pay our mortgage.
- The things that go wrong aren’t what you expect. Our main issue with guests is that they couldn’t figure out the door lock. It was so natural for us, we didn’t realise other people wouldn’t be familiar with it. Lesson learned.
- Guest interactions can be positive. We’re both A social and wanted to limit contact with guests as much as possible but we did run into them once or twice or have to go to the property to help with something and almost every time the guests were so lovely and friendly. We really enjoyed the small interactions we’d had.
- No matter what information you provide some guests will either not read it or totally ignore it. So prepare yourself to repeat a few instructions.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot I meant to add here but if you made it this far, thanks for reading and feel free to share what you’ve learned through hosting.

There is so much talk about how anti Zionism is anti semitism and pally wood but no recognition of the content we see coming from Zionists and the Israeli government and the IDF themselves.

“Oh it’s just a few people and you can’t judge everyone”

But it’s not a few fringe people. It’s thousands. It’s the words of the government itself. It’s the videos coming from IDF soldiers, from Zionists.

The ones bragging about murdering children. The ones mocking children in pain and suffering. It’s the Israeli people who block aid trucks from entering Gaza, it’s the officials saying they’re human animals and they all need to go.

Why can’t you see that these people are the ones who are representing Israel and making people hate it? Why do I never see any of you speaking out against them or to them?

I often see pro Palestinians calling people out for anti semitism but not the other way around.

I know the majority of people here are Pro Israel but I have to wonder why so many of you are when you see what IDF soldiers do to Palestinians even outside of Gaza.

When you see them shooting unarmed people who are just walking away, or kids playing football what are your thoughts behind why this is ok behaviour?

There are videos all over of IDF soldiers manhandling kids, beating on people, preventing dying people from getting help, and most recently of course the soldiers pushing and harassing the little kids in the shop who were just buying something. Even videos where you see them joking about blowing up herds of donkeys or beating sheep to death in their pens.

Do you even see these videos? Do you agree with what is happening? Do you justify it by saying these soldiers are just fringe elements? If the latter why aren't you more enraged that they aren't investigated and punished?

And can you explain all of this without using deflection?

Do you ever leave welcome gifts for guests? If so what do you leave?

When we stayed at places like StayCity Parthotels, they'd sometimes leave little notes or a selection of treats and drinks and it really made a difference to our stay.

Now we have our own AirBnB, we leave a bag of pastries and if they have kids we leave some LEGO minifigs.

We've also gifted a guest a small box of LEGO as a peace offering when something small went badly. I don't remember what it was but I think it was an issue with the door.

I think we spend a lot of time being frustrated with AirBnB and guests who leave unfair reviews but have you ever had a guest who impacted you in a positive way?

We try to avoid our guests as much as possible, preferring to respect their privacy and maintain our own but we’ve had a few that we’ve ran into in passing.

I saw a guest arriving as I was putting something in the car and the kid introduced himself so enthusiastically and he was adorable. Later on they came to our local theme park, where I work, and I recognised them.

They were so surprised to see me and we had a laugh about it. The kid was so kind and so well behaved it was lovely to see.

The unit we have is a 2 bedroomed house with its own water tank. It’s not a huge tank but it isn’t tiny.

The last guests messaged us to say they were on their third shower that morning but the hot water had gone off.

We replied and offered to come and check the tank and gave them instructions on how to make the water hotter so it lasted longer.

They didn’t reply.

We tried a few times to reach them but they’d gone out for the day and weren’t checking their messages.

Eventually they let us know that they had hot water the following morning.

We wished them a pleasant journey home, thanked them for their stay and gave them a 15% refund for the inconvenience.

The tank should be sufficient but we’re going to try to change it anyway, just to be sure.

Was my approach correct? Should I have done anything else / more?

We wouldn’t enter the house without their permission so we couldn’t have someone go and look at the tank.

I’ve watched Buffy more times than I care to admit but no matter how many times I watch it, I can never understand the hate Angel gets from the other characters.

He was a terrible human before he was born but not evil. A drunk who was wasting his life.

He gets turned and according to the lore, when you get turned your soul leaves and a demon enters your body and takes over.

“That isn’t your friend, that’s the thing that killed him” type of thing.

And so Angelus kills the gypsy princess and they give him the most confusing curse ever. They restore his soul, now trapped in his body alongside his demon passenger, make him relive every evil thing the demon did and blame him for it.

According to the whole explanation about being a vampire… he wasn’t even there when these evil things took place.

There is so much hate and blame placed on Angel and it doesn’t make sense to me.

Sometimes we find food in our AirBnB left behind by guests.

If they’re not shelf stable then we throw them away. (Milk, yoghurts etc).

But what are you guys doing with your foods?

Do you throw them away?
Use them for yourself?
Donate to food banks?
Leave them for the next guests?

I should be used to this after working in customer service for over a decade. Customers don’t see how their ratings can impact a business or agent.

We just had a guest leave us.

They messaged us before leaving to say it had been too hot. We’re experiencing a heat wave. We messaged them half way through their stay to ask if they were ok and that even though we don’t offer AC (because it’s denmark) we would go out and buy a fan for them. They didn’t respond.

They also messaged to say there were cobwebs. We checked and they were TINY. They were clearly brand new from spiders coming inside desperate to escape the heat, and we explained that to them, politely ofc.

They left a 4 star review with a 3 for cleanliness’s despite stating that it had been otherwise immaculate.

I know we can’t control these things but it does feel frustrating because we already had a guest mark us as 2 stars because we made a claim for damages against them.

Deep breath!!

Recently a 7 month old baby was killed by being shot through the jaw as the IDF fired on his families car, also wounding his mother. As the family desperately tried to save the baby, there is video footage showing the IDF standing around making no effort to help.

Typically when deaths like this occur, it is very rare that those involved face any meaningful consequences.

I often hear about how Palestinians or Gazans or Hezbollah “hate the Jews” but very little acknowledgment about how things like this contribute to that hatred.

Pro Israelis often tell me that Palestinians are treated fairly but statistically, that doesn’t seem to be true.

I’m determined to reach across the divide and try to find Israelis or Zionists who are willing to do the same so if anyone is willing, can you share your perspective on this and how you feel about deaths like that of this little one?

Social media only presents those who dismiss these occurrences or even worse, celebrate them. And I have been assured that there are people who disagree that they’re all terrorists.

Can you understand that when children are murdered, even accidentally, it pushes pepper towards extremist or resistance when it’s done with impunity? And what you feel could be done to change this?

I would kindly ask that we don’t try to derail the topic by talking about Hamas or October 7th as I’m already aware of how those events have understandably built similar feelings on the other side.

I’d also request that we refrain from using dehumanising language as I don’t use it or think it’s appropriate to be used towards Zionists or Israelis.
Thank you in advance.

UPDATE NUMBER TWO.

So after the initial walk through, we started actually cleaning the apartment.

New things were discovered.

The kitchen counter had been damaged. A hot pan had been left on the countertop melting and bubbling the surface. We do provide pot holders to prevent this kind of thing, they just weren't used.

The same pan had for some reason been placed on the floor, damaging the floor as well. I dont know what happened or why but I just wish they could have told us when it happened.

We also found a pillow and duvet coverings stuffed in the bottom of the cleaning cupboard for no apparent reason. Sticky and moist.

There is ample space in the cupboard, on the bench above the washing machine, and just on the floor to have left them, as well as a fully working washing machine and tumble dryer along with laundry detergent tabs.

I dunno. I know it could have been worse but the counter top will need to be replaced as it can't just be sanded down or repaired. The floor too at some point. Thankfully it won't impair the experience of our other guests too much but it does lower the standard of the space we're trying to offer.

Original post here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/airbnb\_hosts/s/SazBrktMOu

Thank you for the replies, but some of you need to relax a little. My post wasn’t blaming the guests, more just expressing my feeling and questioning myself.

However, they’ve checked out now so here is the update as requested.

Everything seems mostly fine.

They are for sure the messiest guests we’ve ever had but that’s not hard as everyone else has left the place spotless.

Positives -

They ran the dishwasher
They gathered the recyclables
Nothing was actually dirty or stained
Towels left in a pile in the bathroom as requested

Quirks -

Crumbs and food across the floor. My feet crunched walking through the house
(We have a perfectly usable Dyson vacuum in reach and brooms if needed)
Day bed that we don’t use as an extra bed pulled away from the wall and the cushions and mattress pulled halfway off
Hairs literally everywhere. Bathroom sink, massive clump on the shower grate, kitchen benches and in the beds.
ONE BED stripped. Under sheet hidden under the towels the rest piled on the bedroom floor. None of the other beds had been stripped.
The two pillows from the stripped bed, taken and put in the utility room above the washing machine.
That same window left wide open, all the others were closed.

I’m using quirks rather than negatives because the guests haven’t done anything wrong, these are just slightly unusual things. People are all built differently after all.

I wondered at first if the bed had been soiled but saw no evidence of that. No stains, no smells.

Maybe they started stripping the beds and realised they didn’t have time to do the rest. Who knows. 🤣

So I’m going to chalk it up to me feeling unprepared for their visit as I was working and it was a tight turn around and just having a different communication style than our other guests.

We don’t charge a cleaning fee at all and don’t explicitly ask guests to clean up after themselves but they did leave it quite messy. So would you give a four star for that or would it be too harsh?

I’ve worked in hotels as a cleaner so I know it could have been far far worse.

Have you ever had a weird feeling about a guest that you couldn’t explain?

We have guests in right now and both my husband and I have said it feels …off.

They initially asked for an early check in (late morning). We said it would be possible if the house was ready and if it wasn’t then they could at least drop off their luggage.

In the end we got it turned around and said they can check in any time from 7 am rather than the usual 15:00.

They checked in at 2:30.

That day and the next the left the windows wide open all day even when they’d gone out.

Then we saw they were doing something weird with the door. Opening and closing it a lot in a small space of time. Eventually they messaged (a day later) to say they couldn’t lock the door and kept getting an error. This was at around 4:04pm and I immediately asked if they’d like me to pop round and check. I was there at 4:07. They weren’t.

I looked at the door and saw they’d gone out and left it unlocked but also not pulled to properly.

I pulled the door and lifted the handle and pressed the lock button. No problems. I realised they didn’t know to lift the lock handle. They’re American so maybe they don’t have those kinds of locks. Something for me to update in our guide.

I let them know and said to tell me when they came back so I could come and show them how to do it. They didn’t message me back until I’d messaged them again the next day, saying it was fine.

All the while our car alarm had been going off randomly. It’s never done that before. So I was worried about it disturbing their stay. As it went off I went to check it and ran into the lady, shook hands and introduced myself, apologised for the alarm and I dunno… it just felt weird.

I also remembered that these are the guests with three adults (one uncle) and a child. But I just remembered so it likely wasn’t that that gave me an off feeling.

They’re checking out this morning and asked at 7am for more toilet roll.

This isn’t a problem but I’m just wondering why they didn’t mention they were low last night.

I dunno. It all feels odd and no real reason for it.

We’ll see how they leave the house. I’m probably the weird one.

I have a two bedroomed house as our AirBnB. It comprises of a double bed in one room and a single bed with trundle underneath in another.

We just got a request for a 4 person booking of two parents, their daughter and their daughters uncle.

I wanted to reach out to them and say the following:

"Hey!

Thank you for requesting a stay in our space. We will be happy to host you.

Due to the dynamic of your group, I would like to highlight that the house is only 2 bedrooms. There is a main room with a double bed and a second room with two singles.

If you find this arrangement doesn't suit you, we do have a day bed in the living/dining area that can be made up as well.

Please let me know what works best for you.

Kindest regards."

My husband doesn't think we should offer because it is more work for us but honestly, I don't mind that. I'm more worried that my message may be inappropriate.

What do you guys think?

That's it.

I can't do it.

I killed one and it's baby just stood there cowering next to it's mothers corpse.

It's wolves all the way for me now.

I've tried googling this but can't find anything.

I had sinus surgery on Wednesday gone and I felt fine for a few dasys and then ofc the headaches and stuff started. That's cool, I can work around those.

But what I'm struggling with is this weird smell. It's like a chemical hospital smell. Is this normal? How long does it last?

When I should I be concerned cos honestly... it's gross.

Hey,

I'm new here but I've had a chronic sinus infection for around 2 years.

I've had post nasal drip for a decade but two years ago while pregnant I caught covid (1 month pregnant) followed by a chest and sinus infection. It never seemed to clear up and the dr wouldn't prescribe anything due to the pregnancy.

Bending over, there was a rancid smell in my nose and dizzyness. I chalked this up pregnancy symptoms until it had been 5 months and then I figured it must be something else. I made an appointment to see an ENT but had to wait 2 months to be seen.

He gave me antibiotics and we went on thinking it would help. It didn't.

Once the baby was born, self care went right out of the window but the smell and the dizzyness continued.

I would wake up feeling nauseous. After being up an hour or so I'd be hit with a wave of dizzyness. I work on my feet all day so that alone is causing some concern.

I went to a closer ENT about 6 months ago and she sent me for a scan that showed a severe blockade in my left side and a slight blockage in the forehead region. She prescribed nasal washes and a spray and a month of anitbiotics. When they didn't work she told me I shouldn't have surgery as it could make me blind.

As I'd had a cold when I went to see her and that had cleared up when I went back to see her a month later, she decided I was "all good" and wouldn't listen when I tried to explain this was an ongoing issue.

I decided at that point to stop seeing her and go back to the original guy even though he was further away.

He told me to do the surgery if I wanted to. He referred me to the local hospital and the surgeon there told me that I very likely would NOT go blind and she shouldn't have tried to scare me like that. This is Denmark, he doesn't get paid extra for doing my surgery so I trust his word.

He gave me the option of having some bone removed on the side of my face, up further closer to the eye and / or at the top.

He explained the risks and said we can do it one by one or all at once. I have chosen all at once.

I go in for the procedure in less than 2 weeks time.

Has anyone gone through this surgery and can give me some insight in how they were afterwards, including recovery time / symptoms?

I've booked 2 weeks off work at the advice of the surgeon.

Oh and one last thing.... I went on the trampoline with my kid earlier and now when I got off I felt SO bad, really really dizzy and it's still lingering an hour later. I think it's related?

Thanks for reading!