Wha??!! Where in the world did THAT come from?? I’ve given NO such suggestion or advise! Please copy and paste any comment I’ve made to that effect or keep your attacks to yourself!
YOUNG PEOPLE HELP ME PLEASE.
After being born in Dublin, growing up on a council estate in central London, getting a degree at Bristol, travelling the world for six years. Then coming home to London and getting a PhD at Imperial College. Staying there for 25+ years becoming a full professor (Imperial is a top ten university world-wide). Helping raise three beautiful girls, having a partner that I love, and who loves me. I now spend my time between London & Devon, when not travelling for work or fun. Play football once a week, cycle on a daily basis and go to the gym regularly. But I really need a young person to help me find the nearest bus stop, to show me how the shower works, to help me find bars where everyone looks the same, to help with the he said, she said conversations, show me how to switch on a laptop, and connect it to the interweb and most importantly to benefit from your profound experiences!!
I AM APPALLED AT THE AGEIST NATURE OF THESE COMMENTS. Exchange over 50 for female, different ethnicities, gay etc etc etc etc. How would that go down??
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Stephanie, you never made any advise and it is what you did not say by confirming Bob statement: by saying that" cats do not smell their feces and urine do". Which is true, but why not give that Host a little more information, such as: get mail cats fixed, have one or two instead several and keep them away from guest quarters while guest present.
It is what you did not say and what you said that could have been interpreted as such. One of the Host responded precisely to your input and i will quote: that is why his cat got kicked out of the house.
Original Host came for an advise instead it got boxed out, and when i stepped in I got boxed.
So very surprised by the many responses here. I am thinking that Airbnb hosts who live with their guests, prefer younger guests. Those renting out whole homes prefer older guests. I prefer to rent to over 50. They do not need babysitting. Young people don’t have the life experience to know how to care for nice things in someone’s property. I’m sure they do fine crashing in a bedroom, but leave them an entire house, in general a twenty something is not going to treat it as well as a fifty something.
Euphoria…I don’t think 50+ guests are leaving less stars because they are not self reliant using google. I can bet most fifty to 60 year olds are more tech savvy than the average 25 old. This age group has been using computers since before the internet came out. They know how to spell without needing to use spell checker. They can whip out a document on an old school typewriter. They can throw together a detailed Excel report or Word doc. Most twenty somethings only know the basics, sloppy at best. This age group can still do math in their heads without needing a calculator or to use their hands. Knowing how to tweet and post on Instagram is not tech savvy. That just means someone knows how to click.
I wonder if your older guests are just more thorough and they are coming across to you as needy. They may just be trying to get as much info from you as possible because they are responsible travelers. So instead of googling everything they may think it is more efficient to just go straight to the source…you. You mention they have to be babysat with parking and check in…what does that mean?
I have had very few guests ask for directions and things to do in the area. Two of those sets of guests were younger and I thought to myself “haven’t you heard of Google or Mapquest.”
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Mark Cuban is 57. I googled it.
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It seems you are the ONLY one interpreting anything I said in that way. I wasn’t criticizing the original poster. I was criticizing YOU for making a blatantly erroneous statement as if you knew what you were talking about. And I did so politely. If I’m less than polite at this point you have only yourself to blame. Btw, you certainly are long winded for someone who keeps insisting that “this is my last post on the forum.”
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@cs2015 I’ve had a bad experience where some guy was using our suite as a modelling photo shoot, so he brought in girls from all times of the day and girls would be waiting outside and smoking pot. He said he only needed it for a few days on a weekday. So maybe I just got a bad apple that time.
I for one have appreciated beach-guys advice on several occasions and laugh at his sense of humor.
I don’t think this post was ageism, I think they were just saying that, in their experience, older guests have been harder to please. They were asking what others thought. It’s a legit observation.
Let’s all just relax…
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NOOOOOOOOO!!! Another 4 star review from a dad traveling with family (a small boy). Here is the actual review, how is this a 4 star experience 
We had a really great experience. It was very easy to get there and the building is really nice. Inside, everything is clean and practical, and the view is amazing. We arrived early and it was possible to leave the luggage there even if the room wasn’t ready. The room is comfortable and the host also organized a futon for our kid in the living room. Our son discovered a cool dragon cuddy toy that had been placed on the bed to his intention. It was his highlight of the trip. The condo is very quiet, we had a restful night.
Yes, I went out of my way to get a stuffed animal for his son and the review was a 4 star review…
so bummed out
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Well said, I can not believe what some people are posting here!!!
Is that a room without window? 
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it’s apparent, euphoria, that something breaks down between percieved value, expectations, and experience in your place. i suspect it does have to do with the room itself. i suspect THAT one issue colors the entire experience for some of your guests. you asked previously if i though more clarification would decrease your bookings. quite possibly it seems. but you have to decide if hurt feelings over reviews are worse than decreased bookings. if it doesn’t effect your bottom line then i wouldn’t worry about it. there’s obviously good things about the stay or they wouldn’t leave glowing reviews.
Her comment had a lot of fallacious inferences. Kinda ridiculous, Stephanie. Don’t take it personally. You are a great vet I am positive. 
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I’ll never be a five star place. Just never will. I don’t have granite and stainless steel.No cable TV or AC. But I DO I have everything a budget minded traveler needs if they want to be within a minute or two of some of Hawaii’s MOST PREMIER diving and snorkeling. I don’t take it personally. I still get bookings.
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It’s funny how we all have very diferent experiences, I love older guests, I find them very respectful (you don’t need to worry if they trash down the place or break something, like never).
We generally are more afraid of yougsters coming to party hard… which is something you cannot know in advance. Also as you know, my worst review came from a 23 years old, while 50+ people did leave glowing reviews. Altogether I would not base my avoidance on reviews on my property, but on respectfulness and the overall dealing with guest.
As for countries or regions of origins, experience shows that Italians and Spanish (I live in Spain) are the worst in cleanliness and all, while koreans andfar eastern travellers are super clean and great guests.
Unbelievable the cries of ageism just because people are discussing their experiences with guests. No one is saying they hate older people, just that their experience has been less positive so far with guests in this age group. Of course no one is saying everyone is like this. I always hope my next guests will be better than the last ones that were harsh or unkind, not wanting to believe everyone to be that way. I didn’t see anyone crying about youngism or whatever you’d call it for those that found that younger guests were more difficult.
I agree with both really, but not always. I have had older guests that seemed suspicious about the whole airbnb thing and definitely seemed more difficult to please. Young people never treat me like a doorboy, expecting me to run out to the car and break my back carrying up a massive overstuffed suitcase, although I have had women over 50 do this and even expect it (I am a petite woman with rheumatoid arthritis for what it’s worth, and it really hurts me physically when people make me responsible for their inability to pack responsibly for a trip). I can go even further than the ageism and bring in a little worse offense if people want to take it that way, and say that women over 50 have been my toughest guests to please, and despite leaving me good reviews I have noticed they will drop points somewhere, and get a little passive aggressive style dig in about something, if they didn’t manage to get me to do something while they were here that they expected me to, such as run them about (I really am not up to doing this unfortunately) or other things that younger guests would never impose. This has always been particularly hurtful, as they were the guests that demanded the most, and that I invariably did far more for than the average guest. I have also found that many older couples leave quite a mess, much more than the younger age groups. They definitely are treating it as someone said above: like the Hilton at motel 6 pricing. Not universally, I just had a very nice woman stay that just totally cracked the standard for me thankfully. Considerate, not demanding and left the room beautifully, and perfect review. But I have had a few that almost caused my husband and I to make a rule not to accept older women traveling alone any more.
One woman booked our home to visit every town EXCEPT our beautiful historic town, and decided to use taxis to travel 20-30mins a day there and back to these different towns she decided to visit. In her review, which was generally pleasant, I was shocked that she said getting around was difficult, especially since I had told her clearly before booking that her plans were not particularly ideal, and hiring a car would be best to look at with all the traveling she had in mind. She marked us down on location. Why on earth she came to stay here when she didn’t intend to be here is hard to imagine, but to mark us down because of it? My mind boggled. She was not the kindest guest either. On arrival, she said she had chosen our home because she was saving her money for her last accommodations. It was a proper BnB she said, that would serve her a full English breakfast every morning. She was English, and I offered her a nice pot of tea on her arrival, and when I showed her my beautiful copper whistling kettle (English made), she said ‘oh, no one uses those anymore!’, as if I was stupid. Of course many people still love whistling kettles. Just not everyone obviously!
Another older woman came for art classes in the area. She wrote extensively before her stay making endless inquiries about everything under the sun. She was staying in our cheapest room (we don’t use it anymore because of the type of travelers we’d get), but was constantly trying to haggle me, and again seemed very wary of using airbnb. After arriving, she realized she was quite happy here, and wanted to extend her stay. I agreed, and told her we could adjust the length of stay online. Nonetheless, she continued to badger me to take cash, every evening, and when I continued to say no, all she had to do was click accept to the changes I had sent her, she tried to force the cash (obviously minus fees) on my husband. She also, being in the smaller room asked to make use of the large desk in another room for her art, which was not a problem when it was not booked, but she really had no intention of paying for a room that provided her desk facilities, she just wanted the cheapest deal, but to use them anyway in other rooms that were free. She was very pushy and demanding, but I aquiesced to make sure her stay was happy. In her review, despite claiming to be an animal lover, just because she had met our little dog on a couple of occasions going out for walks (she doesn’t love in the main house and is kept in our private quarters), she made a point to note in her review ‘I’m a dog lover, but for those that may not be, they do have a small dog’. This was of course mentioned in the listing, and it seemed an odd remark, to warn guests like that.
On the other hand, actual real damage to my rooms and furniture happens most often by younger guests. They are more self sufficient, and stay out more, requiring little help (mostly), but it is the younger guests that will slam doors, thump around, and make a tremendous amount of noise at night, not caring who else they bother or wake from sleep.
It’s difficult, that’s for sure, and a total crap shoot. You really just can’t tell. I try to get a sense before accepting a booking these days, but it’s pretty hard.
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I stand by and think people age 25-35 is the best. Young enough and mature enough.
But I hosted two university students, they left my room exactly the same way I set it up, they even made the bed. So definitely a pleasant surprise.
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I have not found a link to age or ethnicity regarding self-sufficiency, messiness, door slamming, etc.
I do think there might be a link between age and review stars. This is because it is only since the internet that every consumer is afforded the opportunity to review every purchase of goods or services and that the providers of goods and services were punished for not providing a five star experience every time. Five stars used to mean an experience that you would save up for and remember for years (think Michelin five star restaurants). I prefer to reserve five star ratings for truly extraordinary experiences. For me, if every transaction merits five stars then five stars is a meaningless distinction.
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Ellen, fair but most guests on airbnb doesn’t operate that way. Basically 3 star is terrible, 4 star is average, 5 star is acceptable. Then you pick one of the 5 stars base on location, price, reviews.
That’s how a typical airbnb guests thought process is. In my humble opinion
EuphoriaSoul,
I am aware that your characterization of the review system is how many Airbnb guests see it. That is what I was trying to say in my post.
Before the internet, when reviews were written by professionals five stars meant a once in a lifetime experience. There would not have been five star reviews for fast food, Motel 6s, etc. Now that anyone who doesn’t receive five stars is punished we have to bear that in mind when we write reviews.
The problem with five stars being average is that there is no way to reward hosts or guests who are above average. If I give five stars for cleanliness to all of my guests who don’t leave a mess how can I reward the guest who cooked me dinner, then cleaned the dishes, the counter and the stove?
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