Interesting Airbnb Guests
In our two years hosting our spare rooms on Airbnb, we’ve had many interesting guests. This is one of the pleasures of being an Airbnb host.
This post tells the stories of guests who somehow managed to combine staying at Airbnb’s with their work. The names have been changed.
Danny
Danny was one of our first guests. He was moving to Edmonton and was here to find a place for his family to stay. He was moving his family here because the best medical support available for one of his children was at the Children’s Hospital here. He had accepted a job working on an oil rig near Edmonton so he could move his family here.
Danny was friendly and outgoing. We were very happy when he found a place for his family to live before his week with us was up. As well as finding a place for his family to stay, he cooked all his meals for the next two weeks in our kitchen.
Unlike many oil rigs, Danny’s rig didn’t have a cook, so he had to cook for myself. He decided to cook his meals ahead so all he had to do is reheat them each night. He took over our kitchen and he seemed to really enjoy what he was doing. He made some fantastic spaghetti like I’ve never seen before. I’m certain there were times when he had almost every pot and pan in our kitchen in use. But trust me, when Danny was through, you would never know he had cooked a thing (except maybe by the smell of great food).
As well as this, he was a lot of fun! My mother-in-law was visiting while he was here and he joked and laughed with her. She liked him as well as we did. He was a really fun, great guy and we were happy to have him stay in our spare room.
The Homeless Hermit
The hermit was another camp worker who stayed with us for a week. We think he stayed with us because he had no fixed address. He worked maintaining a camp. He lived and worked three weeks in camp and had the fourth week off. He came to stay with us for his one week out.
He was a young guy and arrived with two of the largest suitcases I’ve ever seen. He must have had all his worldly possessions in there.
We call him ‘the hermit’ because he spent most of his days holed up in his room.
In the evenings he went out. We think he partied. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Some nights he didn’t even make it “home” to our place.
We’re pretty sure he didn’t have to pay to stay in camp, and on the one week in four he was out, it was cheaper to stay in an Airbnb than to have an apartment to go to. So he was homeless.
Sarah
Sarah was a recently divorced lady who said she had two goals in this world. One was to have a family and the other was to travel the world. Being recently divorced, she didn’t think it was the best time to start a family. So, she thought, she might as well travel the world.
Well, that’s the easy part of explaining this lady. She was a lot of fun and so interesting. She had been everywhere and seen everything.
She’d just come back from the mountains through Banff and Jasper. Since she was traveling the world on a “work and fun” visa, she had to be careful with her money. If you’ve ever been to Banff or Jasper, you know they’re not ideal places for anyone who’s trying to save money. They’re fantastic experiences but they are expensive.
So what does Sarah do? Does she turn around and go back? No, she sleeps in her car to save money. After her first night here, we asked if she slept well. She said “I sure did!” Anything was comfortable after sleeping in a car for three nights.
But she had a fantastic attitude about everything. Sleeping in a car was just another experience in seeing the world! Sarah was fun! She was a little loud but she was fun and loved our pets and was a joy to have.
Sarah got along fantastic with all the other guests while she was here. She didn’t know the lady who was in the other room, but they went out for an evening together. Like I said, she is a really fun, easy-going person.
After she arrived at her next location, she realized she had taken one of our face cloths with her. In her normal style, she contacted us and offered to pay – for a face cloth! We thought this was quite comical. It was only a face cloth. But it was a very kind gesture and says a lot about a very interesting person.
Isabella and Elena
Isabella and Elena were here on work/fun visas. They came to a small town near Edmonton and were working on a ranch where they had horses. Both ladies were avid horseback riders and were very excited about this opportunity. They came from somewhere in Europe.
When they left home to come to Canada they brought all their riding gear with them. Most of it was leather and very heavy. From here, they were heading to BC, on the West coast of Canada. Then they were heading to the East Coast and returning to Edmonton for their flight home. About ten-thousand kilometers or six-thousand miles of air travel.
Traveling with all their leathers would’ve been a tremendous cost to both of them. So Isabella asked us if it would be a problem to leave the suitcase with their leathers with us while they traveled about. They were very clear that they were willing to pay us for this.
We told them this would be no problem whatsoever and there was no need to give us any extra money. We have a basement with lots of room so it would not have been an issue.
On the way back Isabella and Elena stayed one night here to pick up their ‘leather’ suitcase. Not only did they bring us a beautifully hand painted card and some European chocolate, but they also gave us a very large tip for our kindness. It’s always nice when people appreciate the little things you do.
Sofia and Anna
Later on we had two more young ladies come and stay with us, Sofia and Anna. They were quite interesting and very different situations. They each came from Germany to Canada alone. They met up in Ontario and were travelling together and becoming very good friends.
What made these two so interesting and a rather sad story has to do with the beginning of COVID-19. Both were from Germany where the Covid numbers were much much higher than here in Canada. They were in no hurry to go back to Germany.
Sofia really didn’t have too much to worry about. She had her mother helping her out and didn’t have much of a money issue.
But Anna had a problem with her visa. She had to go out of Canada and come back to have it reactivated before she could work. The problem was that the Canada/United States border was closing. Anna was afraid if she left Canada she would not be able to come back.
This left her with the decision whether to gamble on getting across the border and back to Canada. The risk was that if she didn’t get back in, she might have to return to Germany. But if she didn’t try she would not be able to work in Canada and might have to go back anyway.
They had to leave our location because we had new guests coming so they couldn’t extend their stay. So they stayed for a few nights at another location, then they asked if they could come back. At this point we found out they had stayed one night sleeping in the car because they had run out of money.
We felt that this wasn’t the best of situations but we were still booked so we couldn’t let them stay in one of our rooms. So just for these two, we created a new Airbnb listing, as inexpensive as we could ,and they slept in our basement on the floor. They used their sleeping bags and gear. Luckily, they had come prepared for camping.
This was the reason for the creation of the “indoor camping” listing on Airbnb. It doesn’t exist anymore. LOL
Questions
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