Wondering if there can be some flexibility built in for leaving references. I see the conversation already started about whether or not they should be mandatory - that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’ll use the example of what I came up against: someone asked me to host last-minute. I needed more information, rather than accept/reject right away, and I ended up hosting after their official requested days. So now that they’ve come and gone, I can’t leave them a reference because I never “officially” hosted them. But I absolutely hosted them! And I would like to leave a positive reference for others to see!
It looks like the only way to do it is to become “friends” and then leave a reference as a friend. But I was a host, not a friend, and want my review to reflect that. Thoughts?
If you are still in contact with that person… How about if your surfer sends you one more “fake” request (even though it’s past their stay). This way you would be able to write each other host/guest references. I am sure they wouldn’t mind to do that if they had a good time and would like to leave a reference as well.
Telling your potentional surfer that their request expired and that they need to send a new one can solve the issue in the future. I did that on CS when surfers changed their dates but wanted to come using their “old” request.
It would be quite good to have an option between friends that asks if you’ve ever hosted them before and gives you a date range to choose. Doing this could lead to an option to leave a reference.