I even think it is better to have a list of visited ethnic groups instead of countries:
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I like the idea, but how many people would even know that they were on Gadigal country or interact with that culture when they visit Sydney (for example).
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I think all of this stuff gets messy and they’re not easily defined, especially when we’re trying to put them on a map.
One idea could be that instead of showing what countries you’ve been to/had visitors from, you just show show the actual community you’ve visited/had visitors from. On a map it could be a bunch of points that, for example, show the cities you’ve surfed at with coloured dots
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Hmmm lots of votes for long profile texts. I don’t love them, for me or my host, so hoping there won’t be a “can’t send request til you have written a min # of characters.”
I love the “this person is looking for a host in ____.”
References for sure.
I don’t really care about much else in my host or surfer. I love surprises & if someone’s willing to engage and make a connection, i’m all about it.
As a host, i just try to feel for whether or not a person has written a genuine request. As a surfer, anything goes. Feel it should be left to the individual to fill out their profile however they want, whether or not it’s to their detriment.
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This is such a great idea, not only for promoting minority cultures but also for gamifying couchers.
Idk… doesn’t displaying collectibles from ethnicities around the world carry some ugly historical connotations?
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In the context of what @coboat posted (wikipedia definition), ethnic group just means linguistic group. It could be Catalans in Spain, Welsh in the UK, Quebecois in Canada, Flemings/Walloons/Germans in Belgium. I get the impression that @coboat might from one of these areas (like myself). So it is nothing controversial.
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Regarding the “Last Minute Requests” Field: I’d add a field there (or a dropdown menu with a few presets) for the host to set his ‘timeframe’ for LMRs.
For some people that might mean tonight (I had a host in Finland who told me half an hour would be sufficient notice for him), while some consider anything within a week “Last Minute”.
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Good idea! This is something we should try to implement. Maybe a “I need at least X days/hours/weeks notice” option.
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about last minute: not only different people have a different concept for last minute time, but also what is the difference between last minute request and normal request …
To avoid problems that I had once (and this had the effect that for some months i refused automatically every request from that country) a request at 1850 for the same day: I said that it was possible and in less than 30 minutes they were here.
The day after they left early in the morning and I discovered it only because they promptly had left a negative reference telling that the room where they stayed had not been properly cleaned. Well, it was ten days that had not been cleaned and I had used that room as storage for some days while doing a deep clean in another room, but they should have taken in consideration that they asked just 30 minutes before arrival.
So now I have different levels of last minute: less than 36 hours: I will try to do my best, but accept that some kind of help/assistence/enjoyment could be refused to you, even if I could be giving to some other people that had asked before you and was at the same time; less than 6 hours: you are not entitled to complain for any sort of poor “service” (room not cleaned, junk food, little time to talk).
One should have a sort of “insurance” against bad references for such last minute requests.
csmbs, I tend to do exactly the same, it defies logic really, but I do it anyway.
Surely ,if someone agrees to be a host at the last minute then the guest shouldn’t complain, however it could be noted when the host agrees to let them stay that where they are sleeping hasn’t been cleaned.
I’m always apologising to people who visit us that the house isn’t tidy. I’m afraid that’s how we live and if they don’t like it don’t come back and while we’re generalising it’s often from people who don’t live in a clean and tidy house themselves.
I take my hat off to people like you who will host at the last minute because it is often putting the host out and it gets the surfer out of a predicament.
I’ve read some CS profiles where they won’t look at requests for stays made less than a week in advance, so to rock up at a place to stay in less than 30 minutes after being accepted is amazing.
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I highly appreciate beople that is not late but in this case:
actually they asked at 1850, while I was not yet at home, and had told them to come between 1930 and 2030. When i was home around 1910 I quickly moved the stuff out of the room in the entrance, planning to clean before they arrive, but they arrived at 1915 with a lot of luggages so all I could do was to let them put their luggages in the room and so was no longer possible to clean … It was their fault that arrive 15’ before arranged. the 15 minutes enough to reasonably clean the room.
That would be ideal, but I don’t think there’s a way to have any insurance against bad references, because it will affect the whole system. The only thing I can think of is that, depending on how long before the arrival date the request was sent, the system automatically put a tag on it saying “last minute” so anyone reading that reference would have the context (and also know that you sometimes accept last minute requests). I think that would be a good solution: if I see a negative saying that the place wasn’t tidy or the host didn’t have time to share, but it’s marked as last minute, I would think “well, you requested last minute, what did you expect?”. Same if it’s positive: it would increase the value because the host pulled it off without prior notice.
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I prefer not to state my ethnicity/ethnicities. Has someone of my former CS guests interacted with the Swedish ethnic group, when I´m just as liberal kind of left wing kind of hipster as many of them? How many groups is it possible for one person to belong to? As for languages there are similar problems, in my neighborhood I have Spanish speaking friends from Guinea Ecuatorial and Uruguay… Nations visited is more well known and neutral, and it´s up to everyone to list as many visited nations as they seem suitable for their profile. Well, that would go for ethnic groups as well…
I don´t like hidden passwords, don´t read long profiles or check many photos. But of course if someone wants to write or upload, go ahead, we just filter each other out of the way. I take it for granted people want to be addressed by the name they put on the profile, I would consider a name given in references too intimate and inappropriate to use until I know more about why. So I guess it comes down to having a flexible page allowing different approaches in what to write and what to choose.
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A negative reference concerning cleaning is not a problem for you but for the person that wrote it, so just don´t worry. Often negative references are entrances to see how people react on both sides, and often the person that first got the negative reference comes out as the mature guy in the end. In my CS profile I write something like that “it is very obvious that my home is inhabited”, meaning expect dust rats in the corners, and I guess some guests didn´t like it, it they bothered to think about it. So thinking about it - a compulsory sheet with questions in a statistical reference system with no possibility to see what person wrote what is not something I want, really. So II: “Enhanced Clean” is something for Airbnb and not Cochers, it´s a non issue really. Some peoples homes are in one way, others in another, it´s comes with the package, really.
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I think its good to have a section outlining what you look for in host/surfer.
But also, I often don’t know what I look for until I meet a surfer, but a section that is directed towards potential surfer would be great. For me, it would be good if I can tell surfer what kind of requests I’m looking for.
Some ideas like “If you are going to send a request, please…”
- Send only a short request
- Send your favorite musician with your request
- Read my profile
- Be aware that I’m xxx.
- etc.
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Maybe we could use this as a sort of prompt, but allow people to change the list/wording so that people can put what is important to them (since different things are important to different people and everyone has different levels of flexibility).
How about a section where hosts and travellers can link their website or blog. Most of the travellers have atleast a blog where they share their travel stories, a section like than help in building an relationship between the hosts and traveller when they read each others travel adventures.
Also, a widget or something from this site the user can include in their website.
I didn’t see any content related to the hosts/users privacy. So settings or button enabling or disabling such functions.
- Does search engine index hosts account?
- What if I don’t want to be discovered when some traveller is searching in a locality. Giving the host control of what is visile to others.
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