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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello. Welcome back from another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we’re–

[00:00:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:06] Sarah: And this is the–

[00:00:07] Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline.

[00:00:08] Sarah: If you want to get your hosting question answered, please head over to the hotline. We love answering these. hostinghotline.com. You record your voice, you ask your question, we share it on the podcast. You help so many other hosts in the meantime, and you get help.

[00:00:20] Annette: What are you waiting for? Give us a call. Operators are standing by. Love it.

[00:00:25] Sarah: New favorite joke.

[00:00:27] Annette: Is there a way we can have it come to my phone and I’ll answer hosts?

[00:00:32] Sarah: We can redirect it to do that. Is that what you want?

[00:00:34] Annette: I don’t know. We wouldn’t be able to record it, but it’d be really funny to surprise a guest one day and be like, hello.

[00:00:38] Sarah: Also, Annette loves talking to people, so she just wants to–

[00:00:41] Annette: Yeah, we’ll figure that out. Maybe we’ll do a live call in day. Remember those– what were they called? Telethons. Oh-oh, we going do a telethon? We’re going to do a telethon. I love it. Okay. Somebody make that happen. Anyone with telethon experience out there, let us know. Let’s make it happen.

[00:00:59] Sarah: We’re going to help Brie today, everybody. So let’s wrap our arms around Brie and give her some sage advice.

[00:01:05] Questions: Hey, ladies, I am brand new to hosting and my question is around how to deal with, I guess, or salvage a situation or maybe prepare your guests around nuisance neighbors. In particular, I have a neighbor who lives two houses down, and he’s an older guy, and he is senile. So it doesn’t really help to talk with him, but he does get really chatty, and he has doomsday stories.

[00:01:32] And so the other day my guest actually unfortunately engaged in conversation with him, and the story is always the same about wanting to get rid of the drug dealers in the neighborhood, and the prostitution, and all of these sorts of things. And it made my guest so uncomfortable that she sent me a message. And so this used to be a rough neighborhood.

[00:01:53] Now it’s an up and coming neighborhood, but it still looks rough around the edges. There’s nothing to be afraid of, but I’m not sure how to relay that to my guests. How do I set that up ahead of time and warn them about it, or tell them please don’t talk to the neighbor? I don’t know what to do.

[00:02:11] And then how do I reply to guests if they messaged me in concern saying that they spoke to the neighbor and he made them feel uncomfortable about the neighborhood? Thanks for your wisdom.

[00:02:21] Sarah: Brie, I feel you. Been there, done that.

[00:02:23] Annette: And Brie, you said some– when you hear your question again, you actually really poetically described your home. Like, it’s a little rough around the edges, nothing to be afraid of. That was comforting to me. But listen, what we want you to understand and everybody listening, outside of your four walls is not in your control. There are going to be incidences.

[00:02:43] There might be construction. There might be car break-ins. There might be a party at a neighbor’s. There might be a neighbor’s house that doesn’t look the way that you would want it to look. There might be a neighbor, this type of thing. So the situation is you are still the host, and if this is a concern of your guests, it is a concern of yours.

[00:03:02] Sarah: We have to put ourselves in our guest shoes as well, Brie. You might love that neighborhood. You might know how far it’s come and how amazing that it is and is going to continue to be, but when someone travels to those areas and they don’t know, and then on top of it, they see someone outside who might be sharing stories that are uncomfortable, their perception is reality.

[00:03:25] There’s not too much we can do about it. And I’m coming from this place, Brie, of like, I’m in actually your exact same situation. In my neighborhood, I own a duplex. I purchased it. It’s a great investment. The appreciation on this thing is going to crush it.

[00:03:40] It is off of a rougher street. Once you get off the street and you go further into the neighborhood, it’s like incredible. There are million-dollar homes in this neighborhood, but there is still woven in humans of all walks of life, which I love that.

[00:03:56] So when Annette and I were chatting about this before we hopped on here, Brie, you want to make sure that you are attracting the right guests to stay there. I don’t know how “up and coming” it is, but you can share that with your guests in your listing, and they might like that. Come and be a part of a diverse community with coffee shops and vintage stores, and all the things that make that neighborhood something that you fell in love with and wanted to put your investment dollars in and that you’re proud to welcome guests to.

[00:04:28] Now, when it comes to the gentleman down the street, the town home Annette and I own, I used to manage it for someone else before I bought it from her, and when we were walking it, there was a gentleman outside who would talk to himself. And he might talk to guests if they’re willing to engage, and if they do, he will talk their ear off.

[00:04:44] And so knowing that he had been there for years and had never caused any issues for my neighbors, because I also talk to the neighbors, I had put that information into our what you should know area of our guidebooks. So I don’t know that I would put it in your listing and warn them about things that– they may not come in contact with this neighbor.

[00:05:03] Annette: Correct.

[00:05:04] Sarah: So I don’t want to worry about things they don’t need to worry about. And if you know from experience, from your neighbors that this person is not dangerous, he’s just maybe sharing some things that are uncomfortable, that you can say in your guidebook like, we have a neighbor who likes to hang out outside.

[00:05:20] If you engage in conversation with him, he might share some stories that you may not align with. So we recommend you can smile, but continue on your way. This is obviously in a metro area. There are all walks of life, and we just want to make you aware of this neighbor who has lived here for years and has never caused an issue for anyone, if that’ the case.

[00:05:43] Annette: At the very beginning of your question, it was like, how do I salvage a situation? Here’s the deal. Like we said prior, you are going to come up against, whether it’s this neighbor or someone else, number one, obviously making them know that you listened to them, you heard them, just really being a sounding board for them, letting them vent on that, reassuring them. But this is a place where you might want to go a little above and extra for that guest, sending them a gift card to a coffee shop, or, hey, I apologize if that happened, taking them out to dinner. But I would offer them something if they were in that situation. Just something a little hospitality can go a long way to just help minimize the situation.

[00:06:21] Sarah: If that guest would’ve texted me, I would’ve said, just like Annette said, let them know I heard them. I totally understand that connecting with a guest who had doomsday stories would be very unsettling, and I’m so sorry you had that experience. That being said, Steve has lived in the neighborhood for years, and he’s a part of the community. He is harmless.

[00:06:42] While that’s being said, I don’t want to discount the fact the conversation you had was unsettling. I don’t believe your safety has been compromised. And in exchange, if you would accept, we’d be happy to drop off a coffee card tomorrow morning so that you can really understand how awesome this community is and all the amazing parts about it.

[00:06:58] Something like that, I think, repeat what they said, acknowledge, and move on. Because here’s what’s going to happen, Brie, is that those reviews might start sharing stories about your neighbor. And so you have to also be prepared to be on top of your reviews and respond to them and let future guests know, who are considering your property, yes, while there are so many different community members in our neighborhood, here are my favorite parts. You are two minutes from this coffee shop, three minutes from this amazing plant store. These shops are amazing as well. Plus, you’re close to all these amenities.

[00:07:28] I like staying in diverse areas. I don’t want to be in a cookie cutter area. I like being downtown. That’s me. It would be a great avatar for your property, but there are people who are not going to like it, and you don’t want to force them to stay there or let them think that it’s anything other than where it’s at and offers that kind of experience.

[00:07:46] Annette: So I think that transparency equals trust. And you said a few of the keywords, rough around the edges. And just every host, put yourself in a guest’s shoes that knows nothing about your place, nothing about your neighbors. What would you want to know ahead of time?

[00:08:01] Sarah: With that, I’m Sarah Karakaian.

[00:08:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:08:05] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:08:06] Sarah: Talk to you next time.