Host story: Walks of life

July 08 2017

by Saverio

This South African couple recently moved to Toronto, there they ventured in the misterb&b experience as hosts. In the past two years in this amazing city, Jason and Brad made new friends and learned hosting can be hard work sometimes, but it pays back. CHeck out the interview and join misterb&b as a host. 

What is it like hosting for gay community? 

This has been a very pleasant experience for us. Our condo is 10 minute walk from the gay village, and this is a selling point for the LGTBQ community. 

We have met people from all over the world. Our first guest was a guy that had to rush to Toronto to get his French visa sorted so that he could move to France with his partner. Another was we met a retired guy (had been retired for a number of years) and came to Toronto to do a line dancing competition, it was so uplifting to find an elderly guy who keeps so active. Gave a new perspective to line dancing... and life. 

What is your impression on gay guests? What do they like to do?

It varies from guest to guest. Some guests will be out sightseeing during the day and going out to the village in the evenings, and we don't see them that much. Others spend a lot of time with us chatting, having drinks with us and also the occasional dinner. Especially if it is a guest travelling on their own, they do sometimes have dinner with us, and we introduce them to our friends.

What interesting thing have your heard, and what new things have you learned since hosting?

We had an Irish guy that had been traveling the world, this guy was very chatty, and he told us that he went to a Buddhist silent retreat for two weeks, which was totally unbelievable because he spoke so much.

We have discovered that misterb&b is not that widely used. A few of our guests used to use misterb&b's opposition, however since they discovered misterb&b, they have had a very pleasant experience. We like to get feedback from our guests and we welcome any feedback. Up to now we have discovered that we are one of the very few offering a breakfast, albeit a basic breakfast with home-made granola, fruit, yogurt and bread for toast. We also offer a selection of teas and coffee. 

Do you spend time hanging out with your guests?

We certainly do, we want our guests to feel at home when they stay with us. If a guest is traveling on their own, then we want them to have as much fun as possible and feel welcomed. Many of our guests have become facebook friends, and we would definitely connect with them when we travel to their home countries.

What is your best memory with your guest?

We had a British couple that we got on really well with, as we lived in the UK for 15 years, so we could reminisce with them, however we will fondly remember them because they used to have wine with their breakfast.

Overall, we have made so many new friends around the world. We thought that hosting would be a lot of work, and to some degree it is, however we love doing it, and love connecting with others from all walks of life.

SHARE YOUR STORY! 

We are eager to hear your adventure on misterb&b!  Share your travel/host story with us! Tell the world how to have fun in every corner of Earth! Shoot an email to [email protected]