Every time a person from China stays with me on AirBnb, They leave me a bad review. Can someone please explain why? [Details inside.]

You get the idea. The vast majority of our guests actually say that we are very friendly, as we often take guests to the grocery store, feed them, take care of them if they are sick, etc. We just have no idea what we are doing wrong. The ones that said we're not "warm and friendly" really stung because I lent the woman my hair dryer and half my toiletries, with a big smile the whole time!

In China, the culture is heavily centered around the idea of face, or, Mianzi. Basically, Chinese and other Asian cultures believe that you never, ever confront someone directly if you have a problem with them. A Chinese person will almost always pretend they're perfectly okay and happy with whatever situation you provide for them, but then will later tell their family (or in your case, reviews) about their problems.

It's kind of difficult to work around because if you simply tell them to just let you know about a problem, it's very unlikely they will because it's such a huge cultural norm for them not to. When I was in China for a few weeks, I noticed this was definitely the case. You will never hear someone criticize you no matter what you do. Chinese people basically have two identities - their "professional" or public self, and then their at-home self, which are completely different.

If I had to throw in a guess as well, the Chinese people visiting you are likely very wealthy as well. Most of the students and people I worked with dreamed of visiting America and were down-to-Earth super humble, caring, amazing people - but they simply didn't have the money and didn't know if they ever would. However, the tourists you're getting might be expecting a 5-Star resort and, when you obviously can't provide that, they may leave you a negative review because of it since they expect to be pampered in the first-world American luxury.

/r/NoStupidQuestions Thread