Guest 30: Sophie A.

Sophie and her friend were visiting from Melbourne. They had spent the previous month or so bumming an air mattress off a friends' floor in what I've come to love as true Aussie travel style. Their reservation ended up conflicting with a last minute visit from my brothers for for Grandma's funeral but Sophie and Amanda were more than accommodating and were happy to get put up in a hotel (Aaron and I used some of our hotel points) for two of the nights so that my family could stay with us. I think it was a win-win.

Guest 29: Stephen L.

Stephen and his girlfriend were coming through LA from the Bay Area on their way to Joshua Tree. I didn't actually meet them since Aaron handled the check in (I was gone for some reason). He reports that they were cool.

Guest 1.5: Andrew M.

Our favorite guest from San Diego has now stayed 5 different times. It's so turn key with him now... I hope he continues to rent from us.

Guest 28: Eric B.

Eric is one of Aaron's colleagues who lives near us. His parents were visiting and rather than cram into his place, they rented out our unit for a couple of nights.

Guest 27: Veronika S.

Veronika was one of those guest we just simply barely saw. She arrived late at night on a last flight of the day from New York and then checked out the next morning super early. She owns her own social media business and was in town for a conference. But she was kind and clean, so that works for me!

Guest 26: Calle A.

Calle, his wife, and their 1 year old daughter were visiting the US from Sweden during their super generous parental leave. They weren't having the easiest few days though... they arrived early in the day because they got food poisoning the day before at Disneyland and were hoping to lay down in our studio as soon as possible. And sometime within the first couple of days at our home their daughter fell and broke one of her teeth. They were super sweet though and we hung out a fair amount in the backyard together with our kids sharing stories.

Guest 25: Doug O.

Doug was also visiting from the Bay Area. Apparently he's a retired fireman who is now starting an acting career and his agent had a few auditions for him. The timing of his stay was ironic because the day I checked him in I heard a piece on the radio about how the fire departments were trying to change their retirement packages to make it less attractive for firemen to retire so early. Anyway, Doug was cool. He attempted to fix the toilet that has a simple sticking problem that causes the water to keep running every once in a while. No luck on the fix though.

Guest 24: Brooke R.

Brooke was visiting from the Bay Area. Her mom lives in Santa Monica not far from us but apparently in a rather small space so Brooke was looking for somewhere else to sleep. I suppose not every guest can be perfect. Brooke wasn't bad and didn't really break any rules, but she's one that I wouldn't actually welcome back. And it's for a simple thing: she had extra people upstairs that she didn't tell us about in advance. Staying the night. One of the mornings I saw 2 people leaving the unit around 9am looking like they just woke up. And the morning Brooke was checking out her sister was upstairs sleeping when I went find out details of Brooke's departure. Had Brooke let us know ahead of time it would have been totally fine. But, as Aaron likes to say... this isn't a hotel. This is our home. It irked me and gave me a creepy feeling.

Guest 24: Sarah K.

Sarah from Switzerland along with her boyfriend stayed in our guest house for a couple of nights at the end of their 5 week vacation in the US. They were relatively quiet but very nice.

Guest 1.4: Andrew M.

I didn't actually even see Andrew this time. He's such a turn key visitor that I just left the key for him on the desk for his arrival and he left the key for me on his departure.

Guest 22.2: Jami J.

Jami returned to stay for another couple of nights during her training. Our second repeat guest!

Guest 23: Amy S.

Amy, her husband, and their daughter arrived from Costa Rica and stayed with us for a few nights. They are originally from the East Coast, but moved to CR a little under a year ago for his work. They were also really cool to talk with and I enjoyed having them here.

Guest 22: Jami J.

Jami is a dancer/performer/instructor living in Las Vegas. She's in her early 30's and engaged to another performer who works with Cirque in Vegas. Apparently she was in LA to get certified in gyrokineses which is a yoga/body conditioning movement style. I love the random people I am meeting doing my inn-keeping!

Guest 21: Judy D.

Judy and her boyfriend, Ben, were two tech professionals in town from Seattle for an interview that Ben had secured and so they could both check out the area. They were a little stand-off-ish, but generally nice.

Guest 1.3: Andrew M.

Our favorite guy from San Diego was back in October for two more nights!

Guest 20: Veronica P.

Veronica and her friend stayed with us for a couple of nights on their USA road trip from SanFran to Vegas. They are from London, so I enjoyed my brief chat with them in the morning before they left. Sadly, they were here for a bit of a downpour so they didn't really get to enjoy any sun while here.

Guest 19: Ramona L.

Ramona, her husband, and their 10 month old daughter were taking a 10 week long vacation in San Diego as part of their parental leave (German government is so generous!) and wanted to check out the LA/Santa Monica areas. They booked relatively last minute because they weren't sure how well their daughter would do with the drive, but they arrived in good spirits (despite 405 traffic).

Guest 18: Hirono Y.

Hirono, her husband, and their 1 year old daughter from Japan were our next visitors. Hirono had been in school here in LA and wanted to bring her husband to meet her friends after having now been back in Japan for a while. They were wonderful guests... also brought some small gifts from Japan - mostly for Penny & Lily.

Guest 17: Slava C.

Slava and his newlywed wife Maria stayed with us for 11 nights in September. They are officially the longest stay so far and it worked out well. They are from Russia and were very adept at getting around either by bike (borrowed ours) and/or bus. I haven't yet tried the Russian tea they brought, but the girls liked the gingerbread and I have been putting our fruit in the traditional Russian dish they also gave us as a hosting gift. So sweet of them to bring something from home! I didn't return the kindness with a gift since I figured it was simply a business relationship. Though I did figure later that it's possible most business transactions come with a gift in Russia.

Guest 16: Eva L.

Eva and her highschool aged son, Collin, are in LA from Germany so that her son can participate in a 2 week internship with an editing shop in the film or TV industry (I don't recall the full details). His internship is in Hollywood so the drive in the morning might be rough, and they aren't staying with us but for a few nights of their 2 week stay (we are booked up!), but I'm glad it worked out for them to stay at least a few nights.

Guest 15: Kate G.

Kate and her sister were visiting Cali from the east coast (Kate from NY and her sister from PA) and stayed with us for two short nights. They were pretty cool even if slightly on the quiet side.

Guest 14: Laure Z.

Laure and her boyfriend are visiting the States from Switzerland. And though they said they normally travel to ski destinations, they seemed to enjoy themselves here in LA. The took our bikes out for a spin to the beach one day and hit up some good restaurants.

Guest 13: Betsy P.

Betsy is a nurse from Texas who came to escape the heat with 2 of her nurse friends and her grown daughter. Their accents remind me a lot of several of my friends from book club.

Guest 12: Alessandro C.

Alessandro and Gabrielle came from Bologna, Italy. They, too, had been on a grand tour of the West Coast and ended their holiday in the States with a couple of nights in LA. These guys were so kind, had great English making for excellent conversation, and very well traveled. Although they were our 12th guest to actually stay in the studio, they were the first to book. And for that I thank them!

Guest 11: Anna L.

Anna, her sister, and her mom were visiting the States from Melbourne and stayed with us for a couple of nights while they explored LA. It's so fun to meet all these Aussies who are game for using our public transport system. I did convince them to stay a little more local since I could only imagine the time it would take to commute by bus and train to the Getty Villa and Disneyland. I think they had a great time at the Getty Museum instead and a few local spots (the beach!).

Guest 10: Sandy H.

Sandy and her family visited from San Diego and stayed one night in order to catch a few of the local museums. They had tickets for the Tim Burton show at LACMA and were super bummed they ate dinner before leaving the museum and noticing the restaurants in Little Ethiopia on their drive to our place. Apparently they LOVE Ethiopian food.

Guest 1.2: Andrew M,

Our first return visitor! Andrew is in town again on business and will be staying in our studio for two nights (arriving this afternoon).

Guest 9: Giorgio R.

Four charming Italians... Giorgio, his girlfriend, and another couple stayed for 3 nights to start their grand adventure of the Southwest US. They started in LA with a day at the beach, a Red Bus tour of Hollywood, and a Jay Leno taping. From here they will head to Frisco, Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, and San Diego.

Guest 8: Naomi R.

Naomi is a photographer from Australia who is here in LA for both work and pleasure. She had a meeting this evening at the Annenburg Space for Photography, which makes me think she's got her shit together. She's the first of our guests to brave the LA bus system but seems to have managed well so far. Good on her! I showed her the genius that is the public transport button on Google Maps and I think her travels just got a lot easier.

Guest 7: Vanessa C.

Vanessa booked relatively last minute (the night before arrival) and included something in her message about having an appointment for head-shots. This is LA after all. She's tall, thin, and with long blonde hair but when we got to talking as she checked in she mentioned having a wellness business. So maybe she's not an aspiring actress? Either way, she seems nice and had found out about AirBnB via her business manager who's has another client who uses it.

Guest 6: Gary F.

Gary and his wife are in town from Las Vegas to drop off their 10 year old daughter at a one-week camp at UCLA. They took the opportunity for some family time at the beach and stayed in our studio for the night. They were super sweet and would be welcome back anytime.

Guest 5: Manoj P.

Manoj and his girlfriend are in town from DC so that Manoj can go on an interview this week and so that the two of them can get a feel for LA and decide if he would accept the job if offered to him. They were barely here overnight but seemed kind and professional. Ironically, Colleen the girlfriend works for Deloitte. Small world!

Guest 4: Emily C.

Emily and Sarah are two really cool girls that I would totally be friends with if they didn't live in Lancaster, PA. Sarah teaches collegiate level communications and Emily started her own business running local business' facebook presence. Seriously. They arrived early after having taken an overnight bus from San Francisco so rather than hanging out at the IHOP, I offered for them to chill in our backyard, use some WIFI, and have a glass of water while we waited for the previous guests to clear out. I did a quick turn of the space and linens and they were off on bikes to explore. Emily has The Price Is Right tickets for tomorrow morning and Sarah's plans are TBD but she has a 2nd degree connection in the area she might hang out with.

Guest 3: Aimee B.

A last minute booking brought Aimee and her 4 friends to our guest studio. Five girls from Toronto on a road trip arrived around midnight and are staying for two days. They have gotten some recommendations from others on where to shop (Fred Siegel was on the list) and eat (The Abbey in WeHo was mentioned), so other than asking to borrow a hair dryer this morning this crew has been relatively self-service.

Guest 2: Joudy N.

Joudy and her family (husband and two kids - ages 5 & 7) are traveling for a month in the States from Saudi Arabia. They were super clean and very friendly. Their daughters LOVED playing with Penny & Lily; so much so that Joudy reported to me on their departure that they now wanted to be called Penny & Lily instead of Kadi & Lema. Cute! One cultural thing that didn't translate to the West was that Joudy barely talked to or looked at Aaron and her husband barely talked to or looked at me. I think we navigated it well though.

Guest 1: Andrew M.

Andrew lives in San Diego but works in Beverly Hills so he stayed with us for two nights to save on his commute. He was a great tenant - clean, on time arrival, worked all day, left early in the morning, and very pleasant.

Hosting is looking like a promising venture!