If you read my mails or watch any of my videos, you’ll know that one of the main strengths that my mentors and friends at SFM and DEA is the community they’ve created

 

Most members agree on that 

 

Its actually one of the most powerful things the digital world has made possible - the creation of global communities 

 

Another great one is the Airbnb community 

 

Again, a membership business run on the internet which is about so much more than just making money for most of its users

 

On our recent trip to Tuscany we stayed in an Airbnb apartment owned by and right beside the house of Grazziella and her family.

 

(pic above is my partner Mo relaxing in our host's garden after a nightmare start to our Tuscan trip last week)

 

She played a big part in turning what could have been a disaster for us into a wonderful experience last weekend………

 

Graziella’s place is in a very rural area a few miles outside the town of Lucca.

 

It’s a self catering apartment and the main shops and supermarkets are some distance away

 

This is the sort of experience we love. We hire a place a little outside the main cities and hire a car to get around in. 

 

But when we turned up at Pisa airport on Sunday morning and were told we couldn’t have the car we had hired for a week because of a clerical error  

 

Our trip got off to a very bad start indeed.

 

I’ll cut a long story short here because most of Sunday was used up with this 

 

We eventually got ourselves by bus to Lucca and got in touch with Graziella, explaining why we were later than expected.

 

She not only picked us up and took us to her place, she then dropped us off at a supermarket to get provisions, picked us up again and on the way back took us past the local train station and showed us where to get tickets 

 

She also phoned around a couple of bicycle hire places for us (Lucca is a cycling town) and negotiated a deal for us.

 

At the end of our stay I used a translation app to ask Graziella if she could book a taxi for us but again, she dropped us in town to catch our bus to the airport.

 

Bear in mind, this is between people who have never met and don’t speak much (none in my case) of each other’s languages

 

Contrast this with the reception I got when I contacted the car hire company to ask for a refund and compensation:

 

The car hire company simply referred me to the airline who I hired through.

 

The airline initially tried to fob me off but eventually opened a case and are blaming a third party - an agency that sources deals 

 

At no stage did we get an apology and all three asked me to complete online satisfaction surveys! 

 

This difference between the community - human to human interaction and the impersonal corporate deny, blame and miscommunication culture is like chalk and cheese 

 

I hate to think how bad things would have got for us last week if we had been dealing with a corporate mindset rather than an Airbnb host…..

 

And similarly I can’t imagine leaning how to build and run an online business without being part of a strong, supportive community

 

If you’re serious about fully joining the the digital world and living the good life do it with a dedicated community 

 

SFM is the best you’ll find  

 

 

Cheers! 

 

 

Dave