Five Star Guest
FIVE STAR GUEST – July 16, 2026 – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA
Summer family reunions had grown into a tradition for Ophelia Margolis. She loved reuniting her three adult children, their spouses, and her grandchildren. Gatherings usually took place in Ophelia’s modest home, which the expanding family had inevitably outgrown. There were simply not enough beds or rooms to comfortably accommodate everyone. During the last reunion, Ophelia had resorted to putting some of the children in a backyard tent. The kids loved it, but Ophelia worried about whether they might wander off in the night or be attacked by a rogue racoon.
In addition to causing cramped quarters, the reunions left Ophelia’s house in a bit of a shambles. Her guests left mountains of bedsheets and towels behind, crumbs hidden under every cushion, and footprints only visible to Ophelia. Keeping a spotless house was an important part of her identity. She tried to keep the fussing to a minimum during family visits, but afterwards she spent a week returning her house to its previous pristine condition. Only then would she restart her regularly scheduled card games and book chats with friends.
“I wish we didn’t leave you with such a mess,” Ophelia’s daughter, Janine, said to her as they contemplated the 2026 reunion.
“You know I love having everyone together,” Ophelia replied. “It’s worth all the cleaning, but I do worry we’re too cramped.”
“What if we got together somewhere else? We could pick a vacation spot and just converge. Maybe somewhere in the mountains or by the ocean.”
“A vacation spot? Where none of us lived? Could we do that?”
“Why not? Other families do it all the time.”
“Where would we stay? In a hotel?”
“Sure. If you wanted to stay in a hotel, we could find a place that worked.”
Ophelia pictured her family separated in different rooms of a large hotel. She might have her own room. She had not stayed in many hotels before but one thing she liked was the housekeeping service. It was nice to let someone else worry about making beds and vacuuming floors.
Janine then offered another suggestion. “I’ve had friends stay in vacation resorts that are more like condominiums than hotels. Or we could look for a rental house on Airbnb.”
Ophelia perked up. “I keep hearing about Airbnb. How’s it work?”
“It’s a lot like renting a hotel. You can pick your dates and stay as long as you want. But you’re renting an entire house with multiple rooms.”
“Could we find one big enough for all of us?”
“Absolutely.”
“And they have them everywhere?”
“Pretty much. And we could split the cost. But since this is your reunion, I think you should pick where we go.”
Ophelia grew more excited about the Airbnb idea and Janine helped her register for an account so she could shop properties. As she did with every new website, Ophelia chose a username that included her first and last name and she added a photo to her profile. She soon discovered that she loved looking at pictures and reading descriptions for different Airbnb properties. After weeks of study and reviews of over 1000 listings, she made her choice – a house near the ocean in Myrtle Beach. Her adult children agreed it would be fun and centrally located.
“It’s not right on the beach, but we can get there with only a short walk,” Ophelia explained. “And there’s a pool in the backyard and enough beds for all twelve of us.”
“Let’s do it,” her son said after looking at the Airbnb links Ophelia sent.
They agreed on dates and then Ophelia turned all the booking details over to Janine. Using Ophelia’s account, Janine made contact with the property owner and reserved four July days at the house.
After months of anticipation, the reunion date arrived. Janine and Ophelia showed up first at the rental and walked through the rooms and yard.
“It’s just what I expected,” Ophelia said happily. “Everything’s so clean. And the pool’s crystal clear. What a great idea.”
Ophelia had already decided on room assignments and as the other guests arrived, she showed them where they would be sleeping. After a trip to a supermarket and a food shopping spree, the entire family walked to the ocean for their first beach expedition. They returned two hours later covered in sunscreen and sand.
If Ophelia was in her own home and twelve sand covered people tried to enter, she would have first lined everyone up, swept them clean with a broom, and then sprayed them with a garden hose. Now that she was merely a guest at a rental property, she stayed relaxed. She even tracked sand onto the tile floor herself and said under her breath, “I’m glad I don’t have to clean this up.”
While they were still in swimming suits, the family traipsed out to the property’s pool and splashed around. Then they cooked hamburgers on the backyard grill and ate in practically every room of the house. Potato chip crumbs spread like they were dropped from air ducts in the ceiling. The fully equipped kitchen came with three dozen dishes and all of them were used during the first big meal. Sticky soda stains and watermelon rinds covered the patio and pool deck.
Again, the vacation version of Ophelia chuckled to herself about only being a renter. “Someone’s going to have a lot of scrubbing to do.”
During the first three days of their stay, the family continued to have a fun and messy time. They enjoyed the beach, a water park, and driving rented ATVs down a muddy trail. They used every towel in the house and a layer of muddy, sticky sand covered all the floors. The water toys and floaties that once surrounded the pool ended up on the roof. A thick, charred layer covered the grill. Some of the garbage was stuffed into sacks while other open food containers teetered on refuge stacks. Overall, the scene looked like unsupervised teenage boys had run wild.
The casual Ophelia told herself not to worry or notice. Cleaning up was not her family’s job. That was why they were paying for the rental. They were on vacation and everyone appeared to be having more fun than during any other reunion she could remember.
On the last day at the Airbnb property, they planned a final trip to the beach prior to departure. Dressed in swimwear and on the way out the door, Janine nonchalantly said, “We should probably look at the checkout list.”
“The what? What do mean?” Ophelia asked warily.
“Every Airbnb host has a list of things they want you to do before you leave.”
“Things we have to do? I thought we were just renting. What happens if you don’t follow the list?”
“For one thing, they could give you a bad guest rating.”
“They rate you? Does it show up anywhere?”
“Yeah. On your Airbnb profile.”
Ophelia’s jaw dropped. Suddenly, she pictured her name and picture on the Airbnb website for the entire world to see. Under her name would be all kinds of criticisms for being a terrible guest. The world would think she was a slob. Ophelia dropped her handbag filled with sunscreen and hats and said in a determined voice, “What’s on the checkout list?”
Janine pulled the long list up on her phone. The host expected guests to collect and bag garbage, sweep up any sand, put all dirty dishes in the dishwasher, put all bed linens and towels next to the washing machine, and generally restore the house to the way they found it.
“We haven’t done any of those things!” Ophelia cried in horror. “They’re going to put ‘filthy’ and ‘messy’ under my name!” The neat-freak version of Ophelia instantly returned. “No beach for us until this list is done!” She barked assignments to every family member. “Clean the patio and pool deck! Fetch everything from the roof! Collect all the garbage! Do the dishes! Sweep the floor!”
After an hour of cleaning, one of her grandchildren asked, “Can we go to the beach yet?”
Ophelia glanced at the grime still on the kitchen counter and said, “Not a chance. This doesn’t look anywhere close to a five-star rating.” Under her breath she said, “If I would have known about the rating system, we would have done things very differently around here.”
After three more hours of cleaning, every speck of sand and potato chip was removed from the house. Ophelia went far beyond the requirements of the checkout list and scrubbed the grout between the tiles on the kitchen counters. She also finished two loads of dirty towels in the washing machine before it was time to leave. No one in the family made it to the beach that day.
When she returned home from her vacation, Ophelia eagerly checked her Airbnb rating before reviewing family pictures she had taken. As hoped, her review was certainly worthy of five stars. The Airbnb owner reported her as the ideal guest who “left things better than she found them.” Ophelia returned to her profile often to re-read the rating.
The entire family agreed the reunion was a success and talked about doing it the same way next year. Ophelia’s son had a suggestion he passed along secretly to the other adults. “Now that Mom knows about the rating system, maybe we should let her rent a little place of her own next to the one the rest of us are in.”
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