14 Five Star Reviews and I get this message...

[Laura2592]

"Hi Laura-- thanks for asking about snacks for our stay. There will be 3 of us, maybe 4 if our daughter at McDaniel is free to join us for part of the time. Two of us are gluten free/celiac and 2 of us are vegetarian. Though wine seems fun, we don’t normally drink alcohol. Looking forward to a fun weekend and clear cool days!"

Reservation is for 2 for 2 nights. This person has 14 five star reviews. She did not disclose until the day before the stay that she is possibly doubling the numbers. She didn't ask either. Its obviously assumed she can bring whoever. We state this clearly and re-iterate it as well.

I asked her to update the reservation. She did and is now complaining about the extra charge which "seems substantial." It does seem to have a pretty substantial fee attached. For her reservation (and she only updated for 3 people, AND has booked at an old rate, so its $20 per person per night for 2 nights) she got charged $48 extra. We got $38. I just said "really?! Wow, that isn't what we see on our end. ABB does add fees unfortunately."

Seriously after THIS many stays she should know better. But I am sure she will be difficult now.  You can't win. 

[Z-2]

@Laura2592 I agree with you. If the guests is bad, I will definitely point it out and write it. But most guests are initially good. Sometimes, they just not aware of something, we should let them know, but don’t want to had a bad mark on them. I especially patient on young people because I will always think about my kids might make same mistakes. My response just show how I look at the reviews and how I wrote them. Also normally I don’t mind they have more guests as long as they are no more than my maximum. So maybe some guests get used of those kind of hosts and not aware of that they have to modify the reservation for that?

[Marie6762]

Yes.  Missing the point that reviews are for future hosts-like you, for example.

As a teacher, it was a pain in the neck to work with teachers who passed out grades like candy, and proudly never failed a kid.

[Marie6762]

oops...

The above is in response to “z-2” and the “give them 5-stars or don’t review” comments

[Z-2]

@Marie6762 Since you are responding to me, then I may be explaining little here. I always believe the education in love and effort. Also, I am not a in town host, so I give my guests benefit of doubt. Only the people I believe really bad, I will give a bad review. Anyway, every host have their own way of the review and don’t have to have the same standard.

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  It isn't a matter of a host considering a guest "really bad" nor do reviews have to be either good or bad. Reviews are meant to be honest, so other hosts can decide whether to accept a guest or not. 

If a guest leaves your place really dirty, you need to let other hosts know that, whether you think it's a big deal or not- let other hosts decide for themselves if that is something they can accept or not.

It doesn't have to be a "bad" review. You just write something like "XX was a very friendly guest who communicated well and folllowed house rules. However, the cleaning time required after they checked out was far longer than normal. I would welcome them back and hope that they would tidy up after themselves better the next time."

If you are giving 5* cleanliness ratings to guests who leave a mess behind them, or other 5* ratings which aren't based upon the actual behavior of the guest, but instead on your desire to be kind and forgiving, you are misrepresenting things and misleading other hosts, which certainly isn't kind to your fellow hosts.

And in case you aren't aware, guests can't see the star ratings you leave for them, so you don't have to concern yourself with that. 

[Z-2]

@Sarah977 Where did I mentioned I will give them 5 for cleaning even if they left a mess? I said I will give them benefit of the doubt by not writing it, but not saying giving them 5 stars. All the 5 stars review I gave meaning I welcome them back.  I think it’s goes too far for arguing this. I will stop here.

[Sarah977]

@Z-2  Like guests, hosts who don't use Instant Book cannot see guests' star ratings, so if you aren't honest in the written review, you are doing all of us non-IB hosts a disservice. The  written reviews should be in line with the star ratings you give.

[Marie6762]

@Z-2 

My recent experience with a young couple new to AirBnb:  

A nice young couple, with developing English language skills, which might be the reason for the lack of communication (except that more experienced guests know to use the translation feature?).  Never communicated check-in time and  seemed not to have read House Rules/Guide, as they freely used private areas as their own,  helping themselves to breakfast in the (private) kitchen, for example.  I had to remind them -twice- of checkout time, and still they checked out 1/2 hour late.

None of these were big problems for me, personally, as I’m very flexible as long as folks are quiet, clean, pleasant and respectful - and they were.  But I am responsible to inform future hosts via comments & stars of what to expect.  Therefore, I gave a brief but accurate account, 3 stars for communication (which was probably the only problem), 3 stars for following House Rules, but 4stars overall- and “yes” to “would host again”

Future hosts can make a determination determine for themselves, based on this factual, accurate but one-and-ONLY review.  Sweet, tidy, quiet young folks who can’t or won’t read, comprehend or follow House Rules would not be a good fit for many - if not most - Hosts, but without the detailed review I would be passing along some big stressors to my fellow hosts.  Why would I do that?!

Incidentally, they didn’t leave a review, or respond to my friendly request to do so.  I rest my case ;- )

[Sarah977]

@Marie6762  Which is why a lot of kids are coming out of school with poor literacy and numeracy skills. I  hate that "everybody gets a prize" attitude. The self-esteem movement was really misguided- you gain self esteem from doing a good job and earning acknowledgement for it, not by being told that everything you do is good enough. That just breeds irresponsible  brats.

[Laura2592]

@Z-2 I think you arw missing that this is a business.  Yes it's your home. But it's also  money making concern. You seem like a kind and flexible person and that's great.  Others are too. But we are not evaluating people on their innate goodness or potential for being a perfect guest one day. We are only honestly describing our own experiences with someone who is paying to use our space. Not describing exactly what others might encounter in order to help mediocre or bad guests to feel good about themselves is missing an opportunity and the point.   We aren't here to help people build up self esteem.  We are just here to be honest for the good of the community.  

[Brian2036]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Laura2592 

And there’s one reason why dirtbags get 5* reviews and no negative ones.

Did you notice that the grotesquely irresponsible woman who managed to lose a $500 bicycle and doesn’t want to pay for it got a review from the host that says, “Hosting XX was a pleasure.”

I assume that this came from a management agency that wouldn’t care if her irresponsible kids left front door open so someone could steal all the furniture.

Incidentally, how are you seeing how many stars a guest received on their reviews? All I see is the comments.  

[Laura2592]

@Brian2036you have to have IB on to see star ratings. Otherwise you can't.

[Brian2036]

@Laura2592 

That really sucks. 

So, basically, if you have IB, which would allow a twit like the one you wisely rejected after wasting hours with CS, to slip past your radar, you can see that her 5* ratings are not really significant.

If you don’t allow IB you don’t know any of the details and you’re in a worse position.

 I fail to see the sense in this. 

Maybe CS is trying to generate more business for themselves?

Anyway, I’m really glad you got rid of her and I wish you could post a review to warn her next victim.

As for the add-on “guests” (more appropriately called free-loaders) we’ve had our share too. We also added a $20 per extra person charge and decent people pay it without complaint.

 The $20 barely covers the extra cleaning costs and it’s a whole lot less than they would pay at a motel.

[Sarah977]

@Brian2036 "If you don’t allow IB you don’t know any of the details and you’re in a worse position."

Not sure what you mean by this. Non-IB hosts can read guests' past reviews before deciding whether to accept a booking. And the written reviews contain a lot more info and nuances that hosts can read into than star ratings.

And we also have the opportunity to communicate with guests before accepting, whichh also can tell you a lot.

[Brian2036]

@Sarah977 @Laura2592 

I see your point. One might be better off not knowing about the 14 x 5* since it’s obviously misleading in this case.

 I would hope that some hosts slipped a little hint in the comments to warn others but I’m not too optimistic about it.

Probably the best thing is to look for clues like “I didn’t read the listing,” and then all the boring crap about the delicacy of everyone’s intestinal tracts.

When someone offers you a gift why not just thank them and accept it graciously?  Was she maybe hoping that refusing the wine would prompt a discount?

Anyway, I’m not surprised to hear that there are a lot of rotten guests in the Washington area. The place is like a giant sewer drain and all the turds are swirling around it.

I’m really glad to be a respectable distance from either coast.  As Airbnb frequently tells me, 69% of my potential guests travel less than 300 miles to get here.

 I think I’d like to make that 100%. Except for the guy whose dog ate the rug. He’s from Florida.