A dishonest guest threw a birthday party at my place, should I leave the guest bad review?

[Eric4941]

I'm new to airbnb hosting. This guest was my fifth guest and it happened last weekend. I'm calm now and seeking suggestions on if I should leave her a bad review. Long story short, she registered four guest for one Sat night. Through the outdoor camera,  I captured about 26 people showed up by the midnight. Then, they UNPLUG my internet and thus all Ring Camera went off. I called the police to check on my property (I lived about 1.5 hours away) around 1am. The officer later called me and told me there was obviously a party going on, although not raging. But, there were still people pulling in around 1:30am. I was furious!! Th next day, after checkout, I check the property. Fortunately, there was no damage to the property, but it took excessive cleaning with stained carpets and floors. I contacted resolution center for solution. I contacted her directly. She explained that she didn't intend to invite so many people and planned to have a small gathering. And it turned out to be out of her control.  The guest paid what I asked for the extra guest fees. She left no review yet. Now, I wonder if I should leave her a bad review. 

[Sarah977]

@Eric4941 Out of her control? Gimmee a break. She rented the place and she allowed all these people to enter. 

That she paid for the extra people is great and not how these things usually go but of course you should leave an honest review, as you always should for every guest.

Reviews are not "good" or "bad". Wipe those words out of your mind when it comes to reviews and replace them with the word "honest".  Reviews are intended to let other hosts know about your experience with a guest. Do you think other hosts want to go through this with her? Because she will definitely pull this again if no one is warned. How would you feel if she had done this in other hosts' homes before, yet they failed to mention it in their reviews, leaving you in the dark?

Leave her 1* for house rules, 1* for cleanliness. Would not host again.

"This guest booked for 4 people and had a party with 26 people in my home. The police were called. Guest claimed the party was "out of her control". No damages, but extensive cleaning was required. To her credit, she paid the extra guest fees I asked for, but I certainly cannot recommend this guest."

Something along those lines.

[Eric4941]

Thank you Sarah. If she didn't leave me a review, will my review show on her profile? I was not sure about that.

[Sarah977]

@Eric4941  The review period is 14 days. Don't know when she checked out. All reviews are published, regardless of whether both parties submit a review or not. If only one of you leaves a review, it'll be published 14 days after check-out. If both parties review, both the reviews will appear as soon as both are submitted.

Now here's what you should know about bad guests and reviews. The guest knows their behavior was unacceptable. So what they usually do is assume you will leave a "bad guest" review. Either they rush to leave a terrible review full of lies or they may not review in the hopes that you won't either. 

So many hosts' strategy when dealing with these scenarios is to wait until a few minutes before the review deadline on day 13+ (you should see a review deadline countdown next to your message stream with the guest) to submit your review. When they get the notification that you've left a review, it will be too late for them to submit one.

If you get a notification that the guest has left a review before that, then there's no point in waiting to submit yours. 

BTW, your place is beautiful. I'm so glad they didn't actually damage anything.

Be aware that a nice big secluded place like yours, where you don't live close by, may attract partiers. I see you've had appreciative, respectful guests up til now and great reviews. You'll need to vet future guests carefully for any red flags in their past reviews or communications. Don't accept locals. That's a big risk for partiers. Set a 2 or 3 night minimum booking. I didn't look at your house rules, but make sure to state "no extra guests, no visitors". And you might rethink that 40% discount.