Another My First Negative Review and a Devious Idea

[Clay29]

Hi Hosts,

I have to leave my first negative review and I am not feeling bad about it but the guest is most certainly not entitled to do the same and I want to try to prevent it. My review will be simple and true:

"Substances were smoked in the apartment in violation of the rules and I found a cigarette lighter on the floor. The apartment was left straigt but there were out of place stains on furniture and pillows not consistent with normal use."

As to why the above, there is a nearly impermeable thick, syrupy odor in the unit that I can smell from outside and downstairs with the windows open. Despite saying she would be clean, there's food left on the floor, under the bed, mud stains on pillows and the back of the couch that's against the wall - a complete nightmare. Under the sharing concept, I've split the cost of cleaning and they only pay $30 dollars but this guest has done more damage than they've paid in total to stay. I intend to charge them; However, I know with respect to the way I present the unit, answer questions and the lack of addressable issues brought to me, they have zero real complaints.

I've brought this to the attention of Airbnb but have not filed a resolution. Now that I've done that, is the guest contacted ? Second, I have delayed my review which I normally do immediately after checkout as I find the I tend to get more guest reviews. I don't care if she ignores the review, but in case she doesn't,  I've considered messaging her in advance:

"Sorry X but I was caught up in work and did not have time to complete your review but have now. Thank you for choosing me and I hope you enjoyed your stay."

There's nothing untrue about the above or anything to suggest I would welcome them back but it may be devious enough to assuage them into thinking they got away with it and not leave a retaliatory review. I've never had a bad review but given Airbnb's practical policy of smoking doesn't matter even though it's one of the most damaging things a guest can do, I doubt I'll have any luck getting it expunged.

Is this a bad way to go about it ?

Clay

[Pat7985]

I had a similar situation, and it was met with unfortunate turn of events. I found that Airbnb seems to be guest centric, despite the guests' smoking and blatant violations. Airbnb had agreed with me, then later Airbnb contradicted their own rules and policies when it came to the review process. I wish I could say that Airbnb protects its hosts, but I have not had that experience. It was a lot of wasted time on the phone and emails with Airbnb that didn't do much but hurt the host.

[Clay29]

Thanks Pat7985. 

/disregard  I'd be curious to know what they did with the reviews if you have a chance. - I went back and looked at your other posts and saw the issues. I am sorry these things happened to you.

[Lisa723]

@Clay29 it's unclear from your post whether you have requested money in the resolution center yet. If you have, then yes, the guest is notified immediately and you can probably count on a retaliatory review. In this kind of situation it's best to wait until reviews are posted before requesting money, if you can do that while still complying with the deadline (before the next guest checks in or two weeks, whichever is sooner). Personally, I would not bother for a sum of $30.

As for your review, you cannot prove that substances were smoked, and a lighter on the floor is not a problem per se. If you want to be sure the guest can't get your review removed, stick to the nonspeculative facts. E.g. "After this guest's stay there was a thick, syrupy odor in the unit that could be smelled from outside and downstairs. There was food left on the floor and under the bed, and mud stains on pillows and the back of the couch that was against the wall. Cleaning and odor remediation expenses were excessive."

[Sarah977]

@Clay29  Don't send that message. It may prompt her to leave a review when she might not have otherwise.

A strategy many hosts use in these situations is to wait until a few minutes before the review deadline to submit your review. By the time the guest gets the notification that you have reviewed, it will be too late for them to post one.

Of course, if you get an alert that the guest has left a review before then, there's no point in waiting.

[Laura2592]

@Clay29 wait until the last possible moment to leave your review. 

I had a guest who had a weedfest in my cottage prior to one of our stays (thank heavens it was us and not another guest!) She sprayed some kind of "deodorizer" which made the entire place this gross amalgam of scents that ended up smelling like a rotten onion. It was BAD. I would have preferred the skunky odor on its own. It took 3 days of airing out and fans/filters to get everything back to normal. I left a review that said she smoked in our space and that we don't allow it, that she was a clean guest otherwise and would be a fit only for hosts that allow smoking. My star ratings were low in all categories and she was a would not host again.

She never left me a review and mine was last minute. I suspect she has forgotten she ever stayed at my space lol. As others have said, do not alert your guest. Do not refer to substances. Just say there were strong odors and items left behind which indicated the guest had broken your rules by smoking in your space and that a lot of extra clean up was needed. She is not a recommended guest. 

[Clay29]

I am afraid I let the cat out of the bag in anger and wrote what I put here on both. I will do it different next time and wait to the end. Either way, I will let you know the outcome of this.

The other part of the reason I try to do reviews asap is my feeling guest mostly assume quick reviews will be positive and slow reviews will be negative. I may be overthinking it, but I feel she may not truly be aware of the extent of the damage she left, having tried to clean up as she did  and would be more likely to assume I would leave a positive review.

[Sarah977]

@Clay29  Yes, you are overthinking it. You really have no idea how a guest thinks, you can't second guess them- hosts have sometimes been sure they would get a bad review, only to have the guest leave a nice one, or been sure the guest was pleased- they even said they had a nice stay and everything was fine, only to have a complaint-filled review come out of left field.

Never write reviews or message guests when you are angry or otherwise emotional. It's a business. Keep things professional. If you're angry, wait until you calm down. You have 14 days  to leave a review- there is no need to rush.

[Laura2592]

@Clay29 yes I sometimes think quick= good but that is not always the case. As you saw yourself, sometimes you just need to vent and want to get anger out of your system immediately. A better strategy if you think you may get a poor review is wait until you have another one or two from other guests (if possible.) Because we do a lot of short stays, I might have 2 reviews from more recent guests left after the potentially bad one. Reviews post in chronological order of stay, so if I am ever leery, I wait, hoping my good reviews will appear before the one I am concerned about pops up. 

Never be in a rush to write a review. You have 14 days-- use them. 

[Ryan2352]

I USED TO leave a review as soon as they checked out.  This is how I now handle reviews and why:

I no longer leave a review immediately.  AB&B reminds the guest to leave a review after their stay, I assume via email and the app, like they do for hosts. 

I have an automated email that goes out at two days after they leave telling them I hope they enjoyed their stay and made it back home safely, as well as other items, and I ask for a review and promise to leave one in return.

At 8 days after leaving, I have another email that goes out asking for a review if one has not been left.

At that point I make a decision IF I want to leave a review on day 9 or 10.  Leaving a review sets off another series of notifications to them and acts as another reminder to leave one, which they still have 4 days in which to do so.

Typically, I do NOT leave a review unless I've received one unless the guest was stellar.  My view is that there is no reason for me to build up their trust level with hosts if they're not willing to do the same for me with guests.

[Sarah977]

@Ryan2352  Well, if they were less than stellar, wouldn't you want to let other hosts know that? 

I don't care whether a guest leaves me a review or not, I've never asked them to, and 90% of them have. If they don't, maybe they don't like the whole review game, maybe their grandma just died, maybe they're hiking in the wilderness.

I write reviews for the benefit of other hosts. And if they were non-problematic guests, so that they will be easily accepted by other hosts. They put money in my pocket, it's a way of showing appreciation.  I consider it part of my job as a host.

[Ryan2352]

@Sarah977I've found that the act of leaving the review sets off a set of reminders to the guest to write one, that's why I wait so long.  At this point it has become a tactical decision for me to try and increase the amount of reviews left.

On my family's first trip using AirB&B a few years ago, we stayed at a wonderful place as the first stop in a month long vacation.  We had no idea you only had 14 days to write a review and the host never mentioned it.  We waited until we got back home to write one and found out too late that we couldn't.  Had it been mentioned, we would have done it at the next stop as we had a laptop with us.

I used to leave reviews straight away, but had too many that didn't leave a review.  Now I see it as a "quid-pro-quo".  I'll leave you a review if you leave me one.  If I looked at it as a job of hosting, then the return review would be the payment for time spent and services rendered (since a positive review helps them rent more homes).

As to negative reviews, that's touchy as we don't want to leave negative reviews for people within driving distance for fear of reprisal.  A large portion of our business are families within driving distance.  Mind you we've only had two negative experiences.

[Sarah977]

@Ryan2352 While I'm not fond of "coded" reviews, I understand that sometimes they are necessaary. 

If you get a guest who is local, or a guest who a neighbor recommended your place to who's a friend or family member of theirs, or a guest who you fear could be capable of some sort of retaliation that could put you at risk, but who you think other hosts really should be warned about, you can leave a review that only says " 3 night booking" or something along those lines. Most experienced hosts will understand that you had nothing good to say, and maybe plenty bad, but for some reason, you couldn't be specific. And the guest won't see that review as anything bad. Plus if you review you also can rate them, and guests aren't privy to seeing their ratings. 

But neither are hosts like me who don't use Instant Book, we just have the written reviews to go on, we don't see guests' ratings.

[Ryan2352]

Thanks!  Coded review sounds like an interesting strategy that could work.

[Brian2036]

@Clay29 

If the guest was thoroughly baked she has probably already forgotten everything. I wouldn’t remind her, although Airbnb will keep pestering her for a review regardless.

 I agree that the word “substance” is probably something to avoid, although certainly accurate, but “there was evidence of smoking in violation of house rules” would be sufficient.

 I agree that there is no point in trying to predict what guests are thinking, or, in fact, whether they think at all.