Guest Standards is a joke... so is the Resolution Center

[Alison-and-Jason0]

We had a guest check in for a 2 day stay... everything seemed fine.  When they checked out, our cleaners said the place was left in the worst condition that they have seen in over 10 years.  Trash everywhere, furniture knocked over, area rug ruined, beer bottles outside all over, ruined pans with burn marks from the grill etc.  It was horrible.  

I reached out to the resolution center to see what my options were since I figured that is what it was for.  The resolution center reached out to the guest to ask about them covering the damages.  They pretty much said "No, I paid a cleaning fee, I don't have to do anything".  Then, the guest submitted a resolution center request to me requesting money for the cleaning fee stating that if they are supposed to clean up after themselves, they shouldn't have to pay the fee.  This was followed quickly with them leaving us a 1 star review.   

In the guest standards, it seems like situations like this should be handled and the review should be removed since it was based on retaliation.  They even said they loved the place during their stay in previous messages.  I have documented proof of the damage and I'm going to have to make a trip out there to replace the rug eventually.  

It's just disappointing how little AirBnB cares for their hosts.  The cancelling of all reservations is bad enough... don't make us have to deal with horrible guests and have no recourse.

[Charles224]

@Alison-and-Jason0 , sounds really bad. I'm suggesting a few photos would go a long way with speaking to AirBnB. Hopefully your rating for the guest was honest enough, and you hit the 'not recommend' button.

Good luck going forward.

Gheers Charles

[Alison-and-Jason0]

We put a ton of pictures into the request for the resolution center and the guest even said that they did it and it isn't their responsibility to clean up.  AirBnB only asked them which just angered them to leave a 1 star review saying "you shouldn't ask for money when you can take care of it yourself" and then we get absolutely zero help from AirBnB... we are out money, a lot of time and it hurts our rating. AirBnB does not seem to care about us at all.  I've reached out several times and called - nothing.  They did send me a survey as to if I would recommend AirBnB to a friend... I had a good laugh about that one.

[Donald28]

You do charge $95 to clean the place. That's not a small amount. I totally understand a guests rationale leaving a place dirty. They paid a fairly large amount for cleaning, so SOME GUESTS (luckily not all!) feel as if they are "going to get their money's worth". I wouldn't focus on the cleanliness of the property or furniture tipped over or beer bottles in the resolution case. That stuff doesn't have a monetary value and is remedied with your $95 cleaning fee. I would focus on the damaged items. 

I charge a $10 cleaning fee. I charged nothing for 1.5 years but finally decided to charge "something". People never trash the place or leave it messy, I think because they don't feel a need to get their moneys worth for their cleaning fee. 

You want to avoid this AND be busier? I'd roll much of that fee into the nightly rate and lower the advertised cleaning fee substantially. People will pay $150 a night for a beautiful place like yours. Doing this would also allow you to open it up to 1 night stays which I promise will be easier to get than a 2 night stay.  Your cleaner may like it too because they'll make more money and probably have to clean less per reservation. 

Airbnb should remove that 1 star review since they basically caused it by asking the guest to pay for the damage. You really should have waited until reviews were left and made public BEFORE opening this can of worms. By not waiting, you were almost guaranteed a bad review 😞 

[Donald28]

You might look into vacasa dot com too. A lot less hassles and similar profits. A friend of mine has a cabin like yours in ellijay ga and uses them. He loves them