Help with Review

[Lenore22]

I'm having trouble finding the balance between being honest and not nit-picking.

- Guest requested a reservation for 8 guests, which is our max.

- Guest responded to initial request for more info (who's coming & the purpose of their trip & if there are pets), so request was approved along with a message about keeping it down for the neighbors.  After that, no response to pre-check-in message a few days before arrival confirming #s, & giving check-in details. No response to any  message, including one I  sent the day after check-in on app and as a text to the phone# she provided, informing them of a wildfire that was reported overnight just a few miles from the house and that I would keep them informed in case of an evacuation. (not a big deal, but I was a little surprised it wasn't even acknowledged)

- Disclosed cameras at entrances observed lots of people coming & leaving, but not staying (probably a few family groups meeting up at our house for their daily outing and then going to their accommodation to sleep. This is within our rules). They also returned one evening with several pillows from our couch and several blankets from our beds in a large hamper from our house. (Our guess is they took them for a day at the lake) 

- Our 1 request upon checkout is that they take out their kitchen garbage (so as to not attract insects/mice). Not only was the garbage left full, but several full bags of garbage were left in the laundry room.

- Guests did not speak English with one another, which I mention only because it might explain the lack of communication and failure to follow checkout instructions.

- When I asked my cleaner how the house was left, she said "very dirty. Things thrown all over. Makes sense if there were a lot of people with kids." She mentioned terrible smells from the dishwasher. In 2 years of stays, she's only ever said, "looks good." 

- Nothing was damaged/broken. They weren't loud or disturbing the neighbors and generally seemed like nice people, enjoying time with family.

These guests aren't "bad" guests, but they aren't a good fit for every host/house.  What would be a fair review that gives hosts a heads up and still recognizes that for some places, they're totally reasonable guests?

Thanks in advance,

Lenore

[Suzanne302]

@Stephanie365 

I do the exact same thing as far as reviews. If they were decent guests and don't review me first, I don't bother. But if they are a guest I have an obligation to warn other hosts about, they are getting a review just before the 14 days are up.

I have only had to give a handful of guests bad reviews, but I am not afraid to do it! I wish more hosts would make a point to review bad guest behavior.

[Lenore22]

Interesting about the idea of reviewing guests or not.

Up until I became a host, my husband would make the reservations at the home shares we did for the past 20 years. And he never left a review. He didn't even know it was expected! Granted we only rented from the same 3-4 places (once we found a place that worked for our family trips, we tended to stick with it). AirBnB wasn't around at the time and I don't believe guests are rated on VRBO, so just like we don't review every restaurant we ever eat at (or if you do, most people only do so once), we just never thought of it.

AirBnB has been a bit of a game changer that way. Interesting that the platform that offers the most feedback on guests seems to struggle with the caliber/expectations of those guests. It's probably just because it's more popular.

[Stephanie365]

As for these guests, yes they are bad guests, language barrier or not. 

Guests who don't respect your property (and leaving a mess is VERY disrespectful) are not the kind of people I want staying in my home.  1* for cleanliness.

They were obviously capable of communicating; they CHOSE not to.  2* for communication

House Rules, no more than 3*.

Definitely check the "do not recommend" box.

"These guests were not the ideal guests. Our home required extensive additional cleaning time and effort. People not on the reservation were constantly coming and going. They were oblivious to our House Rules to which they agreed when they booked.  I would not host them again."

[Lenore22]

Thank you for the sample wording. I'm adding to my review, which will be posted on day 14. 😊

The guests did reply to my check-out/"have a nice trip" message yesterday, saying she had a great time and is leaving a review. (She did). It's probably a good review.

[Kristina46]

This is PERFECT. The OP should go with this. 

[Lenore22]

I've noticed that most of the hosts here have not really commented on the communication issue with respect to the wildfire evacuation. (Which wasn't in my original post, but in my proposed review) Is there a reason with review guidelines that this shouldn't be mentioned? I thought this was a huge issue! 

My proposed wording:

"Once the reservation was approved, we didn't really hear from them, even when a local wildfire threatened that they might need to evacuate. This lack of communication could have been disastrous."

... We've had wildfires in our area every year the past 2 years, but never as close as this and we've thankfully never had to evacuate, but it is a very serious, very real issue. There was never an evacuation order, but when we were put on standby, I alerted the guest via the app and text that I would inform them of developments. I didn't require an acknowledgement but was surprised that she didn't.

The wild fire was thankfully contained 2 days after they left, but with high winds and dry conditions had us very nervous for a few days there.

@Stephanie365 @Richard531 @Kitty-and-Creek0 @Kelly149 @Suzanne302 @Huma0 @Anonymous 

[Anonymous]

@Lenore22  It's not a huge issue for me if a guest neglects to respond to a message that's purely informative. You did your duty by warning them, and they're free to decide for themselves whether they want to risk being incinerated. 

As far as I'm concerned, the non-responsiveness is only a problem if they're not answering questions. 

[Lenore22]

Thanks for the input. That makes sense.

[Kristina46]

I hear you but I am not so sure I would alert future guests to the fact that you are prone to wildfires. Maybe write it in your listing and add it to the house rules. But I wouldn't put it in a review. That's just me maybe. 

[Gillian166]

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@Kristina46 wrote:

I hear you but I am not so sure I would alert future guests to the fact that you are prone to wildfires. Maybe write it in your listing and add it to the house rules. But I wouldn't put it in a review. That's just me maybe. 

---

pretty much every wine region in Australia is also prone to bushfires. 

same for California. dry, hot summers are the MO for wine regions. 

In Australia, like most deadly stuff, we take it in our stride. I suspect the USA (at least regionally, and mainland, they can be pretty woke and uptight in the big coastal cities) is pretty similar.

[Kristina46]

I'm sorry? "Woke and uptight?" 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Lenore22 Thanks for tagging me on this. Even without our background as first responders, you know we are fire prevention and response conscious. As you know; we, too, have had several recent years of huge fires in the vicinity, spending our summers breathing smoke & watching flames on the horizons. 2008 was just as close but it was wild land, and was more easily contained solely from the air.

We have responsibility for facilitating evacuations in our immediate neighborhood. We've communicated with all our guests, out of consideration for their potential sensitivity to breathing smoke and not being able to see out the windows. So far it has only once been close enough to necessitate evacuation alert for us. It is a serious concern to me to be responsible for the safety of guests under ordinary circumstances. Depending on their abilities and backgrounds, guests could be an asset in an evacuation; however, I would not want to take that chance. Guiding extra people off the mountain while working to get response equipment up here on the same narrow mountain roads would be an unnecessary risk. In the past when this risk was too high I offered guests a fully refunded cancellation, and they all took it. 

Review idea: I would mark the guests down on communication, and deal with the situation in a private message. With future communications to guests around fires I'd be more forceful and insistent on a response. To us, fire is very real, and we know the proximity, the terrain and the territory. To our guests it may be quite different, and their safety is in our hands.  

[Huma0]

@Lenore22 

Yes, it does sound like a very serious issue and I would have also expected some kind of response from the guest to confirm that they had read this important message. 

However, perhaps other hosts haven't mentioned including this in the review as it's usually best not to go into all the detail. Potential hosts that the guests might want to stay with in the future may not have to deal with the same type of situations. I think this could be summarised in some way by mentioning lack of communication, perhaps adding "even to urgent messages" if you feel it is necessary.

[Helen744]

@Lenore22 fire is a very serious situation. The fires around California are similar to Aussie fires .I would expect some radio , police as well as local information to be available but these people may simply not have understood the import of your words , but, and this is worse ,and can cause deaths . Many people especially tourists from the city do not comprehend the importance of your warning or even the reason for it.People die in bush fires in Australia on roads . It seems to be too big an issue to mention in a review because another time it may have been life threatening.Maybe during fire season you mention that all guests must have a 'working mobile ' during their stay. I will mention this to my guests who are failing in communications as important for any number of reasons and sometimes say 'if text messages are not answered I will have to come to the house to make sure its not burnt down' this was a joke but people got the message and although the wording is different the message is the same." Have a working phone and use it ' reply to texts from your host unless you want a visit.Fire season , get tough H

[Kristina46]

"Cannot recommend the XYZ family. Communication was almost non-existent, they left lots of garbage in violation of house rules and cleaner reported house extremely dirty upon checkout, requiring extra time and charges to clean. Sadly cannot recommend this group to other hosts."

You didn't ask but I would recommend you not allow any others not on the reservation to access your property. If something should happen, these extras could invalidate insurance or Air Cover. Just easier to make it a blanket over all "no people off the reservation allowed on property for any reason." But that's just me. When a rule is made very clear, it's easier for them to comply. JMHO.