How to rate guests for a first time host

[Katherine-And-Troy0]

Hi! I just starting hosting and my first guests seemed to me what would be rude and definitely not 5 star guests. I’m having trouble deciding what to rate them because I have not had any other guests, nor did I expect to encounter some of the issues that I had with them. They rented a private room in our home, but would use the common area as an office and be on conference calls on speaker all day. They used our kitchen during regular meal times and cooked very very smelly meals that have taken me lots of scrubbing to get out. I had to clean up many spills from them. They tried to go into other rooms to keep their bags there. They turned up the temperature 6 deg in the winter. They left lights on when they would leave. They requested many extra things like doing laundry and storing things there after checkout. But they were quiet and did all their dishes. I’m just not sure what is appropriate since we didn’t have a “rule book” written, but a lot of these seemed like common sense of what to do or not do when you only have a private bedroom. Are all guests like this or was this just weird? 

[Helen350]

@Katherine-And-Troy0 If you've had to do a lot of scrubbing, then I would mark them down a star (or two) for cleanliness. If they used unauthorised spaces without permission, I'd dock them a star for communication, as they did not ask! As regards other annoyances, if it doesn't say not to in your house rules, then it's hard to justify marking down.... I find myself, that as guests do something unreasonable, that I might have thought common sense, I introduce another house rule - not to! I think many experienced hosts do the same! Opinion is divided, as to whether lots of house rules is good; some say it's alienating & off putting, some find them necessary.... It gives more leverage in case of dispute, both with guests & Airbnb, if some antisocial act was in the list of "Do nots..." Then again, to avoid sounding draconian, you could just introduce a cover - all rule, eg. "Please treat the property/ other residents/ neighbors  with consideration & respect."

 - Cleanliness 4* Communication 4* House rules 5* ???

[Helen350]

@Katherine-And-Troy0 I think most guests are not like this, but I think I remember @Kath9  describing one!!!

[Kath9]

@Katherine-And-Troy0, I've had many weird and wonderful guests and I'm not exactly sure to which one @Helen350 is referring! Anyway, it sounds like these guests were outside of the norm - you'll find that most guests aren't like this. What I've learnt, and what you'll learn, is that you will have to tweak your listing and house rules as you go to cover what to most people is just common sense (which does not seem to be so common these days). For example, you may need to clarify on your listing the areas of your house that are accessible and out of bounds - for example, I have now made my living room unavailable to stop guests sitting in there watching really loud commercial TV every night. You may want to revisit the use of your kitchen - I have now banned my oven/stove for exactly the reasons you described. I also no longer allow laundry use because of the guests who would be doing loads of laundry (then running the dryer for hours) literally the day after their arrival in the country. People need to be reminded to switch off lights and heaters and take short showers (it's a worry how many people have no idea of power and water conservation).

I notice that there is very little information on your listing, so you may wish to add some more (feel free to have a look at mine). It's a fine balance between too little and too much, but you have to be very clear about your boundaries, especially given that this is your home.

Regarding these guests, because there is not much in your listing, there are certain things you probably can't really mark them down on. However, much of their behaviour goes beyond common sense and courtesy. Therefore, please do review them honestly. We hosts only have each other, and if we don't review guests honestly, the whole system fails. I would say something along the lines of:

XX and XX were quiet guests on the whole. However, there were a few issues with respecting the space, including the use of the common area to make loud conference calls, entering private rooms, leaving the kitchen messy after they had cooked, and excessive power use. Unfortunately, I would not host XX and XX again.

It's difficult to mark them down on house rules because they didn't exactly break any, but I would mark them down on cleanliness and communication. In the meantime, update your listing!

[Sarah977]

@Katherine-And-Troy0  Most of us started hosting assuming that guests would be respectful and use common sense. Then you realize that not all people are like that and have to have things spelled out for them. When you home-share, it's really important to make your expectations really clear in the listing info, and if guests start behaving in a way that is disruptive to you, address the situation right away, don't just be irritated, grin and bear it, and let your annoyance fester.

"Oh, I guess you may not have noticed, but in our listing info we state that the kitchen, dining room and outside seating area is shared with guests, but the living room is our private area. Sorry if you  missed reading that."  "XX, if you are going to be using the kitchen to cook, which of course is fine, could you please make sure to wipe down the counters and stove top when you're done?. Thanks a lot."

Hosts, even those who've been doing this for many years, are constantly tweaking their listing info to cover things they never thought they'd need to spell out, or change what they offer. 

It's also a good idea, when guests book or request to book, that you send them a welcome message which includes any points you think especially bear mentioning, and try to determine if they have actually read thoroughly through your listing info and rules.

As a home-share host myself, I can tell you that I've had mostly wonderful guest experiences and my guests have been quite respectful. You win some, you lose some. And one thing I'd found is that you learn a lot more tolerance for other people's habits if you home-share- if you aren't a bit easy-going, it'll drive you nuts. Everyone doesn't do things the way we do, so try to let the little things go, but be firm about your boundaries and guests behaving respectfully.

Do leave honest reviews, that's what other hosts rely on, and you will, too, to decide whether or not to accept a guest booking. If you are unsure about the wording of a review, you can post a draft here (if you post in the Host Circle part of the forum, only other hosts can see it) and other hosts will give you pointers, as some have done here.

[Trevor243]

If a guest is good, by all means, give them a good review - they might appreciate it and book again.

If a guest is bad, ignore them, don't review them. It's possible that they'll give you a bad review. If you both post reviews, they go public instantly. If you don't review them, their review does not go live for 14 days. Enjoy that time to get more bookings before your score is trashed. Also, guests can easily open a new AirBnB account, so reviews of bad guests are almost pointless.

[Sarah977]

@Trevor243  With all due respect, the advice to not review unless the guest has earned a good review is really bad advice. If hosts do not leave honest reviews for bad guests, as well as good, (and those who are a bit of both), these awful guests just get to keep booking Airbnbs, leaving places a mess, damaging things, being disrespectful and making hosts lives miserable.

If you choose to decline to warn other hosts of unacceptable guests, that's your business, of course, but please don't be advising other hosts not to review their guests- its a disservice to the host community.

[Trevor243]

@Sarah977   I stand by what I said above - there is no benefit to a host in posting a bad review of a guest. If these guests don't care about properties or the hosts, they won't care about bad reviews either. They will always find ways to book properties - maybe they'll get a new AirBnB account, maybe they'll book with new hosts, maybe they'll book with another OTA next time - they just won't care ....

[Helen350]

@Trevor243 Your attitude is selfish. We review for the benefit of the wider host community, not ourselves. How would you like it, if there was a major incident at yours cos others had failed to warn you of guest's previous bad behaviour?

[Sarah977]

@Trevor243  It doesn't matter if the guest cares, you write a review to let other hosts know what kind of guest this was. Don't you get that? There are plenty of negative guest reviews on Airbnb, it isn't true that guests all just open a new account if they get a bad review.

[Helen350]

@Sarah977  YES YES YES!!!

[Helen350]

@Trevor243 Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!! NO NO NO!!!

[Trevor243]

@Helen350Who would warn me if a guest had caused problems when they booked with another OTA previously? Or if they booked with AirBnB under a different account name last year? Who do I blame?

Like I said, bad reviews for guests are pointless.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Trevor243 

Bad reviews may not be perfect but its better to try them rather than just give up on them.

[Sandra856]

@Trevor243 I can't believe you advice a new host to avoid to warn future hosts.

Sorry but I think it is incredible selfish to be honest. 

I have left a fair/bad review whenever a guest deserved it and it has never hurt me in any way (currently got approx. 330 reviews). In case it should in the future I will gladly take that punishment.

I only accept guests with uploaded ID as I'm 99% sure you can't have more than one profile with uploaded ID. That way they can't escape bad reviews. 

@Katherine-And-Troy0 You got 14 days to leave a review. You can see exactly how many hours left on the last day if you enter the first page of the review. When I have left a bad review I always do it last minute. If the guest haven't left a review the guest will get a notification that I reviewed them and they are more likely to leave a review. Doing it last minute won't leave them much time. 

They can't read your review until after they have written a review themselves (and because of that they won't be able to write a revenge review). They will see your review when they submit one themselves or when the 14 day review period is over and then it is to late for them to leave one.