Importance of leaving reviews

[Emilia42]

I just declined a reservation for the first time in three years. I don’t get requests to book often because I am set up with Instant Book and I have never once been uncomfortable with a reservation. However, I received a request from a guest with 8 glowing reviews but 1 very negative review from a local host in my town. I got the option to accept/decline (as opposed to instant book) because I have the ‘Must be recommended by other hosts’ requirement set on this particular listing.

I am extremely relieved that:

                    1.) Even with a handful of great reviews, one bad ‘Would not host again’ will apparently prevent a guest from instant booking and;

                    2.) The local host made the effort to warn others of the experience. This is the 2nd time in the last 3 months that a bad review from a local host has saved me!

Reviews are so, so important in this community and I am very thankful for my neighboring hosts who are helping me prevent disrespectful guests. 

[Maia29]

I had one of the worst guests in my life back in January. I gave them a completely honest review-they were IV drug meth addicts that invited multiple people and then threatened me and my daughter. Their previous reviews from other hosts in my area were all nice and "glowy". Makes me so freaking ANGRY! I do know, however, that the previous host does not live in their multiple units and they have no idea that their unit was used as a drug hot spot. You can't tell me anything different-I lived through it.

[Sarah977]

@Maia29  It's quite true that whether the review comes from a home-share or on-site host as opposed to an entire place where the host doesn't live makes a difference. An entire place host may leave a good review unless they found the place trashed. If they use a co-host or property management co., those are unlikely to even mark down for guests being bad about communication. If a host has self-check-in, the fact that the guest failed to answer messages re ETA probably wouldn't be noted. Whether the reviews are valuable to us in terms of making a decision to accept or not can be dependent on our hosting situation versus the reviewer's. If I don't see guest reviews which make it obvious that this was a home-share listing, like mine, I'll try to delve deper, looking at the host's profile who left the review.

[Virginia527]

I am a new host and recently had our very first guests. We were so excited until finding out they’d smoked in the entire home, had a pet that pooped all over the basement, busted the toilet seat and flushed chunks of it down, thus clogging the sewer pipe and flooding the basement. I left a very honest review!

[Sarah977]

@Virginia527  So sorry your first hosting experience was a bad one. And thank you for leaving an honest review.

I'm not sure how much other hosts charge for a pet fee, but $10 seems too low.

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

Unfortunately Airbnb is inclined to help more to guests than hosts, I'm having the worse experiences lately... 4 of 50 ... but nightmares, the latest was a girl who left the bikes against our advise in Tulum downtown OVERNIGHT, my manual specifies clearly about what to do with bikes etc. The guest recognized her fault but she didn't like that I called her irresponsible and she asked me an apology ... sorry I couldn't, I feel if you apologize my review will be better, that is so wrong!, because she was irresponsible and she declined to pay... I feel that AIRBNB is creating monsters allowing them to go away with crime ...honestly it is soooo frustrated. then review comes ... and they deleted our review ...