Just another retaliatory rating story

[Justine275]

We recently had guests who broke house rules and we had to address during their stay to prevent property and vehicle damage (one issue involved driving across the front lawn over the buried septic tank)

Despite our polite communication and our decision not to pursue damages or cancel their stay, we get slapped with a retaliatory rating which greatly damaged our stellar record. Absolutely gutted and it seems like there’s nothing we can do to fight it since it doesn’t involve a party- correct?

[Emilia42]

@Justine275 

You have to let it go, easier said than done, I know. But these guests come along every once in a great while. You will double your # of 5-star reviews in no time because your place is beautiful and you're a caring host. At least you gave these guests an honest review. Many hosts struggle with that and you would feel much worst had you give these guests a passing review despite your instincts. 

[Inna22]

@Justine275 it took me a while to figure out which feedback you thought was the bad one. Of course I saw it right away, just didn’t think what that it was the one that would upset you so much. The stars will go up  before you know it and the review is not that terrible. Any guest that reads reviews, would read more than one and would have the full picture.

[Justine275]

Oh yeah the written review wasn’t a huge deal, it’s the star rating that knocked us since we started hosting on AirBnB relatively recently and we suspect it’s hurt our bookings/ranking in searches 

[Inna22]

@Justine275 I lost my superhost status last summer due to repeated attempts by guests to party during the pandemic and me kicking them out. While of course it is impossible to tell exactly, I can not say I have noticed any decline in revenue or bookings. It will not effect your search standing in any way. As for bookings, one less than raving comment only makes your please look real

[Justine275]

@Inna22 I’m I wonder if the new rules regarding reviews from guests who are kicked out for partying can be retroactive for your situation? Seems terribly unfair, I hope there’s a way to get those ratings/reviews removed.

[Kelly149]

@Justine275 What if you decide to take it as a good thing? They were bad, you stood up for yourself & and that review is neutral. In the grand scheme, not too bad. Learn, if you can, what would have been the ounce of prevention to save yourself the pound of cure for next time. 

[Elaine701]

@Justine275 @Emilia42 

As Emilia points out, you get these guests sometimes. You just have to live with it. 

However, given that there's not much you can do about it other than writing an honest review of them, we've taken the tactic of not confronting the guest who causes minor damage or violates house rules. 

Instead, we let it go. Smile and say thanks for booking us. Without that confrontation, they'll write a more honest review. And if they privately know they've been "bad", they're more likely to write a really nice review out of guilt. 

We however, will tell the truth in our review of the guest, which they can't read until they've written theirs. 

So, don't sweat the small stuff. There's not much you can do about it anyway. Might as well encourage an honest review from the guest, instead of unwittingly adding insult to injury. 

[Justine275]

@Elaine701 Yea, and we’ve done that before- not bringing up or pursuing the small stuff. However in this case we absolutely had to talk to them as they could have crushed our underground septic tank in the front lawn if they decided to drive over it again with their SUV, and they brought a large dog to an accommodation that specifies (in several places and even in our booking message) no pets - then left it alone in the space.

[Elaine701]

@Justine275 

Well, you gotta do what you gotta do 🤨

I hate it when they don't pay attention. Breaking through the septic tank would have been a huge affair, and of course, it would be all your fault. And you'd get socked with all the costs. 

You do mention this in a house welcome note or something? We have anything that could remotely be dangerous or potentially damaging written on the welcome sheet. There's only one or two items that qualify, and frankly, it's all basic common sense stuff... But you know... 

I really hate it when they do this. To avoid this, we try to scare away the inquiries that exhibit a lack of common sense, but they do get through the gauntlet sometimes. And then they write something bad because they are unwilling or unable to grasp basic common sense. 

Makes my blood boil. For a minute or two anyway. We haven't had any for a while now, and those that did, wrote lovely reviews. But only because we never confronted them.

The last one who openly violated several highly visible house rules (including having 2 more persons than she paid for) wrote a lovely review about her stay... But wrote back to me with a scathing, very angry message when she read our review (although unwittingly admitted her violations in her haste to spew vitriol). It's clear it's  what she would have written in the review had we confronted her about it. And we still wouldn't have received any compensation for it anyway. 

So, all things being equal, better to just avoid adding insult to injury. 

[Katie1145]

Thank you Elaine for your advise. Really helpful.

But what would you do about complaints and discounts? I have two German youngsters at my property at the moment and really professional complainers. When I went to the property to check about the complaints and talked to one of them I saw a big mess in my house (they where complaining the house to be dirty). Little of what they complained about was really true. I said to give them a huge discount (50% off) and asked them, when they check out next Friday, to leave the house in a descent state and on a certain check-out time. What is the advise here concerning the discount? Do I have to state these conditions in a conversation sent to the guests as to have prove to AirBnb? Or shall I give it anyway, smile at them, learn the lesson and go on? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Katie1145 I would not give them a discount as they sound like chancers. You will likely get a bad review whether you discount or not so could well be just spending money for no benefit. Have your guests got any previous reviews?

[Laura2592]

@Justine275 cute spaces. We are also old house nerds 🙂

Our second ever guest was like this. Thought he was a professional ABB critic and left us a 3 star rating on location because he couldn't get it on al fresco in the yard in February as the neighbors are quite visible when the trees drop their leaves. He was demanding, late to check in (we were still meeting people at the place then) and generally not a guest we would want back but we didn't know any better. It happens and it stinks but there isn't much you can do. Some people are just clueless or high maintenance (your "National Geographic photographer" for example)  We get a lot of DC insiders who have a difficult time unplugging so it can be a challenge. Hang in there!

[Justine275]

Hahaha, I nearly snorted my coffee reading this. Thank you for the support 🙂