My wife and I have been hosts since March of 2018. We have only received 5 star reviews from our guests (72). Before Covid most of our guests were business travelers typically staying 4 to 7 days. About 75% of those travelers were actually Airbnb employees possibly because our home is only a few blocks away from Airbnb headquarters. All of our travelers would spend the day outside the apartment and only use it to sleep there.
In 2020 things changed of course. First we were completely shut down. When things started again around November and because of the City of San Francisco required quarantine rules we had to change our minimum stay to 10 days. We now received grandparents visiting family, a young man moving to San Francisco for a new job, and most recently a young lawyer for 18 days who said he has many friends in San Francisco and was able to work remotely. When he left the place was a total mess and he also created damage. I have already sent him a personal note requesting payment for the damage, and I have also claimed the damage with Airbnb through the proper channel. The guest has so far not responded to my request for payment.
We have never left a negative review for any of our guests, and our reviews are typically just a few sentences long. We have been hesitant to leave a review for him. We have written a draft review and I would like to post it here and hopefully get responses from the community as to the appropriateness of such a review before we decide to post it. Here it is:
When Xxxxxx checked in he was friendly and polite. I was happy to welcome him to our home and show him around our place. During his 18 day stay we hardly noticed him. Maria's last words to him were, "we hope you'll stay with us again".
We provide house rules for all our guest well in advance and a copy in the space. During his stay the only thing we noticed is that even though we had told him in the house rules to regularly put his trash outside his front door, and how to do this, he only did this twice with large amounts of trash. We ask people to recycle and compost and we provide bins for that, since in SF the city's Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance, requires all of San Francisco to separate recyclable materials, compostable materials and landfilled trash. Many people don't get this right, so we just did it ourselves.
After Xxxxxx checked out, we waited to enter the apartment for 24 hours because of new Airbnb Covid rules regarding proper and safe cleaning protocol. This is when the big surprise hit us square in the face. The apartment was a mess.
- The dining table was piled high with bags and boxes of garbage. A mixture of trash, recyclables, and compostable. The trashcan inside the closet reserved for recyclables was empty, yet the closet itself was piled high with garbage.
He broke the “No smoking anywhere on the property” house rule. We found ash on the carpet and floors throughout the apartment, as well as an empty cannabis container, and the apartment still smells.
The suede couch has been stained with what we can only assume was body butter. We must have it professionally cleaned.
The coffee table and dining table were also stained to the point that they have to be refinished.
We take pride in the WOW factor all our guests enjoy when they entered and over the three years as Super Hosts, we haven't had such an issue. It's taking us quite a bit of time to get the place back to clean and we're thankful we had it blocked off after Xxxxxx's departure giving us time to manage our way back to a clean space for our future guests."
Any comment would be appreciated.
