Mediocre Guest -- What would you do?

[Kelly149]

Anyone want to offer their thoughts:

Guest IBs my place:

    ~ hasn't read my house rules

    ~doesn't have a complete profile

    ~didn't answer the "pre-booking questions"

    ~has one prior stay: Review is 3*cleanliness, 5* communication, 3* house rules

             (the host who wrote that review no longer has an active listing so I can't ask them what happened and the text review is "nice person who communicated well")

I've already left a phone message and an ABB msg with the guest.

While I wait to hear back from this guest, what would you do in my shoes??

[Delwyn3]

@Kelly149 Well that stinks.   I choose not to use IB but when it says "You can cancel 100% penalty-free if you’re ever uncomfortable with a reservation. " I would expect that to be 100% true!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Helen350 @Sarah977 

Communication is a two way street and if guests want to talk 'App' or 'Whatsapp' or 'Text' which would each and all garner immediate notification in the communication front, rather than simply dragging guests down to the lowest communication method available, it would be a benefit for them if you were to provide those options for them to contact you.

Mobile communications and phones are so cheap now, 'App' and 'Whatsapp' and 'Text' would all be free through your existing internet connection and guests visiting your country could have access to those for free too.

Just a thought.

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  Guests can phone or text me, no problem. And I don't see Airbnb messaging or email as "dragging guests down to the lowest communication method available". 

It isn't the cost of Whatapp or anything else that is an issue for me. I simply don't want to have all these accounts which mine one's information and preferences. The less opportunity I give the digital world to subject me to security breaches, the better, IMO.

And I read here on the forums constantly about all the glitches with the Airbnb app. Not exactly the stuff that makes me want to use it. I've never had any communication glitches with guests in over 3 years of hosting using the desktop version.

To me, others who insist that I use the same communication methods they are so enamored of is like them expecting me to provide them with a mattress of their choice.

[Emilia42]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

Ditto to what @Sarah977 said. I don't experience any of these glitches either . . . they are all on the app.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Emilia42 

I find more problems with their desktop interface rather than the App. Only half the Airbnb system works on the desktop and then I have to change to different browsers to access different parts. Messaging is far easier on the App and you get the whole message rather than a truncated message which I receive via text.

If I didn't use the App, I wouldn't be able to include location plans (photos) with saved Direction messages as a PC doesn't allow the addition of photos. This makes places far easier to find and even where to park cars. X marks the spot (if they care to read).

[Emilia42]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

That is true. I don't have access to the app so I don't know anything about what I have never used. But I do find that many of the issues or questions that hosts write about on this forum are related to the guest not getting the check-in communication through the app or missing messages. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 

I like the App. Especially for messaging as its immediate. Every correspondence with guests goes through that including the sending and receiving of photographs, in fact - you can't send photographs via messaging on PC, only by the App.

I would guess that you could set email notifications to 'bing' on your phone to inform of an incoming email, but in most situations the frequency of email arrivals would sound like a pinball machine going off in your pocket... 'bing, bing, bing, bing,...... bing'

Generally, it is prudent to cater your service to your audience and not criticise your audience because they don't conform to your own way of working.

Lol at that mattress choice group! Then when they saw the sauna where the matress toppers were stored they tried everything to get to use it :-).

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  I've been receiving text notifications to my phone of guest messages, inquiries and requests since I began hosting. Aside from a tech glitch which lasted for a month where they stopped sending those, it's gone without a hitch. And I've also been sending guests photos and a map to my place via email since I started hosting, also without a glitch. And no, I am not in a hosting situation where my phone is going off like a pinball machine- I don't have one-nighters, most of my guest stays are a week-2 weeks, I host a private room in my home, so guests don't need to contact me about any issues during a stay, and my viable booking season is only about 5-6 months. And not one guest has ever complained about me not using the app or Whatsapp, in fact many of them don't use them either.

I have never had to change bowsers to access all the features on the desktop version, and I just go to my Airbnb message stream when I get a notification of a guest message- the text message or email about it is always a truncated version, it's just a notification , not a real message, so what?

So what I have been doing for over 3 years works just fine, believe it or not. One size doesn't fit all.

[Helen350]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 I can assure you MY communication with guests is 10/10 at all times! My Polish guest, resident in UK, who marked me down for communication was CLUELESS, - HE made NO attempt to contact me after booking. I sent him a message at time of booking, asking what time he would arrive, plus a note that this was an Airbnb 'thing'. No reply! So I sent another message, the day before arrival - NO REPLY! Guest arrived saying he got my messages but CHOSE  not to reply because he'd have had to log in with fb or email & didn't want to!. He said he did not want to phone cos the number airbnb gave was a landline! (Which I sit next to most of the day!) This guest DID NOT WANT TO COMMUNICATE! He ignored me when I asked what he did for a living (making conversation), tho' did proffer his hospital ID on arrival. I attempted conversation, he gave nothing back. I'd asked him to upload a photo, & biography, - he didn't. 

COMMUNICATION WAS A ONE WAY STREET with this guest - with it ALL coming from me, both before & after arrival.

- I completely agree with @Sarah977 's response to your provocative suggestion we use Whatsapp, @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 .  I don't know what Whatsapp is, & I don't feel the need to find out! I pay enough for quality BT Complete Wifi, so multiple guests can stream whatever, I'd rather spend my extremely modest income on theatre tickets! 😛

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Helen350 

- I completely agree with @Sarah977 's response to your provocative suggestion we use Whatsapp, @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 .  I don't know what Whatsapp is, & I don't feel the need to find out! 

It was @Sarah977 who mentioned WhatsApp. And I'm not being provocative in mentioning it. What I am saying is that you need to be able to communicate with guests in WHATEVERWAY they want to communicate and not drag them from their way of communication to yours. They certainly are not expecting a host to be sat near a landline awaiting a telephone call. THEY do not communicate like that anymore. If the general public were to put themselves in that position, I don't think they would contact a landline either. Nowadays, its almost inconceivable to talk to anybody on a landline.. 'Talk to anybody' - even - being probably the most apt.

I would never and have provocatively suggested you used WhatsApp for communication with guests. I would have more provocatively suggested using the message App. WhatsApp is just an option.

I have used WhatsApp in correspondence for Airbnb, not as a host but as a guest. The host contacted me in Turkey via WhatsApp whilst he too was in Turkey contacting me via his German phone number using the accommodation WiFi. So that too does work pretty well.

Your guest did seem like a divvy.

[Helen350]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 I'm very tech-phobic & easily frightened.... 🙂 - No hard feelings! - I guess you were trying to help!

Yes, guest was a divvy! - Glad we can agree on something!

- I don't know why Airbnb gives guests my landline, not my mobile...... When I signed up 3 years ago I gave landline first then mobile (as was the norm!) THEN when guests phoned  landline, I changed the order, so my mobile appeared first... For some reason Airbnb still give guests the landline, not the mobile...

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Helen350 

- I don't know why Airbnb gives guests my landline, not my mobile...... When I signed up 3 years ago I gave landline first then mobile (as was the norm!) THEN when guests phoned  landline, I changed the order, so my mobile appeared first... For some reason Airbnb still give guests the landline, not the mobile...

Maybe something useful might result from this exchange and improve communication somehow.

[Helen350]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 No need to be so rude & unpleasant!

I have excellent communication skills, but at nearly 60 years old, I don't do all the modern technology. The Airbnb message page is a more than adequate vehicle for communication - AND it's what Airbnb recommend so they can monitor in case of dispute. Much simpler to have ONE system then everyone knows where to go & messages are not lost elsewhere. My aforementioned guest's problems were that he booked, then thought he could turn up when he liked, like a hotel, having ZERO concept of how Airbnb works, nor it seems, of social niceties, - & he had a strong desire to AVOID communication at all costs. (Some hosts would have cancelled.)

@Sarah977 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Helen350 

Factual.

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  Strongly advocating for one tech method of communication over another, that works just fine for other people, is kind of like those people who insist on using a "washing up bowl" instead of the sink itself. They have all kinds of rationales for why they use it, none of which make sense to me, as I don't see the point of putting a container that holds water into another container that holds water (the sink itself), having one more thing to wash the grease and food bits out of, and finding a place to store it when not in use, not to mention having to lift it out of the sink if you need to use the sink. But they will defend its usefulness to the bitter end.

It's a matter of preference and what one has found works just fine for them.