Need advice on review of New Guest

[M199]

I would appreciate advice from experienced hosts.

I have a booking that departs tomorrow.  We gladly take newbies.

Our current "newbie" guest booked booked for a party of 4. Her and husband and nieces.  Ok fine.

On arrival, no nieces, they are in Columbia and can't travel due to Covid (no previous information about this). The guest then on booking in meet up told me that another couple was joining them on their 14 day vacation (3 nights with us then camping elsewhere).  I questioned the newbie recent account and no reviews during my house tour.  The spouse did most of the talking and also mentioned that he had an Airbnb account (didn't  get the profile name).  Claims she set up her account to book part of the vacation.  He also  claimed that he has only given a host in Barcelona a negative review due to jackhammer work in the area.

Sorry for the long winded story, ultimately communicating was ok and everything else appears ok (we own the property next door, so visual inspections without appearing to works well)

Does any host have a suggestion how to honestly review and how should answer "would you host this guest again"?

I  am thinking that it is minor issues  but that I should send a private response. 

Feedback appreciated! I want to be fair.

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@M199  Unfortunately travel plans do change on occasion and people "fill in." As long as the number of guests does not exceed the number allowed and other rules are not broken (like turning it into a third party reservation) we allow the change to go on without making a deal about it. If nothing else happens and the home is left in good condition then we would host again and give a good rating. About the only thing we might do is give a "4" for communication.

[Sarah977]

@M199   I had a bit of a hard time deciphering your post. The part about the negative review he left and why his wife booked seemed to come out of nowhere, with no backstory.

As the guests haven't left yet, it's jumping the gun a bit to decide about the review, as you don't know yet if they will leave things in good order.

And if you feel she should have asked ahead of time, rather than told you on arrival about the change of guests, which I agree she should have, it seems you didn't say anything at all about that when she told you? 

Personally, I feel if a guest does something you take exception to, it isn't fair to call them out on it in a public review, if you declined to say anything in the moment. I would have said "Oh. Well, guests should really let hosts know ahead of time if there is going to be a change of guests, even if the change doesn't affect the guest count. But you probably didn't realize that. I hope you all have a nice time together."

So no, I wouldn't mention it in the public review, but I would private message her to let her know that if there is any change to what a guest has told a host about their booking, like who will be staying, it is considered good protocol to let the host know that before arrival and make sure it's okay.

[Gillian19]

@M199 If accommodation is self-contained then I'm not sure why it matters who stays as long as they 'fit' within the house rules. If it were me I would not be bothered to let anyone know if the actual people staying changed between booking and staying.

[Robin4]

@M199 

Manina,  actions speak louder than words! You and John are doing just great, I know accepting guests has become a real guessing game on Airbnb but I have found some of my best guests were either newbies or guests who had difficulty understanding the way Airbnb operates. 

The fact that this guest has communicated well with you indicates they are trying to do the right thing.....they are involving you in their plans, not trying to go behind your back!

Their plans have changed and they have had to tailor their stay on the run. They didn't want to cancel, they wanted to adapt to make the stay work.  Don't pre-judge them at this stage of the piece, wait until the stay has ended, see how they leave your property.

The important thing is not whether they have a bag of good past reviews! Were they good guests, did they leave your property well......take some time to think about the overall experience, would you host them again? 

And then review them on that basis.

Cheers........Rob 

[John5097]

I wouldn't say anything and update your rules to me more clear. They do say, no unauthorized guest, but could include:

No unauthorized guest. Names or relationship of each guest must be included and updated if there are any changes. (For example, "My husband and two children would like to stay at your place." Is fine.) 

Phrase it however you want. A lot of host don't require names of guest to be included. I think I would send private message. Columba does still have a lot of covid. They are probably just doing their best. 

I'd also suggest asking any questions about lack of reviews before accepting the reservation. In short I always keep updating things to make it more clear for guest. 

In this case, I would have said, "That's fine. Thank you so much for keeping the reservation and  I'm so sorry Columbia is having so many recent cases, but moving forward its a good to keep host updated on any changes." 

They may have been afraid you were about to cancel the reservation while they were checking in, over why they didn't have any reviews.  

[M199]

Thank you all for your comments.  Got me back into perspective.