Need help writing a review

Leanne232
Level 2
Alberta, Canada

Need help writing a review

Hi all,

 

I'm fairly new at the hosting experience.  I recently had a guest I'm struggling to write a review for after a 29 day stay.  For the most part, he was a great guest - quiet, self-sufficient with no drama and left the place in pretty good condition.  He left a few days ago and now I  have been trying to think about how I should review him.  The one thing I'm not thrilled with is that my house rules state no smoking, vaping or drugs.  I have security cameras that clearly show him vaping inside the house as he opens up an exterior door and blows the vapor outside.  I also see him walking into the property with the video doorbell with a giant vaporizer in hand.  My understanding is that vaping doesn't do harm like smoking does so I thought I'll leave it and see how this turns out.  I also didn't want to make him feel like I was spying with video surveillance.  This guest had rave reviews of 5.0 from 8 other past hosts and he was able to book my property via the Instant Book feature (recommended by another host). 

 

So...... How would you rate this guest and what kind of comment would you leave for other hosts to be aware of without it sounding malicious or mean?  I feel it necessary to let other hosts know about this, but fear backlash in not giving him the 5.0 he's received in the past.  I was so excited to have such a guest with his reviews stay with us but was disappointed after he broke a significant house rule.  

1 Reply 1

@Leanne232 It sounds like the guest was taking the vaporizer outside to adhere to your rule, but felt like blowing out the door was a sufficient amount of effort. Sounds a bit lazy, but not something worth mentioning in the review when by all measures he was a great guest.

 

Instead, I recommend refining the way you communicate your smoking policy. If you just say "no smoking anywhere," smokers will simply improvise a workaround, but if you designate the nearest place where they can smoke (even if it's off the premises) they tend to comply. Even better would be to set up a comfortable smoking nook outdoors, with a bit of seating and a safe receptacle for butts. I'm afraid it's not realistic to cater to groups of up to 6 adults and have exclusively non-smokers as guests.

 

Unrelated, but you should immediately delete the text in your House Rules that says "no Ethnic foods," as this verbiage stinks of discrimination. What food isn't "ethnic" to somebody? If the problem that you're trying to solve is residual kitchen odor, it's best to require them to fully ventilate the kitchen during and after cooking; leaving at least a full day between bookings also helps. But if you're offering use of a kitchen, you don't get to micromanage guests' food choices - especially in a way that comes across as a racial microagression.