New guests

[Clau4255]

Dear hosts: We are in a disastrous period for our work and economic activity, but we have already known that for almost a year. The loss of opportunity in the tourism sector in European countries has been very serious. I speak of Europe because it is where I experience it, but I understand that the whole world is very affected by this ruinous situation. I have been able to experience an amazing change in the quality of our guests lately. In the last 7 months I have not had tourists as guests, I have had people with very strange expectations and who do not resemble our regular customers at all. By this I mean that the quality of our guests has radically worsened.
I have had horrible experiences as a hostess that never happened in normal times. The worst of them ended with the intervention of the police, but, oddly enough, it was not the most negative. The most negative has been the one that made me lose my superhost level, because of an individual who only wanted to get a free stay from him. He, he Not only he made it. He was very meticulous in creating evidences that Airbnb found good. It is very sad that Airbnb did not support me and did not consider my review history. Nor did they do anything when this "fantastic hesped" sent me insults in the form of gestures within private messages. Clear! Only I can see them.
In short, as I was telling you, the profile of our guests has changed dramatically, as well as our income. The cheaper we have to sell, the worse the profile of our guests will be, but curiously they will also demand a lot more than a normal guest. I think it is time for Airbnb to consider this and pay more attention to what actually happens. We don't have tourists, but instead we have opportunists. The support we are given is not really enough, despite what Airbnb tells us. We put 80% of the infrastructure of this business, however I have felt that Airbnb has not taken care of me.

[Helen3]

Sorry to hear of your experience certainly many decent guests aren't travelling for leisure during Covid if you combine that with lowering your prices then you will sadly attract a not very nice type of guest. @Clau4255 

Can you tell us what the situation was with the guest you mention.? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Clau4255 If the guest was so bad why did you not leave a review to warn other hosts of his behaviour?

[Clau4255]

I did.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Clau4255 If it was for an Englishman called Christopher then it has been deleted I am afraid.

[Clau4255]

Yes

[Helen350]

If the bad guest did not review @Clau4255 , then we have no access to the bad guest's profile & review @Mike-And-Jane0 !

If it was Christopher from Northern Ireland, Clau explains at the end of her long reply to his review why she did not review him.

Of course, Christopher's  future hosts will now never know of Clau's bad experience, as they won't have access to her profile & her expose of him there.

[Clau4255]

Yes @Helen350 , I was really upset and didn't want rewie him. My fault. But I learned now and will never let it go again. But life is long and this kind of people will never change. He will give another chanceand hopefully next host wont let him do this again.

[Pat271]

I looked at your listings, and only saw one bad review (and that reviewer was clearly a scammer), out of dozens of glowing reviews. Am I missing something?

[Helen350]

I spotted at least 3 reviews (using translate feature) where the guest expressed disapointment that they did not get the whole apartment (which they were wrongly expecting!) I guess they see the pics of the pool and assume it's a standard holiday apartment, not YOUR home!

@Clau4255 Your place looks gorgeous, and this is not a criticism, but I would advise putting a very explicit sentance in your listing description such as "This is not an 'entire place' listing, it is my own home and I live here! For this reason there is no kitchen access.  Because  it's my own  residence, I do not  have locks on bedroom doors, as is normal in private dwellings. There may be other guests around during your stay." - Or any other disclaimer, based on things people have criticised you for recently because they didn't read the details properly!

- When I myself took this approach with my own private rooms in my own house, my ratings went up, and dissatisfied customers who wrongly expected the whole place for the price of a cheap room went down! 

@Pat271 

[Clau4255]

Hello  @Pat271 :

Thank you for you compliment and also your advices. Will take note of all of those. Thank you so much.

[Clau4255]

Hello @Pat271 :

Yes it is. I am glad I am not the only one that can see it clearly. Thank you  Pat. The pity is Airbnb don´t see it with the same eye. Very sad.

[Sarah977]

@Clau4255   I agree with @Helen350. Many guests just look at the pretty pictures and the price and don't thoroughly read the listing information.

Change your cover photos-  make the cover photo the room itself, not the pool. Show the private guest areas first in your photo gallery, and picture the common shared- use amenities last. 

I think this will help a lot as far as guests who don't understand that they are booking a private room in the host's home where they also live and there may be other guests.

[Pete69]

1 bad review doesn't negate all of your rave reviews.

[Clau4255]

Sure Pete, but I lost my superhost status because of it. And also  the guy has the support of Airbnb to keep on insulting me in private messages, so I hate.