Odd situation, Need advice.

[GFood0]

     Hi, we recently had a situation of a similar nature.  A gal booked a room for 2 adults, neglecting to mention her child, to avoid paying the fee for the 3rd guest.  The first night she and her husband fought loudly to where I nearly felt the need to call the authorities.  I could hear her demanding to be let out of the room and him telling her to "calm down" and "put it down" then I just heard a crash as she clearly threw whatever it was.

     We have a usual policy of not charging extra for pets to stay and so far everyone has been so respectful of cleaning up after their pets and themselves.  Well they also brought 2 dogs whom were quite sweet.  But later the first night I heard one of the dogs pretty much screeching for 2 full minutes while he kept telling it to "shhhh." 

     The next day they left to look for apartments and just locked the big shepherd in their room and brought the little dog with them.  So when i got to the house to clean the dog was quite frantic to be released, yelping and whining and scratching at the door.  I sent them a message in the app politely asking them to return to the house and tend to their dog then I found something quiet to do until they returned because she quieted down as soon as she didn't hear me moving about. They did apologize right away and returned to the house within 15 mins which was greatly appreciated. 

      They decided to extend their stay from 2 nights to 3 and when I arrived to clean after they checked out I found the top sheet from the bed wrapped around a urine soaked towel in the laundry room, which didn't bother me too much as kids wet beds, it happens.  It might have been cool had they opted to put one of the grey or green towels down rather than the white one but not a huge deal.  The major problem was the poop that was ground into the remaining sheets on the bed and the pillow cases and even under the pillow case on the pillow itself and then left to dry so it clearly hadn't happened just that morning.  I wonder where they slept...? 

     Also I found that one of our lamps shade was ripped off the bent wire frame and the tv mounted to the ceiling was suddenly hanging down at such an angle it looked as though somebody had been trying to watch it from sitting on the floor underneath it, and it swayed when I barely touched it and that was definitely different than it had been.  I need to wait for my boss to come look to know if it's actually damaged or not but I guess we are just left wondering what to do in this situation.  We don't want a bad review, but we also don't want to mislead other hosts into thinking things were swell, and the damages caused.  My boss thought that i should just give a positive review and click on the would not host again at the end, but when it comes to the stars for cleanliness and following house rules?  I am not sure what to do. 

     We are so new to this, we just gained the super host title and we have all of 7 reviews so far.... one negative one would make a rather large impact.  At the moment we are working hard at getting more bookings, so it seems like maybe we should just try to stay positive and hope for a better future.   I did go in and made sure I changed his settings on the listings to require people have uploaded valid ID before they can do an instant booking.  Should I also require hosts referral or set up damage deposits?  Or would that limit the listings too much and cause fewer bookings?  We also have construction happening at the moment in the garage which their room is adjacent to and they were quite easy going about that.  I just feel very conflicted and I don't want to make the wrong move and end up costing my boss any bookings in the future nor do I want to just smile and thank people for leaving poop ground into all of the bedding and not saying a word or requesting it be cleaned so that i might have had a chance to do so before it dried.  I would really appreciate any feedback you guys have on the matter.

[Linda108]

This is your business so whatever you need to do to ensure that there is a good fit between what you offer and expect matches the guest.  If you use Instant Book you should quickly follow up with a message to confirm the guest understands your expectations.  

Do you think your rules cover your expectations adequately?  If you allow pets, usually dogs, how do you inspect what you expect.  For example, do you have rules about guest supervision of pets?

Your questions reflect the newness of this business for you. In general, if you imagine yourself as a guest, what do you need to know?  If there are circumstances that could impact the quality of the guest experience, be sure the guest is aware.

You have made a good move to become educated through this forum, but I am concerned you might be in over your head.  Another source of information is the Help Center.  Keep educating yourself.  Most of us started out really not knowing what we were doing. 😛

[Sarah977]

@GFood0  Your feeling about reviews is correct, and your boss's is not. Why would you give these terrible guests a good review? So other hosts will look at that review if the guest asks to book with them, believe they were good guests, only to have these people do to another host exactly what they did to you?

It's really important to leave honest reviews- not good, not bad, but honest. If the guest had no redeeming features whatsoever, then there's nothing good to say about them- if they communicated well, and were understanding of a noise issue, but left the place a mess, say all that.

You don't need to go into all the details in a review. For guests like these, you could use phrases like "There were several damages found after check-out and far more than usual cleaning time was required" and "Guests engaged in some loud altercations, to the point that we were concerned about their safety." "Large dog was left unattended in the unit and desperate to get out."

Guests cannot see the review you write until they also submit a review, or until 14 days after check-out, at which point, they can no longer leave a review. Reviews are "blind", specifically so a guest or a host can't see the other's review and then give a retaliation review. Also, guests can't see the star ratings they are given, so be as brutal as deserved with those. It's really important for other hosts, especially those who use IB. These guests should definitely not be given anything above a 1* rating for cleanliness.

[GFood0]

Thank you both for your feedback.  I feel much more confidant now in my choice of action.  Thank you.  It was very helpful to know how the reviews work and which parts are visible.  Thank you also for your advice on educating myself.  I am a big believer in education and research.  One of the best things my parent's ever taught me was how to learn.  Thanks again!