Paranoid about hosting

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

Paranoid about hosting

Along with everyone else, I are seeing an ever increasing number of negative posts.

I want to help but these days on the Community Centre we seemed to faced with an ever increasing number of hostile posts.

 

I have seen my fair share of adversity, I have had to watch my wife Ade go progressively downhill, I am slowly loosing her to MS.

Two years ago I had to sit across a Neurologists desk as he told another of my girls she has MS....what th, this is 'Groundhog day'!

But it is not all bad, you do get to turn your life around and make the most out of it when faced with these challenges.

Ade and I have travelled to just about all parts of the earth, and we never would have done that if it had not been for the MS! We needed to do it while we could!

Kate and I....wow we have shared some moments.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO39w91qntI

I never would have done that if I had not had to deal with some serious challenges that have come my way.

 

I love my hosting, sure the odd little ripple appears on the pond every now and then, but Airbnb has been a wonderful part of my life and my life would have been so much the poorer had I not gone down this path!

 

We must make the best of our hosting and I hope I can inspire a few good stories!

 

Cheers.....Rob

 

43 Replies 43
Victoria567
Level 10
Scotland, United Kingdom

Hello @Lett0i

The guest did not review me but I reviewed the guest and the review is under her review listings for other hosts to see.

 

Victoria567
Level 10
Scotland, United Kingdom

Hi@Robin

I have been fortunate in that I’ve been blessed with fabulous guests, some of whom I correspond with still, as I’ve had some fabulous laughs with them, usually at breakfast time whilst I’m cooking, for them, in my enormous family kitchen.

 

But I’ve had to really tighten up my house rules this season, to the point that I feel like Atilla the Hen as each rule has been the reaction to someone’s actions.

 

I have only written 2 negative reviews in 3 seasons, I’m quite easy going until there is poor guest behaviour, that I have to honestly comment on.

 

One last year around late June/ early July was my first negative review for a party of guests......my industrial laundry set, and again I went for the humourous approach.....( I may think Im being funny, when I get cross,  but dear Mr Victoria, thinks that my sarcasm in full flow, is one of my less attractive traits and my kids groan MUM!  you are NOT funny!)

 

This year my second negative review, was early this September, and it is there for you to read, if you can be bothered, as it has not been deleted.

 

I decided to take the humourous sarcastic approach with this one too, whilst including the facts, in the hope that my comments would jolt,  said entitled besom, that this was really NOT on, to refuse payment.

 

If she had even said, look I cant afford a tenner, I’d have understood.

It was the impertinent entitled reply via air bnb resolution that boiled my onion!

 

It is true @Robin0 that when it comes to non payment for services rendered, us Scots generally can be as tight as 2 coats of paint.

 

On the other hand when we welcome you into our home, particularly here in Speyside, many of us, will give you the shirt off our backs.

 

But our onions get well boiled, when someone takes the shirt off our backs, in an entitled fashion.....it’s a wee national quirk, many of us have.

 

This August .....for whatever reason I had my significant share of allergies, food intolerances, allergies in a 2 week period than I’ve encountered in over 3 decades working for the NHS.

My favourite was the boyfriend with the mushroom allergy which I mentioned on another thread, as this bloke was basically coming the bag!

 

I know I have slated you for the wishy washy review, it’s not me wanting to be horrible to you, as you sound a great host and general all round good egg.

Its just that there seems to be a lot of guests bouncing around from unsuspecting host to host and some hosts are worried about their air bnb income, not wanting to rick the good ship air bnb, and having to put up with some unacceptable nonsense from guests with stellar reviews.

 

 

Victoria567
Level 10
Scotland, United Kingdom

Hi @Robin0

My review was not caustic, it was factual and it’s still up there.

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Victoria567

Well as the guest chose not to review you, your review is useless.....how do we find it, do we wade through the 5.7 million guests who stayed in an Airbnb listing in September to come across it by careful cross-referencing each guest review with your listing?????

Seriously Victoria, you need to come up with something a little bit better than that!!

I am over this!

 

Rob

Victoria567
Level 10
Scotland, United Kingdom

Hi@Robin

My factual review is not useless. 

 

It will be seen by any future hosts that this guest asks to book with.

Therefore it will be useful, to those hosts who have any future interaction with this entitled cheapskate.

 

At least I hope you read some better style of reviews, to help you on your self proclaimed quest, to continue onwards and upwards regarding your learning curve.

 

Particularly, when it comes to writing a factual review!

 

Patricia55
Level 10
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Reviews are not something I relish doing, in general. For Airbnb guests, I write them because I feel I should, but I've written so many now that it's become fairly automatic and formulaic. On a scale of 1 to 10, I reckon our guests have all been 8 to 10 - how lucky are WE?!  But for some guests who've been exceptionally fabulous (engaging, considerate, interesting, generous people), I take much pleasure in reviewing them in very positive terms 🙂

 

Probably because we're on-site hosts (therefore able to keep tabs on guests) and in our 60s (younger guests are maybe a little more respectful, due to our age?), we just haven't experienced any of the egregious behaviour I've read about on many threads here. (Touch wood.) I feel very lucky and also think that, if we DID experience horrendous behaviour, we'd be shocked to the core and would be struggling to deal with it, let alone come up with a rational review! Therefore, kudos to you, @Robin4, for your ability to cope with the difficult guest you had recently, in a compassionate way, and to bounce back. This has been a good lesson in perspective for me... in the face of receiving a series of 4-star ratings recently from – you guessed it – the “I couldn't possibly give 5-star” types, LOL! I could carry on ranting on that topic, but I won't ...;)

 

Happy hosting 🙂

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Patricia55

Thanks Patricia, and you make a good point, because you are an 'on-site host' like I am,  and sort of appoaching my age, the guests we get are in general going to be a lot more respectful and because of our 'hands on' style it is going to be easier for us to have nice experiences, and I feel we have a real advantage over remote hosts who do not have that personal contact with the guest! 

You have obviously found out, you do build up a raport with your guests when you can look them in the eye and shake their hand, and it is a fact of life, people do not like fighting with people they like!

 

Those odd 4 stars are annoying Patricia but there is nothing we can do about it. You don't mind when you can actually learn something from them but for me, most of them seem to be like this recent one....

 

another four.png

It doesn't give me a lot to work on does it!

I seem to get one like this about every ten reviews, nothing wrong, but just not perfection!

 

Good on you Patricia and it's nice to hear you are going to well with your hosting and that is why I started this thread, to hear some nice experiences...I didn't expect to have a 'Jack Russell' nipping at my heels all the way throught it but, there you go. Like those diffficult guests...we deal with it, hey!

 

Cheers......Rob

 

Patricia55
Level 10
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Aye, Robin, for hosts like us, it's as much about the rapport as it is about the business side... I know what you mean: constructive criticism is absolutely fine... unfortunately, I haven't really learned much from the 4-starrers either!! Well, I've profiled 'em, and they're one-nighters, middle-aged, middle-class, monied.. maybe a little snobbish?! So, I've tweaked our listing in a couple of ways so as to discourage them, in the hope they'll give us a wide berth!! It feels a bit mean to do that, because I don't like to pre-judge people, but nor do I like to be judged afterwards (when I didn't claim to be offering anything more than we do ;))

All the best, and happy hosting!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Patricia55

Pat, you can almost always tell what they are going to be like by the way they come to you!

They will either compliment you on your property and just want to pay and stay.....or they will want to ask a lot of questions....'We have a 1956 Chevrolet Belair we have lovingly restored, can we use your personal garage to make sure 'the beast' is securely under lock and key for the night"??

Never mind my dear little Honda (Honylamb) that I love to bits that will have to sit out on the street....it's all about their bloody 56 Chev!......Nah, bugger off and find another host to exploit, it won't be me! When you use a hosting site you meld into the hosts environment.....not have the host meld into yours!

I have come to pick them pretty well Pat!

 

Cheers......Rob

Patricia55
Level 10
Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

@Robin4

Haha, did someone really ask you to vacate your garage to house their own car?! That's taking entitlement to a different level 😉 I love it that you tell 'em where to go!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Patricia55

 

off Street parking.png

 

Need I say any more!

 

Cheers.....Rob

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

@Robin4, Honylamb! sweet.  I used to have a car called Butch Barbie (courtesy of my then German exchange student who thought it looked like a butch version of the Barbie car). My present car just goes under the no name of ''her'' or ''the toolbox''.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Sandra126

 

Actually she is 'Honitwo' Sandra.....I would never drive anything but a Honda. This was Honylamb...

 

IMG20180623153757.jpg

We did 300,000 Kms in her and she never gave a moments trouble so she was always going to be replaced with an updated version so this was it. Have got up over 100,000 Kms up in this one but once again, not a hint of trouble.

IMG20180820162017.jpg

And the beauty of this one Sandra being all leather interior I can just open the doors and clean the interior with the 'leaf blower' !

 

Cheers.......Rob

 

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

She looks like the kind of girl who appreciates a garage... No way am I showing you the Toolbox!