Passive aggressive negative review

[Donald225]

Our first five bookings gave us overwhelmingly good reviews with 5 stars across the board.  A friend of my wife who is also a host smiled and told her "Just wait". It wasn't long.  

Late on day 11 of their 13-day stay guest texts to tell me she found "another" bug.  I was horrified and offered to have a pest service over the next day.  Said no, she didn't want to make a big deal of it, just letting me know for future guests.  I apologized profusely and said I wished she had let me know sooner.  

She leaves a two-word review: "nice place" and gives us 3 or 4 stars in every category, destroying our 5.0 rating.

Value: 3 stars - This is high season, but we felt bad for her predicament and gave her a discount.  She shows up in a Porsche. 

Location: 3 stars - The property is in an affluent, quiet residential area on a very nice, tree lined street.  There are million-dollar properties up and down the street. She lives in the area and knows the location.

Accuracy: 4 stars - Our listing is 100% accurate. No professionally staged photos or anything like that.

Communications: 4 stars - I had sent her two "is everything to your satisfaction" texts over the course of their stay.  Positive response each time. Responded to her queries within minutes. 

Cleanliness: 4 stars - AFTER telling me about the bugs, she said "it's a great clean house"

I am furious that she destroyed our 5.0 rating.

They showed up with a dog that wasn't on the booking.  There are two cups and spoons missing.  I gave her a positive review, don't want to sweat the small stuff.

I know nothing can be done about it but I'm torn whether I should reply to the review or not.   

[Ted307]

Step one: Leave an honest review. Tell us other hosts that she showed up with an unauthorized dog, and things went missing. Bill her for those missing items -- you have now learned that the guest will review you poorly, this guest would be best served by a truthful review from her host. Then, the rest of us hosts will be able to decide weather to accept her booking request when the "NEXT Victim" is in her sights.

Since it is too late to leave her the honest review, just block her from booking again. Her two word review will not put off other guests, the star rating will just be confusing to the future guest. Let your place stand on it's own, do not comment on her review, is what I would do.

[Donald225]

Honestly, as guests they were fine.  We accept pets, and I figured that not mentioning the dog was an oversight.  It was a stressful situation for them and I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt unless there's reason not to. The dog didn't cause any issues and they left the place in good condition. 

Figured the missing cups were broken.  Things like that are expected and I'm not going to sweat the small stuff.  It wasn't until later that night, after I had posted the review, that my wife told me two spoons were also missing.  Maybe one of them took the cups and spoons to work and forgot to bring them back.  Minor stuff in the big picture.  As I said, they were fine guests in all other respects

It's the review that blindsided me.  If the had complained about something, it would be different but they said several times how nice the place was, how clean it was, etc.  

[Ted307]

We had one renter who brought a dog without telling us, he never responded to our messages, either. I believe it was to avoid our very reasonable $25.00 fee. Such people are just the type to leave a picky review and damage, in my opinion.

Your rating is still pretty good, avoiding locals is difficult now with Covid keeping travelers close to home. Your place looks really nice, maybe Higher rates are in order, to keep out such rif-raff!

[Mary4782]

Exactly! I totally agree with you.

[Mark116]

@Donald225  Its fine for hosts who don't want to make waves to leave neutral reviews of mediocre guests, but you should really not say you recommend a guest to other hosts who snuck in a dog and who damaged items without telling you, even if they were unimportant things like cups/spoons...although you may find those eventually.

There is no reason to reply to a  review that says nice place.  You can certainly send her a message if you feel its worth it that you are disappointed to get such low ratings when no complaints were ever made during more than a week.

[Donald225]

Well, as I said in another reply, we do accept pets.  Whether it was an oversight or in their minds they were sneaking in the pet I couldn't say.  I don't think sending her a message would accomplish anything.  I'm just concerned that people looking at our place are going to now see a 4.8 rating instead of 5, which we worked very hard for and which is, in my opinion, totally unwarranted. 

I do expect that people will read the reviews and come to their own conclusions though.  But dinging us for value, communications, accuracy, etc. Is totally unwarranted. If they had made suggestions for improvement, that would be a different story but every comment from them was positive. 

[Laura2592]

@Donald225 at least it happened early in the going. You didn't lose any superhost status and you have a lot of opportunity to get a better score. Keeping solid '5s' should really not be anyone's goal. I know ABB makes it seem like it is the be all end all, and I would be lying if I said that a 4 didn't sting when I got one. But keep things in perspective. You are a new host. Your first guests will be the most trying. And you can learn from this.

So what can you do differently?

1. No listing is guaranteed against the occasional insect. Put something in your house rules to that effect-- that you have a pest service and do your best to remediate but every now and again a stray insect might get in-- that you do not offer discounts nor refunds when this happens.
2. No discounts, period. Guests who ask are often the people who least need them and will be the most trouble. Stick to your pricing. Learn to say no.
3. Honest reviews. My review for this guest would be something like the following: "Guest was polite and communicative about issues they encountered. Had some trouble with some of our house rules including bringing a pet to our non pet friendly space. Generally left the place clean. Not a guest who we would have back as we are not pet friendly." Saying nothing does zero to warn other hosts. 

[Donald225]

I wonder though if mentioning about occasional insects would potentially turn people off.  Anyone who has spent time in South Florida knows about bugs, but still, it's not something pleasant to think about when you're planning a vacation. 

We didn't give a huge discount, but the booking did fill a 13 day hole that was quickly coming up, and we figured something was better than zero.  Had it been further out, we probably would have said no. 

The review was honest.  We are pet friendly and I don't know that not mentioning the dog was intentional.  Aside from the missing cups, they were good guests.  I didn't think that was significant enough to mention, but maybe I'm wrong about that. 

[Laura2592]

@Donald225 the more clear you can make your rules, the fewer problems you will have. Not everyone will read them. But if you have a dispute, Airbnb will only enforce what is in your house rules. Guests can absolutely complain about bugs upon seeing a single fly indoors and if its not stated that this is what might happen, you can lose your whole payout AND get a poor review. The rules need to state what is acceptable in your space and anything you don't want to get called out for by a sneaky guest. Because they are out there. I have never thought that mentioning insects being present on my wooded rural property would turn off a guest, but if there are people who don't book because nature exists I consider that a bullet well dodged.

We are also pet friendly and state we want to know if pets are coming no matter what. The cleaning protocol is different. Having pets arrive do not result in additional charges to guests, but we need to be prepared when turning over. If a guest "accidentally" says nothing, I mention in the review "Guest had some trouble following house rules and disclosing that pets were visiting." That allows hosts to come after me to be extra careful to ask the guest what they are doing. Remaining mum on these matters helps no one. 

I don't mention missing items unless they are over $50 or something that contributes to the decor. I do mention damage that requires some kind of 3rd party to repair, poor communication and lack of attention to the rules of the space in reviews. I would want to know this as a fellow host before opening my doors. We have had close to 200 stays at this point and these policies have developed over time as there is no teacher like experience. 

A "13 day hole" in a new listing during winter is not anything to worry about. Calm down on the concern about being fully booked. Desperation leads to poor fits with guests as you are finding out. A vacancy is better than a crappy experience. 

[Donald225]

Good points.  The whole reason I posted this message in the first place was to hopefully learn from others who have more experience than we do. 

I guess I'll add a short note about bugs in the house rules.  Thing is, she really didn't make a big stink over it and didn't ask for any refund or complained to Airbnb (I imagine I'd be contacted by now if that were the case). I really have no idea if that's why she left us poor ratings.  

Winter is high season here in Florida, so a 13 day hole is significant.  We've only been listed since early December, otherwise I suspect we would have been fully booked (other comparable properties are) .  But they really weren't bad guests at all, they just left a bad review.  I'm sure it won't be the last time, as my wife's friend warned. 

[Laura2592]

@Donald225 sometimes these folks are other hosts who want to take down the competition if you are in an area with a lot of vacation homes. It is easy to book stays with a mate or partner and never have your account linked to them. I would not be surprised if this was someone trying to undermine your listing, though a 13 day stay seems like a long time to do so. Did you look to see what other feedback this guest left previous hosts?

[Sarah977]

@Donald225  "She lives in the area and knows the location."

Don't rent to locals. Don't agree to discounts.

And most importantly, don't leave good reviews for bad guests. Now unsuspecting hosts will believe  your good review and get stuck with her and get their ratings tanked just like you did. 

Always leave honest reviews. It's a huge disserevice to other hosts to do otherwise. How would you like to get a bad guest becaause other hosts had left a dishonest review?

[Donald225]

Why not rent to locals?  Our first guest was a lovely young woman who needed a place to stay until she closed on her new house.  She was a great guest and gave us a glowing review. 

As I said in other replies, they were good guests. My review was not dishonest!

Should I have said something about the missing cups?  Seemed trivial to mention something like that; who hasn't broken a cup at some point?  I don't consider my review "dishonest" because of that.

We are dog friendly, and I can't say that the dog wasn't just an oversight.  I don't think speculating on someone's intentions should be part of a honest review, unless there's strong evidence to support that conclusion. 

[Gillian166]

agree about the cups. In my checkout msg I say "please inform us of any breakages or wear and tear", hopefully guests know i'm not going to get upset over a broken mug!  (although breaking up a set is super annoying, how long before my cupboard is full of mismatched mugs, lol)