Post lockdown super critical guests?

[Alexandra199]

Anyone else noticed that since opening up again after lockdown guests seem to be over critical and more than willing to mark down for everything and anything?

I have  had consistently good reviews until we were shut down and reopened at the beginning of July. Since then, I have had lots pf requests for discounts and guests trying to bargain with me for their stay. I have decided not to agree to these because as this is my business and I am trying to recoup the losses I have incurred from lockdown. I am pleased to say I have had excellent occupancy.

I have however noticed that guests seem to want to find reasons to find fault. These are really little things but it is becoming noticeable and ever review I receive is getting stressful. They seem to leave a pleasant description of their experience and then hit me with 4 stars in the categories and a  private note saying what they felt was wrong. The last guest decided to tell me that a second toilet would have been useful in a cottage that is advertised as having one bathroom...she marked me down for value because the cottage had one toilet? Really? 

I'm getting really fed up of guests thinking they should be getting more and more. Is it just me?

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  I would say there is a third option to "suck it up" or "hold the guest accountable and suffer a bad review". It very much depends on the personality and approach of the host as well as the guest. But the one time I had to call a guest out for bad behavior, it didn't result in a bad review, in fact, she didn't bother to review at all. And calling her out also didn't damage my relationship with her for the rest of the stay. 

I've mentioned this story before and you probably remember it, but I provide it again as an example of what I'm saying here.

The guest booked for one (which is all I host at a time in my private room) and stumbled home loud and drunk with a man at 3 AM her first night here. I wasn't going to get up and make a stink in the middle of the night, but as soon as I got up the next morning and found her already out for the day(she had 4 more days on her booking) I sent her a message saying what she'd done wasn't cool, they had woken me up at 3AM, that she had booked for one and that I only host one guest at a time. She replied right away, apologized, then said she'd like him to stay (was apparently a "friend with benefits" rather than someone she'd just picked up at the bar) and that she'd pay more. I said that wasn't an option, but that if she wanted to invite him over during the day for awhile to hang out, and introduce him to me, that would be alright, but he couldn't sleep, shower or cook here.

She never did have him back, we never spoke of it again, and got along fine for the rest of her stay. A few hours before she left, when we were both in the kitchen, she said "You know, I think you and I are a lot alike". I never did know what exactly she meant by that, but calling her out on her disrespect, by simply stating the facts and my firm position, didn't result in anything negative, nor did I "suck it up".

There are ways to talk to people which tend to make them defensive or aggressive, and ways that don't. "I'm feeling disrespected" can elicit a very different response than "You're disrespecting me".

[Madelene3]

@Robin4 

Thank you so much for your encouragement! It does help to hear from other hosts.

I'm just hosting for a very short time... less a year and it's already starting to wear me down!!! I admire for all long-time hosts that are doing so well with all 5*.

Yes! I will review "all" guests moving forward....

[Katrina79]

@Madelene3 Yes I completely understand the frustration! What I know now is that one bad review for a host who has many more positive reviews doesn’t hurt the host so much. But one very negative review for a guest can almost destroy their chances of staying at their preferred accommodation. So always use the power of your review if you have had a negative experience with a guest. Very good advice was offered by @Sarah977 so you can learn from this one experience and move on. 

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  It's a vicious circle, though, isn't it? If you are low in the search rankings, guests are less likely to find your listing, therefore you have less views. So the places that are near the top stay near the top and the places that have lower ranking will tend to stay there as well.

Regarding filtering for price- a guest told me she had to keep upping the price parameter to much more than I charge before she saw my place at all (she had searched 4 times already). So Airbnb shows guests higher priced places than what we charge in the hopes they'll book those, which of course means higher guest fees for Airbnb.

[Michelle53]

I'm going to buck the trend, here, and say that, actually, my guests have been much nicer !

However - and this is a big however - I'm having fewer stays with more days blocked between, screening much harder, and working much harder between guests, with cleaning. 

Since we have a list of states that require folks quarantine for 14 days, I have to get a list of Covid questions answered, and verify the state that folks are coming from. 

This is an ever-changing list, too, so if guests are booking a few weeks out, I never know if their state is going to be added or removed from the list, so I can only go by the current week's data. 

But, once we get through all that, the guests have been lovely.  Maybe it's because of the added screening - I've declined several that would probably have ended up staying last year, because things were turning over much faster. 

[Sarah977]

You know, @Michelle53, it's interesting what you've posted here because I think you've found out something that has little to do with COVID. 

I have never used IB,  always screen my guests,  have always had a one day prep block, a 3 day minimum stay, 2 day advance notice, and have never been focused on having a full occupancy rate. I haven't been able to host since March in my home-share because of COVID, but I've always gotten lovely guests. Some better than others, but never a guest who was any real problem.

It seems to me that a lot of the reports I read of bad guests are either due to IB and the host not communicating much with the guest right away, and not doing adequate vetting, or the hosts trying to keep the place full all the time, and accepting guests they maybe shouldn't ("Yes, he had a bad review, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt"), and taking last-minute bookings, because earning as much as possible is the motivating factor, which isn't necessarily the best one if you want to have a hassle-free business.

It's always seemed better to me to have less guests, but the ones you do get cause no damages (which of course can make the whole booking payment profit disappear if you can't get paid for the damage), don't leave bad, complaining or lying reviews, don't scam for refunds, and are generally a pleasure to deal with. I.e. quality over quantity.

[Michelle53]

@Sarah977  I've also changed my booking parameters, now that I think about it. Longer advance notice - although previously, most of my bookings were quite far ahead, because folks came in mainly for festivals, concerts or sportings events, and those dates might be announced months in advance.   I've never used IB.

No one-night stays, which were blocked by the city, so 2-night minimum.  Three days between bookings instead of two. 

My stays have gone more to 4 or 5 days than weekends, and folks are booking a bit closer to the time - maybe a couple of weeks out. 

Seems like most people are just deciding to take a few days "decompression time" and doing a mini vacation closer to home. I think everyone has come by car - nobody has flown in from anywhere, so no "early check-in" requests (no red-eye flights), which further compress prep time.

Also, no groups of 3 or 4. All either one person or couples, so of course, they will have a bit more space than a group of 4.

Nobody wanting to bring extra friends, announced or otherwise.  

If I've had any sense of rule breaking, i've stopped it right away and declined the request.

I haven't made any changes to pricing. 

In general, yes - quality over quantity.  

[Jacob244]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum, but had to contribute to this topic.  Generally I've had amazing thoughtful guests since I started, however since restrictions have lifted I've noticed nit-picky complaints that I never received before. For instance, one guest marked me down for value "given the location and providing the bare minimum" - I found this especially surprising given my decision not to raise prices or remove amenities, and that my facilities seem to be in line with similar properties nearby. 

Another comment even stated that my house (built in 1815 I add) is relatively modern, and not at all the age that my listing states! I decided for sanity's sake to take it as a compliment that the modernisation had been successful 🙂

I assume that the increase in super critical guests may be those guests that have been given travel credit instead of a cash refund - and are now taking trips they wouldn't otherwise take for the sake of using the credit. Whilst in the process taking out their disgruntlement on the hosts.

[Alexandra199]

Interesting view on travel credit etc. This added to the fact they aren’t getting their ‘hot holiday’ is possibly adding to their nit picky reviews. 

[Anonymous]

@Alexandra199 @Jacob244  I hadn't thought about the travel credit angle. There may well be something to that, since they really get you with those. A couple of times I've booked an Airbnb because it was the last chance to use a credit before it expired, but none of the available choices for my destination were quite the best fit. Probably not an issue if you're in a location with a huge array of choices, but otherwise it might be upping the odds that you'll get guests better suited to another kind of accommodation.

[Jacob244]

 @Anonymous @Alexandra199  Interestingly, on a related note I've also noticed that guests who are coming to stay at my place for a specific reason (the museums etc) Vs just as a stop on a roadtrip etc always give a better review. I've been fortunate in only recieving two what I'd deem unfair super-critical reviews - both were from guests that had no real interest in the area, the first was running a commercial counselling session from my property without informing me and the second was just using it as a midpoint for a journey. The first example gave me a 1* for communication because their iron pan she'd bought from home didn't work on my induction hob, despite the provision of a wide range of suitable cookware. Apologies if this is off topic, it just seemed to fit the theme of super critical guests 

[Elisabeth40]

Hi Alexandra,

I am having similar problem, I am actually pretty happy with my guests just not happy with the pricing at all. I cannot get guests if I try to price my room for more than $42 per day/ night, which even doesn't covers the actual rental costs of the room. What I mentioned is, that many people started moving to NYC from outside to restart a new life and many are seeking for a low pricing a place to stay. The pricing imaginations are surprising me, because we didn't had this type of low $$ rooms even back in 2008. 

I found it upsetting as I talked to my guests and understood that they think, the NYC real estate is getting cheaper and our landlords are giving us free rents, in my case my landlord is not giving me any cent, I am still paying and paid during the pandemic as before. Some guests are trying to rent for longer but they offers are so low, that I find it insulting, I would rather pay this 1/4 on my own and not having anyone who is not cleaning and thinks this is the new standard: furnished room, cleaning woman (you) inclusive, free shampoo, free cafe, AC none stop even during absence. At the moment I am feeling more like in a long bad movie. Especially younger guests, in their 20is, don't understand that I pay on top of what they pay to make it possible. It's not possible to explain to a 22 years old who just moved out of parents place to start a new life. Basically the landlords and the guests are the only people who are profiting from this. It's upsetting, sometimes even funny when young guests are trying to make suggestions how I, 40, should change my life, so I can make it, usually this are all not functional suggestions too and some I already tried. People are nice, the situation we are living in is crazy. I have many guests who would love to stay longer, just are not willing to understand that the actual rental costs are higher as airbnb. A new standard, but then I cannot be a host and probably need to find myself a cheap airbnb to stay very soon. Also I see many people are stuck with airbnb because the real estate is still not cheaper and guests end up not being able to refill the price range of the landlords so they keep airbnbing one week after another, they keep looking at so many places and not finding something they can afford. Some are getting upset at me because I cannot hold their pricing either for long term.