Regarding:
(a) Conflicting beliefs in health and safety between Tenant-Consumer and Landlord-Seller (during a pandemic)
(b) Landlord-Seller flexibility to publicly post slander and defamation of character, untruth, irrelevancy related to conflicting consumer beliefs in health and safety.
(c) Airbnb’s lenient, careless review system, and protecting the seller.
Dear consumers of long-term Airbnb stays,
long-term, (month and more) business guests,
Consumers of long-term stay accommodations, a wave of amateur dynamic hosts, and a pandemic, are all new for Airbnb. The long-term stay consumer is more prone to encounter conflicting beliefs in health and safety with Airbnb’s seller/landlords, and there is a different, conflicting, potentially combative and inflammatory psychology involved that will be vented in a public post statement against you. It can be damaging to your character, false, intentional to hurt your reputation and Airbnb will look the other way. Airbnb represents the host/seller/landlord and puts politics over the health and safety of the consumer. Airbnb puts the consumer in danger of needing to decide to forfeit his/her beliefs of personal health and safety to a host, being submissive to host's conflicting requests and behavior, or risk receiving a retaliatory, potentially slanderous social media public attack. Airbnb both enables the seller and protects this system.
Long-term guest-consumers using Airbnb fear the looming check out, and the dreaded coming review of him and her by the landlord/host. We all know it’s coming. Regardless of whether you have or have not paid a cleaning fee, you're subject to do-it-yourself tired cleaner landlords, and amateur new hosts reviewing you, and you’re as good as the last crumb you left behind in host inspection. The amateur host expects you to turn over the property and have it ready for the next guest. We know Airbnb has a lenient and enabling review system for careless verbiage by a host toward the consumer. Airbnb is biased in its interpretations and lacks policing for slander and attack on character. Airbnb lets careless verbiage stick; they represent the seller in matters of verbiage conflict and take pride in being lenient toward careless verbiage. You, as consumers who purchase space for long periods of time, are vulnerable to social media bullying and attack from anyone who manages that space you purchase. Host is free to creatively vent and retaliate and write as they wish against your character, beliefs in health and safety, and Airbnb will look the other way. You are a looming deer potentially caught in the headlights. You are set up to fail in a sea of new and inexperienced hosts lacking education in cleaning, lack any experience in hosting long term, accommodation turnover, hospitality, running a business and/or writing public reviews of human beings. You have little to no protection from the parent company.
Here are my tips to avoid the emotional trauma and damage of character/reputation attack from your seller landlord's careless verbiage when you are booking long term reservations:
1. YOUR SHOPPING SELECTION: Avoid reserving space that is shared on the same premises (the land) where the seller (host landlord) lives and that is attached to the same dwelling (the primary home) where the owner seller host lives. (Book space that is independent from the host’s primary dwelling and yard/land.
Why?
(a) The family looks at you as a tenant, a relative, an in-law. They have bad memories of any of those situations, dislike them all, those feelings transfer to you. This has a higher chance of coming out in the review as creative slander and defamation of character after check-out.
(b) The host is more likely a self-cleaner and turns-over the place themselves, and they are forming their review and opinion of you and what to say as they clean the toilet or scrub the shower after your check-out.)
(c) The host family is more emotionally attached to the space and has been paid long ago, well before your check out date. They are tired of you long-ago and are counting the days for your check out. After a period, they think they are doing you a favor.
(d) You see the host more often, you have more direct contact with the host, increased requests from the host, interact more, you and host talk politics, shop, and opinions. There is a much higher probability of drama, false statements, character attach, slander against you being vented in a public post, when too much close personal interaction with the host.
2. CHECK IN: Take pictures and video of the whole place. Save in Google drive.
3. DURATION OF STAY: When you have a chronic problem or direct encounter with any part of the host (family) that conflicts with your personal beliefs of health and safety, message the host through the platform, for a solution, counter-request or protest.
4. Use the message center Even when the host, host spouse, or host partner, or host's neighbor manager, text and talk to you directly for their own requests, or knock on the door, respond through the message center.
5. Use the message center for the chronic problems and surprises, example, host tells you via SMS text they have scheduled contractors to work on the interior of your reserved space during your stay for upgrades and your concerned for health, their dog and or children keep coming in the unit with every door opening, thus muddying up the place for you to be blamed, old air condition handler blows dust and debris into kitchen over bed, air conditioning handler motor doesn’t let you sleep, your beds under-mattress cover is original from previous guest, etc,, use the message center. This will not avoid the author slandering you but may somehow lessen the blow and blame on you, by you using the message platform.)
6. State your requests and/or protests, through message center, even when the host contacts you directly, and though this will most certainly create hostility, retaliation and bring attack on your character and behavior. Though it will make the rest of your stay very uncomfortable, it’s still best to message, or respond to the host through the platform and could possibly lessen the credibility of a false retaliatory and slanderous review toward you. And/or help your case should it go to counsel.
At check-out, Invite the host-seller one day in advance to inspect the property 1-2 hours before you check out, for a walk through.
7. Gather the towels and put in washer or bundle with note labeling them as dirty.
8. Scrub the toilets, scrub the bathtub, Remove any spot in the toilet, and leave the lid of the toilet up.
9. Wash the dishes, remove all the smudges, and put them back in their original place. (this is the number one potential opportunity for a host to retaliate against you, after check out, no matter how perfect you are, how perfect your behavior and doing everything as you said you would do, the number one reason for creative slander and character attack on the consumer by host-seller is related to the kitchen area, particularly dishes.
10. Pull the sheets, pillowcases, and pull under the bedding, Regardless of what the host says to do, or not do, for the sake of the next check-in guest. Do it for your brethren; fellow guest-travelers. Pull them all (bedding, sheets, pillowcases), put in the washer or hang them up somewhere to make it look like they need to be cleaned, and leave a note that they need to be cleaned.
11. Sweep, mop, vacuum, spray the kitchen hard, wipe it down, get rid of smudges, check the stove, check microwave, spray, wipe, remove your crumbs, check the refrigerator, remove your crumbs in there and spray it down.
12. Pull your trash, tie bags, bring it outside in recycling, put new fresh bags in the trash cans.
13. CHECK-OUT: Take pictures and video.. Take pictures (2 of every room, and 5 of the kitchen) and take video, upload the video to a Google drive for link, and send the pictures, and video link and a nice thank you note to the host through Airbnb platform, that you've turned the property over to your best, and upload and send the pictures and the link in the message. Do this regardless of the landlord-host inspecting at check out or not
14. Send a polite departing note through the platform “I have put the property back as expected, as was, property still needs to be deeper cleaned up to better health and sanitary standards."
Any of this might or might not lessen the potential for public attack, retaliation, slander, defamation of character toward a consumer from a tired do-it-themselves cleaning landlord-host within Airbnb's enabling system.
Disclosure: I am a consumer of hundreds of long-term guest transactions on the Airbnb platform. I am not an attorney. These are suggestions from experience, that could possibly avoid slander, untruths, terrible memories, a check out system that puts you in danger, and the treacherous check out review system of Airbnb. I’m grateful for the Airbnb concept, I promote the growth and evolution of the system, I am friends and personally connected with hundreds of previous hosts from all over the world in any medium possible, and I am grateful for Airbnb for that. A surprise verbiage attack, slander, defamation made in public that is personally against you will stick and will be emotionally devastating to you as a consumer. Airbnb represents the host and will protect the host when the host is upset about anything, indefinitely, after your check-out. Airbnb will let creative slander and retaliatory defamation of character against the consumer stick. These are some ways to be diligent in your consumer shopping experience when using Airbnb and avoid careless verbiage attacks. Promote change within the Airbnb system to do your part as a consumer to help them evolve and grow up.
