Guests suggested my Central London room is too expensive for the night!

[Ben253]

I've been lucky, truly I have, to have mostly wonderful guests. Although every now and then something comes along that really annoys you...

Allow me to set the scene; I had two guests arrive on Wednesday. They seemed nice enough; communication was good; they did neglect to tell me they were running 5 hours late and when I asked where they were they only then informed me that they had stopped for coffee and would be a further hour and a half. I spent all morning indoors waiting for them when I could have been having quality time with my son and after learning that they would not be arriving until after 1700 left the keys in my local safe place. Their original arrival time was 0830; they apparently collected the keys after 1700, but no sweat - that's why I have a safe space, even though I prefer to check guests in myself! 

The guests and I only met on their check out two days later - they more or less had the apartment entirely to themselves during their stay, which for two nights in central London cost them £91 including all cleaning fees. 

So now to the reason I am irritated; they left a glowing review, but in the private feedback has told me that it is 'expensive for a room in an apartment'.. I am truly, truly miffed. This area does NOT have cheap hotels (an average of around £100 a night) They had an apartment to themselves, with heating on constantly, a seamless check in and complained it is too expensive? I feel like I am missing something! Especially as they are from Canada, and I have noticed that their Airbnb accomodation is all EXCRUCIATINGLY expensive; I actually booked a hotel for my trip as it is worked out considerably cheaper.

Thankfully I am in the midst of hosting two absolutely lovely guests but this is still niggling at me. I almost feel like my home ihas been cheapened! I take pride in offering a wonderful place to stay, I keep it super clean and homely and guest ready at all times and so to be told that it is 'too expensive' is a little disheartening.  Perhaps I should raise the price so as to avoid these kind of cheap customers, but then I fear I will attract customers who will expect the Ritz and lower my good reputation. 

Anyway, I just wanted to vent, and see if any other hosts have felt more than a little betrayed at the feedback after what you perceived to be a great stay? 

[Paul1255]

@Ben253 if you need assistance with co-hosting when you're away in January let me know, I have lots of free time in the new year and I'd be happy to help 🙂

[Ben253]

I might take you up on that, and of course would be only too happy to return the favour. I often lose a lot of bookings when I am away because I have no one to deal with my guests! 🙂 

[Paul1255]

Ok cool! I only really host when i'm home so I never miss out on any bookings. I'll drop you a DM to your inbox so you have my details and can always chat there.

[Linda108]

@Ben253 One of my goals for being an Air BNB host is the opportunity to grow personally. Now you are a young person and I am an old person, but we all need to keep growing.  Perhaps another way to experience this feedback is not to judge the accuracy, but to look at how you react to what seems to be inaccurate. We all have that in our lives and if we let it affect us then we give power to it.  I have a persona I evoke in these situations and her name is Emily Post (famous etiquette advisor) and I become overly polite and solicitous.  Believe it or not, the sense of power and control is restored.    OMG, I just realize I became my former psycholigist self...sorry.

[Ben253]

Hi Linda! 

You've made my day, It has been a little while since I got called a young person 😛 

I think my way of venting has been to come here for the seeminlgy infinite wisdom of other hosts (which has certainly helped no end!) although you are right; it is these things that shape us. It is intriguing to meet these people who have such odd expectations when staying at someones home in a very expensive city, and whilst a shame they found it too expensive I am grateful they had a great stay regardless.

The thought did cross my mind initially to send a message to the guest just highlighting the general cost of things in London but actually... it seemed like such a waste of energy I could much better utilise elsewhere (like on my next set of guests!). It is very easy sometimes to make a mountain out of a molehill, which I have very much done in this instance. 

No need to apologise, I was quite enjoying the psychology there! 

[Susan151]

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@Ben253 wrote:

The thought did cross my mind initially to send a message to the guest just highlighting the general cost of things in London but actually... it seemed like such a waste of energy I could much better utilise elsewhere

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You would think that one meal in a restaurant, an Oyster card top off, or even a cup of tea in London would have taught any guest that London is not an inexpensive place at all. You were right to save your energy for more important things. 

[Ben253]

Yeah, most certainly. I beleive we are pretty renowned around the globe as being up there with the most expensive capitals so I am surpised they quibbled over the price. Particuarly as when worked out between two they paid around £16 a night each! Thank gods for the good ones who come through! 

[Sarah977]

@Linda108   A quote I wrote down from a charming novel I read a few years ago:

"The world is full of small ignorances. We must all do our best to ignore them and thereby keep them small, don't you think?"   (from Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonsen)

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Ben253 We had the same from two guests during off season who gave us  5* for everythig except value (well unless you want to sleeo on the street........) Bizzarely they also left us two nice bottles of wine as a gift. Some people are just a bit mad.

However unless it;s in public comment then I would just ignore - you have great reviews and most people will know your pricing is good

[Ben253]

Some people are so, so bizarre when it comes to the scoring! I have had a few recently where they have given 4* for Accuracy and honestly... I don't even know how to address that. I feel like my listing is pretty transparent! 

I wish I got wine as a gift... so far I have received soap, jam and chocolate (all nice, but I feel like wine would be even nicer 😛 ) 

[Mel101]

Ha! I was going to start my own parent reply with the guest whose private feedback irked me, but since it was also about accuracy,  I think it fits best here @Ben253.

I had one guest give me 4* for accuracy. They seemed to have used a few drop down menus that I've not been able to repeat, so I suspect that it was a short lived experiment of Airbnb. Anyway, one of the things that she fed back was that the address was incorrect. I was horrified. I wrote back, asking her to let me know what was wrong, and what I could improve. It bugged me for ages, and of course, she never responded to my message.

Then one day I realised that the couple that booked arrived with the directions that I'd sent them; got here at the time that I was expecting them, so they probably didn't get lost; and found their way back here repeatedly, despite clearly being stoned out of their gourds (for which I do not judge, I understand the nature of tourism in my city), with no instructions from me nor any questions from them. I found this realisation really enabled me to let go of my feelings about their feedback.

So, maybe we should try to see these kinds of feedbacks as the kind of Zen thought experiments designed to help us realise inner peace? Like if your guest lost her wallet in the Canadian forest, would she have considered it an expensive or a cheap lesson in material possessions? Or something...

[Tremain0]

Hi, Living in central London is indeed incredibly expensive, and what's more, the more central - the greatly more expensive! Many who don't live here, just would be astonished if they even partially realised or lived with the true costs we all face... Some might suggest the "well, why don't you move out then?"  And some might muse, in response, that 'the brexit factor' has literally removed buyers from the most central parts of London, at least for now... And who knows when they'll return? London's still arguably, the world's best city, so I've no fear that buyers will be returning soon though...

Anyway, I was thinking too, of another angle on this issue, which I hope will be of help in setting your mind at ease. Rather than taking it as an indirect (yet personally communicated) criticism, another way of reading what they suggested is (especially given that they otherwise gave you positive review) to consider too that some folk may possibly be seeking 'a little sweetener' off their next stay, ... After all, if it really were too expensive for any guest, why book it in the first place, instead of somewhere else!?  It's not exactly impossible, IOW, that some may be hoping for a personal response, along the lines of: "i'm sorry you felt the price was a little high for you, but how about if I offered you 10% off your next visit, to make up for it? Etc."

Whatever was the reason, please don't beat yourself up over it. Life's too short, and in every other way, things could have been far worse. HTH, and wish you good luck 🙂

[Ben253]

Ha, I love that response - 'why don't you move out'. This city may be expensive, but I would never have the same level of work elsewhere! And besides, I don't want to leave - I moved here ten years ago from Kent, and as much as I love Kent London is my (very expensive) home now. I guess a lot of things are relative though; I notice how expensive things can be here less and less because the city affords me a decent wage. I guess to those coming from outside it may seem very expensive. 

I did wonder if they were going for money back, I had never even thought of the discount aspect. I have a rule that I never discount my services - not in my business and certainly not in my rental. Especially not when I already offer very affordable midweek rates (I like to think of my pricing as 'peak' and 'offpeak' and those prices are set). I think the oddest part is that the prices are pretty transparent; having recently booked a house as a traveller on Airbnb over in Nottinghamshire for the weekend I feel like I knew what I was getting and what it would cost well before I arrived at the accomodation. 

Yeah, things could have been much worse and thankfully they did not mention the expense publicly. Perhaps in future they should consider hostels as a cheaper alternative. I've had a lovely few days off of hosting, with new guests arriving tomorrow, I think I am finally refreshed and ready to have guests in again! 

[Lilly28]

@Ben253

Firs, I must admit  - Canadians are very fussy, although their price is much more expensive! The French are also fussy guests - that is my experience. But there is more - I recently indulged just reading reviews in several cities on airbnb. And I was astonished to find that reviews lately began to be more and more demanding, explaining every single bad(in their view) thing in great detail, even when price was quite, even increadibly low!!! I had the impression, that with the time guests began to expect Ritz at the price no motel is having.

[Ben253]

They were also French Canadian, so possibly the worst of both worlds? Oddly I have never had a problem with any of my French guests, more or less always 5* across the board! I think the only complaint I ever had was from an Italian couple who complained that there was 'dust in the bath tub'. I took a look and could only describe as what appeared to be sock fluff... they trod their own fluff into the shower and then complained. I'm not entirely sure what they wanted me to do about that one! 

There are a lot more people expecting a lot more these days. My last Airbnb trip as a guest was a disaster; lovely home but we were left without gas and electricity on our last night. This was beyond anyones control, and of course I still left glowing reviews as the house was lovely. I mentioned there was a problem and that the host worked with us to resolve it in a swift and effective manner and did not feel the need to 'shame' her in the review! Maybe it is because I am a host myself, or maybe it is just because I know that when I am paying £30 a night, that I should just be grateful for what I am getting!