Quick phrases for guest reviews - Cleanliness

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Fellow hosts - I struggle with writing an effective phrase for guest reviews that indicate that they were dirtier than normal.  

You know, the guest who leaves soap and shampoo all over the bathtub, huge globs of toothpaste in the sink or makeup smears on the counter, hair everywhere, extra garbage to pick up, the hair dryer, iron and ironing board left for the host to put away, sheets or towels that had stains to be treated but weren't ruined (a skidmark or makeup), and maybe missed the toilet a little or left you some extra cleaning to do in the bowl.  Stuff that can be taken care of but will cost you an extra half hour or hour of cleaning to get it all sorted.  

Do you have a short, effective sentence that you use in a guest's review that indicates that they were a little dirtier than normal?  

[Sarah977]

@Frank-And-Monique0   A forum tip- when you are replying to a specific person, click on the @ symbol and then pick the name from the drop down menu that will appear. That way, Kelly, in this case, will get a notification that you have posted to them. Otherwise, they might never see it.

[Frank-And-Monique0]

@Sarah977 Thank you. Yes I noticed that after.

[Kari36]

You can request extra $ for more that __ people staying. 

[Bree23]

I’m having the same issue but I’m not going to put it in the review seen by the public I’m trying to craft a nice way of asking “was there a reason you left glasses and dishes all over the house? Or put dirty dishes, unwashed into the cabinet with the clean ones? Or drank everything that was in the fridge including the stuff that was hidden on purpose? My favorite is using all the eggs and putting the shells back in the egg container and back into the fridge. 

There were more but the ones that I’d like to address are the egg shells and dirty dishes in the cabinet since it (I believe) will be the easiest to mention since it can be done as a question. 

[Sarah977]

@Bree23   How about the people who put an empty ice cube tray back in the freezer, or a milk jug back in the fridge that has a half inch of milk left in the bottom? Gotta love those.

[Bree28]

Alice + Jeff I am also struggling with this! These type of guests are usually very nice people, so I don't want to bag them out, but when they leave the place like a dump and don't follow the house rules, it's very frustrating! Tell me, did you come up with a generic response? If so I'd love to see it. I usually write "xxx was easy to communicate with and very friendly. Unfortunately, the cleaning time required after xxx's stay took a lot longer than normal."

Bree 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Bree28  I fail to understand why anyone would consider someone who left their place a dump to be "very nice people". In my world, very nice people don't do things like that.

[Bree28]

The guests I was referring to were SO friendly and great to communicate with so I have to give them that! I think the other hosts on this chat might be right; my definition of clean is totally different to anothers definition of clean. I am extremely fussy and suffer from OCD so I often think I need to be less harsh on some guests when it comes to being clean? Never the less I still get very frustrated!!

[Sarah977]

@Bree28  Well, it's good that you are aware that you are OCD and may expect too much. I have a friend like that and she was in therapy for it for many years. She couldn't sleep on a set of sheets for more than one night, she had to change them every day (and iron them as well) and she wouldn't let her husband get in bed unless he'd just stepped out of the shower, even if he'd had a shower 2 hours earlier and hadn't done anything to get dirty or sweaty. She's still super fastidious, but now she is aware of when she's getting really bad, that it's linked to her stress level, and she then tries to lower the stress.

But I still think you know the difference between someone leaving the place messy and someone leaving it a filthy dump. And to me, just because someone is super friendly and communicative doesn't mean they are nice, if they don't respect the space or the house rules. It just means they're super friendly and communicative.

I property manage a couple small places that get rented long term (lease, not Airbnb) for friends. I've dealt with a lot of those super friendly, communicative types who leave a pig sty behind them and I can't stand them anymore. One girl gave me hugs and kisses and assured me she'd leave the place super clean when she moved out the following week, not to stress about it. She left the most god-awful pig sty behind- it took me 8 full hours to clean a one room 6 meter x 5 meter cabin. And a truckful of garbage to take to the dump. 

Another girl moved in with one small dog, then adopted another 3 street dogs. They ripped down the curtains I had made, and dug 17 huge holes in the gardens and yard. She also left a giant mess behind.

I've come to the conclusion that those people are fakes, or at least that's how I see them. Their friendliness is surface- it has no depth- it allows them to get away with being irresponsible- if they really cared, they'd be respectful.

[Sarah977]

@Bree28  I meant to add that it's also true that some people, especially young ones, have no idea how to clean and don't even register when things are dirty. But it's usually evident whether they've at least made some kind of effort, even if its not up to our standard, rather than simply walking away without even caring.

[Bree28]

My 12 year old daughter is like that with her OCD - poor little thing. She is on medication and sees a psychologist and psychiatrist. There's no way she could walk into my airbnb after some guests!!

Totally agree regarding the young guests - hopeless! They obviously had parents who did everything for them as kids. All of my older guests, touch wood, have been sensational.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

If you think it is challenging to write a bad review on your own language then try to write it on a foreign one 🙂 

I've copy-pasted a few phrases from a similar thread a year ago (I think it was Robin's) and use them when necessary

[MarieLouise4]

I write "No complaints about this group" which leaves a sufficient element of doubt

[Sarah977]

@MarieLouise4   That line wouldn't leave doubt for me. It would indicate exactly what you said, no complaints. It certainly wouldn't give me the impression that they left the place a mess.

[Stacey56]

I agree, I would not inperpret that as a guest that was questionable. I would read it that they were actually very good guests.