Responding to Bad Unfair 1 stars Review

[Shann1]

My first bad unfair and cruel review experience. And believe or not I got 1 star in almost all criterias. 

Airbnb Community and Experienced Hosts I need your support and help. 

REVİEW WİTH ALL 1 POINTS. 

Host was irrelevant. First day, we went to a security gate across the street and take key from security. She didn't come with us to explain about facilities in home. She obviously didn't check home before we arrived. Because of that I wished she would come with us and see the conditions of home. Toilet, bathroom and bedroom was dirty. Washbasin was muddy. There were hairs (other people's) on the bathroom floor. There were not toilet paper and hand soap (note: there was some hand soaps used by other people. It is not hygienic). Also, it was not good to see that toilet brush was fully sh*tty. Kitchen was untidy. There were water was drunk by other people and potato chips was eaten by other people in the refrigerator. And THE BEDROOM... There were hair (I don't know whose) on the bed sheet. We stayed 3 days. We tried to clean toilet and bathroom during our accommodation. We didn't touch anything in the kitchen. We found a clean bed sheet and was covered bed by that. All these things prove us that the host is irrelevant and didn't check home before us.

REALITY

My parents are my co hosts and they did check the apt prior check in. The regular cleaning lady came and were paid 80 TL. The house was CLEAN. actually they left a big box of trash in the apt which i took a picture of. The host DID NOT reach me or mention any of his remarks below. In his review He mentions security gate which is a risk and private information. 

Because in check out they mentioned they bought toilet towel and soap for the apt and left it all the package for us(we had it both but they said there was not enough and they did not like those). refund for their expense was provided. 

The cattle at the apt no longer works. 

I do believe they did this intentionally to leave a bad review and may be get money from airbnb or something. Otherwise why would you not call your host...... In check out when i asked why didnt you call me about it. He said its ok we only came to the apt to sleep anyways. 

What else can I do now at this point.....I really do not want to respond back to their review.....

AİRBNBS RESPONSE VİA TWİTTER

Hi there, we understand your concerns and appreciate that it is never nice to get a positive review. However all hosts and guests are permitted to leave feedback on the reservation and Airbnb cannot remove reviews unless they violate our guidelines : http://abnb.co/iAyGAy . However you do have the option to leave a public response to this review. Here you will be able to outline your point of view and address any issues raised in the guests review. This way, future guests will be able to see how you communicate and address problems as a host. We hope this helps. Please let us know if you need anything further.

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[Kayla52]

Yes, I acknowledge that I should have cleaned under the bed. It was an oversight, and won't happen again. It's frustrating that I did spend a lot of time cleaning and stressing before the guest arrived, then that he never communicated that he was so dissatisfied the entire week he was there. I even ate out the whole weeks so as not to mess up the kitchen, which he used the whole week. The other thing that I have to get used to is that I live there too. It makes it a little more difficult to balance if I have to live there and it also has to be five-star hotel-like all the time. (My place isn't a five star hotel, not nearly, but what I hear you saying is that it has to be, regardless of if they only pay $20 USD to stay there.) I guess I assumed that most travellers were like me, and were just grateful for a cheap place to stay. Most of the AirBnBs that I've stayed at have been a "lived-in" type of clean, not spotless or hotel-clean. One women's daughter had the whole living room full of moving boxes once and I didn't care. I've still never given less than a five-star rating. So, I was basing my level of clean on what I had been accustomed to seeing. 

Still, my original question was about the general wisdom of replying to the comment. Do I address it or leave it?

[Shann1]

check out my profile, i felt such a comment, and my future guests made fun/joked about that extremely bad, dishonest review. things happen but good things also happen. it depends how much u love doing airbnb and if you need the money. 

[Ninette-and-Vita0]

I couldn't agree more with Shann. Her experience was -in many ways- quite similar to mine. She also cried and cursed and got depressed just like me. Afterall, BAD overviews and feedbacks ARE ACCEPTABLE ONLY AND IF -I REPEAT- ONLY AND IF, they are JUSTIFICATED and RIGHT. Shann's and mine WEREN'T. Shann decided to stick around with Airbnb. While I decided that SINCE MY POINT OF VIEW IS NOT GIVEN THE SAME WEIGHT AS MY GUEST'S and to Airbnb I counted much LESS compared to this awful and amateur "traveler" to simply stick to the UNJUSTICE and my DEPRESSION and send Airbnb to hell. Kayla, don't apologize. There's no reason to it. Just keep in mind that out there there are "travelers" who need life courses and seminars on what it really takes to be a true and decent traveler. Most of the "travelers" believe they DESERVE to be ATTENDED LIKE MILLIONAIRES, just because they stepped outside their back-door. So, keep up with what you do BEST and REFRAIN FROM GIVING THESE ILLITERATES ANY RIGHT TO COMPLAIN. GET ON TOP OF THINGS and ignore the rest. Stupid people are TOO HARD TO FIGHT (Einstein).

[Susie5]

hi @Kayla52, I think you've got the response about right. Do respond, briefly and non-defensively, to the comment -   "As a new host, I'm sorry that your experience in my place wasn't as good as you'd expected and I have taken note of the comments you made and will address them in the future."  That's about all you can do - just take @Ninette-and-Vita0's advice and make sure everything is tip-top before you hand over the keys.  There will be bad guests and there will be awesome guests - I just had both in the same week, the best ever and the very, very worst possible, all in the same week.  So you just never know!

[Linda108]

I agree with @Ninette-and-Vita0 about cleanliness, @Kayla52.  Even if a place is not new or fancy, it can and should be cleaner than what many of us will accept in our day to day living.  I stayed in a separate private room that while it had it's own entrance, I could not get to it with rolling luggage due to the gravel walkway so the host took me through his own house.  It was a huge mess!  Every surface was covered with stuff and unclean.  When I got to the room, it seemed that was unclean with large spots on the carpet, soap scum in the bathroom bowl.  Even if the rest of the unit was actually clean, I did feel that it was and I was quite unhappy to stay the one night.   So the review was warranted apparently, and your response should not blame the guest, but accept the feedback.  Remember your reviews are read by potential guests and no guest wants to be blamed for their valid opinion.

[Sarah977]

@Kayla52   Honestly, there is no excuse, as a host not to clean thoroughly and well between guest arrivals. You're lucky it was only empty water bottles under the bed, and not a used condom (which a friend's 5 year old daughter found under a hotel bed). The fridge needs to be immaculately clean, as does everything in the kitchen and bathroom. And all the rest of it, too. Spider webs up on the corners of the ceiling, window sills, under the bed, everything. If cleaning is not your forte, then up your price and hire a cleaner.

[Kayla52]

Thanks to everyone who responded. ( @Susie5, @Sarah977 @Shann1 @Linda108, @Ninette-and-Vita0 ) My question wasn't really in reference to whether the review was deserved (although I did feel I cleaned the kitchen throughly before the guest arrived and didn't use it for his enitre stay), it was about how to respond to the comment. Trust me, I have lost sleep, I have stressed, and I have cried over my failure and this review. I don't need that highlighted to me anymore. As a new host, I was hoping for support and encouragement for the future of hosting for AirBnB. As a graduate student, I'm stuck between the stress of writing a thesis, the need for money (and the stress that causes), and the new stress that hosting is bringing with it. I'm also balancing living in the same place as guests and what the expectations are with that, and I can tell by some of your responses some of you don't have that issue.

Honestly, most of the places I've stayed at as an AirBnB guest have been more "lived-in" clean than spotless clean. One woman even had her entire living room filled with moving boxes. As a traveller, that never really bothered me. I've still never left anyone less than a five-star review. So, my level of cleanliness was based upon my own expectations and past experiences with AirBnB.

[Sarah977]

@Kayla52  I didn't intend you make you feel bad, I'm sorry.  That's why I suggested that you hire a professional cleaner (and add a cleaning fee to cover that), because it seemed like your idea of how clean it should be will not be the same as many of your guests'. And you sound really busy as well, perhaps too busy to have the time to clean thoroughly. I host a private bedroom/bath in my home and guests have full use of my kitchen. I can let my dirty dishes pile up for 2 days if I'm alone, have stuff in the fridge that needs to be chucked, some mess spilled over on the stove, but if I have a guest coming, I make sure to have the kitchen super clean and maintain it like that as long as the guest is here. If that's too stressful for you, which is understandable, maybe hosting isn't for you at this time in your life. You could maybe get a full-time roommate in order to help out your cash flow?

And Kayla, don't let a bad review make you cry or lose sleep- it's not that important in the scheme of things. Just work out how you can mitigate it happening again and move on.

[Jason372]

Feeling the pain of a 2 star review right now as well and you're right it hurts--as feedback most often does. In hindsight, there were things we would do differently. The guest who left the poor review is one of the only guests I didn't actively pulse with during their stay to see how they were doing or to ask if there's anything we could do to make their stay comfortable. I also barely spoke with them while they were here so I didn't take the opportunity to build a personal connection. That said, our cleanliness stat has 18 five-star reviews and their 1 one-star review turned it into a 4.8...sigh. It's a shame that Airbnb doesn't account for outliers. 

In my case the review itself doesn't sound horrible, so I'm choosing to not respond. What do you think? Should I respond or let the 2-star rating when it doesn't show in normal searches?

[Linda108]

@Jason372  You are correct that the review would not signal anything negative for potential guests.  Did you receive any private message that would shed light on the low rating?  Can you  just ask for more information?  I love to get critical feedback to constantly tweak my listing.

[Naheed5]

Hi, I’m new to hosting on Airbnb. Started in November 2019 and have six 5-star and one 4-star review. Last month I had a guest staying  for four nights. I checked them in, showed them around the building facilities, even gave them directions to the beach and the mall. Then messaged them two days in. No complaints expressed, and then boom comes a 1-star review! He claimed that there was a smell in the house and that the windows were blown out and he was cold (in Dubai!) and that the fire alarm had gone off!

 I did try to reply with as much calmness as I could muster: there aren’t any windows but sliding doors that open on the balcony, the fire alarm went off because they left the bathroom door and shower curtain open and the steam triggered the alarm and there really was no smell at all. 
However, the 1 star means my overall score fell to 4.4 and now I’m getting a warning from Airbnb! 
This is so unfair!!

[Linda108]

While you do not have many reviews, except for this one, they are all positive. Smell is a difficult problem for  either a host or a guest to prove, but the mold should have to be documented to Air BNB.  Call Air BNB staff to see if the review and more importantly the rating can be removed.  There have been postings that Air BNB seems to be willing to remove one-off reviews.

One take away  for you is to notify guests about the sensitive nature of the smoke alarm.

Good luck and let us know how it comes out.