Should I review this guest?

[Cathryn2]

I have been a host for 1 year.  It has been a wonderful experience.  Love meeting and greeting my guests!  All of my guests have been extremely respectful of our apartment and have left it practically spotless.

Until yesterday's guest.

I went against my better judgment and accepted a reservation to someone with no reviews.  She looked harmless enough.  She's a student at the local university and said she wanted to "cook a good meal for her boyfriend's birthday."  

She showed up an hour earlier than expected.

She began frying fish about an hour later.  

When she left the next morning I went into the apartment to clean/change linens, etc.  Apartment REEKED of cooking oil, fish, and other cooking odors.  I opened the door to the outside, turned on the fans, sprayed with odor eliminator, lit a candle -- everything I knew to do.  

The floor was STICKY with cooking residue and splatters of pinkish/red sauce.

The top of the stove was covered in cooking grease splatters.

The bottom of the microwave over the stove was splattered with grease.

The interior of the oven was splattered with a pinkish/red sauce.

After doing the dirty dishes left on the counter I opened the cupboard door to put them away and discovered that the other dishes had been run under running water and put away dirty.  I opened other cabinets and drawers and discovered the same.  So I had to wash all the pots, pans (encrusted with grease and food), all the utensils, all the dishes.

The floor was littered with rose petals and leaves.

i am boiling vinegar and water in the apartment now (one day later) to try to neutralize the odors.

It took me 3.5 hours to clean the studio apartment.  Normal cleaning time (including changing linens and cleaning bathroom) is 1.5 hours.

I am hesitant to leave a review because she is local.  I am, quite frankly, afraid of her reaction if I give her a poor review.  

Should I just not review this guest?  

Husband wants me to invoke a $50 cleaning/damage deposit which we've never had to use.  

I'm disgusted that the apartment was left in such a state.  

First time I've been burned.

Thanks for any input.

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

sorry it happened to you @Cathryn2

Never mind she is a local. 

And never mind she has a no review (we all were once new with no review).
Airbnb hosts and travellers rely on reviews to make up their minds.

However, Airbnb insist we write some house rules which are part of the contract to :

- protect us in case of difficult travelers

- let the prospect know what we expect from him

- and what he has to do during your stay.

And in your house rules there is nothing about the cleaning.
So on a legal point of view, this dirty guest respected the contract.

In this case, i would review her neutrally :

X come 1 night. She looked nice when she booked.

She arrived earlier than expected                    (this is an important warning for any host who has an arrival time set)

Communication : 4*                                           (because she was honest in telling you it was a birthday night = a warning for many hosts)

Cleanliness : 1*                                                     (you know why)

Respect of the house rules : 4*                         (because of the early check in)

You have to write the stars in the review because host cannot see the stars given to guests.

And in the private review someting like :

I hope your boyfriend had a nice birthday.
As you are new , it is important for you to understand that airbnb houses are not hotels.
Houses have to be treated respectetfully and hosts expect from guests to leave the house as cleaned as they found it.

If you do so, you will be welcome everywhere and will live wonderful experiences.

Kind regards"

for the future, improve your house rules and hosts who send a message when guest will check out said things improved when they remind them what they expect from them :

"i hope you had a nice stay.

Before leaving please , lauch the diswasher and carry the liter out

I met you tomorow. 

Enjoy you last night"

To adapt to you.

[Cathryn2]

Thank you, Nathalie!

I appreciate your excellent feedback. 

 Our house rules are printed and in a notebook in the apartment . . . but I will put them all online, as well.  

Again, thank you!

Cathrhyn

[Robyn-s-Nest0]

I would leave an honest review, at least givde indicators so other hosts KNOW what type of guests they really are.  I would not throw them under the bus, or rant about them, but I would leave a short honest review.  

[Stephanie6]

Hi @Cathryn2, I agree with @Nathalie-Et-Gilles0, especially about letting potential hosts know your guest is not a "super" guest.  

Here is my typical review:

We enjoyed hosting XXX for her short stay. She communicated clearly and left the apartment in excellent condition! She was very respectful of the house rules. We would be happy to host her again and highly recommend her to other hosts.

Updated for the messy early arrival guest:

We hosted XX for a short stay.  She respected the house rules. She communicated clearly and let me know she would be cooking.  She did not clean up and left the dishes, pots, and pans dirty. 

When I read reviews, I look for an indication that the host would host the guest again.  If you don't want to write anything about the dirty mess, just remove the last sentence.  So sorry about the fish smell!  We removed the hotplate from our in-law apartment because of the odor after a guest cooked fish.

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

bonjour @Stephanie6

i had a guest who was nice and left a nice review but she rated 2 and 3*  and private feedback was :

you should do that and that like in hotels so it would be more professional.

Indeed, this my usual home. Not a hotel. 
The basic Airbnb concept.
And guest arrive in a place with my stuff in it.

I left a nice review because they were nice and left the appartment in a good condition.

Would a response to the review like :

'X is better suited to professional hosts and hotels" or 'I recomment X to professional hosts and hotels" would help the other hosts?

The risk is to appear angry or not nice to future prospects. Probably what @Cathryn2 fears about Miss Dirty.

[Marisa21]

I need some help because I am new at Airbnb.

All guests so far have been great. These guests seemed fine, good reviews and so on. They arrived with their bycicles. I ensured them they could bring inside the 'property' this is a house with its closed private garden and area. The guests brought the bikes in and left the walls dirty with black grease marks and the walls scratched from the bikes...

We had a private discussion via email and they said they understood they could bring the bikes inside the room. The 'room' is a brand new place with white washed walls, furnitures etc. [not to mention the pizza completely stuck on the floor and crumbles everywhere]

Now, I would not want to write a negative review... can I go witout writing one?

how does it work?

is it OK to avoid this? these people have perfectly OK review and maybe it was just bad luck for me...

thanks for your feedback!

[Stephanie6]

Hi @Marisa21, I understand not wanting to write a negative review - I feel the same.  If you would not host them again, please do *not* say in the review anything like: <guest> is welcome back any time!, We enjoyed hosting <guest>, We recommend <guest> to other hosts, etc.  To me, these phrases = thumbs up!

When I look at guest reviews, I specifically make sure that previous hosts say they would host the guest again and/or recommend them before accepting the booking.  I also read reviews written by the guest, so I can see if the guest has any specific expectations or is likely to be critical/negative.  Having said all that, at least 50% of my bookings are from guests who have not been reviewed, and so far those have worked out fine (i.e., they are welcome back any time!)

I agree with @Gerry-And-Rashid0!  I try not to sweat the small stuff.

[Cathryn2]

Thanks to everyone for the responses.  

I have written a short, honest review for her.  

I agree with  "don't sweat the small stuff";  however, this was more than small stuff in my opinion.  The apartment still stinks.  I am at my wits end to get rid of the awful greasy fishy odor.  I have sprayed the air and fabrics multiple times with Febreze, Lysol, I have lit a candle, I have turned on exhaust fans, I have opened the door to the outside for hours.  I even boiled vinegar and water on the stovetop to neutralize the odor.  Today I'm simmering a pot of vanilla/orange/cinnamon to try to get rid of the odor.  I have another guest coming tonight!

[Geoff-and-Betsy0]

Go to Amazon and buy a $80 Ozonator.... Turn on for maximum time (2 hours) and leave the room.... smells gone.  Hotels and Cruise lines do this.  Have use them when flipping houses that have BAD smells in them... .

gpentz@me.com 

[Robyn-s-Nest0]

When you have a few opewn days, try to rent an ozone air purifier.  Most tool rental companies have these, they really help in apartments that have been smoked in.  Not sure it will help the fishy smells though.  Best bet would have been to stick to your gut instinct and not book them...but thats hind sight now.  

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

Sometimes stuff happens and you need to put up with with - extra cleaning for one guest in your entire experience - however, you can say in your review that adherece to house and in particular kitchen rules could have been better.

[Jessica52]

Hi Cathryn

Same here, being a host for about 8 months now, encountered one bad experience.  Hosted a birthday party, checked the reviews prior to  make that decision to accept the reservation (the review said this guest was good and behaved on his reservation for his birthday).  The reality was opposite to what the  review said!  The guest and his party gone overboard, i had to call it to stop at 1 AM.  After that i was wonderfing if i should write the review.... The guest actually wrote me the review, so I did mine.  End up he was my first and so far  the only one who gave me the 3 starts rating . ( I am a superhost). 

I would like to suggest if you don't feel comfortable and wonder if the guest would give a nagtive rating then take that consideration seriously.  You may be surprised,  upset and feel unfair about the result!

Hope my experience would help you!

Good luck!

Jessica

[Stephanie51]

Hi, 

Please review guests decently, but honestly!  If you had read reviews of your guests that indicated that the guest was looking for someone else's place to do her smelly cooking, you might have thought twice about accepting the reservation!  I am also learning as I go with this and have made mistakes assuming things were understood that weren't.  Think about it this way, you will be doing the next host a favor by clueing them into the guest's behavior.  And the guests should also know that their actions affect people and if the truth hurts, so be it. 

Good luck!

[Lucy-and-Loic0]

Dear Cathryn, I am so sorry you got burned by the local college student!  That must have been a huge dissapointment.  

I checked someone out today who poured a bottle of cologne down the drain.  Smelly cheap man's cologne. This was a serious problem, because after several hours of airing the place, a strong unpleasant personal cologne kind of odour continued from the bathroom (both the shower and sink drains) and filled the whole studio.  I scrubbed down the walls, the floors, every possible surface in there.  The smell has finally diminished significantly after I ran the shower and faucet for a long time and then poured baking soda down and around all the drains and let it sit.

Reflecting on the review... They were running to catch a taxi out when they checked out, and I think after all they were trying to get rid of products they couldn't carry on a plane, and did not realize that they were actually stinking me out of house and home by doing this. They were otherwise nice people.  

So, I decided that since the aggresive smell seems to be under control, after all, I am going to give them a good review, and let it slide, because this seems to be a one time thing.  If it was something they might habitually do, like creating a stench and mess while cooking and leaving it for the host to clean up, I would mention it in the review but it is never a pleasant task, is it?  She should not have left your place in such a state at all, and thank goodness you managed to catch the dirty dishes that had been put away.  Terrible!  What is the best way to review a person who does such a thing?