Bracing my first guest's negative review

[Ying22]

Hi Everyone,

I'm Ying, a first-time host but a regular guest on Airbnb. My Airbnb is located in UES Manhattan, in a 2-bedrooms.

I just had my first guest from Boston stay in my apartment for four nights. He appeared totally happy while he was here, but left a negative review with a 3 star after checked out. His argument was that his bedroom was "too small", and the AC was lacking.

I'm not going to argue for the AC part. Newly moved into this empty apartment two months ago, and the weather has always been weird (overnight freezing and hot), I didn't take care of the installation of the ACs at the first place until the night he checked in. Unfortunately, it turned warm overnight...

The size of the guest bedroom is really not "too small". For Manhattan UES, that's a very comfortable size. All my friends - some are realtors - and my mother (who stayed in that room for a month before I opened it to guests) found it very nicely decorated, very comfortable and cozy. And they understood right away that I was trying to offer a hotel standard service with the quality of bath towels and hotel slippers and the way the bed was made. I felt so frustrated and shocked when I saw this 20-year-old boy from Boston's 3-star review on my listing. 

How do you suggest me to cope with the situation? 

Cheers,

Ying

[Lawrene0]

It is upsetting to get a three-star review, @Ying22, especially with the platform's push for perfection, and there is little you can do but look for any valid points in it. A/C is offered, but wasn't available, so you will be fixing that, and you might want to make it clearer in your description that the room is small. Some hosts include a floor plan with dimensions in their photos. 

Main advice on this one, though, is not to write such a long, defensive public reply to the review. It does the opposite of what you want: it actually highlights the review. The long paragraph draws the eye. It is best to remain very professional. Use the space to briefly assure future guests that the A/C situation has been addressed and all is well. You can let his complaint about the room size go. People see that for what it is. Being too busy to have installed a listed amenity is not an excuse guests will want to hear. Saying that your mother loves the room doesn't help either. (Nearly) everyone's mother would give them a good review. 🙂

Wishing you lots of wonderful future reviews! Don't let this one get you down.

[Ying22]

Dear Lawrence,

Thank you for taking the time to check my listing and reply to my posting! I appreciate your professional advice which is truly great tips for me! Speaking about this, I've communicated with Airbnb support staff several times since the review was published. No one has given me any really valuable advice like yours. 

Yes, I was going to install an AC within the shortest timeline, meanwhile added a special notice about this detail in my description. It makes sense to add the room size for people to judge by themselves on "small" or "big". As someone who lived in NYC for more than five years, who stayed in several Airbnb rooms in the City, I can assure that my bedroom is truly not small, and represents good values. But, they might be more obvious with mature people, not always with the 20-year-old crowd.

Thank you for your nice wishes! The same for you!

Warmly,

Ying

[Sheena-and-Jonathan0]

@Ying22 - You have to understand that your room is smaller than a lot of people's closets around the rest of the country!  So you and everyone you know loves it - because they live in New York and they understand it.

But for someone for whom it is their first visit to New York, they don't know that.  They just walk in and think 'this is SO small I can't even move in here'!  

The thing I've learned is for us New York area hosts, it's really difficult to host Americans.  For us, they are the worst Airbnb guests.  The ones who drive don't understand why there's not a large driveway in front of the building where they can park for free!  So they've left us bad reviews for that!  But come on - NOBODY anywhere near Manhattan has a big driveway in front of their building!  

We've gotten to the point where we cringe whenever an American books our place.  Because we just know it's gonna be trouble.  

Anyway, the problem with your guy who left you the bad review is, your photos accurately show how small the room is.  It's not like you were trying to hide it!  So he was wrong to be so negative about that.  

But I have a feeling it was really the air conditioning that ticked him off.  If ONE thing annoys a guest, then they'll complain about everything.

Anyway, looks like you've had a lot of nice guests since then, so congratulations on that!

[Ying22]

Dear Sheena and Jonathan,

Thank you for taking the time to review my listing and to respond to my message here! It feels like that I hear speaking from my soulmates. 

Yes, my first guest felt pissed off by the non-AC condition. Since I've installed the AC, no one has complained again about the temperature of that room. I feel much relieved now.

You are totally right about how difficult American guests actually are. I felt surprised when I realized it recently. I'm now hosting my third group of American guests, a mom and a daughter from California. The biggest headache is that they have to spend their EVERY evening on my couch watching a soap opera. Yesterday morning as I was in a rush preparing to catch up a train for a work travel to upstate, the mom tried to kick me out from my bathroom to work out her and her daughter's tourist schedule. As I really couldn't get out, she jumped into the shower as I was still in there dealing with my wet hair, consolating me at the same time that she wouldn't mind doing so.

I never had this type of experience - a bit disturbing and absurd for me - with any other guests from Asia, Middle-East or Europe. Your feeling is shared. The American guests are TRULY difficult: demanding, feeling entitled, often not clean neither organized and sometimes really rude and unconscious of good manners. 

I wish all of us good luck with them. If anyone has great strategies for dealing with American guests, please do not hesitate to share them with us here. They will be greatly appreciated!

Warmly,

Ying

[Sheena-and-Jonathan0]

Haha!  I know exactly what you mean!  I'm American... so I'm not dissing my own people!  I just understand them.  Because I didn't grow up in New York so I know how foreign it is to people from around the country.

It's not really Americans that are the problem - it's Americans who are in New York for the first time!  If they've been before, then they know.  But it's the first timers who are always the problem.  

Our guests from Europe and Asia are amazing in that they understand what it's like to be in a big crowded city.   They don't complain that you have to walk for 3 minutes to the bus or subway!  They don't complain that after they get to the bus or subway - they have to wait 5 more minutes for it to arrive!  They just know that.  They understand that's what life is like in big cities.

Americans for the most part don't understand that.  Because they all have cars and drive wherever they go.  They never have to walk to a bus or wait on a subway.  And they also have the luxury of living in spread out cities with lots of land and lots of space.  Their houses are big and have plenty of room.  So when they come here they're just shocked.  And they don't realize it's all of New York.  They think it's just YOU!  

So they blame YOU - YING from Manhattan!  YING has a small place!  Not, 'all places are small in New York'!

They think YOU are the only one with such a small apartment.  So they blame you and they give YOU a low rating.  When really, they should be giving New York City the low rating.  But Airbnb doesn't give them a way to do that - and they wouldn't even know to do it if they could!  

We're across the river in NJ and we have a place that's like a mansion compared to NYC places.  But it's still small compared to the rest of America.  And we have people come here for $70 a night - 10 minutes from Times Square - and they complain that their room was too small.  (And it's about 4 times bigger than yours)! 

I sit there and shake my head just wishing that they had expericed a tiny New York hotel room - for $400 a night - before they came here!

They just don't understand.