5 Star Reviews Yet No Hot Water, Dirty Dishes, Ants, Noisy Neighbors?

Karen457
Level 3
Port Townsend, WA

5 Star Reviews Yet No Hot Water, Dirty Dishes, Ants, Noisy Neighbors?

After many great Airbnb experiences, I seem to be running into a bad streak of luck, but it's made me wonder if guests are just afraid to leave a poor review for fear of looking like a complainer and not being able to book a stay? After a recent nightmare experience that I wrote about here previously - multiple problems, including dangerous situations that were left without anything being done other than promises for weeks - I was re-housed by Airbnb for the last 8 days of my stay. I carefully read through every review (35 of them), all were positive and felt comfortable going there. While it isn't near as bad as the last there are some major issues that no one has mentioned leading me to believe they're worried about doing so, or maybe I'm just expecting too much? I don't think so, but I'd love to hear other's thoughts on this.


I'm definitely not going to leave another bad review because it will surely make me look like a complainer, but this place has no hot water. I told the host and he said something about the batteries needing to replaced in the hot water heater - it's a small box on the outside of a house wall , this is in Baja, Mexico. He said they hadn't replaced them because it's been so hot. The weather is changing and while it is still warm (not nearly as hot), taking a cold shower isn't fun and it's impossible to really get the dishes clean, probably the reason there were so many dirty dishes in the cabinet, with food dried on them. There are ants all over the kitchen, and the next door neighbors are really loud, blast music frequently and have a little dog that's left outside day and night barking constantly (that I know the owner can't control, but surprising no one has mentioned it). The listing also said it includes a washing machine, but it's broken- obviously really old and rusted so likely for some time.

Any thoughts on this? Thankfully we only have a few days left so I'm just dealing with it in the meantime but after this and the last place I really don't know if I can trust booking another Airbnb in the future.

37 Replies 37
Steve143
Level 10
Limerick, Ireland

Hello @Karen457,

 

What's the point of this post? You wonder why the place you're in has glowing reviews despite being below par and then procalim that you're not going to leave a bad review of it. It's no wonder it has wonderful reviews.

Leave a factual review.

Mention any good points. If checkin went smoothly or communication with the host was good you could mention those.

There was no hot water and the host delayed / didn't, whichever happens,  fix it.

Dishes had dried food on them.

Washing machine didn't work.

 

Report ratings as reflected in your experience.

 

Steve.

Karen457
Level 3
Port Townsend, WA

My point is I'm wondering how many guests are falsely leaving positive reviews for fear of not being able to book a place - I just had one nightmare experience, if I leave another poor review people will naturally think there is something wrong on my end especially considering all the other reviews are positive. I wish there were more positive things I could say, true check-in was no problem. I like one of the paintings. That's really about it. 

 

I understand your point at the same time, yes, I should point out the problems here so others are aware, but in the long run it's likely to hurt my ability to book should I decide to trust Airbnb again so I'm also shooting myself in the foot.  I shouldn't have said "I'm definitely not leaving a bad review," I'm still thinking about what the best thing to do really is. For some reason I couldn't go back and edit the post. I'm also still really worn out after the last experience I was dealing with for 3 weeks and then coming to this place and still not getting much sleep because of the noise. I guess I found my own answer, avoid Airbnb then the poor review won't matter.

@Karen457, I think your underlying point is accurate. For the most part, many hosts and guests leave more flattering reviews than they should and there is almost an unwritten understanding across the community that this is the case. 

 

Both hosts and guests often leave positive reviews out of fear of appearing negative or not being able to stay as a guest or get as many bookings as a host, which of course presents accuracy problems as a whole across the AirBnb platform. 

Yes, I'm sure I've been guilty of that myself in the past, I tend to let the little things go most of the time, but I think there have been instances where I should have pointed out some problems to others. Going to think more carefully about it in the future. 

@Karen457, I think we've all been guilty of it to some extent. The entire system is built in a way, where especially for hosts, we are often terrified of receiving a review of less than 5-stars and thus will often times, accept behavior that we really shouldn't on the part of the guest.

 

The same is true of guests, who are scared that other hosts will read their negative reviews of other hosts and not be bookable in the future. In a way, the review system is flawed, but I have no solutions on how to overcome this.

Without knowing the specifics personally (as in actually being there and seeing for myself), I think reviews are often a trade off between cost, value for money, and reality. We stayed in a Superhost place once, and the dishwasher, washing machine and *FRIDGE* were broken!!!! The decor was okay, but garish to me. The bathroom was cleanish, but the soap was used and had hair on it, and there was no plug for the bath. I scrubbed the counters before we left and again, they were clean, but not super so. Amenities were so so.

 

BUT, it was in a great location in a popular tourist city, the host was very helpful and the price was reasonable. Personally, with the broken appliances and mediocre bathroom options, it was no Superhost level listing, but the combination of factors  made it still a great place. It was basically clean as well (not to my standards but...).

 

It does sound like the place you stayed in was not Superhost. I think broken major appliances (and I agree, no hot water is pretty far below standards) and ants would knock a place out of Superhost regardless of price and location.

@Catherine232   Agree with you for the most part, but not about the ants. They are part of the ecosystem where I live, and there are lots of them, of many different varieties. If you leave a piece of food, however small, out for more than a few minutes, the ants will appear from nowhere and be all over it. If there's a dead beetle on the patio, the ants will consume it or carry it away. I'm not into spraying toxic insecticides, and ants don't carry disease, like rats or cockroaches. I consider them nature's cleaners. I do put out the little ant traps which just contain a boric acid solution, but it doesn't necessarily keep them out of the house entirely if they find something to eat. And I've found ants making nests under cushions, behind pictures on the wall, complete with hundreds of eggs. Of course I vacuum them up immediately when I find them.  I could spend all day every day cleaning and there would still be the occasional ants.

You would know better than me 🙂 Me, I live in a temperate rainforest. We do have a lot of ants, but not in the house. My whole back yard seems to have been taken over and I am a bit worried about them moving into the house. On a tangent, our guests leave dishes dirty all the time! Although we rarely have time to check every last dish, we try to at least check saucepans (a particular problem) and dishes if we have time. From my perspective dirty dishes are on the previous guests, but sadly I doubt most guests would think that.

@Catherine232

 

I did have that same thought on the dishes - it would be hard to check each one, although there are very few here, 3 glasses, 4 plates, 3 bowls and very limited silverware, so kind of on the fence about that. I can't imagine how larger groups handled eating in but maybe they always dined out. 

 

That's awful that guests would leave dishes dirty, I'm pretty particular about making sure they're clean, as is my partner/boyfriend as he's worked in a restaurant kitchen so we were really grossed out about the dirty dishes, and not having hot water to clean ours. But using the stove to get hot enough water now so at least we can get that done. 🙂

Agreed, I don't think it's Superhost - looked back at the reviews and several described it as being a quiet neighborhood. I suppose it's all in perspective, but it's on a very busy street where large trucks travel day and night, and engines are revved all the time and the neighbors are very loud, only about a foot away. It could be the previous guests just didn't wash the dishes well and no one checked afterwards- there aren't many dishes and more than a few had food caked on, but lots of people said it was really clean. In general the house is clean and probably the ants and cockroaches can't be helped since it's Mexico, the ants are crawling all over everything in the kitchen but as Sarah just pointed out probably better than pesticide use. The washing machine wasn't a big deal, but when I saw it listed I was really hoping to be able to use it... probably the cold shower and the noise are the worst aspects really,  I'm using Sarah's idea as to heating the water on the stove to wash the dishes. 

 

Perhaps for people who didn't realize that there are many other apartments/houses for the same or lower rates in the area it did seem a good value, especially coming from pricey areas in other countries. I do wish there was a way to improve the review system, not sure what the solution there would be. 

 

In the meantime, looking forward to moving into our brand new house on Monday morning so just focusing on that for now and then I will write a review that highlights the good as much as I can while also pointing out a few of the bigger issues after I leave.

Hi @Karen. Could be that other guests felt it was great value for what they paid.

I would be surprised if guests are "afraid to leave poor reviews for fear of looking like a complainer".  Interesting thought though. I know some hosts are afraid of leaving bad reviews for guests for fear of backlash.

It could be, although might be a stretch, especially the lack of hot water. There are places I've stayed at in Baja for around the same amount that don't have these issues, and I have read articles talking about guests being worried about leaving poor reviews..just found a few others in the forum but it doesn't allow me to include a link here, it was titled 'Consquences of Leaving Negative Reviews.'  If you search 'are airbnb guests afraid to leave bad reviews' there are quite a few articles on Google. In any case, I think I will try to point out as much good as I can (good rate, easy check-in, nice decor) weaved into the other issues. That probably makes the most sense. 

Victoria567
Level 10
Scotland, United Kingdom

what do guests expect if they pay really low rates for accomodation........the Hilton?

 

 

Victoria, this is the average rate for Airbnb houses in La Paz, Baja, Mexico. By far I don't expect the Hilton, but hot water would be nice so that dishes can actually get clean. ??