We’ve been renting out our spare bedroom through airbnb for more than a year, with superhost status and only one bad review about the homeless person that sleeps across the road, not having parking on our property etc (things we can’t change/we’re never offered and don’t bother us)
We are moving house after the last guest has checked out but she has been a nightmare. We are going to permanently delete the listing she has booked on as we’re moving but we are afraid that a bad review will be right on top of our profile when we set up the listing for our new house.
A bit of info 👇🏻
Our listing is transparent and honest. We’re sharing our personal space with guests. We work, live and relax in this space. We offer a self maintained room with a private entrance, and shared areas in our house. We are clear about the fact that we have dogs and other housemates. We aim to create a more affordable place for travelers to stay and get to know the culture, we speak 4 national languages between the four of us. We love to get to know new people. We don’t offer parking on property or cleaning during a stay. We mention that we work full time, and that this is our personal home that we are opening up to guests, hence the listing is self maintained and cheaper than most backpackers. We’ve never wanted to run a guest house, just a home away from home and all past guests have left lovely feedback about our home and warm welcome.
We have gone out of our way to meet all of our guests demands even if they weren’t offered on our listing.
We have had to bring in a domestic 3 times a week instead of once to clean our current guests room and make her bed with new linen as she’s allergic to dust.
We now try to keep the dogs on our side of the house away from her (They are mentioned in our listing, well trained and we clean up after them every day)
I’ve had to scold our housemates about not leaving washed cups & spoons in the drying rack in their own house because she said the kitchen looks messy (Dishes were washed, kitchen cleaned, there were cups in drying rack)
She is using our bicycle to get around but complaining about the wheel squeeking. Demanding we fix it.
We’ve had to clear out space in our fridge as the bar fridge is apparently not big enough for her.
She decided to go on holiday to a different part of Cape Town for a week and requested a refund for those 7 days mid-stay (2 month booking) which I refunded out of pocket to keep the peace (Airbnb doesn’t refund guests mid-stay)
She has now found a cheaper plane ticket and wants to check out a day early and also have a refund for that..
At what point is the customer not right?
It has been exhausting to keep up and I have almost reached the point of giving up hosting. I have not heard a positive word from her although we have truly gone out of our way to address every single concern she brings up.
So back to my question. Will she be able to leave a review after I deactivate my listing completely? What can I do in future if u get a guest like this again? Am I in the wrong to feel cheated in this situation?
