I am now already in a +10 day discussion with Airbnb on an i...
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I am now already in a +10 day discussion with Airbnb on an issue of blocked days that are being switched to 'active' in the c...
Latest reply
I recently hired an Air BnB last week for an event (surprise birthday for my partner) which was approved by the Host. Once I told her about an event she then asked how many people and I told her it would only be 30-40 as it’s a small birthday nothing big. She then proceeded to pay an extra cleaning fee of $400 on top of the $150 cleaning fee already charged.
After we left (no damages) we put all the rubbish into rubbish bags and plastic bags and put it one place by in the backyard as all the bins were overly full. Today she messages saying she will report me for leaving my rubbish behind! This makes no sense as we had paid an excessive cleaning fee for God knows what! I don’t want to have this affect me as I’ve been using Air BnB for 3 years and use it frequently and have a good rep. What can I do about this? Can I challenge a review?
@Pat280 -
@Sarah977 Doesn't have to justify anything to you. She wasn't your host. She can, however, give you her perspective. That's what we are all doing here. But, if you just want a place to talk and not listen, go to Twitter like everyone else in the world.
Your host charged you $10/head to host a big party with 40 people. That covered toilet paper, paper towels, the cost of water, and other consumables and was a totally reasonable charge on top of her normal cleaning fee considering the possibility for damages (think stained towels, broken mugs.....normal things that happen to nice guests like yourself and are even more likely with 40 people celebrating a loved one's birthday). If the $400 was a concern, you should have discussed this with you host during the booking process.
It sounds like the host didn't set clear expectations and procedures for your checkout and that really set you both up for frustration and resentment. I'm sorry about that. She probably will not ever host a group that large again and I'm guessing you won't book one, either.
I can see you feel like people have been picking on you and not listening.
I do know how you feel. When I first started posting here, I felt as though people were not REALLY reading my inherent question and were firing off answers and taking the discussion in a different direction. I really don't think this is intentional.
the trouble with emails is that it is very hard to read "tone"
there are often different people form different cultures and language backgrounds posting here and that also has a big impact on how messages can be perceived
Pat I can see why you are thinking the host was unreasonable.
I think the big problem here, is how your host worded the extra charges - calling them a "cleaning fee".
She probably did this, because "extra guest fee" implies that people are staying over - and if she'd called the fee that, then that could have created a whole other area of difficulty - she could potentially have had a guest expect that all the extra guests would sleep over. Teh host is limited by what she can call extra fees by airbnb's wording.
So i think the wording was the real problem here. Perhaps she should have referred to the charge as a "special event" fee to cover the wear and tear of all the extra guests which in reality is what I imagine she was trying to do.
But as soon as she referred to it as a "cleaning fee: that sets up a completely different set of expectations doesn't it? I can see why you then felt hard done by when she complained about the rubbish. I also think this host should have made her expectations absolutely clear re this - I agree with you there too - obviously if there were 40 people on the property there is likely to be a lot of rubbish and if she expected you to take if with you she should have said so.
However, I do also agree with @Emily487 - if you try to look dispassionately at it, this host really was only charging about $10 pp for you to hold this event at her property which to me does seem quite reasonable - if you're interested in my opinion. I rented a hall recently for a very similar function - no furnishings apart from tables and chairs, very limited crockery, certainly no real ambience and I had to pay $500 plus a substantial bond and most people considered this dirt cheap. (I offer this just as a point of comparison Australia and NZ have sort of similar prices.)
If i were you I'd reach out to this host very calmly and just explain that you think there has been a break down of communication. That you tried to be as clean and neat and tidy and considerate as you could be. And that you genuinely thought that the extra $400 "cleaning fee" was in place to deal with issues such as excess rubbish.
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Again not trying to be critical, but just to give some insight, I also have a vacation property that sleeps 8. I recently had 2 guests check out and they left it in immaculate condition. I had 5 guests check in - so I had to get all 4 rooms ready. I started at 6.30 am and by 1.30 I still wasn't REALLY finished, but had to leave. And that was starting from a base where the house was already very neat and tidy. If I had paid a contractor to do all this, their fee would have easily been around the $500 mark. That was what @Sarah977 was conveying which is a really valid point in my opinion. It's really incredible how long it takes to really thoroughly clean a house - especially one in a rural area
Good luck in dealing with this situation and I'm so sorry what was meant to be a fun event has turned a little sour. I do honestly think that open, respectful communication - if it can be achieved - is the best way to sort out the majority of issues.
Good luck!
Thank you Rowena.
your words of advice and seeing it from another perspective have definitely helped. I agree the $400.00 was in my mind reasonable but because it was as part of the cleaning fee then I expect $400.00 worth of cleaning if you catch my drift.
I understand what you mean by everyone’s opinions and it being critical instead of helping which I had expected from the “community” and your message has definitely been helpful.
I did try explain this to the host but she was not in the mind to go back and fourth that way hence my post straight after.
i believe Air BnB should re word that fee then because if it was advised that we take our rubbish with us then I would have done so and only queried the $400.00 fee on top so I could justify it and therefore make better comparisons between other Air BnBs.
Thank uou again for your message
have a great day
Airbnb is flawed on many levels about many things. I agree with you about the rewording and I imagine most other other people would too. Many many people have made many suggestions about lots of things and very little seems to change. teh difficulty is because there are so many different types of accommodations and styles - it's very difficult to anticipate and cover everything.
At the moment they seemed to be far more focused on developing their corporate strategy - ie hotels than worrying too much about small fry like you and I.
However that aside I still think the host could have been clearer with you re her expectations and certainly, in my opinion, should have been prepared to talk with you further when this "difficulty" arose.
I'm not sure what she means when she says she's going to "report" you, other than "flag" you which means you will no longer be able to IB her property - which I don t imagine you will ever want to do again!
What you have to consider now Pat is how you will handle an almost certainly negative review from this host. I can see you've had great reviews so far, so I can well understand how upset you must be at the idea of getting a negative one, especially when you feel like you acted in good faith.
there's a couple of things you could do.
You could contact airbnb customer support to put in your side of the story. It's very unlikely that they will remove a negative review, but you never know, and they MAY contact the host on your behalf, prior to the review and try to mediate a bit. Airbnb tends to protect guests much better than hosts. (this is one of he reasons why the community can sometimes appear as though they are favouring hosts over guests, because they are frequently given extremely unfair treatment by customer service.)
Assuming none of this works and she leaves a bad review, the absolute best thing you can do for yourself is to leave a reply to her review. Be factual. honest and and unemotional - express how disappointed you are in the breakdown of communication
Depending on what she says you could say something like " I am genuinley distressed that xxxx did not regard me as a good guest. When she made her concerns known to me after checkout I did try to have an open and frank discussion but this was not encouraged. I pride myself on being an excellent and considerate guest as my previous reviews will attest. I apologise that I failed to meet XXX's expectations, but I do feel that she should have been clearer in communicating these requirements when she requested an extra $400 after booking,"
Or something along those lines. Bear in mind that your host quite possibly will not read your response, You are not gearing it to her. You are gearing it to future hosts who will almost certainly read your reviews when you go to book elsewhere in the future.
You also need to consider how you will review the host, if at all. Bear in mind hosts suffer much more from negative reviews than guests, especially if the overall star rating is low. I don't think it's appropriate for me to suggest anything here as I am only hearing your version of events. but if you WERE going to mark her down on stars for anything, I think it would be communication. I'd also wait quite a while so that you don't write when you are still feeling frustrated. It's possible if you wait and don't review, then the host won't review. If you do leave a review. she will almost certainly assume you've left a negative one. and will respond in kind - I imagine. she may also wait until the very lat minute to review you - hoping to achieve the same thing
I think trying to talk to airbnb customer support first might be a good step. If you get a rep who seems clueless, just thank them, hangup ring again and start over. There are some really good reps and some really terrible ones.
I hope this hasn't ruined airbnb for you Pat.
Good luck!
Regards