Guests leave a bad review but still booked the same villa twice!

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Guests leave a bad review but still booked the same villa twice!

In a world where we just see people and not color, class, creed, background... you find just that odd person who makes you go hmmm... really?! I'll cut to the chase.

 

After having over 40 5 star reviews on Airbnb, VRBO and other website, you get that one guest that really makes you go hmmm ... smh...really?...

We always aim to go above and beyond and we do not discriminate. We had our 2nd guests stay at one of our recent homes who just from day one you couldn't please. From begging for discounts on their stay, to begging to use an outside chef and housekeeper and having extra guests over...it just started going downhill. We try to be flexible where possible and will decide what we will allow and won't allow.

The only issue that occurred during their stay was 1 AC unit cable stopped working (no fault of ours and the developers and AC techs were around the clock trying to fix the issue). It was fixed and the guests were comped grocery vouchers, comped 2 beach club facilities, provided a portable AC unit. 2 of the guests were even offered to be put up in another villa which they refused 3x!.. 

 

It gets better. They complained so much about everything that they asked to extend their stay and didn't want to go to another villa because they love our, the service and amenities provided. Btw they also begged for a discount on their second booking. Instead of extending, they booked 2x so essentially they got a day free. This guest has never had a review. Remember that housekeeper? She called and indicated she was no longer working for them. And turns out the chef wasn't an actual chef. They called my phone all sorts of hours so they can have people over. In addition, we received noise complaints and smoking in a prohibited area.

 

All in all, we were left with damages to the home, a dirty place and items that are prohibited. In addition, they indicated they weren't leaving the villa at the check-out time as per policy; the same check-out time to which they agreed to. To top it off the indecent slurs from guests who call themselves "lawyers and doctors having stayed at prestigious places" were witnessed by the team, security and personnel who shared the same color skin.

 

Note to Superhosts/hosts: Always watch the red flags of not so nice guests; asking for discounts, no reviews or bad reviews, complain about everything yet wanting to book again or extend their stay, having extra guests over, failing to comply with rules and policies. Maybe we made the mistake of allowing them to extend their stay...

 

What good can we take away from this? Airbnb or not, we will continue to provide 5 star service, products and experiences. PERIOD!

1 Best Answer
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Danielle681   "Maybe we made the mistake of allowing them to extend their stay..."

 

I'd say the mistake you made was accepting their booking in the first place when they started out by asking for a discount (this right away shows disrespect) and didn't even have any reviews. Then you continued to allow them to make more demands and even comped them stuff.

 

These entitled types are never happy, and the more you bend over backwards to accommodate them, the more they want and they appreciate none of it- it's just all about them. And in the end, no matter what you did to try to help them out, they leave a bad review.

 

It's great that you pride yourself on providing a 5* experience and amenities, but when you see right off the bat that they are demanding and entitled, practice politely saying NO.

 

Save the extra special service for guests who are nice and appreciative.

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26 Replies 26

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@Huma0   

 

Well done, I think You have attracted a new repeat guest.

 

Today in this world of ours there are so many people who have different opinions on all kinds of subjects: Politics, ethics, climat change, corona, Trump,  relationships, how to bring up children and so on an so forth. There is not one single issue mankind would agree upon nowadays. Therefore, people today are so happy if they find someone who tells them yes or no on anything an if it's check-in or laundry. Finally they found someone to give them clear directions.

 

2 years ago @Sarah977  wrote:

 

  • We shouldn't leave our guests in the uncomfortable situation
    not knowing what they did wrong.

 

Right, people today love it being told what to to and what not to do.

 

 

@Ann72  

 

Right now I'm having these guests inhouse who asked me 5 times if they could park a camping trailer on my premises and 5 times I told them NO. For tomorrow 10am the booking guest has invited me to her 40th birthday lunch. She looks older than 40 but I can't tell her of course.

 

I'm agonising if I should ask her tomorrow why they wanted to bring this trailer or maybe I'll just drop that topic.

 

@Ute42  Rather than mentioning her age or the trailer, I recommend you simply bring five uninvited guests to the party with you.

@Ann72  Good one. And then Ute could act passively-aggressively put-out that there isn't enough cake to go around.

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@Ann72  

 

Today I passed the birthday brunch invitation from my guest with the trailer.

 

It wasn't her 40th birthday as I stated yesterday, it was her 50th. So my guess she may be older was right.

 

She runs a hairdressing salon in cooperation with her 83 year old mother. The funny thing: She doesn't have a hairdo at all, just hair hanging down from her head. Never seen a woman before with absolutely no hairstyle and being a hairdresser at the same time.

 

She likes rock and roll but she doesn't like Santana which ist a problem bc I love Santana. Last night they were celebrating into her birthday. One of her friends was playing guitar at midnight and they all sang along. Not rock and roll tunes though, more „how much is that dog in the window“ kind of music.

 

She said they'd like to come back next year.

 

@Ute42  It doesn't sound terrible but it also doesn't sound exactly like your kind of party.  This lady is like a one-two punch:  invited you to a party (good!), wants to park a trailer on your lawn (bad!), runs a salon with her mom (good!), has no hairstyle at all (bad!); likes rock 'n' roll (good!), doesn't like Santana (very, very, very bad indeed!).  Very kind of you to go, in my opinion.  🙂

@Ute42 @Ann72  Gotta admit I'm not a Santana fan either. It's not really what I think of as rock and roll. It's more of a rock/jazz/latin fusion.

@Huma0  Wow is all I can say. I totally understand and appreciate where you draw the line. We always remind the guests "as per policy" or my fav "as per site information and welcome book" I do believe most people read the information - some just blatantly ignore.

 

The way Airbnb has changed the layout the rules and policies are pushed all the way to the bottom that guests dont bother to read. The ha ha is a clear indication they knew the rules and just wanted to do their own thing.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Danielle681 

 

Yes, this is a big problem. It was hard enough to get people to read the rules, or 'policies', before, but now they are almost invisible to the guest and one has to wonder why Airbnb has done that when it's exactly the opposite of what hosts have been requesting for years, i.e. please make the rules more visible to the guest.

 

With this particular guest, for sure, it was a case of him blatantly ignoring my rules as we had a lengthy discussion about the check in time (many more messages than above, which I summarised). He actually used the wording, "Don't worry, we will respect your check in time..." and then did no such thing.

 

I guess they thought that if they showed up at my door, I wouldn't be able to turn them away, but you do have to wonder about guests' logic sometimes. Firstly, why would you expect to be able to check into a room before the previous guests had even left? Secondly, I had made a very, very big deal about the check in time, refusing to accept the booking until he confirmed they would not come before 3pm. Why would he then think I'd be okay with them showing up at 9am?

 

Unfortunately, it never occurs to some guests that a host does have the right to say NO sometimes.

It is great to hear a similar story to ours. Our first guests such as this and is definitely the last such as them. The comps were made by the community developer and 1 by our team given the home was still new and under the developer's timeline. Exactly from the time you give in to one request it goes down from there. So sorry to hear about your experience too. I hope you weren't badly affected.

 

Whilst they scream with their r slurs, we stood in silence. I was well "home trained". Thank you for the feedback! Best wishes to you. Stay safe in NY!

Thank you Ann @Ann72 for the positive feedback. Exactly home training indeed. They paid some of the damages thus far. We started receiving bookings and funny enough guests indicated they weren't fazed by the bad review because after reading past at least 20 5 star reviews, they understood we had 1 not so good guest who did not respect the house rules, the gated community gym rules and violated other ones. 

We are continuing to push forward and continuing to grow as things change re: covid19 worldwide. 

Best wish

Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@Danielle681 I would take the opportunity to respond to this guest's review. Unfortunately, as this is the very first review on that property, it really doesn't look good, no matter how unfair and ridiculous it was. Tell your side of the story in a professional way for the benefit of future guests. 

Hi Alexandra. Thank you for your feedback. As the guest extended her stay and booked the villa twice, our host left a review for each stay and a response to their review in the most professional way (as we always do). We have reviews on the same villa but not on Airbnb as we do not limit ourselves to one booking site. 

 

Luckily the guest made a payment via the Airbnb resolution centre for the damages as we had evidence of photos and videos of the damages and how they left the home. In addition, we were provided with invoices from the companies as well as statements from the various service providers who were the ones that indicated to the guest and us at the site visits: the cause of damages, solutions and recommendations.