Guests leaving negative feedback after messing up the place

[Florian239]

Hi there,

We just recently had guests who have caused extensive damage to the home and 

we had to involve AirBNB and get them to pay us for the damage that they had caused as they first refused to do so.

They have left a very negative star rating which is impacting on our superhost status from when it will be next reviewed. 

I have tried twice to talk to Airbnb about this but all they say is they will not remove the review as reviews show a range of 

what people think about our home and they did not violate the rules by leaving a negative feedback. 

I feel so saddend and sick to the bones about the fact that they left our house in shambles and we had to clean the carpet,

buy new sheets etc and they the get to say our house wasn't clean, our communication was bad etc. 

We have never had a bad rating like this before and we always got 5 Stars for cleanliness and my wife prides herself with that, too. 

We are even thinking of stopping doing Airbnb even though we love most of our guests but we just don't feel supported.

Has anyone had this experience and can anyone tell me what they did to resolve this or how to cope with it better?

Also we had a few guests lately not leaving reviews so the percentage is going down for left reviews. 

We have found if we "preassure" guests to leave one they might leave a 4 Star... 

Any ideas on that?

And we have had a few guests leave a negative feedback on check-in as they can't come up the drive but it says so in different spots in our listing... 

We even write it to people when they request and still some of them come up the drive and then get like oh well but it is very steep... 

Our listings name is Steep As... 

Why do guests sometimes refuse to obey the house rules?

Cheers,

Flroian

[Florian239]

No it was a different guest he only left one sentence and bad stars.

[Ella54]

Which one is the negative review? 

[Florian239]

Nick was the guest. 

I will try and make a screenshot of the stars he gave us. 

[Sarah977]

@Florian239  It's not my experience that letting guests know how star ratings affect hosts lead them to leave 4* reviews- quite the opposite. There are many threads on this forum about how hosts can educate guests about it (of course it's not going to make a difference with bad guests, but good ones will often leave 4* reviews because Airbnb leads them to believe that it's good- they have no idea they'll tank your rating and Superhost status.) Search for those threads- there's lots of good ideas and approaches and it also depends on how much interaction you have with guests- I host in my home and have a lot of interaction, so I just talk with them about it at some point during their stay. Hosts who have entire place listings will often leave a note in the unit explaining it to guests.

There's a big difference between cluing guests in about how Airbnb rates  and punishes hosts, and asking for a 5* review, which I would never do. But good guests have no idea that leaving you a 4* review will lose you Superhost- Airbnb doesn't tell them and once they find that out, most will leave 5*s as long as they felt your place was good- they really have no desire to have you punished.

[Florian239]

Sarah, I think you misunderstood what I said. I never said that I educated my guests towards what a 4* rating does. I said that sometimes we have had guests who don't leave reviews at all. This can potentially, if it falls below 50%, mean that you lose your superhost status. So we have sometimes messaged guest and asked for a review not saying anything about the stars just that the reviews are important for hosts on the platform. 

And every one of the requested ones was a 4*. So we are now not asking guests anymore which might lead to loosing the status anyway. 

[Sarah977]

@Florian239 No, I didn't misunderstand. I was just letting you know that there are ways to get guests to leave 5* reviews. It's not enough to ask them to leave a review- they don't know that 4*s isn't good for hosts- they think it is, because that's what Airbnb leads them to believe. I've had guests, who when I let them know how hosts are rated, be horrified- saying they'd left 4* reviews for their past hosts, thinking it was good- they felt terrible about it when they were told that it could cause a host to lose their Superhost status or even be delisted.

What I was trying to tell you is that it is a good thing to educate guests about the star ratings- nice guests are grateful for the information.

[Florian239]

I also think that it defeats the purpose of the review itself to tell people they punish you with a 4*rating. Very often hosts just review guests 5* and vice versa. We have stayed in places that were not 5* but rated as such. We had guests with very good feedback and they were not great at all. 

Only if you turn on ist abt book you can see a guests star rating but I guess most of them are 5* anyway... 

I wonder why Airbnb doesn't adjust its rules around superhost sand why they would have such a silly rating meachanism for guests. When we stay somewhere and I review it always says the stars won't affect the host and won't be seen by the host. And also it tells them that 4 is great. Change the wording Airbnb! 

[John1080]

@Florian239, I too almost always leave a 5* as a guest. All the places I've stayed have been fine, but sometimes too cramped or not comfortable in one way or another. However, all have been satisfactory, but in reality, I would probably leave 4* or so if I was not a host and didn't know about the rating system. 

In any other situation, whether it be a restaurant, a car rental company, whatever, I almost never ever leave the maximum number of stars because to me, the maximum signifies that I was highly and greatly exceeded my expectations. I would love to see a change in the Airbnb rating system. 

[Florian239]

Do you leave then a privat feedback at how they could improve then? 

I always say thanks bla bla and that I gave 5 stars bla bla but that I would improve on blanks. 

It helps hosts! 

[Jane550]

I think sometimes those that leave the worst reviews or star ratings are those that complain or leave the worst mess after there stay. This is just from personal experience... 

[Florian239]

Absolutely, Jane! 

You are so correct! 

I have the sane experience and I would just hope that Airbnb looks into changing some things! 

Like for example if someone causes damage etc they can't leave a review at all. And that they change the rating wording of the stars. Always puts me off when I travel or when I review a guest. 

[Florian239]

Nick

14 Dec - 17 Dec · $92 NZD

Steep as! Own bath, living room, bedroom & access

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it was a good place to stay there

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