How to review a stupid guest..

Kelly58
Level 4
Vass, NC

How to review a stupid guest..

I had a guest and his dog (the guest is aso a host in another country) that in general were good guests but for one hugely stupid thing.  He contacted me about a plumbing problem (the previous guest left the night before and indicated in their review the shower being on the fritz and used the bath instead...even though they never once told me or used the second shower since they were renting the whole house).  Turns out that shower head ended up with blockage that didnt allow much water pressure.  Replaced that as soon as I got the negative review and well before this stupid guest checked in.  He contacted me saying the shower wouldnt shut off and was making a loud noise.  I asked him if he had turned off both the hot and cold water.  He said he did.  I got there as soon as I could (had to leave work and was there within 30 minutes) and all I needed to do was turn the hot water off.  He had turned the cold water to the right and off but thought that the hot water knob needed to go to the left to turn off (why I dont know).  When I told him he didnt believe me so I had to actually show and teach him.  SO in the end the hot water ran on full blast for 2 hours just because he didnt turn it off!  That and it cost me time and gas to deal with it.  I am expecting he will probably also be stupid about the review, even though it was his issue.  WHen I asked him about the loud noise he had metnioned he said it was the noise of the water hitting the shower...duh!

 

So how should I review him?  Here is my initial draft but I would like feedback before I go final.  I am not very experienced and many of you are very much so.

 

"Roni and his beautiful and well behaved dog were great guests and I recommend them to any host. Very good communication as his arrival time was delayed by his vehicle being slowed by towing a load he was not used to.  However, I was surprised that he contacted me about a plumbing problem when I arrived to learn that the hot water had been running for 2 hours because I had to teach him in person that you must turn both hot and cold water knobs to the right to turn them off."

 

Thank you in advance!

36 Replies 36
Judy36
Level 2
Ipswich, United Kingdom

I agree with Mike.  I recently had a lovely young lady stay with me for three weeks.  During that time, she flooded my bathroom twice- once leaving the hand shower running, she said she hadn't noticed the full body shower on the wall above the bath and then again because she failed to put the shower curtain IN the bath while using it.  The damage caused us to reinforce the floor seals under the floor and repaint the kitchen ceiling.

 

Her room is includes three beautiful plants, a bin and we have a Saturday morning sheet change policy all of which were ignored or allowed to build up with junk.  

Upon her departure, we found two massive bags of rubbish, mould growing out of her milk jug and she took a china cup, saucer and spoon (presumably took it to the office she was working at during her stay) which was not returned.

 

Sad thing was, she was so lovely, I thought it wasn't worth the grief giving her a bad review because as a person, she was lovely but she reviewed us with a comment about having to ask for the hairdryer (which is put away in case it gets pinched).  I chose not to be sacastic about it as I felt it would reflect badly on me.

 

I now wish I had been more honest, I know now that its ok to be nice on the public notice (unless it warrants it) but to let them know that they have done something wrong and not to ignore their actions on the private section.  Some people need a help understanding the ways of the world.

Heather32
Level 6
Hawaii, United States

I think you always have to remember the purpose of the review. It's not to punish, or embarrass, but to enlighten future guests and hosts.

 

There is a huge difference in providing info and name calling.

 

Judy, I agree with you, you should have let the community know that your guest was not respectful of your home. The original poster had a very different situation. The guest made a ridiculous mistake, but promptly informed the host and there was only damage to the hosts time by 20 min, and the cost of the hot water. You, on the other hand, endured a great deal of damage to your property, as well as a situation where she repeated her mistake.

 

There's a way of letting the community of hosts know there is an issue, and not blasting the guest out of the water:

"X was a delightful guest to host, we enjoyed her company, however  we have been left with some damage to our property from a plumbing issue that could have been prevented."

 

No name calling, no name calling, no shaming.

Judy36
Level 2
Ipswich, United Kingdom

Thank you Heather, I agree that would have been a good way to put it.  I won't make that mistake again.

Heather32
Level 6
Hawaii, United States

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

If a guest annoys or inconveniences me in a stupid way, I always mention something in the review. This is important as a courtesy to the next host who will get them.

BUT, I usually keep it quite general, as writing long details makes you (me) look petty and doesn't really get the point across.

For example, I had a guest who spent much of her visit sitting on the back patio drinking and smoking pot. One of my neighbors was kind of loud that day (during daytime hours) and the guest got annoyed with the neighbor (I guess for disturbing her quiet "stoned time") and yelled at the neighbor and threatened to beat her up. In my review, I gave the guest a thumbs-down and said she caused trouble with my neighbor and should probably stay at a hotel next time, but I left out the specifics. It was enough to satisfy me that I would warn future hosts about her.

But I've also had other guests who caused damage out of ignorance, for example by not sleeping between the sheets but instead on top of the blanket with the bedspread over them. Then the guest had a nose bleed and the $60 bedspread was ruined. In this case I chose to message the guest privately and not leave a review at all, and instead add to my House Guide that guests MUST sleep between the sheets for hygiene purposes. Most guests laugh at this clause, but I explain that all these things come from experiences with previous guests.

In your case, maybe labeling the handles or including a diagram in your House Guide will prevent this from happening again. The guy shouldn't have left the water running for 2 hours, that was really the only bad thing here. So maybe in your review, you could say that the guest was wasteful with water, and only add the detail that he left the hot water running for 2 hours. This gives some of the sense of his idiocy without coming right out and saying so, and will warn future guests that this dude might not be as respectful/intelligent as they'd like.

 

Michele

Teta0
Level 1
Brattleboro, VT

So Kelly, after reading all the replies, what are you going to do? Would you mind saying?

 

I don't have much to add to the conversation. I think others have made all the points. Mostly I agree with Heather.

 

Best wishes.

Kelly58
Level 4
Vass, NC

Thanx everyone for your responses. Yes I shouldn't have said the guest was stupid, just what he did. Sorry it was a slip with my frustration. So I left out all negative mention and then received the worst ever review where he made no mention of it but complained about the lack of extra furniture that had been clearly indicated in the listing and his welcome letter, as well as the first review.  He complained about an old toilet seat and  walls that he said needed painting.  Also complained about there no trails to enjoy the beautiful nature and "watch out from an accidental trespassing" whatever that means.  (Any ideas, because I sure don't?). Then went on to complain about charging $70 w pet fee (it was only $50 w pet fee because it was the day before and I raise the price $5 for booking the day before and it is listed as $30 with a $15 pet fee) and saying that he could have stayed in a Super 8 for that and would have had wifi (which is also clearly indicated in the listing that I don't have) and a kitchen chair (there is a padded corner bench for using the cafe table (which actually was more than had been listed in the ad because he booked before I had even moved that in and had a chance to put it in the listing. Then (although he had claimed it was clean earlier in the review said he would hopefully have cleaner walls in a Super 8 too! He most certainly would not have had a half acre of fenced beautiful nature for his dog to run around loose in at a Super 8. Then his private feedback was sorry it was so harsh but I should paint the walls and get more stuff in the house if I'm going to charge $70/night for him and his dog.
Oh I also never mentioned that he asked to stay for 12 hours starting at 9am and then ended up staying 23.5 hours starting at noon! And then I had to remind him that his reservation was only for 24 hours. Maybe I should have kicked him out at 9 since that was when he originally wanted to arrive...anyways, I'm just so frustrated with people that are so nice and sweet to your face and then turn around and inform you in their review that they had issues! Any suggestions for dealing with and preventing that?

Thanx again for any further assistance.

Kelly!

 

This sucks big time!

I have rec'd a couple of whopper reviews on VRBO over the last few years as well.

My advice is to write a response, wait 24 hours review it and post.

You need to remember you are not addressing the guest, but future renters.

Keep it factual and suncinct. Address it point by point, use 3rd person phrasing-

"I am sorry the guest felt he was unable to enjoy the large property we provided for him and his pet, but I'm glad I were at least able to provide what a Motel 6 could not."

"This is an extension of my home, and I am updating the property as I am able, I'm also happy that I was able to extend his reservation by 23 hours for him at no charge."

If you keep it above his level your future guests will see what happened.

Hope this helps.

 

 

We had a recent guest for two months in our cottage. We (against policy and better judgement) allowed her two shelties. Lovely woman, very friendly, but when she left I was stunned to see she had not cleaned for two months, including the dog's leavings. We did offer to have cleaning every two weeks(at no cost to her, of course). She insisted she liked to do her own cleaning. Turns out, that means: liked to not do her own.

 

It took me two hours just to pick up all the poo. We will not allow dogs again. Because she did not do any maintenence cleaning, the dogs hair was imbedded into the linens and furniture, requiring me to pull each one out after vacuuming and brushing. The place was clearly not cleaned, ever for two months.  This required a LOT of catch up cleaning, by me and a cleaner. I was a bit stunned as she was a clean-looking individual.

 

I decided to take the high road and did not mention any of this, and in fact gave a five star rating. We have yet to receive a reciprocal review. The two week deadline for reviewing seems unrealistic to me, as guest are traveling and it seems like it would be a low priority to do it quickly. By the time most people are ready to leave a review, they cannot. Just my opinion.

Five star review? Wow.

I would have given 1* and a thumbs down 

Anastacia0
Level 3
Phoenix, AZ

I had 'stupid' tenant as well. I had a tenant that did not READ the written direction to obtain the house key. I told them, on the phone, no one else has had this problem. I was dumbfounded. THEN, once again did not follow directions (but blamed this one on another family member who may not have read the directions) got the key stuck in the wrong door. We have an issue with one door and its fittings. We tell them they "won't have a key to that outter door, and that is NOT locked".  SOMEONE stuck it in it anyway-I am guessing the adult who blamed it on the teen. The tenant felt bad, perhaps rereading the direction, & that I had to leave my family at a resst to go buy a new key, and come to meet them with a replacement. Tenant did take it upon themselves to get the key out, but taking it to a store to get graphite in it. Also, got a text (brand NEW TV-one month old) does you TV work?? yes, just wait a moment for it turn on. sheessh!

I did let them know I was out to dinner. My cell phone was on 3% charge, and I was driving, I tried to stay in contact.

I was pleasant, and he was pleasant at the meet up for the new key. I really don't want to mention it on a review. I just want to give a review of good communication, arrived and left when they said they would, and leave a 4 star for clean up. I don't charge a cleaning fee.  I will might tell my tenant to slow down. I think it is a male thing, all the women followed the written directions. In my experience, men don't like being given more than 2 steps. 

 

What you could do it mention it to airbnb?

 

My error, to find out after they checked out is I left a replacement package of TP at home, there was one roll in the rental, and they used it all in two days?! --so maybe we are even??

I gave a guy a pretty bad review for leaving without telling me, leaving the window open on a cold night and being completely rude in general. I was so sorry I did that. It just made me look bad. The people reading the review are going to judge me. I recommend the highest diplomacy and will use that in the future myself.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Normally I approach these kind of issues based on the guest's attitude. If they do something silly and damage something but tell me straight away, I appreciate that and don't want to punish them for it.

 

So, last night, my current guest did something weird to the downstairs bathroom door. I don't really understand what she did, but the door won't open at all now. Guests do not have access to this bathroom. I don't advertise it, nor do I show it to them when I give them the tour. However, she had realised it was there because I was using it and decided to sneak in when I was out because she didn't want to go up the stairs to use the other bathrooms (there are two others).

 

When I asked her about it, she straight away admitted that she snuck in while I was out and that she had broken the door, but has no idea how she broke it. She is a very sweet girl and I appreciated that she was 100% honest about this so I wasn't angry. What should I do now though? I can't figure out how to fix it so will probably need to get a builder to sort it out. I don't want to force it anymore because it is a beautiful Victorian door that matches the others in the house and would be a nightmare to replace.

 

When I mentioned it again a couple of times today, i.e. told her I still can't get it open, she just changed the subject... My guest is at the beginning of a one month stay. I don't want to create any bad feeling. On the other hand, should I be the one who has to spend time and money on fixing guest breakages, especially in areas that are not supposed to be for guests?!

Alexandre205
Level 9
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

No, of course, she broke your door, so it's up to her to pay for the damage.

It's not enough to be sweet and to admit, she should propose to pay, you shouldn't even have to ask.