How would you do if your guest doesn't correctly understand your listing and refuse to stay?

[Ling-Xiao0]

Hey guys,

I'm a fairly new host who just started in the beginning of August. Today I'm a little frustrated by a group of guest who left 20 minutes after arrival and demanded a full refund.

They afterwards listed 3 points that didn't meet their "expectation" but I have clearly written about them on my listing:

1) They believe an additional sofa-bed should be as long as a tall adult (1.8m, or 6'); otherwise they don't call it a bed that someone can sleep.

2) They imagined my place is closed before their arrival, but I've clearly noted that it's essentially an open space.

3) They assumed my dog barked when they came in = my dog would bark all night long.

I really feel bad at this moment. The guest simply speaks like because he paid some money, he should be the king. Is it that I'm asking a too high price?

One thing I may understand is they're travelling from another country and my listing is only in English (although I speak their language). But overall I feel a lack of communication when problems arise, which I have to learn to consume.

So, how would you do if you encounter this type of guest, who doesn't understand an Airbnb is not a hotel, or who brings in some communication issues?

Ling

[Rowena29]

Hi @Ling-Xiao0 

So sorry you are having this negative experience.

It's always nasty when this happens.

I am far from experienced with this so other hosts will no doubt offer better advice.

You are in a bit of a tricky situation as if the guests ring Customer support and complain about the dog or the bed, it's quite likely that Customer support will take their side and give a full refund. AND they will still be able to leave a review.  If the review is negative, that could have quite a big impact on you as you are new and starting out and have only a few reviews.  If you give a full refund they are less likely to leave a negative review - hopefully they'll just not review at all.

Have you rung Customer Support and got their advice? sometimes that's helpful and it's usually helpful to get your side on the story registered first

If the guest cancels themselves, they will automatically get refunded whatever they are due according to your cancellation policy.  

I"ve just had a very quick look at your listing and you really make everything pretty clear. You even have a picture of the dog!.  Your price seems incredibly cheap - $32  for 3 people?

I find it unbelievable that people would complain and leave when they are getting nice facilites so cheaply.

However hosts repeatedly find, the cheaper the price, the more unreasonable the guest. If I were you. I'd increase my prices significantly. I'd certainly charge more for a 3 rd guest.

Perhaps you could state the dimensions of your sofa bed.

PErhaps you could also say your dog gets excited when meeting new guests but quickly calms down and is generally very quiet.

I'd also make a comment that if guests are uncomfortable around dogs they should not book with you.

AND i'd also let people know your daily routine - ie you are usually up and moving about at xxx times - if people will be bothered by this, perhaps your listing is not suitable for them.

Really though Ling-Xiao, these guest just sound appalling adn entitled and probably it's good they've gone.  It's really hard sometimes when you are just starting out.  My first 5 - 6 lots of guests were not very nice.  I was very disheartened and nearly gave up. But then all of a sudden things improved dramatically. Try not to let the unreasonable ones bother you.

when a guest instant books, I find it helpful to remind them again of certain things in my listing  eg dog, sofa bed and tell them if they're not happy to cancel now

I'm sure other hosts will be along shortly to offer more support and advice.

Hope this helped

Regards

[Ling-Xiao0]

Hey Rowena, I appreciate your long response and hearty comments!

I do feel much better now, realizing it's just possible to encounter any kind of people because Airbnb is an open platform.

Exactly, I assume today's guest booked with me mostly because of the price - $29 for 3 people - without looking into how the 3rd person is actually accommodated.

In Montreal suburb, I think this price itself is on the higher end of private rooms, and on the lower end of guest suites like us. It's great to know that low price would attract unreasonable guests. So I have to seriously consider installing a door to separate our basement on its own - this way I'd be comfortable to raise the price quite a bit as the guest experience will be significantly improved (complete privacy and reduced dog noise).

And I definitely think more notes will help: bed dimension, dog, daily routine, etc. This will take time to collect from the feedback of guests, so I guess that's why the first guests may not be always nice. Thanks for this great point also!

As for the resolution of this incident, I refunded him the 2nd night that he hasn't consumed. I do expect a negative review from him, and let's see. Fortunately we didn't need to escalate that to Airbnb customer support to reach a resolution (as he accepted my partial refund), but I still confirmed with support to check if I've followed a correct procedure.

It seems I should have asked the guest to click "Cancel" on his side first, then managed the refund. This time I issued the refund through resolution centre (in response to his full refund request) so the guest never actually cancelled and is still blocking the 2nd night (just physically away), but it doesn't bother me this time.

Again, I feel super warmhearted after reading your words and I believe learning from others is a great way to improve how I host and how I respond to my guests. Many thanks!

[Rowena29]

Not  problem @Ling-Xiao0  - although I'm not totally confident of my knowledge of cancellations - I'm only basing that on what i've read here and I could have got it wrong.  But yes if the guest had cancelled that would have freed up your night.

I think you have a great attitude which will stand you in great stead as a host - there's only SO  much you can do  - right? If you get a bad review, well, just move on.  You seem very level headed and philosophical which you have to be, but I struggle with it personally.

The VERY  important thing, if you do get a negative review,  is to leave a factual unemotive detached response to the review. Bear in mind your response is being read by future guests -

Depending on what they write, something like "It's a shame you felt disappointed. In future reading the listing carefully PRIOR  to booking, should help ensure you have appropriate expectations"   

You are right, the community boards are an excellent place to get support and learn.

Just a heads up if you are talking to another member you need to "tag" them with the "@" sign - as I did with your name - otherwise they will likely have no idea that you replied!

Airbnb encourage you to come onto these boards but provide no real education about how to use them - took me aaaages to figure some things out!

Cheers

[Ling-Xiao0]

Cheers! @Rowena29 

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Ling-Xiao0 as @Rowena29 says put your prices up. Weirdly it will probably increase your bookings also.

Regarding the dog, seems like you were super clear. Regarding the bed, I bet the average heigjt of a male is less than 6'. Your bed probably suits an average male.

Your guests' assertions are pretty random.

[Ling-Xiao0]

@Mike-And-Helen0I'll definitely experiment a price increase. Thanks!

I made a few revisions on my listing following @Rowena29's suggestions so it's glad to know things are even clearer right now!

The most weird part in my experience is that the guest joined pretty early (somewhere in 2016) and had ten 5-star reviews in a row from the beginning, but behaved badly. I have to guess something's changed on his side...

[Sarah977]

@Ling-Xiao0  I agree with others $29/night for 2 people, let alone 3, is way too cheap. Utilities alone are way too expensive in Canada for you to be making much of anything at that price, without even factoring in amenities like soap, toilet paper, and then all the cleaning and laundry. Can you even stay at a hostel in Montreal for $15/person?

Sometimes a guest can have good reviews but are in fact not good guests. It's not that the guest has changed behavior, it's that some hosts don't leave honest reviews because they don't want to be "mean", or sometimes the listing the guest stayed that was reviewed was an entire place- some guest behaviors that would be a problem in a shared hoe listing, may not even be evident to a host that is off-site. Some places have self check-in and the host never even meets the guest- as long s the guest doesn't trash the lace, they get a generic good review.

You'll eventually learn how to see through reviews and also you can cross-reference- when you read a review, click on the host's profile who left that review- then you can see what kind of listing that host has. You can also then click on the profiles of the guests that host has left reviews for, to see if you see a pattern- do they review all their guests the same-like "Nice guests, welcome back." 

[Ling-Xiao0]

@Sarah977You're right. The utility cost is what I haven't calculated into per-person expense and this is definitely important to consider.

I do charge a flat-rate cleaning fee at $18/stay, so effectively, one night will cost around $55 on guest's end ($29 + $18 + Airbnb service fee + ~3.5% lodging tax), and two nights will cost around $90.

Compare it to local motel costs: $80+$12tax in the week and $100+$15tax on weekends. I do have some margin to raise my price. And most importantly, I'll think of an additional guest fee as other hosts also suggested, I'm too cheap for 3 people.

Your experience on reviews is very veteran. I'll learn to cross-reference.

Thank you for sharing your comments, very appreciated!

[Mike-And-Helen0]

Maybe they hid their true nature for too long

Maybe someone else used and ruined their account...

[Gail-And-Rod0]

Its so unusual to ask the bed height.We have never been asked that. Did  these Guests have prior great reviews? I've found by experience never take Guests without prior great reviews because they can sometimes create undue headaches. 

Also, it seems that you are charging very little. If your place is clean, has amenities, easy communication, etc. then you should charge your worth. The Guests will appreciate you more.

All the best,

Gail

[Ling-Xiao0]

@Gail-And-Rod0This guest is now having 12 five-star reviews, and it seems he's booking a lot recently while travelling in around Quebec. But as @Sarah977 said above, he may have always stayed in entire places and hosts just left "thanks welcome back"-typed reviews that may not really help in my case.

I guess he preposterously thought my "entire guest suite" is a closed space that functions like an "entire space" but is with a great price. Still, the major issue of him is he didn't check the details.

I decide not to leave a review on his side because it's already a lose-lose situation and he's acknowledged it was his error (as he accepted my counter-proposal of a partial refund instead of escalating things).

Thanks for sharing!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ling-Xiao0 

I have to seriously consider installing a door to separate our basement on its own - this way I'd be comfortable to raise the price quite a bit as the guest experience will be significantly improved (complete privacy and reduced dog noise).

That's what I would do.

[Ling-Xiao0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0Will do!

[Pete69]

After hearing this story I think maybe I need to mention the bed dimensions at my stay!  In my description I try to explain every minor detail, and in my initial email exchange I tell people to read the important disclaimers in my "other things to note" section.

Also, once they get here, for example I have 2 no smoking signs as well as other laminated notes so nobody can say that they never read my rules as posted in my listing or their visiting friend "didn't know".

With each new guest I discover that I have to post notes regarding important things as well.

You have to set everything up for the lowest common denominator of guests who don't read, or don't remember what they read in your online description or are too intoxicated to remember.