Owners reluctant to write negative reviews

Owners reluctant to write negative reviews

Hi- 

We are new Airbnb owners and have relied on reviews to approve guests. After reading many conversations in this group and reading many reviews, it seems owners are reluctant to give a bad review of a guest. Unfortunately we had a bad rental, one that none of you would appreciate. While the guest had good previous reviews, this group of “friends”  they had with them was different or it was just a very wild weekend. Either way we feel obligated to warn future rental owners of our experience with this guest. If owners are reluctant to give negative reviews, it’s tough to rely on reviews for future rentals.  Any suggestions , comments or similar situations would be appreciated. 
Thanks-

Scott & Lisa

38 Replies 38

@Mary4634  If a host is fairly new and trying to build up good reviews, then the removal of a good review would be a drag. But with 117 good  reviews under your belt, and a 4.94 rating, it's really no big deal and shouldn't be a consideration in posting honest reviews and warning other hosts of an objectionable guest.

Yes. I agree. Thank you for your feedback! 

Tricha0
Level 2
Harare, Zimbabwe

As host we should be objective in our reviews. If someone flouted house rules then the review should state that. If someone partied and disturbed neighbors then this should be in the review. I had to write such a review for a problematic guest who was demanding 5* hotel service. Objectivity will help other hosts

Shante30
Level 2
Denver, CO

This was a great question as I’m a new host and torn between if I’m being petty or should leave it alone…. The stuff isn’t major but every single renter has broke something 🙄 do i mention it in review or leave it alone if it’s not costly 

@Shante30   Wow, every single renter? OK, as a new host you might not have yet had enough guests to give you a representative sample, but a 100% damage rate would be very unusual.

 

Since you've given positive reviews to at least two of your previous guests, I presume that whatever damage they caused didn't strike you as deliberate or malicious. When it's likely that something was damaged by accident, I think its only worth mentioning in the review if the guest refused to take a reasonable amount of responsibility for it. If someone breaks something but owns up to it and even offers to replace it, I have only nice things to say.

 

When things in my house are getting damaged in the course of normal usage, I do have to question whether I've chosen durable enough materials for housing a bunch of random strangers.

As to the reason i said if it’s being petty or worth mentioning to other hosts… one broke a a brand new lawn chair. I’m sure it was due to being careless… One broke the button to my jet tub and i hAve yet to review this last guest that broke my sliding glass shower door (3 months old) railing not glass… none of the guests mentioned these damages..  The reviews were premature due to lack of cleaning crew providing information until later.  

@Shante30  You have 14 days to write a review, so there's no need to rush to write one, and make sure your cleaning crew understands that it's part of their  job to report damages, or the space left in unacceptable condition, within a certain time frame.

 

None of the  damages you mention are petty, so yes, you should mention things like that in the review. There's no need to go into all the details in the review, you can either say there was a broken lawn chair, or just say that there were damaged items found and that the guest neglected to mention them. 

 

Something like a lawn chair could break, not because a guest was being careless, but simply because they weigh 350 pounds and plopped themselves down on it. But that's still not an excuse for breaking something and failing to fess up.

 

Petty would be mentioning that a guest broke a couple of wine glasses or made a scratch on the dresser, if that's the worst they did.

Thank you for your input appreciate you 

Giovanni927
Level 1
Rome, Italy

"The guest better fits hotel accommodation" in my view shows that someone is just not able to pay attention to the shared areas of the premises rented through Airbnb or demands too much in terms of what he pays for instead. 

 

For those who like me rent a place with some places to be shared among other guests, it should be a kind of code to mean that we would never like to see him/er again at our doorstep or other hosts having to deal with such folks.