Reviewing a listing with bugs

[Ragni0]

I am an experienced host who also use Airbnb as guest while travelling. Recently I stayed in a place that would have gotten a great review from me, except.... we observed cockroaches and ants in the studio apt, which was located a few floors up in a city.

I texted the host to inform them about the bug infestation after checkout (it was a short stay), and their reply indicated they had no idea and were quite horrified, but very happy that I'd let them know so they could take care of it. I guess they dont use the place themselves but only rent it out so if no guests had told them yet they might not know.

Now I struggle with the review. I know in some areas you just have to deal with bugs, but in others you shouldn't have to expect them. I know I might kill the business for this host if I mention cockroaches in the review, and it is something the host have little to no control over. But I would definetly have wanted to know as a guest.

Input anyone?

[Shirley1]

I've stayed in a B&B in Laguna Beach a step away from the ocean and had the same experience. Quite surprised to see the buggers scampering across the floor from one room to another. The area had multiple, older dwellings built side by side in a quaint part of the seaside district. My niece lives in New York in Manhattan and rodents are a nuisance all the time. Any rural rental host is always on the alert for mice or voles hoping to vacation inside. In our area we are seasonally bugged by asian ladybugs .. harmless, but very annoying when they've managed to get inside.  I will be staying in vacation rentals in several 'old town' districts when I'm in Europe in a few months.  Now I'm curious if I'll be bugged by bugs.  My take is there are some situations where coping with pests is a constant problem, a one time event, or seasonal. Tough call on your part and if it were my rental with that problem, I'd appreciate that you are concerned about sharing the situation in a review.  If I do have this experience while overseas, I'll let the host know, assume they will do what they can to get rid of the pests, and not mention it in a review. If I were to return for another stay, I'd check with the host first to find out if they can assure the pests are gone before requesting a reservation. 

[Shirley1]

There was one situation where we rented an older log cabin that was decorated well. However, when we pulled back the bedding there were mice droppings on the linens and under the pillows on more than one bed. We called the management company immediately and we were relocated at no additional charge to a larger, more expensive rental. The person who relocated us did mention that particular owner was not using the management company's cleaning staff and they were not convinced cleaning was being done properly. I got the impression they would be dropping his listing from the tone of her voice. Knowing that rental management staff were having difficulties verifying cleanliness at the house, I'd not hesitate to mention something about it. 

We stayed in an older cabin through AirBnB littered with cobwebs in all those unreachable places. Felt I was staying in Miss Havisham's lodging. No comment in my review, said plenty in my private comment, nicked them a notch for cleanliness. Even though I love the area where we were, would not re-book there again, especially because the host did not respond back to apologize that I had to mention the situation or acknowledge they'd do the work that should have already happened to clean the house up before renting it out. 

So depending on the severity of the pest or insect infestation should carry some weight in whether or not future guests should be made aware of your experience. 

[Monica4]

My stone house in the country had seasonal pests...mice in the fall, cluster flies in spring and fall, ants in the spring, asian lady bugs in the summer, and yes, daily spiderwebs. The ONLY way to get rid of these pests is poison. I was reluctant to do this because, being farm folk, we try to get rid of pests by traps or daily cleaning and vaccuming and have never found the precense of the odd pest to be a terrifying experience. By hosting I have learned that I need to use the most effective chemical pesticides and poisons to kill these pests. No more spiderwebs (no more spiders), no more clusterfiles, ants or lady bugs and the mice are all dead. What does it do to the environment and my lungs? City folk........well, one must learn to live with them if they invite them out to the country and earn money from it.

[Amy38]

I put spider traps around and in the south, all cockroaches are not cockroaches...some are Palmetto bugs and some are a large black thing we call water beetles...both of which may occaisionally find their way indoors but neither infest nor want to stay.

Cockraoches are a disgusting infestation but dont blame all roach shaped critters.

[Jackie109]

http://wpde.com/news/local/squashing-the-rumors-palmetto-bugs-versus-cockroaches

[Anthony204]

Amy, a "palmetto bug" is a colloquial name for a cockroach. Let's be scientific here. 

[Maja-and-David0]

Yeah it is abig difference if everything looks mistreated. But the original question I feel like everything else was OK.

I'd say give them the benifit of the doubt BUT only after having spoken to them to see what the reaction is. This host seemed generally concerned.

Also, staying on the15 floor in a five star hotel in Malasia next to petronas towers, cockroaches cam out of the bathroom tub. In Kuala Lumpur this is a general problem and regardless of how clean you keep the room there creatures come in the backay through the plummings. So what to do?

it all comes down to the response of the management or the host in this case.

I am also wondering if Airbnb are being used by hotels as well as individual house owners. Is that eally OK. 

trying to look at places in Puerto Rico it is hard to find peoples homes where the host actually lives since there are so many hotel hostel places.

We hsot in a room in our apartment so people actually live with us hosts. Makes things easier.

Good luck,

Maja & David

[Alexandra-and-Steven0]

In Sydney, Australia, it's quite common to have bugs, cockroaches and spiders.  There might be unpredictable, occasional visitors, like spiders (normally Huntsman) which is totally harmless and you probably see none during cleaning the apartment. 

There are special cockroaches which don't live inside but might fly in - we have fly screen to prevent this. 

However, if there is a cockroach invasion, that's another issue. Those type of cockroaches probably live inside and they must be seen during cleaning and the host must use some kind of pest control. 

So, answering your question, if you notice bugs, the questions are: 

- are they occasional visitors or living inside?;

- could have been seen during cleaning?;

- the host herself clean the apartment or somebody else? 

If everything else were fine, I wouldn't mention in my feedback but in the private message only. If it made me worry, I would send a message to the host before I leave a feedback to see the respond. 

We used to have problems with cockroaches but due to an excelent pest control, we have no more any more, so there is solution. 

[Alison1]

I don't know, you don't say where. Some places there is no way you are NOT going to see a cockroach.  Was it an "infestation" or just a few 'local residents' ?  Did it detroy your vacation/trip ?  Or just make you jump ? 

[Ana7]

My mum has a wonderful house on an island, she rents it during summer months. She cleans the place spotless every time, but after a day there WILL be spiders and their webs 100%. It's just the destiny of a house surrounded by mediterranean forest and shrubs and stone walls! She would be devastated to get even a four star review on cleanliness, as she knows how hard she works to clean up the place before the guests' arrival. In my opinion, the guests should rate the cleanliness as it was the minute they enter the place. One day after that, it is out of the host's control.

[Nena4]

So I am a host that just had a guest complain within a couple of hours after arrival that she'd seen two cockroaches (and the fridge and microwave were dirty she said) -- so she wanted to leave. Well, I understand how it feels to see a cockroach (since I live there, in the basement apartment of a house downtown, built over 100 years ago in the swamp of Washington, DC). 

This experience totally ruined my day. I'd had my babysitter clean up so I guess that was a mistake. But, because I needed the money (and was obviously mortified), I brought in a professional cleaner and asked them to clean those areas specifically and just hoped for the best as I am traveling and can't be there to see it. No guests had complained about cleanliness in the past but I sure as heck don't want to deal with this again. Your host probably learned this lesson as well... BUT btw my guest did not give me the opportunity to correct the problem before she left. She just said I can't stay here. So I did not leave her a positive review as a guest. I was very responsive, removed the cleaning fee, and only charged her for the one night she stayed. Unfortunately, I'm sure this experience ruined her day as well. And I still feel bad about it.

Another perspective is that once, as a guest, I stayed with someone in NYC who had bed bugs. It was horrible, I woke up a few times in the night from being bitten, flipped on the lights and found the sucker right there in the sheets. I am a light sleeper! Anyway I actually did not leave him a review at all because he was super nice, apologetic, and because I got my money back -- and because I guess I felt like you, that it would have ruined his ability to make money from it. And it seemed that he was addressing the issue immediately from what he'd told me. I wasn't going to lie. I kind of just wanted to wash my hands of it. Meanwhile, my friend who attended the same conference as me stayed at the Four Seasons and said he got bites during the night as well. That's NYC for ya, I guess.

NOT leaving a review is an option. Leaving a very honest review is an option. And leaving an apologetically honest review is also an option. Would you stay there again, knowing what you know now? Would you stay anywhere with this host? If you wouldn't give them another chance, then I'd say leave your honest review. No one wants to stay in a place with bugs, but some bugs in some places are inevitable. 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

As a host who has experienced the occassional bug in her listing when guests have been here, I appreciated that the guests didn't mention it, but I expected it because it would be a true review of their experience.  However, I would also expect that the guest would indicate how I reacted to the situation - being attentive, killing the spider/bug, being apologetic and responsive to any apparent alarm by the guest.  Saying something more along the lines of: "...we saw a few bugs, let the host know upon check out and we felt comfortable that she would remedy the situation immediately."  I think this says a lot more about the host and their reaction to the situation that about the bugs in general. It also alerts a potential future guest that they may see a few critters and if they do - say something so the host doesn't keep letting the problem fester.  Any host with a bug problem becomes an "Airbnb" problem... don't use Airbnb, they all have bugs.....  

@Amy38 - those "Palmetto" and "water beetles" are actually Wood Roaches - we have them here in North Carolina too.  We get sprayed 6 times a year, have poison all around the foundation of our house and get a yearly termite inspection, and yet, we are not 100% bug free. The wood roaches live in the walls eating microorganisms like molds and things that grow in water so old, wood houses in warm, moist climates feed them well, so they like it here.  We just do our best to keep them in the walls and not in the house.  And for anyone asking, yes, Wood Roaches have wings and can flutter about so they are especially scarey and gross.  {bleh!}

[Tessa28]

Mention it!!! Or if a future tenent brings it up the host could blame it on you. My last stay was in Vegas and we saw a few bugs but didn't mention anything and then the people after us were really upset about the bug problem so the owner is trying to charge us $250 for causing the problem!!