bad reviews

[Rosemary12]

I am currently trying to decide what to write as a review for a guest who stayed with me for 3 days. I share the home with guests and I provide a cooked breakfast for my guests and he wanted to add items beyond the 17 choices they have, told me how to cook things, wanted laundry facilities and I explained that I do not allow my guests to use my laundry but I would be happy to do a load for him. The night before he was leaving he asked about doing the laundry and I had to tell him that I couldn't do it in the time frame (he wanted breakfast at 8:00 and leave at 9:30). When I told him that I was sorry but that didn't give me enough time he wanted to leave his laundry and come back later in the day...I had to say no. I should say that I loaned this guest a rain jacket, iron 2 pairs of shorts and t-shirts for him with no thank you.

In addition, I knew that he was travelling with friends who were in another Airbnb in our city. Turns out he rented the home for them and he got a good review from the owner!! I contacted Airbnb and they confirmed that you cannot book for a 3rd party. I was wondering how this guest could hold down a full time desk job with the US Army and still get to travel to 4-5 countries each year and stay in Airbnb's. Now I am left wondering if these were for properties he booked for someone else and took the credit. This is very misleading for hosts who presume that a good review is for the person they are considering.

I must say that Airbnb have been very good about responding to either my phone calls or emails (maybe being a superhost has its benefits!) but when I contacted them about this guest the agent prattled on thanking me for sharing my "humble abode" until I explained to her that this is considered an insult since this term is used to describe a lowly dwelling. I am convinced that most of their agents are in countries where English is not the first language.

[Helen427 · Accepted solution]

@Rosemary12 

Sorry to read of your unfortunate experience.

Be upfront what you write in your review of him, he sounds very ungrateful, manipulative & dishonest.
Remember to consider future potential Guests reading your reviews to.

Give him a Thumbs down as it makes it harder apparently for Guests to book IB in future.

Make the most of the opportunity to post Public Feedback should he review you.

There are many useful hints and suggestions how to handle such Guests if you use related Keywords here in CC.

Meanwhile next time you flush your toilet think of him going down as you flush it as a means of wiping him from your memory & demands.

All the best

[Rosemary12]

Thanks Helen,

That made me laugh!

Fortunately the guests that left today were wonderful (fellow Aussies) so I have erased his memory.

Rosemary

[Sally221]

The phrase that leaps to my mind  to use is "would do better in a hotel" sound innocuous but we All Know precisely what it means, Sally

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Rosemary12 

It seems your guest needs a mother. Weird....considering he works in the army...

[Susan1188]

Hi Rosemary!

Sounds stressful and unpleasant hope you are doing OK.

I don't know if this helps, advice I learned the hard way after posting a knee-jerk response to a guest who left false information in his review.

It is possible to walk the line and leave a review that does not rankle the guest but that alerts other hosts.

Some have proposed using the "better suited to hotel" line as a flag but I don't think its a good idea to be mentioning hotels on the platform.  Another option would be "Armyguy stayed with me from X to Y" and nothing else.

Even better would be starting with a compliment "Armyguy was a good communicator and arrived at stated time" and then neutral, short, non-emotional sentence or two about what went wrong;  Such as, I would recommend that in the future he take into consideration the property amenities and not ask the host for services that are clearly not included in the listing.  I would also remind him that it is against airbnb rules to book using another persons account".  

[Rosemary12]

Thanks Susan, that was an excellent response and I have worded the review using your suggestions.

I posted the review and his review of his stay appeared. It was a great review but he couldn't help but get a barb in.....in the private note he said  "only thing I would point out is that there was a long woman/man hair on the floor. People like myself that doesn’t like hair might have an issue. I didn’t put this anywhere, this is just a note to you.”  LOL! Was this because he was bald??

The bedroom has grey carpeting so even though I do everything I can to ensure this doesn't happen it can. Now I don't feel any guilt letting him know he was so high maintenance.