guests not reading listing details..

[Karen965]

I know there have been other similar posts, but just wondered if anyone has any other thoughts about how to be sure upcoming guests have read the listing details, house rules etc. I've just been marked down by a guest as she didn't appreciated that our property is two flights up a spiral staircase.. I mention the stairs six times in the header, description and rules.. what else can I do? Should I copy the rules etc into my welcoming email to guests?

See below for the mentions I give the stairs...

Listing name:  Period Town Flat - 2nd Floor - centrally placed

In the description 'space' :  Does not suit disabled guests as has two flights of stairs.

In the description 'guest access': 3D is at the top of the stairs, 2 flights up

Guest interaction: Someone is always at the end of a phone and we are always happy to assist in carrying luggage up and down the stairs.

Other things to note: The flat is 2 flights up a circular staircase.

Details guests must know about your home:  Must climb stairs

I'm pulling my hair out with people not reading the listing.. how hard can it be!

[Rachel0]

@Karen965 I've lost count of the amount of times that guests have arrived and then been dismayed  to find that their suite is on the top floor and involves climbing two flights  of stairs.  I mention this several times in my listing description and it is also in the "Things to note" section - but they just haven't bothered  to read it.  Some guests also travel with suitcases about the size of a grand piano and then have a problem getting them up the stairs and scuff the walls while doing so.  In addition, we mustn't forget that in some parts of the world our "2nd floor" means one floor up and not two floors up!  

I now remind guests when I send them a message about a week before they arrive that the rooms are up two flights of stairs, that they should fully read the entire description and advise them to travel with smaller pieces of luggage, but that advice often falls on deaf ears.  What more I can do I don't know.    

[Karen965]

I have changed the description from general info about the flat and town to being much more specific...

Our apartment is on the 2nd floor up a spiral staircase. The apartment shares its entrance with the flat opposite (currently empty) and is all yours for the duration of your stay. Dumfries is a busy market town in the South West of Scotland surrounded by beautiful countryside with many castles and beaches. There is close access to the railway station, theatre, clubs and pubs being in the centre of town. Please read on to find out more about our flat.

I shall also pop this at the beginning of our House Manual and rules.

However, I think I will also contact airbnb and mention the placement of the 'information guests must acknowledge' which is right at the bottom of the page beyond the reviews.  I do think that a lot of people don't realise there is more information after reading the reviews!

Thanks for all your help.

[Paul154]

@Karen965 

Could you change the listing title to TOP floor?

For Americans, the first floor is the main floor and the 2nd floor is only one floor up.

It might seem like a little difference, but expectations are a bugger...

I do like showing a photo of the stairs in your messaging.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Karen965 @Rachel0 @Sandra856 @Yadira22 @David192 

The statistics:

1,5% of the population are genius and their IQ (intelligence) is higher than 140

13% of the population has above the average IQ between 110-139

50% of the population has an average IQ  between 90-110

It leaves us with 35,55% of bellow intelligent, morons, imbeciles and idiots.

A moron can be educated and nurtured. Imbecil can only be nurtured and idiot can be neither educated nor nurtured.

We also have to add to the count:  Holliday brain, jet lag, alcohol, small font on the applications, poor knowledge of foreign languages, inaccuracy of google translator and fast-growing superficiality of the human population in general due to overload of information in the modern world.

Airbnb's tendency to hide important info under "read more..." links isn't helping.

Happy hosting  🙂

[Yadira22]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

yes- 100%

i have this photo in the listing- mention it like 5 times at different times and got a 3* rating overall due to steep stairs! 🙈 

Honestly, I bent over backwards for this woman- letting her check in about 3 hours earlier- when I had to prepare a two floor apartment by myself and do about 10x sets of bed linen! I had no help that day! 

She complained  about the street noise but slept with the double glazed windows wide opened and mentioned that my new fan did not work- she did not press the on button.  All these points have been explained in my listing/house manual! 

To top it up my address is apparently incorrect- despite being the exact same since we purchased the house and how it appears on all paperwork! 

I don’t know what else to do! I feel so deflated now- I know  « if it won’t matter in 5 years then don’t spend 5 mins on it » but for this i have dropped from 4.9* overall to 4.8*.

This week I got a comment from someone that says 4* for cleanliness because during their stay there was a lot of hair (their own) in their bedroom and I should consider cleaning their room more frequently, during their stay! She also suggest I should clean the bathroom more frequently (we clean it completely every other day) .

Should I put this in the listing- 

I AM NOT YOUR CLEANING LADY AND THIS IS NOT A HOTEL!!!! 

I have a job, my business and a personal live... honestly! Some people need a reality check! 😤 

[Scott-and-Mary-Ellen0]

As my husband is fond of saying, "Remember, 50% of the population is below average."  ME 

[Karen965]

Ha ha... 😂 we also run a retail business and whilst we repeat the mantra ‘the customer is always right’ we also follow it up by ‘never underestimate the stupidity of customers’

it is so true. 

I got this final message from my guest... 

‘Yep! Understood- good for me to know too. I don’t usually look at ‘About this Place’; now I know that I should!’

Says it all really! 

[Rita662]

Hello everyone,

on the first message I send to the guest, besides thank them for the reservation, I say "take a time to read the home rules". Then, one week befor check in, I remind them the most important house rules I wish they keep min mind.

But even this week, I have a reclaim that the house doesn't have TV, when Tv is not on the listing.

[Karen965]

#sighsdeeply #isitworthit

[Ange2]

@Karen965  

My problem exactly, it used to be rare, but the past few months!

Hence my rant. 

I had thought that maybe Airbnb had a glitch on the site and guests didn't see that I had no elevator. But, I also write messages to the guest saying no elevator and I have a graphic in my gallery.  In fact, I have written no elevator and even outlined the specifics of the stairs six times in my listing and I even write it in a message to the guests and suggest they cancel if the have heavy bags or are unable to climb stairs.

A recent slew of guests have replied to my messages that no elevator was not a problem and then they complain there is no elevator and mark me down. One guest even told me that six flights was no problem for him (this is two) and he didn't want to cancel because it was inconvenient for him and then he complained!   I have taken to asking a few guests why? out of curiosity, hoping to find a way to make it more obvious. They do not take that kindly, and in some cases write totally dishonest even nasty remarks, or mention it in the review as if it was not reiterated six times in my listing and in a message to them.  Although, I can use that to my advantage to reiterate again that I have no elevator (for guests who only read reviews) so I am not perturbed by it.

I am not averse to helping people with suitcases and in some cases I even offer.  But in these egregious cases we are talking huge, heavy bags -  some with  'heavy' 'overweight' stickers on them from airlines, bags that are even heavier when they leave filled  as they are to overflowing with all the shopping they have done.

The latest guests, the ones that put me over the edge,  said they booked because it was cheap and had planned on dragging their heavy suitcases upstairs, i.e. damaging the stairwell, the walls, and making an enormous amount of noise.  My other worry is that they will have an accident on the stairs because of the weight of the suitcase.  To compound the problem these same guests then filled up a third suitcase, equally as large and heavy that had to be carried downstairs when they left.  Not once did they  give a thought that if it was tough with two cases, it would be even tougher with three.  Most of the guests appeared to expect a muscled concierge/bellboy service included in the cheap price they paid:  i.e. me, friends and sometimes even someone off the street who I paid out of my pocket. I do it because I do not want an accident.  Good luck getting reimbursed, refunded, or having a guest offer to pay.

So, I am now thinking of adding a surcharge for supplying  muscular bellboys/concierge service as an add-on.  My other option is to turn them away at the door,  it's 50/50 whether Airbnb would back me up or penalize me.  Suffice it to say it is driving me crazy.

My main concern is that for the most part I have always had great guests who are responsible and respectful.  I do not know why the past few months have me in the midst of a surge of selfish, thoughtless guests who retaliate for an issue, which is of their own making.  I have read about these kinds of guests - and have had one or two along the way - but so many is a totally new experience for me.  End of rant.

[Karen965]

I have now changed the introduction to the general description to include mention of the stairs and suggested that they ‘read on’ and despite already having the ‘guests must acknowledge there are stairs to climb’ I have added it again in the ‘extra rules’   

Hopefully it will help. I will also mention the stairs in my welcoming text. 

[Ange2]

@Karen965    Good luck!  I hope it works out for you, my luck is not that good at the moment.

[Sun-Valley0]

This is so frustrating! As a new host I am really disappointed by my last guest's comment and ratings. Worst of all - he is a host to, and I can't believe he does not read listing details. He gave us the lowest ratings so far, especially for the location as it was not "what he expected it to be" (not in the city center).
Well, very first chapter in the description says how far the apartment is from the city center (1.7 km or 1.1 mile, which is walking distance of 20-30 min), and this guy wrote a public comment that we have not mentioned it in the description. What the heck??
We always send our guests a private message, usually within minutes after reservation has been confirmed, with detailed instructions, POC, phone numbers and  even the link with the exact location of the apartment. And guess what - this gentleman did not read it, he had called a phone number that was not on our list upon arrival (fortunately it was diverted to me 15 min later) and this caused delays in the check-in process. We have never had this sort of issue before, and all our guest were satisfied with instructions and communication. 
Need to say that this particular guest gave as a 2-star for location, 3-star for check-in (due to "incorrect location" and "difficult to find"...yes, it is difficult to find if you are a member of those 35,55% of population mentioned by @Branka-and-Silvia0 ), 4-star for communication and 3-star value for brand new, recently built apartment. All of it just because of him not reading listing details and instructions?!? 

I just hope I will never, ever see him again. We left 5-star review for him as he and his boyfriend were nice and polite during their stay, obeyed house rules and checked out on time...but his comment and ratings were really unfair, false and disappointing. My team and I feel punished because of him not reading listing details. 

Any advice on how to deal with this kind of people in the future?

Thanks.

Zlatan 

[Karen965]

I fee your pain! I think people are now booking Airbnb and thinking that they are booking hotels/ guest houses and not allowing for the fact that they are booking with ordinary people and their homes... even when it’s not an apartment that you live in, it’s still a place that you love and care for, for whatever reason. It’s especially hard when you think you’ve bent over backwards and surely they’ll see that and give a good review... then wham! They hit you with a bad one for no reason other than their own stupidity. 

You can at least respond to a review with your own observations on their issues... but the problem with that is that you, like 99.999999% of hosts are too nice and don’t want to be seen as being mean or nasty to guests whatever the reason! 

There should be a thread to name and shame the worst guests... I have a few stories to tell! 

[Sun-Valley0]

@Karen965 , there is AirBnB Guest Black list on the Facebook. Have you checked it yet?