I am offering a private room in the apartment (my home) where guests share the bathroom, toilet with me and co-host - that is clearly stated at my AirBnb listing. Additionally, on my AirBnb listing it is written not only once, but few times that kitchen is not meant to be used by guests (because in the past guests were cooking at 3am and just take our food etc.), when is check-in time etc.
However, 2 weeks ago a couple checked-in and stayed at our place for 1 night. They obviously did not speak (not even basic) English as they contacted me in French and as I do not speak French I asked them to write in English ... When they booked our place (few months ago), they had 0 reviews and as a consequence not familiar with the concept of AirBnB. Well, when they came they seemed nice, there were NO COMPLAINTS. However, yesterday I read their review and found out that they gave me low ratings just because they expected that they booked something else and not the room in the apartment with shared bathroom and toilet. I just do not think that is fair - obviously they were not familiar with the AirBnb concept and did not read or understand what is written in the description of my AirBnb ... And, yes! I am sure, that they did not speak English, as during the check-in it seemed they have no idea what I was telling them (e.g. we are also offering bikes to our guests for free, and I politely asked them if they were planning to ride the bikes (just to tell them when the bikes were) and they did not even understand what world "bike" means ... Therefore, I guess I should not be surprised that they assumed that they booked the entire place ... However, in my opinion it is really fair, that I am "punished" with low ratings just because guests did not read / did not understand what they read while they were booking ...
But that was not the only case, when such an event happened. Last week another problematic couple came. Even though they as every other guest accepted the conditions (House rules, Check-in time etc.) when they booked the place, they acted as they haven't read (or understand) them. I guess that was just because I refused them to check-in earlier - they wanted to check-in when there were still the previous guests, meaning 5 hours earlier. When I refused that (because I am not at home until the official check-in time - and yes that is why check-in time is set at that time, hint-hint!), they wanted to ride our bikes (again before the official check-in time and when the bikes should be available to guest which haven't (and did not have to) check-out yet!), I refused that again as I will not come home just because they wanted to adjust the house rules to their need and to give them the keys for the bikes ... Well, when they checked-in they were actually quite mean and had that hostile look as they really hate me for not letting them check-in before the official check-in. On top of that they asked me to use the kitchen, even though it is clearly stated that we do not offer kitchen ... Well, in the end, I let them use the kitchen (and I really do not know how they manipulated me to say yes to that ...). And baaam, then I got their review and the lowest ratings ever!, saying that room is to small (in the description it is stated that room is 13m2 - not more, not less .. Well, did they expected 30m2 room?), that building is unattractive (WTF?), that check-is too late (but you agreed with it when you booked the room!) and so on ... Not to mentioned, that they were again not fluent in English and obviously did not understand what have they booked ... But were able to write such a misleading review in French ...
I must point out that the majority of our guest are nice and polite. But few times a year, that kind of guests come ... and I guess I am just sick and tired of that kind of guests!
So, how do you deal with that kind of guests? How do you refuse their "special needs" when they ask you to adjust YOUR house rules for THEIR needs? How do you deal with guest who do not speak English or other language which bout of you understand? Do you host guests with 0 reviews?
And oh god, it really helped me, to write that down!
