Hello fellow AirBnb Hosts,
I started renting my spare room about 4 months ago, and I must say, my first experience was a catastrophe.
My guest reached out and said he is interested in renting the room for 2 weeks, but he would like to book for 1 night just to see whether he is comfortable in the house. Being a rookie, I though that's fair - and agreed to it! Soon after he settled in he said he loves the room and is going to stay the next 2 weeks, BUT then proceed to let me know that he is waiting for his funds to be transferred to his UK account since he just moved to London from the USA. This was supposed to happen tomorrow when he was going to book the rest of his stay. Since this was my first guest I wanted to make this experience positive for both of us so I agreed to it - silly me. Red light should've gone ON when he proposed paying in cash for his entire stay - I of course, respectfully declined.
Long story short - after being way too understanding about his booking "habits" for a week (only booked for 2 nights at the time), he then failed to make a booking for the following night. And the one after that. We have talked, and every time we did he said he is just about to make a booking. But he didn't..
Unfortunately, this became a source of stress and I have politely asked him to make the rest of the bookings on that day, or I'll have to ask him to leave, as I don't feel comfortable in my own home anymore. He managed to book for the next 4 nights as he didn't have anywhere else to go. We kept the atmosphere positive, and were respectful towards each other, and even had enjoyable conversations afterwards, so I thought "great, didn't turn out that bad after all".
He checked out and 5 days after he left a 1* review AND a 3* which I would be ok with if I have deserved it. But we went above and beyond to make him feel comfortable in our home. I personally washed his clothes, we bought a new iron as he ironed his clothes every day and our old one broke, he participated in my boyfriends surprise party and hung out with our friends and family, we even paid him back AirBnb fees for his last booking, I reduced cleaning fees after 2nd booking to £0 because we felt sorry for the guy and wanted to help out etc.
I was so disappointed in him, but even more in AirBnb support which, provided with ALL the evidence about the case, didn't want to do anything about the review.
Every guest afterwards was lovely and enjoyable and we loved hosting them, and have left a 5* review and said they are going to come back! 🙂
Even though it was a negative experience I am happy that this was the first AirBnb experience I've had as I learned SO MUCH from it!
Just wanted to put it out there for all of you to be cautious of guests like this! If they want to come by and "check out the room" for 1 night and then book the rest - my friendly advice is don't do it!
Best wishes to all of you,
Ena