Airbnb Rating System: Guest is a King and host a begger

Ashish11
Level 2
Sindelfingen, DE

Airbnb Rating System: Guest is a King and host a begger

Airbnb rating system is really discouraging. As Superhost I tried my best to provide guests the best comfort in my apartment and got so far good ratings from all guests and getting 5 stars in almost every aspect.

But sometime some idiot guest comes who don't understand the value of ratings and just ruined your rating system because he didnt like the location or whatever.

One of my recent guest booked my apartment approxinately 30 km from his destination target place and later on he is blaming me that my apartment is very far from his destination and as soon he left he spolied my ratings with 2 stars in all fields like location, value, cleaniness, accuracy  etc.

As Host what was my failure in this ? Do i have forced him to book my apartment? he has made a failure because of his poor geographic knowledge and in result I suffered a lot.

How can a Host be blamed for this. Is there is any way this particular rating can be deleted? and we can stop this guest to make further bookings anywhere to protect airbnb community? Because I believe these types of guests think  Airbnb host as beggers and themselves King.

If there is a way to deleted particular rating then please guide me. I have not found any way to delete this horrible rating from this particular guest.

 

Thanks

Ashish

 

 

13 Replies 13
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Ashish11  I'm sorry you had a guest like this. You could contact Airbnb and ask them to look at your other ratings and see if they'll remove this one, but it's almost 100% assured they won't. 

I have to say you didn't do yourself any favors with your response to the guest's written review. No one else can see the star ratings he gave you, so you just called attention to it with your response. Review responses aren't used to really respond to the guest- who will see that response is future guests, who want to see that a host handles things in a non-emotional, fair, and professional manner. So it would have been better to just say in the public response that you are sorry that this guest didn't bother to ascertain whether the location of your listing was close to where he wanted to be- that perhaps he should do some geographical research or ask the host how close a location is to XX before booking.

Then send what you wrote as a public response as private feedback to the guest. Too late for this one, and hopefully you won't get another like this, but keep in mind for next time. Cool your heels for a few days, then write a non-emotional, non-personal response.

BTW, that guest review was very brief and it wouldn't put anyone off booking with you- it would just get buried among all your good reviews, but you called attention to it with your response. I wouldn't have even bothered to leave a response to that written review- a response is only necessary to correct lies the guest told. Him complaining about the location just made him look stupid.

@Ashish11 

 

The day of departure, send the guest a message reminding him, before leaving, to have a look in all the wardrobe, drawers and rooms not to leave any personal belongings.

 

"If you could leave a review on your stay, that would be greatly appreciated. May I remind you that AIRBNB's assessments are not like Tripadvisor’s assessments. Please, don't compare my home to the Hilton Hotel!

 

The entry “Position" should be interpreted quite broadly: "Did you like the neighborhood where my house is located?" May I remind you that the position of the house you booked has nothing to do with my behaviour!”

 

In so doing you get two things clear: you invite your guest to leave a review (to keep your review rate above 50%) and offer him a proper guidance regarding his stay at you house, whether it is in downtown Sindelfingen or in the suburbs.

 

The tourist's glaucoma - caused by AIRBNB that does not teach the guest how to review his stay - and the traveler's cataract - when he thinks he has this all figured out –are always there to cloud his vision. Only you can improve his eyesight.

             

LOL! Glaucoma, Cataract and Eyesight 

I really like what you say to your guests. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

Ethan83
Level 1
New York, United States

I also recently encounted an unmannered guest who used my stuff and check out later than expected time. He has the audacity to give me a negative review. I think what we can do is to stick together, connect on fb and put our listing on fb page. Creating a platform where we can be in control of who are staying at our home. They way it is going right now, airbnb's policy want to please guests and neglecting the fact that they also got a share from our place. 

David122
Level 4
Santa Fe, NM

That sounds horrible to me.

 

How about a guest bringing in other unregisted guests and partying after hours starting at 2:45 am and then calling Air b n b  saying that there are surveillence cameras and audio taping devices on the property when there were not and never have been.  

 

Due to this recent Ireland report of some host putting videos on u tube of his guests, suddenly guests can now mention that word to Air b n b  and Air b n b  shut me down for 5 days without telling me  and made me send pictures of what I thought the problem was.  They never showed me any proof of pictures that the guest could prove this.

 

I figured out that the guest saw my motion sensing path lights and figured that   OMG  video taping devices.  It took 5 days to get my account back on line and a 3 star review from the guest.  I resent guests accusing me with no proof and I am having a real difficult time with Air b n b  not contacting me by phone immediately.  

 

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from all of this and my rankings went down more because of it.

 

I plan to get a tool  on line that will sense any cameras in the property and let new guests use this to prove that I do not have surveillence cameras anywhere around.

 

Very dissapointed here.

 

 

Dee-And-Jay0
Level 2
Norfolk, VA

That is so very aggravating, I agree. I have about 191 reviews and one of the 3 stars was just because of location, also, and that's not my fault, either. I didn't bother calling Air about it because they will not remove a review as I had tried with one other stay. I allowed someone to arrive early and I told her that it may not be ready and she left my only bad review. I couldn't even have that removed and it was in the messages! But, guests have seen it and said she looked like an idiot. I had responded to her review, respectfully and noted that she had requested to arrive earlier, etc..and so everyone now can see that it really was her fault and she was just a jerk. Don't worry about it. You keep doing good your best and that review will be drowned out. 🙂 

Dee and Jay,

 Can I ask you a question?  -- or anyone else reading this --  Is there a way to put it that you can't accomodate early check ins,  or late check outs?I have guests ask invaribaly.  And when you say "I wont be able to do a late check out "( I have a schedule and cleaners for instance) they pout and get annoyed, then here come the bad reviews.  I need to have something in my house rules, I think , and I am not sure how to put it clearly and firmly but politely.  thanks....

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Lisa140  You could put it in "Other things to note".  "Check-in and check-out times are firm due to cleaning schedules. Early or late check-ins and outs cannot be accommodated."

Then I would reiterate this in a message to the guests when they book and make sure you get a confirmation message from them that they have read and will abide by this.

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

I'm sorry to hear this @Ashish11  - I had a very similar issue with a guest who hadn't done her geographical homework before booking my place.  In fact, her issue was that she hadn't done any research at all on New Zealand and thought it was a tiny place... her disappointment that it wasn't all 30 minute drive to everything resonated in her star ratings.

 

There is nothing we can do about these types of guests, unfortunately.  They come and go, some worse than others.  All you can do is make your listing as clear as possible.  For example, I noticed a trend of people who arrived at my place late, hungry and tired because they often underestimate how poor New Zealand roads are to travel on. 

 

To head this off, I added the following to my listing:

 

❿ TRAVELLING AROUND NZ
If you are driving to Wellington, be sure to plan your road trip well in advance.
• Hobbiton to Wellington 6-7 hours
• Napier to Wellington 4-5 hours
• Auckland to Wellington 8-9 hours
• Taupo to Wellington 4-5 hours

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◉ Note to overseas drivers ◉
We drive on the left-hand-side of the road and our vehicles seat the driver on the right. New Zealand is also larger than most people realise and has rough and winding roads, even on state highways. There are not many rest stops. We recommend you take note of the above travel times and plan your road trip carefully to ensure your holiday is a pleasant one. In summer there can be traffic queues and roadworks, so you should allow for possible delays. Also, please be kind to yourself and allow time for rest breaks and photo opportunities! New Zealand road trips are an amazing experience, so plan well to enjoy your journey... there and back again.

Selma8
Level 2
Milan, Italy

 I still cannot figure out why the review system is so biased and creates so many uncostrivrvsnd damaging situation..

furthermore it’s jnot so difficult to adjust.. 

 

AN EXAMPLE ..support center cancelled for me a reservation a guest made in Jan for design week ..most important  in milan forchost .. check-in date my guest ask to bring a friend I said yes but k Re it not alllwed by the building and felt so uneasy because no response for 3 hours of course and it’s ok take guest was provided please check out this feedback I got together with her review ..this a lie to be kind It’s illegal and biased tje guest never stayed with me.So giving ac1 star without putting foot in the apartment it’s obviously a breach of Arbnb policy .. 

Iand ofvcoirse it could have been avoided ..Imhave tried so many paths to get feedback .. This should not exists or have value for enybody in a diverse X problem.. 

nonody cares They think I want to get the review removed still they do not understand that it’s they feedback .. it’s obvious how can you tYe anything if you havnt opened the door..This appealing . 

 

I really havectried all but all fone alpatently .. 

Host are just trash bag..not secured .. inhost in Italy .. they never answer orc try to really help.. ciao Selma 

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Lucilla14
Level 3
Genoa, Italy

Hi @Ashish11! I know, I know. There guests who don't understand the damage they do with their unfair reviews. I opened a thread a lot similar to this when I started. A lot of hosts encourage you to explain the rating sistem, I had one host telling me to leave a printed message for guests to explain the reviews. I personally don't like to talk about ratings the day the guests arrive, if they stay enough I tell them if we get a little bit more intimate. Here 's what I started to do instead: I don' t accept reservation unless I have a fair chat with the guest first. I ask them to read the house rules and if I think it is OK I ask them if they realize my house is not in a central position (I had a lot of problems for that XD). If they reply fast and with a kind tone, I let them book the place. There is no way of telling beforehand if a guest is gonna be nice or a jerk in the end though, so just try to not think about it too much, and a lot of people replying to you were right, don't reply publicly. I use public reply to inform next guests better. Don't beat yourself up too much! Really. A lot of the times it's just a matter of good or bad luck. So don't let ratings from a site control your state of mind. Wish you all the best! 

Joss4
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Breaking my five-star rating for the first time, I have just experienced my first negative review from people who actually told lies about my communication, cleanliness and accommodation.  They complained of a "urine stink" and unhygenic conditions, poor communication and poor value for money.  None of these complaints was actually true.  It is difficult to see what had really upset the four guests so much.  They gave me a miserable 1 star which, as you all know, causes us great damage.  

I did not return to my home for nearly two weeks after the guests had left and found that they had left my heating on 24/7 and all the house lights and the garden lights.  Goodness knows what they had been doing but they managed to pull one of the bed-headboards off the wall and failed to return one of my keys.  I also later discovered that they had placed "crime-scene security tape" around a neighbour's car parked outside my house, saying that this was "their" space and they were entitled to park there.  This caused my neighbour a great deal of distress.

 

 Yet, Airbnb, amazingly, have chosen to believe the guests rather than me.  How can this be allowed to happen?  Reading through some of your conversations above, it seems that I am not alone.