And just like that, all was well

[Steve2743]

You know, life's funny. Last night I was dealing with my worst guest in the year that I've been hosting, who cancelled their 4 night reservation after only one night, demanding a full refund, claiming that the place was filthy, and stunk of cigarette smoke. Today I received a last minute booking, and they're my best guest to date! They love the place so much that they insisted that I join them while they BBQed me an amazing meal of steak, lamb, and corn on the cob! And the only cleaning I had to do between them and the nightmare guest was the bed sheets & towels! If you're dealing with a nightmare guest, just remember that an amazing guest is just around the corner. 

That is all,

Steve

[Fred13]

The trick remains in this hosting business is to select correctly from a pool of people, where the majority are cool though there is always an occasional lunatic lurking amongs them. The odds are definitely in our favor, but yet every once in a while...

[Steve2743]

Haha, it's definitely a balancing act between intuition, and dumb luck!

[Lisa75]

I just had 3 tough ones!  One lady thought I should have a mixer and baking pans, one guy didn't read what my listing was and slmmed my loved place with a horrible review and the third took my new "Loft" mattress cover that was still in plastic!  It's almost funny after a bit of fuming.  I wish Airbnb would let us drop 2% of bad reviews a year because of such wackos out there.  I think that's a fair thing to ask - what do you guys think?

[Fred13]

You make a superb point, one I been championing with Airbnb.  Every host should have One (1) removal of a post and also One (1)  cancellation - penalty free, per year. It will serve to lessen an obvious injustice and/or unnecessary hassle on everyone's part, including Airbnb's.  Every truly fair system should take into consideration the occasional 'nutcase' walking among us.

[Jane274]

and seriously if they've taken something .. they should be blackballed from AIRBNB

[Rita266]

I have to agree Jane.
If a person is stealing, they shouldn't be allowed the opportunity to travel in a community such as AirBnB. This is a community, and community builds one another up, a good community does not do any harm to others. A thief isn't wanted in anyone's home or on     their property and AirBnB is a website filled with people of whom are good to one another. I'd prefer lose a thief's business than him steal my profits or sanity, or steal so much that he puts me further in the hole. The idea of having a business is to make money, thieves make sure that doesn't happen.

General rule of thumb: A thief doesn't just steal, most hang around with people who do other things as well. If you invite one type of criminal behavior you might be inviting something you want in your home even less than a thief...  that's the part that gets scary. 

It might be a good idea to somehow let others know when something has happened. A 'star' or review might not be enough warning for more criminal like behavior.

[Ben205]

@Lisa75

Great idea. To use a sporting analogy, in cricket teams now have a limited 'review' system where they can question the umpires original decision. Same in tennis for line calls. Why not in Airbnb? Yes, we could perhaps choose to wipe one off. But maybe better if we could question a review and if upheld by an independent panel, the host gets to question another at a later date.

[Helene114]

Lisa,

I agree. But you can request that Airbnb remove a rating that isn't just or accurate. I had a guest complain of noise, when my listing is near the airport and 3 times within the listing, I state noise from planes & trains. It's like rating a beach house poorly for hearing the sounds of waves. We all expect that some guests will be less than happy with our space but I agree that Airbnb should take into consideration that some guests are illiterate, have unreasonable expectations or just malicious. I had a guest rate me poorly because the bathroom was so filthy they didn't shower (which is not something I would ever put in writing). She said the house smelled so good from my wax diffusers, maybe I was trying to cover up and odor...like the funky smell of them sleeping in my beds without showering, haha. I had that rating removed as it was full of speculation and flat out lies. You just gotta laugh it off and know that the next great guest is just around the corner.

[Jonathan-And-Anna0]

  Hi Helene,

I`m very interested in how you got the rating removed!

thanks,

Anna

[Helene114]

The first removal was the result of my having contacted Airbnb and explained that I believed the review was malicious and stated the reasons why.  That representative documented my concerns and said that someone would be calling me back.  When no one called back, I called several more times and was told they were sending inner-office messages to my case manager.  When she still never contacted me, I was persistent.  I wrote a response to the automatic emails that come after each call.  When someone finally emailed me back he said he decided to leave the rating up and refered me to the ratings guidelines.  I wrote him back asking that he reconsider his decision.  The guest outright lied in saying that my bathroom was disgusting, that I was masking odors and that she felt unsafe... Someone else emailed me stating that she was removing it because the guest rated my neighborhoor, had speculation and she gave some other reason.  Ultimately, a guest can't stay in the same house between two other guests, all one-nighters, and have such a horrible experience.  The second poor rating for noise was esily removed by calling Airbnb and bringing to thier attention that the guest was illiterate.  I am in no way trying to polish my star rating, I've raised 7 children and have nothing else to prove to the world (making my body-builder pose).  I just want the rating system to  accurately reflect my home as described.  I see no reason to be subject to guests who rate a beach house poorly for sand and waves - that's nonsense. 

[Destiny7]

Good to know, Helene! I have guests message me with a hashtag to let me know they've thoroghly read my listing. 95% of my instant books do actually add the hashtag. When they don't add it, I message them and ask them to please re-read through the listing and provide it to me. One guy even canceled his reservation after I sent him that message. He could've been offended, but my guess is that he read through the listing and realized he wasn't going to be a good fit for my home. I'd rather someone cancel than come in and be a nightmare just because they're unhappy!

[Helena157]

Hi Marietta, 

that's exactly what I started doing..when I have the feeling that the guest hasn't read properly the listing I suggest that they cancel so that he is not disappointed (like having a big apartment all to himself instead of a big room with an en-suite bathroom), also pointing out that what he thout he was getting would have cost him about 4x more. People just don't use their common sense, even using the brains would be enough...

[Adriana257]

Taking something is really serious! Here they sometimes take the towels but they are not expensive anyways... it still makes me angry though!

[Marilyn43]

Good idea Lisa.

It really annoys me that guests often do NOT read what the listing has to offer and then blame the host for everything.

You just can't win them all, no matter how you try.

Baking pans and mixer? Whatever next.