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

[Kathryn-and-Christophe0]

I definitely agree with you Lisa, that Airbnb should let you drop 1 or 2  bad reviews per calendar year.  My husband and I have been travelling with Airbnb for a number of years and always had fantastic reviews.  We've been hosts for close to a year now and all our reviews were great...and then we had our first horror guest a few weeks ago; they left our place so dirty, lft stains on 2 sofas, marks on 4 freshly painted walls, lied about rooms they would use, bought all these goods into our place from 'a storage container' or so they said etc, etc.  We rang Airbnb whilst these horror guests were at our place to notify them of the issues we were having and after they departed sent photos of the damage to Aribnb.

Basically we followed everything that Airbnb said we should do with these horror guests.  Of course this bad guest wrote a malicious review...probably as we asked to claim from them the dry cleaning costs for the marked sofas... and we covered the costs of the extensive cleaning bill and repairs to walls.   This guest had no previous reviews and he and his wife had multiple accounts.

Despite our numerous 'squeaky clean' past reviews as both guests and hosts, Airbnb didn't seem to take that into account, or any of the above reportings during and after this guest's stay with us, and Airbnb have left this horror guest's review up on our listing, a review which is simply not true (we have offered proof to Airbnb to counter claims) and personally malicious.

The next guest after our horror guest was like all our other lovely and  'normal' guests to date and wrote us a fantastic review and gave us 5 stars.

I think it is very unfair for hosts to be at the mercy of a rogue guest and Airbnb should build some protection for hosts (especially for those with proven histories) into their review system.  

[Linda108]

@Kathryn-and-Christophe0  The down side to having great guest and host experiences on Air BNB is when you have a negative experience you can feel blind sided.  Like you, many newer hosts will react to a negative review with a long and defensive response.  These type of responses tends to draw attention to the negative review and don't portray the host as a the caring, professional host they really are.  While I understand that we all want to be able to erase that one-off negative review, it actually is an opportunity for the host to demonstrate their caring professionalism with a short response such as, "New to Air BNB platform, guests struggled with basic tenets of the shared economy, such as, respect for the space and accurate communication with hosts.  We wish them well in their travels, but perhaps they would be better served by the motel industry."  You also provide a thumbs down review with or without comments and the guest is not able to Instant Book.

Just a thought to consider.

[Helene114]

@Linda108 do you mind if I cut and paste for future reference? You were spot on and I agree that negative reviews give us an opportunity to reflect graciousness in our response. I didn't kow that about thumbs down and will consider why some guests are not able to instantly book with me...perhaps they got a thumbs down from a previous host. Thanks for your post.

[Linda108]

I am pleased you found my post helpful, @Helene114.  Believe me, it is much easier for an uninvolved host to craft a response or even a review for a negative hosting experience.  I have seen discussion threads that have done just that when a host reaches out for suggestons.

[Destiny7]

That's horrible Kathryn. I want to encourage you to reach out AGAIN to them. I had a completely different issue, but I did get them to change their initial decision. I had a guest book my place instantly and then proceed to tell me that this account was actually for his friend, not him. He sent me a new picture in the messages of the guy who'd actually be staying. Because I didn't want to lose potential for superhost status, I didn't cancel the reservation. Then on the night he was supposed to check in, someone called me saying that the guy wouldn't be showing up tonight, but please keep the reservation and he'd be here tomorrow for the rest of his 4-day reservation. This was the second person I had now spoken to that WASN'T the actual guest. So I called airbnb and asked them to cancel the guest (penalty free for me) because I wasn't comfortable with the situation. They did, but said they would be fully refunding the guest and not paying me for the night that he didn't show up. When they emailed me to close the case, I responded to the email explaining once again how I should be paid for that night, since he was taking that spot, preventing others from booking it. They finally agreed to pay me. I know this situation is different, and I don't know how long ago your incident was, but honestly it never hurts to continue trying. Seems like you spent a lot of money on that nasty guest.

[Momi0]

@Kathryn-and-Christophe0   I read your "disgruntled guests" short review....the one you mentioned.  Then I went and read your lengthly public reponse to them.   BRAVO BRAVO.  ( you educated them)  hahahaha.   

I was wondering if you knew that they don't see your response UNLESS, they go back to your listing and read it?  Airbnb does not send that public reponses to the guests at all.  So make sure you send that to them via their ABB account.  You have every right to do so. 

So what I do, for all of my PUBLIC responses, is copy and paste it into the guests Airbnb account where messages were shared back and forth during booking to ensure they get the proper education they need so they don't go to another listing without reading what a host took the time to write in their factual listing.  Most of the time, 96%  to be exact, I am writing a thankful public response asking them to come back soon. 🙂

And the few less then stellar guests like you had, got a proper education from me through my public response being sent to them.  Most likely they didn't read that either.....just like they didn't bother to read it was a FAMILY HOME that has dogs and cats.  hahaha. smh. 

And the amazing 5 Star plus plus guests who checked out yesterday actually got a gift certificate from me sent to her ABB account giving her a ONE FREE NIGHT to her next 5 nights stay with us when she comes back next year.  She was thrilled and promises to use it, and bringing her sister with her.  Missing her already. :))

[Gillian19]

This is definitely something I am going to pursue with Airbnb. I recently had a guest who left my property in a mess with all of their washing up and rubbish left for my cleaner to deal with. As I had to request additional cleaning expenses within a 48hr period (which I did) he then left one stars in every category in retaliation. The actual review was pretty non-descript, but the ratings have lead to emails from Airbnb threatening suspension of my listing and a reduction in my rating percentages. This will take a while to recover from. Fortunately I have accepted that Superhost is not going to happen! I appreciate that future guests are likely to see through this, but I still feel that these kind of retaliatory reviews lessen the value of any genuine low reviews that could be justified.

[Steve2743]

Agreed. I've never had to file a claim against the damage deposit, however it would be nice if guests weren't informed of the request until after they've written their review, or the review period has expired. 

[Linda108]

@Gillian19  You make a great point.  There are listings that deserve low ratings and negative reviews.  I'm just saying.  I sometimes see those listing when hosts complain about the guest reviews.  The guests reviews that use the review process to extract money or are just being mean, do not support the whole community.  I have no idea how Air BNB would be able to truly identify those reviews without compromising the positive side of the process.  It is worth looking into, though.

[Helena157]

One thing is true, though. Linda's comment is very helpful and I would definitely borrow her

words if something like this should happen to me me again.

It happened only once but I will probably never erase the "horror" person.

Airbnb definitely  cares more about the guests than the hosts.

It protects no matter what and it is a shame soince the host tries very hard and all the time while, somehow the one-time guest is always right.

On top of it the guests get asked incredibly detailed question for their review and they answer

often inaccurately while the host gets to answer 3 generic questions which don't implicate the guest in any way.

I do think Airbnb should protect the hosts, specially those who obviously work very hard and be less lenient with the guest both in regard to money issues and unlikely complaints...

[Helena157]

I do agree with you. There are some people who are totally unbalanced and write a horrible review because the think "you made them feel" unwelcome while the rest describe as the most welcoming person. That 1 person brings down your rating and I talso think that Airbnb should drop 2% of the worst reviews for hosts who have mostly great reviews!

Helena

[Farah1]

@Steve2743 glad to hear! Those bad guests are the ones who make hosts appreciate their good guests!

[Jason200]

Hi,

Just reading about nightmare guests. I have a a 5 tier villa where I rent out appartments and studios on 3 of the tiers, I live in the penthouse and rent 3 rooms in the main house below. All the information is on the website but I still get this problem from my guests. They book for 4 people taking 2 rooms and think they have the whole house. I even get demands that they don't want anyone else staying there or the pool is only for them and on many occassion they bring more guests. It's a flipping piss take. If I tell them what they have booked they get all upset and think they've booked the whole house. Not at that price. It states clearly on the front page and then I get a **bleep**ty rating off them and I get suspended for a few weeks. I don't know if it is only the Spanish but this is unfair. I go out of my way to make them comfortable and they leave the place a mess, moving stuff about. I hoope the next guests have common sense.

[Steve143]

Hello @Jason200,

People get upset when they see another group there or at the pool because your listing has the type "Entire home/apt".

So they can expect that their group is the only one there. They'll have searched with the filter "Entire home/apt" and your listing will have shown up.

Unfortunately, guests don't always read the description or photo text.

To stop the complaints, suspensions and lower ratings you could publish each separately rentable room as a separate "private room" listing. that way a group of 2 or four will rent private rooms so they know that there may be others there. A larger group could book your entire place as an "Entire home/apt" and they would know that they're the only group there.

With 3 rooms you could have 4 listings, one each for the bedrooms and one for the whole place.

It's a little more work and you have to keep the calendars in sync to avoid double bookings but it will avoid the problems you described.

This article explains the idea and how to link the calendars.

How do I list multiple rooms?

Steve.

[Helene114]

Jason, its not your fault if guests don't read. If they book a camel amd complain about humps...shame on them! Ask to have the rating removed. Also, I now text guests ahead of time to make sure they understand what they have booked.