Been having low bookings since bad review

[Ann30682]

Hey there.. I had a guest a week plus  ago show up two hours before checking in while the apartment was being cleaned up.i do admit before booking she chatted with my colleague while I was away and she agreed she check in early and leave late.but I counted this prior to her arrival.she ignored it .I even told her not to go in through the leasing office and she did.through about her stay I was helpful and very responsive to all her needs.I mean she would even message me at late hours asking for bar in the area and stuff.I provided her everything.I only asked her to please keep the place neat that a guest was checking in at 2pm.

 Since she insisted on not leaving.she was all aggressive and wouldn’t even pick my call to explain I didn’t want to kick her out.she was like I always keep everywhere I stay clean and I told her no worries .next day she sent me pictures of how she cleaned the floors and even washed the towels I was shocked.I didn’t ask her to do all that.I even thanked her and left her a good review.I lost count of the many am sorry ‘s and am thank you I said.to my surprised she left me a nasty comment.even tweaked things here and there just to possibly ruin my business.now my rating is at 3.50. How can I get this up please? Plus my bookings have gone down tremendously 

[Ann30682]

Excuse the typo errors .”countered”

“Before check in time “

”nasty review”

https://abnb.me/QCDgpQb7zjb

[Laura2592]

@Ann30682 both the guest's review and your response are long and confusing. The guest got permission for early check in and late check out from someone. They got to your space and you said "oh that was an error. Sorry." The guest got very upset because it was hot outside and they had to wait. You then told the guest that they basically had to clean for the next person if they were checking out late. That is what I took away from this. 

I would probably just delist and start over under a new ID. You don't have a ton of reviews. It will give you a bump in search. In the meantime:

- Make your house rules clear about check in times and don't be tempted to make exceptions. 

-Communicate through ABB messages only.

- Take better photos. Show the full rooms and not just pieces of them. Possibly do a floor plan. Show the entire bedroom, not just the bed. No slanted pool angles.

-Consider not doing back to back bookings. If you have a tight turn around on cleaning it may cause more problems than its worth. It will also allow you to be more flexible with guests who may really appreciate that.

- Take a profile pic that shows you smiling. 

- Clean up some of the grammar errors in your listing and personal info. 

- Read this forum. There is a lot of great advice on being a new host, getting bookings, dos and don'ts, amenities guests want (no pots and pans? but you advertise a full kitchen...)  Its not as easy as it might seem. 

Good luck!

[Ann30682]

Hi  many thanks.perhaps am not clear enough.I informed her prior to her arrival and she blatantly ignored.I admit I did ask her to keep the place neat  but I never asked her to do the thorough cleaning she did.she insisted on waiting outside even after I offered her to wait at a nearby cafe.i have since bought new pans and pots .I will delist and relist.

[Sarah977]

@Ann30682  I agree with what Laura has said. There seemed to be a lot of misunderstanding here and if there is cross-communication between you and whoever else works with you regarding what guests have been told, that's on you, not the guest. 

Never let a guest check-in early or late unless it doesn't impact cleaning time or the rest of preparation. It isn't okay to let a guest check out late on the condition they clean it for the next guest.

If you can accommodate a guest leaving their luggage until their flight, or whatever, while they go hang out at a cafe, you could offer that.

And do not use review responses to address the guest  directly or give long- winded explanations. Responses should be quite brief and only used to correct misinformation or misleading statements or to indicate you have corrected an issue, like the pots and pans. And only ever speak to what is written in the public review, not to verbal conversations or private feedback you have gotten. Your review responses appear on your review page, not the guest's, and are written for the benefit of future guests- the guest whose review you are responding to may never even see your response.

[Mark116]

@Ann30682  I'm sorry this guest was so petty as to harm your new business with what must  have been a one star review.  But, let that be a lesson to you that flexibility is often not rewarded by guests.  Stick to your plan and your rules, unless you get a very good feeling are are 100% sure that any late/early changes will not cause problems.  Whatever happened that allowed this guest to get mixed signals...make sure it will not happen again.

As Laura said, consider not doing same day check/in and out until  you're a little more comfortable and established with the routine.

I guess it depends on what the demand is in your area whether you want to wait it out,  maybe do a promotion to get some bumps and positive reviews or delist and relist.

Good luck.

[Sarah977]

@Ann30682  Why do you have 2 listings for the same place? If you have decided to forego the first listing that has the bad rating, delete it.

On the one with the 5*rating and one review, it has confused information. At the top it says 1 bedroom with Queen bed. Lower, it shows the queen bed and sofa bed in "Common spaces". You should correct that.

And correct your listing description. Use a space between sentences and capitalize the first word of each sentence. 

[Ann30682]

I have bookings on the first one.if I delete the listing this may affect my bookings.I left the second one because I have a five star rating 

[Sarah977]

@Ann30682  Ok, that makes sense, then. You can't delete it with pending bookings. But you need to immediately block off all the dates on that listing's calendar, so when the bookings you have are completed, you can delete it. As it stands now, anyone can still book that listing- there are tons of open dates.

And there is nothing to prevent double bookings for your place with both calendars open for the same dates.

[Brian2036]

@Ann30682 @Sarah977 

I wish everyone would note that long, run-on posts are difficult to read, particularly on cell phones.

 I am going blind trying to read some of the posts on this site.

A general (unwritten) rule for internet publications is to limit paragraphs to one or two sentences and double space between paragraphs.