Complaints from guests after stay

Soren3
Level 2
Bergen, Norway

Complaints from guests after stay

Hi,

 

I guess this is a bit of a special case and I am tempted to just ignore it and do nothing, but are just wondering what other hosts think about this.

 

People come from different countries, different cultural backgrounds and with different expectations, so I feel it is important to show you are accommodating towards peoples special "needs". Therefore, I always ask my guest to immediately contact me if there is anything they are not happy with. This gives me a chance to change things or stock up on other things, just to try to make my guests stay a good experience.

 

I recently had someone to come for 10 days and they asked a lot of questions, like information about local hikes that were specially children friendly and so on. Loads of questions. I felt I was being very accommodating searching for loads of this information which took a lot of time, even making a binder with all the information. Of course I never verified this information as it came from local hiking teams. All free information but made by people who hiked these places.

 

The guests arrive and they were quiet and everything seems fine, but after their stay I get this real bad review. They insist it was very dirty. First they said they found a hair but then it escalated to hair all over and dust and so on. I am a superhost and all my other reviews are 5 star reviews and people are very happy about everything. I hover and wash floors every time someone have stayed there, but of course I am just human and might miss a hair and some dust in a corner, but I am pretty fanatic myself and try to clean it properly. I even hover under all sofas and beds every single time, which is maybe why I feel even more puzzled that they complained so highly about dust. They also complained that there were not enough pots and pans to acommodate them because they really liked making a lot of food and the information they had for hikes was not precise and not enough information about parking and so on. I was simply trying to gather some information for them which I found sufficient, but expectations can be very different. I still thought they would at least appreciate the effort as they didnt make any themself before arriving even its all available online and in english. I still did this because I thought they were staying for a long time, so I wanted to accommodate them but also I thought I could use this information in the future for other guests.

 

I then wrote the guest and asked why they didnt tell me right away, to give me a change to fix this to acommodate their special needs, especially considering that I prior to their stay specifically had asked for them to contact me about any issues they might have. I also wrote that I didnt find that quite fair and hoped he would understand it from my point of view and consider contacting AirBnB to remove that review.

 

He then writes back very angry and say I am threatening him to try to remove the review which he refuses and then he threathens me to write that on my profile.

 

I am chocked by that answer and this is where I dont know wether to just accept that one bad review or if I should involve airbnb to try to have it removed or something different?. I simply dont understand why some people would not just ask for an extra clean if they didnt find it sufficient and a few extra pots, but instead stay for 10 days and then complain afterwards.

 

What would you do?

6 Replies 6
Gerry-And-Rashid0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Soren3

 

I'd take a deep breath and understand that it's not you, it's your guests. It will happen to all of use once in a while where we just don't understand the guest and their reaction.

 

I would reply professionally and briefly to their review along the lines of:

 

We love hosting and go out of our way to make every stay memorable for our guests. Until now we have always managed to do that. We worked so hard to help you with your itinerary before you arrived that it is upsetting to hear you were so displeased with our efforts. We are sorry you were disappointed with your stay and just wish you had contacted us at any point during your 10 days to let us know.

@Gerry-And-Rashid0.  Thx a lot for your reply. Deep breath has been taken and a professionally reply has been sent.

 

I was also able to have AirBnB remove my review and recommendation of them, as I do not want to vouch for them to other hosts.

 

Also as a result of this, I have now made a new welcome letter for my guests that they can read through when they arrive. It asks them to raise any issues right away so I can have a chance to address it for them to end up have a good experience. I feel this is a good way to do it. I could send this in a message prior to their arrival, but my experence is that many guests dont really read their airbnb messages after doing the booking.

Marit-Anne0
Level 10
Bergen, Norway

@Soren3

I cannot see any bad review on your profile - it says "good house". 

Perhaps it was a private feedback - airbnb encourages that.  

Anyway, some are less well travelled and do not understand how a holiday rental works.  Perhaps they expected a daily maid service ? I can imagine it becoming a bit dusty after 10 days 😉

Perhaps provide a wok and a rice cooker and some rice.  They are always a hit with those coming from the far east.  Especially after using my best olive oil for their deep frying 😉  The joy of hosting ! 🙂

Patricia1952
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

I have had a bad experience too...we had a nice week in isle deRe but on my return the host posted we were dishonest. I am gutted this all related to an extra charge for cleaning....obviously charging a very expensive rate for this converted garage wasn’t enough for this lady, this tiny, infact miniscule accommodation, needed three hours of cleaning.at ten Euros an hour....actually as we were in the place very little I was able to clean it from top to bottom in half an hour, washed floors did loos etc...but this air bnb hostess has branded me dishonest...no come back from that according to air bnb...so what to do...tried everything, calls emails. To no evail,

i am internationally known as a dishonest person.

😫😫😫 won’t use them again then.

 

@Patricia1952Has the host provided any photo evidence of the place left dirty?


No infact we have eevidence of building work going on,,,,and pisctues of how clean we left the place.....even folded the use linen 😫