First Aggressive Guest Review!

[Sonia572]

Hello fellow hosts, we have had our first bad review since we opened in June 2018 and it's very aggressive! I would like to hear from others on whether this has happened and where we go from here please? Did it affect your bookings for a while?

A couple were due to stay on NYE of all times, and they left after half an hour swiftly followed by a refund request with some savage comments about a really bad smell, old fittings, dirt etc. They then attached photos showing very close up pictures of the most minimal wear and tear, and our neighbour's garden saying the view is appalling even though the direct apartment view is of our own (cut!) lawn. Like everybody else, we work very hard to be responsible hosts and clean thoroughly but this couple clearly didn't like the apartment and were upset it didn't meet their expectations. If it ended with this, I could live with it but because they stayed even for half an hour they are allowed to leave a review.

Now, we declined a refund because we suspected that they found somewhere better to stay and wanted their money back, so searched for "bad" points in our apartment to prove a point. I guess we are biased and this is debatable, however we are now in a situation where their review says we live on a council estate! This is wildly untrue, we live on a lovely residential road and air b&b don't do a thing about it. Their review is 1 star and even warns people not to book our flat!

Has anyone had this experience and how have you come back from it please? We have put in extra measures such as new fresheners etc but I just can't believe that somebody could be so spiteful in the first place.

[TracieandJason0]

@Sonia572 Perhaps you can try to get the review removed because she mentioned the council estate, which is false and misleading to other guests. You will have to keep insisiting to airbnb reps, be polite and if one is not helpful just call back again until you get a rep that can help you. I've found that many reps are either sympathetic and can try to help you or they are just trying to get the phone call over with.

For the review, don't sweat it. You have many other great reviews and other potential guests will take that into consideration and figure that, that review was just from a bad guest. She also has a mix of good and bad reviews on her page if that helps you feel better. I don't think your bookings will be affected but for the next few future guests you can try to over deliever as a host to get glowing reviews and push that bad review away. 

I know it's easier said than done but try to be thankful. At the end of the day you made some money and she left without leaving damages. It could have been much worse. 

[Sonia572]

Thank you Tracie,

That is so helpful 🙂 We have been into the apartment today and put up a couple of new pictures to make it more homely, some new air fresheners and I will take on board your advice to over deliver 🙂

We interviewed a new cleaner today and she was very complimentary about the property, which made it harder to understand why our guest found it so offensive!

Air b&b weren't willing to edit out the council estate comments so I've tried a different tactic and used the report button for her hostility. We are also going to take photos of our road to prove that it's a lovely area!

Thanks again

[Susan1188]

Dear Sonia I feel so sorry for this experience!

One thing I can say is I have also had my first non-five star review and it was also for a stay over Christmas.  I've been reading different forums and it seems to me that people are quite irritated and irrational at this time of year, it's probably very hard for some people.  In addition to that prices are (justifiably) high for New Year's stays.  Christmas can be isolating, depressing if you are in unfamiliar surroundings and missing your family etc..

I'm wondering if it isn't too risky to rent over these holidays.

I am really struggling with the fact that Airbnb does not allow some leeway to hosts who have dozens of positive reviews, faced with the small proportion of guests who leave extreme and dishonest reviews.  I think experienced  hosts should get a "joker" be able to zap a small percentage of reviews that are unreasonable. 

Being a host is so much work and so much is expected of us, surely the platform should recognize this.  It should be easy to identify serious honest hosts after 4 or 5 reviews.

Being a guest however just means you had 300 dollars to spend on your credit card and a cell phone to take pictures of the neighbor's yard and the corner under the bed and the shower drain.

I'm also new to this since June and relatively shocked not sure if I will be able to handle it longer term.

[Sonia572]

That's interesting about the Christmas theory - I had a lovely lady stay over Christmas but this NYE booking was very highly strung almost as if there was something else at play....

[Huma0]

@Susan867

I think I agree with you. I have found that I have had much more problematic guests over the Christmas period than I do normally and I am an experienced host with over 400 stays. Now that it's over, I seem to be getting better guests again!

Yes, my prices are justifyably slightly higher at Christmas, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I am seriously thinking of taking next Christmas off from hosting.

[Susan1188]

Just had a look at your place, what is shocking is the contrast between the other reviews and this one. I can't believe you have to leave that there on your listing.

Some comments don't know if it will help:

- maybe get a professional photographer in, it did wonders for our listing

- I'm in the same situation as you, I responded too quick to the critical review (I didn't realize it couldn't be changed at all after posting and it wasn't even really clear this was the public response!)  Now my hasty response is impossible to change!  Your answer is fine (better than mine if you look me up I'm so embarrased)!  But now I know to really take time - days - to think about a professional, neutral, and non-emotional response.

- Someone suggested accepting short stays or doing a promotion to get a ton of bookings and drown out the bad review.  But then there you are hosting for free because of a dishonest guest.

- Maybe it's a good time to explore other platforms as well, it might feel more empowering if you know you are not dependant on only one source.

Is it possible the platform does this kind of thing to make the experience seem "real" and not polished.  Which also can make people feel embarrassed, humilated and used.

[Sonia572]

Thank you for your great advice! 🙂 Our photos are all professional, but I'm interested in your suggestion to run a promotion - I just can't see how to do it on the app? Any ideas?

[Susan1188]

- well, just accept the "smart pricing" for certain dates, which is usually ridiculously low, smart only for the web platform I guess...

- another thing that apparently works - see recent thread on this - is removing your cleaning fee, this apparently boosts your listing to top of the pile in search engine results!

I haven't tried this yet as my cleaners actually cost me over 140 euros for clean, laundry and meeting guest each guest turnover I can't bring myself to work for less than free but maybe I will let me know how it goes...

- you can also just go and decrease the price even more on the calendar

- finally, turn on instant booking if it isn't already (which may mean you have to temporarily block off some dates that might need discussion with guests prior to booking but it's only temporary).

[Helen3]

Oh @Sonia572

So sorry this happened to you, but I don't think your response to this guest did you many favours.

In your situation I would have focussed on the positive experiences of other guests and then mention as an aside that you live in a private house/estate (whatever your situation)  and stay that the problem areas the guest mentioned simply didn't exist.

I then would have directed guests to photos of the outside of your property and street to demonstrate that you don't live on a council estate. (please get some pictures and caption i.e. view from our garden flat, our house, our street, nearby amenities like a park, cafes etc).

You will recover from this. But you need to get captioned photos up as soon as you can. In your situation I would get them up tomorrow.

My first review was from an absolutely horrible guest - much worse than yours, who said he would rather have slept on the streets (I wish he had)  than in my place as it was so disgusting and dirty  (previous listing). Ironic really as this was a brand new conversion, I had literally moved into a month before and everything was sparkling clean and brand new.

Luckily for me he wrote his review in Portuguese - but guests can use the translation software on Airbnb and for a while it was one of only two or three reviews.

[Sonia572]

Great idea about the captioned photos - will do that asap!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

We also had angry guests 10 days before Christmas and it has nothing to do with prices as it was the same like the most of the year.

Maybe all those twinkel lights affect the brains and nervous system  :)))

@Sonia572, I belive most guests outside UK don't even know what council estate means

[Tif1]

@Sonia572So sorry you had such a horrible review, I read your other reviews and they are great. I also had a look at Charlie's reviews and interestingly she has also hosted but had cancelled at least 4 bookings, and for one stay she was quite sharp in her reply to hosts who had wanted to check the heating system in their cottage, (and in my opinion) quite aggressive in another about an extension for departure  in the morning, saying that such a small flat shouldn't take 6 hours to clean.  I recently started using Air Review (which is how I could access the info above really quickly 😉  and think it is a great little tool for doing an extra check on potential guests. Whilst not foolproof it does give you a full list of reviews guests have given and received so you can get an overview of what kind of person you might be letting too.

Check it out on Chrome. You load it and then it is 'live' when you open Airbnb

Here is hoping that is the only horrible review you get and the other suggestions in the post are great too . All the best Tif

[Sonia572]

That is very interesting about that tool! I saw some of what you have mentioned about Charlie but not all of it. What annoyed me the most was how emotionally charged and petty she was....she gave me 1 star on check in instructions despite everyone else saying how easy it was to check in, and 3 stars for communication even though I went out of my way to accommodate her late check out request, and reminded her to book a taxi from her NYE party which she seemed really grateful for at the time! I would say she definitely has issues and probably not the last time she will cause problems. So sad when we should all be mature adults.

[Sarah977]

@Sonia572@Branka-and-Silvia0   It's true, I have no idea what a council estate is. To me, anything called an "estate" means it's some fancy place on a huge piece of property.

Sonia- Sorry about the bad outlier review.. It's a drag, but you'll survive it (and they SHOULD remove it- I'd keep pushing for that). You mentioned air fresheners. I would never use such things as a host, and if I were a guest and arrived to find that there were air fresheners all over, I'd ask the host to remove them or I'd cancel and ask for a refund. Most of those things are toxic chemicals.