Ghosting Guests

Carin13
Level 1
Rhodes, Australia

Ghosting Guests

I'm fairly new to Air BnB with only 3 guests to date. My first only stayed one night, ate my chocolates, drank my wine, stayed in my apartment with zero complaint during her entire stay. Then 24 hours after check out she

complained about a heap of imaginary problems and requested a full refund! Then she wrote me a bad review! Not a great start. My 2 guests since however found the place perfect & there was no complaint. They haven't left reviews at all though, and I'm certainly not going to bug them for reviews, but I keep getting notifications from air BnB that my listing isn't performing because I've only got one review, and it's a false negative one! Is it common for people to just use air BnB and not bother leaving reviews? It's affecting my listing & there's really nothing I can do about it. It's quite frustrating because I'm jumping through hoops for guests to leave positive reviews and it just seems like they can't be bothered.

2 Replies 2
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

In my experience it isn't common, and you're probably right to assume that if a guest hasn't left a review, asking them to do so is unlikely to result in a good one. Some people don't review, if they feel they couldn't honestly leave a good one. Your first guest's complaint was very specific, cleanliness. She was complimentary on other fronts so she was not just out to get you. Did she in fact give you specific feedback that you can use to improve on that front, as she said? If so, do so. And you will need to respond to that review, briefly and professionally, so as to assure future potential guests that they will not have the same experience (whether she really did or not). This is not the place to argue that her experience was false. You could outline your standard pre-check-in cleaning procedures. You could thank her for the input and for being your first guest and say that you have updated your cleaning procedures accordingly.

Suzanne302
Level 10
Wilmington, NC

@Carin13 I just want to echo what @Lisa723 said , the review is not terrible, it reads as if she was giving you constructive criticism. She could have ranted about the place being filthy and disgusting, but she didn't. She complimented you on what you were doing well and suggested that the apartment could use a better cleaning.