Guest from Hell

[Diane509]

We have the guest from hell in our caravan at the moment.  From before she arrived (message after message) and then, when she arrived on the park where our caravan is sited she couldn't find it.  This is despite a map being one of the photos on our listing.  Hubby talked her around site, turn by turn, until she found the caravan.  

Then, the oven broke.  It was working earlier that day but it broke.  When her food was cooking - or not, unfortunately.

We offered to get her and her teenagers a takeaway - no, she didn't want that.  We offered her alternative accommodation - no, she didn't want that, it was too late.

To cut the story short - the cooker is still broken as it's a Saturday and we've been unable to get a Gas Safe Engineer out to it today.  So the emails have started again.  She's been out all day and hasn't received my messages informing her that no-one is available to mend it and therefore there is still no oven.  She's come home from her day out hoping to be able to cook and it's all my fault that she's now having to go hungry.

I've reimbursed her the money from her spoiled food and offered her a 50% refund if she leaves today.  No - she's leaving when she's due to leave.

My magic wand is broken so I can do no more - it's Saturday so I can't get that mended either!

I can see a bad review coming - but I also would like to warn other hosts, as I suspect she's extremely difficult to please.  

My question is - how do I word this in a way that isn't how I'd like to word it but that lets others know to beware?

[Victoria567]

Hi@Diane

Your post is honest and matter of fact.....if some prospective guests are put off, I think they sound a tad over sensitive and not the kind of entitled touchy feely guest Jd like to share my family home with......walking on eggshells is too sore on my bare feet!

[Victoria567]

And like you @Diane509

Im not that desperate either......there is some business that I can well do without, and this type of entitled guest is a classic example.

[Robin4]

@Diane509 @Victoria567

Girls, if I have had a difficult guest, I will say so, I won't gloss it over with sugar sweetness! Here is a recent one I had to give......

I am not saying you should call the guest from hell your best friend! I am saying you need to warn others in the community that the guest is not recommendable, the way I have done here, but remain dignified in the way that you do it, After all, you want your great reviews to stay prominent  forever and the poorer reviews to disappear as much as possible, and getting into a drawn out battle just keeps on attracting attention to it and makes you look a 'prickly' host.

Please don't think I am trying to be personal, I absolutely respect your opinion Diane, I was just trying give an alternate way to get your opinion across.

Cheers.....Rob 

[Victoria567]

Hello @Robin0

Your review just vaguely tells me as a host, that this lady needs privacy.....( don’t we all sometimes?) unobtainable in a home environment.......what does this mean?

Do you have a shared Cludgie?......shared bathroom?

Do you have a shared breakfast table?

Then onto the 2 hours this guest spent in your home, all your review vaguely tells me as a host

that she created considerable stress for you and your wife.......what does that mean?

What precisely did this guest do, to create this stress for you, including your wife?

Did the guest complain?

What did the guest complain about?

Did the guest argue with your wife?......and so on and so forth 

Now your review vaguely mentions the considerable work created for you and your wife.....what was the nature of the work she created?

One hosts  swipe around the accomodation, with the Hoover, making up a bed, dusting every nook and cranny, changing the waste bins, replenishing the bottles of Highland Spring water, replenishing the toiletries basket, cleaning the bathroom to within an inch of its life......

I wish I could do all that within a 2 hour time Slot!......it takes me half a morning to prepare a bedroom and a large bathroom for an impending guest arrival.

2 Hours for me as a host is not considerable work, it’s called a breeze on my timescale!

But half a morning is a different ballgame.

I respect you and your views @Robin0, but as a fellow host this review of your guest tells me nothing except that you found her to be a right pain in the stump!

As a fellow host I get no information from this type of wishy washy, touchy feely review, it’s just all a bit too vague for me, Im afraid, and as we say here in Scotland......this type of vague, bland review us about as much use as a chocolate teapot!😉

[Sarah977]

@Victoria567   Seriously? You need all the gritty, grotty details?  As a fellow host, Robin's review of this guest tells me all I need to know- an experienced host says he "cannot on any level recommend her" and that in 2 hours she managed to cause "considerable work and stress" for himself and his wife. That would tell me all I needed to know to hit "Decline".

[Victoria567]

Yes indeedy @Sarah977

I DO as a fellow host want ALL the details.......the review is so vague , it is as much use as a chocolate teapot.

As a host with a very desirable upmarket family home with a superb neighbour, I appreciate a fellow hosts honest detailed review rather than waffle on.

Personally I would like the option of deciding for myself, whether the details are grotty or not, rather than having to “assume”,  they are grotty.

I want to know a bit more where a host gives a heads up.......I have a family home, and I really want to know what sort of behaviour is potentially going to possibly happen, rather than assume it.

Sorry @Sarah977 but I’m really sad that some hosts think they are being kind to a guest by writing such a vague review....in fact all they are doing is being unkind to fellow hosts by not being more specific when penning a review.

I respect @Diane509 for her honest review and @Diane509 is not prickly, she is an honest host doing her fellow hosts a great service.

Again thank you @Diane509

[Sarah977]

@Victoria0  While I know there are some hosts who are loathe to leave anyone a bad review, because they can't bring themselves to be "mean",  just because a host uses code lines like "better suited to a hotel", and other things you consider too vague, does not mean they are doing that in order to be "kind" to a bad guest. They are just giving what they find to be a professional, non-personally-vehement account that warns other hosts that this guest is not recommended. That is the purpose of reviews. We may feel better after writing a detailed account of all the entitled guest's transgressions, but it really doesn't serve any purpose other than that, as far as I can see.

[Robin4]

@Victoria567

Victoria, it was not neccessary that I itemised in the review what I found wrong with the guest, the important thing was that I warn the community that I did not find her a guest I could recommend, and that is what I did.

As to your other comments I am sure you would have read this post, it was my first hosting after coming back from holidays and this guest was the subject of that review....

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/I-m-back-to-a-totally-weird-guest/m-p/802225#M192266

Victoria, we don't need to make Mills and Boon or Alfred Hitchcock productions out of failed hostings and I probably find those that want that a little unsavoury, these are peoples lives we are talking about and I will always treat my guests with decorum, whether I like them or have to criticise them!

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Diane509  Sorry you had to put up with thisguest and her harrassment. But I have to agree with those who thought your review was too accusatory and personal. You said that she was extremely rude and badgering in her messages to you (aside from complaining the whole time she was at your caravan), but what you have to keep in mind is that other guests and hosts reading the reviews don't see the guest's personal messages to you. So when reviewing a bad guest, it seems best to keep it brief, honest and factual. Otherwise the host can seem overly critical and nasty. There's no need to personally attack someone to get your warning across to other hosts- "just the facts" serve the purpose in a public review. 

I think it's always better to take a "cooling off" period when someone's behavior is unacceptable, whether it's a guest, or someone you deal with in your everyday life apart from hosting. We make better decisions and take better courses of action if we sleep on things for awhile.

Just my 2 cents. Of course, you are free to review guests however you choose. 

[Diane509]

I've actually taken my caravan off Airbnb (temporarily by blocking out the next month - we close on 11 November in any case until 1 March).  Once our last Airbnb guest has been and gone (October) I'm removing my listing totally. 

I haven't found Airbnb to be particularly easy to reach - I'm still waiting on a reply from them. 

If this lady had been one of our guests booked via our normal channels (website, FB, on site advert and car advert) she would have received a copy of our Terms and Conditions prior to booking and much more information than it was possible to supply via Airbnb.  She would also have completed a Booking Form and we would have had her name, address and personal telephone.  Likewise, she would have had our full details.

I've said it previously and I'll say it again - the stress this lady caused is 100% not worth the effort I put in.  I am worth far more than the amount she paid to stay in our caravan (again, as I've said before, we have three caravans but only advertised the one as a "try before you buy" sort of venture to see if Airbnb was something we would use).  

We are experienced hosts of ten years, we retired from our other business this year and featured highly on Trip Advisor (not for our caravans, as they were not listed on there).  Our feedback for the caravans has been, over the ten years, 100% positive.  We had a huge FB following with our other business and were the top performer in our local county.  So we're no novices.  We're also not so desperate that we need to kowtow to bad guests.  

So, thank you - it's definitely been an experience - but from the beginning of November our listing will be removed permanently from Airbnb.  It has done us no favours - though @Robin0 it has not and will not do our business any damage.