Guest gave inaccurate private feedback to ABB

[Paul-and-Trina0]

Hey Guys,
We could really use some feedback from the community as ABB has notified us of our guest’s private feedback to them…which is Completely inaccurate! It's almost like he was looking for something negative to say behind our backs, although I don't know why as we thought we had a great experience. I don't think he realized that ABB would notify us. I’m unsure how to proceed and could really use some advice as we are very new at hosting and have only just encountered this situation and are very protective of our reputation. Note: we have 2 bedrooms listed in our private home and have never had less than 5 star ratings.

Conversation Key: ABB is underlined. Guest is italicized. (I am in parentheses)

(His public feedback): I highly recommend this place provided you want to relax and decompress. These are the best host I have ever met. Let me put it in this way -- even I can't be a host like them. The only thing to keep in mind is their house is around 10 miles from heart of the city. A perfect location to relax. Another thing to note is in evening there are no street lights so you must have a car or capability to uber otherwise you won't be able to walk to even closest restaurant. I am sure they would not mind to accommodate you but if you are like me who doesn't like to be burden on people make sure you have a car. Next time I plan my trip to Reno I am going to make sure they have a vacancy for me. Thanks.

(To clarify, our neighborhood is Well Lit! It’s the highway down the road that is not.)

 And his private feedback: “Thanks very much. I enjoyed my stay with you guys.”

(While his overall public rating is 5 Star, his private ratings to ABB are as follows):

ABB: Private feedback

 This is just for you. It won’t appear on your listing or profile.

Private Feedback: 
Thanks very much. I enjoyed my stay with you guys.

Accuracy feedback: (He gave us 4 STARS)
Your guest mentioned some issues that weren’t accurately reflected in your listing description: amenities. Additional comments: “They said there will be light breakfast and snacks. Which wasn't there.”.

    (His ABB message communication to us prior to staying copied here): “I am vegetarian so you don't have to worry about my food/breakfast etc. If I can store something in your fridge it would be great so I don't have to go out everyday.”

(We provide bagels and muffins as well as coffee and tea 100% of the time every morning. He refused this offer. Note: Nowhere in our listing does it say we provide snacks.)

Location feedback: (He gave us 4 STARS)
“This place is little away from Reno city. It was great for me to read and relax but if you like to party its not ideal. ”

   (His ABB Message communication to us copied here): “Hello Sir and Madam, am planning a reading vacation where I just want to relax and read in nature and if weather is not nice then in house. Would I be able to close my room and read? To avoid your pets? I am planning to read 5 books in 4 days so I might be having different schedule like read till 4 am and get up at 11 am.”

 (Our listing Clearly states: “While our home is in the Reno city limits we are on the outskirts of town in the Golden Valley area with easy access to the freeway.  You cannot walk to the downtown area and will need a car or other transportation (Taxi/Uber). We are very conveniently located off US 395 North.  Our home is 10 miles from the Reno-Tahoe Airport (Mapquest says 12 minutes), 9 miles to downtown Reno (13 minutes) and 9 miles to downtown Sparks (12 minutes).”

And again it’s mentioned: “We are located in Golden Valley, approximately 10 miles (Or less) from the Reno/Tahoe airport, and downtown Reno and Sparks areas.  We do not have a bus line nearby so you will need a car or other transportation.“)

 (Also, our guest Did have a car with which to get around.)

Value: (He gave us 4 STARS!)

(Privately he told us we were at the PERFECT price and wants to book in the near future!

Our prices are much less than most of the other listings in our area simply Because we are on the outskirts of town. He also has asked if he can stay with us again due to his financial undertakings in our area and wants to pre-book and block out as many days as he wishes. If our Value is less than 5 Stars why in the world would he wish to book with us again?!)

(Check in, Cleanliness and Communication were a 5 Stars)

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________

And finally, this man informed us that he is a man of great stature and financial means. He was looking at million dollar properties in our area of which we spent 8 hours driving him through 4 counties looking for investment property. My husband even took a day off in order to assist him. We also hooked him up with 3 realtor friends of ours who dropped everything at his insistance to meet with him immediately. We went Over and Above for him as we do for all our guests, and yet he privately messaged ABB different ratings than he gave publically; as if ABB wouldn’t notify us. I feel as if we have been slapped in the face and our generosity has been disrespected.

In conclusion, we are very new to hosting as we started on Sept 1, 2017. Within a couple of weeks we met the Super Host requirements and have never had less than 5 Stars. Yes, I’m offended and butthurt! This is our first downgrade rating and it feels ugly.  I do realize that giving us 4 stars won’t do anything to our overall rating and Super Host status (soon to be declared) but my issue is that while he publically posted one thing he went behind our backs to ABB and said something completely different. We were expecting him to stay with us again as my husband is acting as his liaison with the realtors. But this back door message has me pretty miffed and I don't know if I want him back!

So…

-Do we confront him on this in an ABB private message? If so...suggestions?

-Do we respond publically where ABB gives us the option to respond? Probably not the best option.

-Do we contact ABB privately with this information to provide accuracy for maintain our stellar reputation?

I can’t see ingoring this and letting it just go by the wayside as we are continuing contact with him in a business sense and he plans to stay with us again. He has damaged his own reputation with us at this point and may have damaged future bookings with us.

I could really use the Community’s feedback on this. TIA!

Trina~

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

@Carol-Lee1

that is a great answer.  You are a wise Airbnb host.  I wish we were going to Alabama, I'd like to meet and chat with you.

Kerrin

City Limits Ranch

[Paul-and-Trina0]

I believe that's Exactly what he was doing, as if he was an undercover "shopper" for Airbnb or a critic for a magazine, and not specifically speaking about his own experience with us but rather evaluating our listing from an outsider's perspective. Our listing was his 1st experience with Airbnb and so I think he's completely unfamiliar with the whole situation. Still, I don't want him back in our home knowing that he will evaluate us like this again. I don't want to risk our ratings because he doesn't know how the whole system works. We will have to clarify his understanding before we will allow him to book again. Thank you so much @Carol-Lee1 for your feedback as it is greatly appreciated!

[Jennifer409]

Paul & Trina,

I have been a host since April, and it's hard to get over some of the comments. We have learned not to interact with any of guests unless absolutely necessary.

I recently had the following comment made and received a 3 as the location (which brought my rating down a bit), and just couldn't understand especially when its spelled out to them that our town is in a quiet country side setting.

"The vincinity was placed well enough for our needs, but the town itself did not meet our expectations. I’m sorry to say but we did not realize that it was such a sleepy limited location."

When I have guests now, that I feel were very negative, I just don't rate them at all, and block them from booking again.

Right now I am dealing with guests, showing up with more guests than in the reservations. Guess they are trying to be sneaking and not have to pay for extra people. I now spell it out to them again on my greeting message.

[Paul-and-Trina0]

We just had one of these guests too @Jennifer409. We don't charge for extra guests and so why not be up front and honest that you're bringing someone with you, right? She told me straight up that she was alone but that "a friend" would be dropping her off at our house. Next thing I knew she was telling me he would be staying with her for the evening. He was nice enough (moreso than she!) and we allowed it as they were very pleasant to our other guests and my GrandGirl who was visiting with us that evening. Everything turned out well but still...our listing speciffically states No non prior approved guests allowed. But this was her first experience with ABB. I've noticed First Timers don't understand all the rules and If we chose to accept them we must take it upon ourselves to educate them for the sake of everyone. Frequent Flyers an another story and shouldn't get a free pass! grrr!

[Helga0]

There are many guests, who feel empowered by the request to rate, so they search for every little thing, that is negative.  Mystery shoppers for airbnb, who asks them to help the host to improve. A crazy wording. We get it too. 

Many do not understand, that the private feedback in not directed to airbnb, but to the host. So they write About the host, instead of speak8ng to him. School yard level often. 

You get the wording “Your guest had problems with... the accuracy/ cleanlinessetc”, because if the guest clicks on four stars or less, then pops up a list of possible causes and a text field to write the reason. Most click on one thing then. 

You get this as a standard after every review. Nobody read them.

after those steps, the guest can leave a private remark to airbnb, which you will never get.nobody reads those after a review. Only if there is a problem with the guest, this part is on file. 

So if you had written, that the guest was exigent and asked for a lot of services, whit hout any intention to pay, this would stay on file. If the next host is less lenient and asks for extra payments via the resolution center, and he does not pay, airbnb would see in the mediation, that he is a profiteer and settle with the host. 

I leave private feedback to airbnb, if the guest is at the limit, where I can cope, but the next host might not. Or I might write a private feedback to the guest and only write “see private feedback” in the airbnb case, just so it would pop up, if he gets worse. 

Your guest was a bit grandstanding, wasn’t he? Millions to spend, but stingy on lodging and transport? He writes that Even He could not be such a good host. When I read those words, I knew the ratings. 

If you filter guests, try to filter the profiteers first of all. Three drunk kids are less annoying. 

Good luck

[Paul-and-Trina0]

Luv your response @Helga0. I have no idea how the ratings on the guest end work and so I appreciate the crash course. Thank you so much for the validation as well!

[Helga0]

You are welcome, @Paul-and-Trina0 !

[Willow3]

@Helga0 - Thank you for putting this much better than I was able to. I kept attempting to write what you wrote, but it wasn't making any sense!  

[Helga0]

@Willow3,  I wrote nearly the same thing in French this morning, seems that the procedure is not very clear to new hosts. It's easier, when you be a member for a while, then you get the new things one after the other. It must be very overwhelming, to get the full services, otions and the whole guest feedback options in your first experiences. - Seems airbnb coud earn an additional star in accuracy and explain it in an easier way 😉  😉

[Susie57]

I had the same thing that happened to me. She rated me very poorly despite me being an Airbnb host and understanding what it takes to be a good host with my other properties. She had lied and said my closet was completely full in the private review to Airbnb, which it was not. Then she said my place was not clean and was complaining that I use the kitchen to cook. 

This bothered me for a while and to be frank, I will never forget this guest because in person I tried my best to check in everytime I see her to make sure everything was okay and also be nice and kind.  In the end, you just have to try your hardest to let it go and realize that some people expect you to be a hotel even though they are paying a fraction of the cost. People can be unreasonable and its very unfortunate, but it isn't your fault especially if you are going above and beyond as a host (which it seems you are by driving him/her around and taking time off your busy schedule). 

[Paul-and-Trina0]

Thank you for your kind response @Susie57 🙂

[Hélène113]

Un voyageur hébergé chez moi a écrit en commentaire "quartier proche de la gare mais calme"et a ajouté des remarques que je ne peux pas lire, aibnb, m'informe que cette personne a indiqué qu'elle avait eu quelques petites problèmes. Il y a un cadenas à côté de cette remarque d'airbnb. Je voudrais savoir de quel problèmes il parle (???), sachant que cette personne a bien dormi, et a parut content de son court séjour !

- Je lui avais indiqué par écrit le trajet à prendre de la gare à chez moi (5mn à pied)

-Je lui ai donné une clé

- J'ai gardé son sac la journée du lendemain de la nuit passée chez moi.

- J'étais présente à 17h le lendemain pour qu'il récupère son sac.

Je ne comprend pas . De plus, je ne trouve pas normal de ne pas avoir connaissance des remarques des voyageurs. Si je veux, si toutefois il y avait à le faire, améliorer mon accueil, il me faut connaitre ce qui leur déplait ...

[Helga0]

@Hélène113, je crous qu’il s’agit f’un malentendu commun. Le voyageur n’a pas faits des remarques privées pour airbnb, au moins vius n’en saurez rien. 

Dans la procédure, il est invité à vous ecrire un mot privé, de vous remercier ou vous dire des choses en privé. Pas tout le monde le fait   

Ensuite, il donne des étoiles. S’il en donne 4 ou moins, il est invité de s’expliquer. Pour faciliter cela, il y a des exemples, qu’il peut cliquer. Et à la fin, il peut écrire le commentaire publique. 

Je crois, qu’il a donné quatre étoiles et ensuite cliqué sur un truc comme arrivée. Et ensuite sur plus rien de cette catégorie, censée expliquer le soucis. Cela donne : le voyageur a eu un soucis à l’arrivée, avec: arrivée. 

Cela semble étrange, mais cela veut seulement dire, qu’il a remplit le formulaire à moitié.  

Beaucoup de gens pensent parler à airbnb sur vous, dans la catégorie remarque privée. Ils y parlentcomme un gamin, qui se plaint d’un autre à la maitresse. Il n’y a pas des informations supplémentaires ni des informations raisonnables. 

S’ils écrivent quelque chose dans la catégorie infos pour airbnb, personne ne lit, sauf en cas d’un problème, qui nécessite une intervention du service clientèle. 

Et dernière remarque: vous écrivez en reponse publique fes commentaires obtenues, votre commentaire pour le visiteur encore une fois. Cela ne sert à rien. Cet espace est pour répondre (de temps en temps) sur un commentaire, pour clarifier une chose ou ajouter quelque chose. C’est pour vos visiteurs futurs, uniquement. 

[Tracy63]

Hi Paul and Trina,

   I wanted to respond, since I am a host in Minden in Carson Valley... not too far from you!. We had a similiar situation with a guest telling ABB erroneous info.  We've been hosting for about 15 months, and have had more than 100 guests.

  We have 98% 5-star rating.

   It's always that one guy...who can screw it up for you. Our only 3-star was given by a couple who glowingly wrote in our guest book how great their stay was and that they wanted to return. Good so far, eh? Well when they wrote their review, they said in both public AND private comments we had lied about the size of the bed and the location of the house. We got 1-star for accuracy. What!!!

   They claimed our queen bed was a full bed. (obviously wrong.) 

   They claimed our home was too far from Minden. It's very clear, in pictures and in description, that we are in Johnson Lane area  - in the desert -  8 miles from Minden, and they wanted a place in town. (looking at the listing details would have made this pretty clear to anyone)

    This was infuriating and upsetting to us. I feel your pain. I let it simmer for a few days, and then composed a calm, unemotional response to them. What I've noticed on other listings, is when hosts respond too quickly to a bad review, we let our emotions get the best of us and being defensive in print makes us look bad.

    When you have a great track record, your overall positive reviews will outweigh "that one ass" who doesn't read the listing, or who makes absurd and incorrect claims. I've had several guests since then who read their bad review, and commented how stupid the guest's comments appeared in context with all the good ones.

   Hang in there and enjoy the majority of guests who are good apples.

[Paul-and-Trina0]

Thanks for sharing @Tracy63, fellow neighbor 🙂 Its very strange how people will haphazardly book without fully reading the listing.

We had a guy request to book and want us to pick him up at the airport and return him to Truckee when his stay was over...AT NO CHARGE! That's an hour round trip for us!  Apparently he thought Reno and Truckee were sister cities or something. (We have even had people think that Reno and Las Vegas are within minutes of each other and not the 8hr drive that it is! Lol!) When I explained there would be a fee he didn't even have the decency to respond...just ignored me...so I declined the request at the last second, giving him the most benefit of the doubt.

When we confronted the gentleman this post is referring to he merely reiterated his perception and couldnt understand why we didnt agree with his position. I didn't respond but wanted to say "You Read our listing and you Chose our listing based on your desire to retreat. If you were going to downgrade the facts of the listing why wouldn't you simply stay elsewhere?" But again he gave us 5stars upfront and only downgraded us "privately" to ABB, so I let it go. But....smh, some people...sigh! But now I know that if we post something "privately" to ABB about someone...it's NOT private!