Guests have become super high maintenance and extraordinary particular

[Lisa540]

Hello,

I was a host several years ago and all my guests were friendly and nice and gave me great reviews. Then I took a two year break. Now I am hosting again and the space has been upgraded. Nicer furniture, ironed bed linens, lots of snacks, Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming. My recent guests have been much more high maintenance than the guests from two years ago, asking for toothpaste, special pillows, different chairs and so on. I have accomodated all requests. The guidebook is extensive and my response rate is 100%. And, above all, the space is large, immaculate and SO CHEAP. That said, guests this time around seem so demanding and dissatisfied and not particularly generous in their reviews. 

Anyone else having this experience? Hosting is hard work and our space is beautiful and so so so inexpensive in a super expensive location. I'm tempted to simply stop because I do not need the negativity.

I'd love to hear from anyone!

Lisa

[Scott4]

This reminds of all the years I would call the kennel to board our dog and the polite, always new, and diferent employee would apologize and say they were full. Within a week they would call back saying there was a cancellation. During the initial call I could sometimes hear the owner in the background tell the employee, "Oh, it's Snickers. Yes we can take them".

Being polite and reasonable is not always rewarded but it does make life more pleasant.

[Joanna85]

I am kind of with James..I do this for my 'mad money'and I find that I don't stress on the small stuff because either way, I"m not needing this money from renting my space.  When I first started, I thought I would price my space according to the fact that while it's a private part of the house and the guest never has to come through the main part of the house, I filled it with clean but older things and didn't invest too much money in it.  I also outwardly say that in my ad--my house is old and it's a space with absolutely no bells and whistles.  None.  I also have a sign posted in the 'kitchenette' that basically says I'm the cheapest in town for the amount of space and location and charge no extra fees...so take it easy on me lol.  I do use instant booking so anyone can book with me, but my space is not sheeshy by any stretch.  I find making a joke about the space with the guests when I let them in or putting it out there in the ad people come in and are surprised at how nice it is.  I do now play around with my price and have found I can charge a lot more than I did originally because everyone says nice things about me in the reviews and people are still expecting not much and are nicely surprised when they walk in.

Bottom line is, though,  most people who use Airbnb are on a budget and people have champagne taste when all they can afford in reality is tap water (which is free!!) so don't worry so much about what people say.  If you are catering to everyone's ridiculous requests for bamboo pillows and imported brewed coffee from the tip top of Kilamanjaro, charge for it.  Originally Airbnb was just a way for people from all over to connect and exchange cultural fun--it was never designed to replace a fancy resort experience.  And most of these people probably do not even have imported mint infused in their  filtered water at home, so they can do without it...just my nickel's worth of opinion!  It's worked for me to set the expecation low so then when they come in they are shocked that it's actually not The Bedbug Motel, but I realize not everyone wants to put that out there like I do.  "Hey, for what you pay for this a night, you should just be happy you have hot water..." No, it's not that bad at all.  So far I have only had one awful guest, so I guess it's working out for me to use a little psychology. I also have to remind myself that we all have a break even point...if you start buying things and doing this and that which requires time, your break even point gets super high.  You do want to actually make money at this no matter why you are doing it.  So I keep things as simple as possible.  My stress level is zero for Airbnb and once it starts costing me or it isn't fun anymore, I will pull the plug on it.  It's business in the end.

[Michelle140]

I just raised my solo traveler rates a mere $5 a night (and reduced the per guest upcharge by $5 to make the two person rate stay the same), because I was tired of people picking my place just because it was the cheapest that showed up in their search. It may still be a problem though, because oftentimes they are searching a local city, which I will always be much cheaper than, since I'm 30 minutes away. But anyway, I have found (like others have mentioned) that people only there to save the most money tend to be the most critical. Maybe they don't actually read the listing, and just look at the price?

I seriously just got a 3/5 on value from someone who paid $51 after the Airbnb fees for a night's accommodations. I really don't know what people want. If you stayed in a hotel at that price, you'd likely get diseases and bedbugs =P Lol. My place isn't fancy or perfect, but it's much nicer than a cheap hotel (I've stayed in them before, ha).

I don't think most people understand all of which goes into hosting on Airbnb. They think it should be cheaper just to stay in someone's room for the night, but they don't think about the hours spent cleaning, doing laundry, communicating, maintaining the listing, etc. That was another reason I bumped my prices $5; just to make it a touch more worth my time. Now I will make $48 for week nights and $53 for weekend nights.

Experience really varies though, but even just the occasional negativity wears on you as a host, as almost all of us really try our best to make each guest happy. I am really getting tired of getting docked on cleanliness for pet smells, when the listing clearly states I have THREE cats (I clean the litter box constantly when I'm not sleeping, and put air fresheners in each shared room during the guest's stay). And Airbnb really needs to remove the location rating. That's the worst. I just got a 2/5 on location because he didn't realize how far removed I live (also clearly stated in both the listing and displayed on the map, lol).

[Hope11]

I now charge 100-200 per night up from 70-85 per night.... guess what.... happier guests.  The cheap guests were always my problem guests!

[Ange2]

@Lisa540   I had the same experience.  A few years back when Airbnb was a novelty, my place was basic, my guests were all grateful and happy to get a huge, comfortable room, super cheap and have more to spend on their vacation.  I think these 'new' unrealistic expectations some guests have is in part to do with Airbnb profile, advertising and marketing: sleek, glossy, playing happy families, cloud cuckoo land, guest always right even when wrong.

I had a patch with people expecting what one would expect in a super deluxe hotel for super deluxe prices such as a selection of different pillows of all shapes and sizes, me doing duty as their concierge, tourist guide, travel planner, translator, interpreter, baggage handler,  daily maid-service thrown in etc. etc. 

After a couple of these high-maintenance nightmares, I decided to send the same message to all prospective guests - this is not a hotel and to read the description, amenities in full, and I mention expectations.  Some poeple don't bother to reply, the ones that do make a reservation have been grateful and happy.  Good luck and do put your prices up it seems  effective at deterring the worst of guests.

[Jim136]

Absolutely noticing this as well. People are expecting 5 star facilities for a budget price.Airbnb sided with a guest who left my place after 2 hours ( and left front door open), and had the audacity to  both refund the guest, despite my objections 

[Andrea724]

I feel very identified with this post, my last guest confused the door key that i gave her with one key she found in the wardrobe. She had to call an emergency service to open the door and she charged me to pay her for that what I did because I wanted to avoid a bad review I know it could be late to ask for help but I would like know what would you do in that situation. Thanks

[Annette33]

ohhhhh, sorry @Andrea724 about that. It happened, all you can do is look forward and figure out if there is anything in that scenario you can learn from: perhaps make sure there are no other keys around so guests can't get confused, perhaps put a clear identifier on the door key that makes it OBVIOUS that this is the door key.....

People who are traveling are sometimes under a bit of stress and don't adjust well to new situations. every time something "happens" at my property, like guests telling me they would like a floor length mirror in the apartement, or black out shades on the bedroom window, I react before the next booking and make that change. Or I observe what they do "wrong", like your key story and  figure out how to prevent it.  like in our apartment, when they go out at night it is pitch black when they come back, so I wrote a note next to the outside porch light: please turn on when you go out at night, and I also put a small flashlight on the keychain: prevention is the name of the game!

God luck to you, I hope it was a one time  bad  thing that happened.

[Marie82]

HI Andrea

For me the guest should not be calling the Lockerswith without calling you 1st and ask to talk about opening options

I would have called ABB to have her charged the fees

I always ask guests if they have any problem of any sorts to call me 1st if i am not answering for 30min or more they can take decisions if urgent matter

Just hope the bill of the lockerswith was not more expensive than the guest stay

[Lee-And-Cindy0]

We’ve been there. Several times we have sacrificed financially so as to not receive a bad review. But I am getting to the point (and more so after reading the posts in this thread) that I am less afraid of mean reviewers and more interested in being as fair as I can be, then not worrying about it anymore. 

[Jason199]

I agree with the suggestion to raise your rates. I would be curious to know at what price point people would get less picky because the money isn't the issue but just your decor or your reviews.

Keep it up and keep having fun!

[Leslie80]

Yes! I just got a 3 star review.  I brought this girl a blender, office supplies, came over several times for problems (she spilled something in the fridge so it was sticky, her Netflix account didn't work on my tv etc) and her payments kept bouncing.    

[Annette33]

@Leslie80 , her review speaks for itself, anybody reading it can figure out that she is actually the problem. You wrote a long response under her review, which actually attracts much more attention to it than just saying something much shorter.

I sure hope this isn't going to happen to you again, but if it does, please leave a honest review for that kind of guest - that would be a favor to fellow hosts.

[Lee-And-Cindy0]

Ah, the guest from hell. I think she’s been to our house.

[DragonflyHill-Collective0]

Our most demanding, lowest ratings giving, most inconsiderate guests are the ones we get when we let our price go too low. So try raising your price and see what happens. Most guests are very considerate and grateful.