Hosts allowing major House Rules to be broken for fear of a bad reviews.

[Letti0]

I'm seeing a startling large pattern lately, especially since they changed the SuperHost qualifications on AirBnB. But it's not just here but on other hosting forums for other sites too. Hosts are over looking extra guests they can prove and not confronting their guests and letting them stay free when they clearly have a fee that should be paid. Guest check in way too early or check out way to late and they say nothing. Leave the place a total pigsty and they do nothing or say nothing. Guests bring vistors on to the property without permission; yet you look the other way. Allow the guest to control the environment, rather than the host this one is more related to shared homes than entire houses and appears to be happening to more and more hosts in the last 6 months or so. Guests asking for things you do not supply, but you go the extra mile and give it to them anyway to make them happy and it contimues to happen again and again once you give in once. There's a lot more but those are the bigger ones. I been seeing a lot of. 

More than half of the hosts do not leave any reviews of the guests at all with the bad behavior out of fear of a retailory review. I have also noted that a lot of hosts do not actually understand the review process at all and think if they don't write one then the guests won't appear. Also that many host never leave a review for the guests good or bad. This is troublesome for a few reasons. One a guest rent out places from hosts that do not review at all and have issues renting with hosts that require reviews. Bad guest get to repeat bad behavior at another hosts place without any warning to future hosts. Some guests won't review a host that has not reviewed them first, the logic is if they can't bother I can't. 

For the first 10 reviews I let things slide a little, but not anything major. I also use the stategy of reviewing the guests immediately and usually get a review back within 1 to 24 hours, then I ask about the issues that came up on check out along with any costs involved if there were any there usually isn't, since it has to be a claim worth putting in the effort to get before I bother. This has been a very useful method, so far anyway. I am now at the point I will confront them during the booking stage or when they show up with extra guests issues, infants being paid for, vistors showing up, etc. Reviews be danged. I will not be abused or taken advantage of by my guests. I prove a great place with many extra amenties they will not find elsewhere for the most part. I let the place speak for it's self now. I understand all hosting styles are different, but why do so many hosts allow this abuse to go on and continue renting to the guest or guests and not get AirBnB or whatever site to cancel them and get rid of them? It just boggles my mind. 

The other thing I have noticed is very few hosts actually have rental agreements with their guests. I not only have the rental agreement I get a copy of the government ID. My guests do not really have an issue with this, out of all my guests on all the sites I list on only one has refused to sign it and return it. They cancelled. No big loss in my mind. Also surprisingly many hosts are not aware of the host and guests email's provided by AirBnB to send the rental agreement and ID back and forth via PDF and JPEG. 

So my question is are you one of the hosts allowing major House Rules to be broken for fear of a bad reviews and if so has it really stopped the bad reviews from bad guests? I personally don't see how it would, but I'd like to know what your actual experience has been.  

[Ute42]

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[Ute42]

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Hi , @Letti0 ,

this is a very good topic You brought up, and I have a very strong opinion on all of this.

For me the trouble starts with allowing earlier check ins and not controling the Passport when guests arrive.

We all have rules in our listings and one of the most important rule that is stipulated is the time of check in. As we all know, almost all of the guests want to check in earlier. I am letting my house for now more than15 years, and in the beginning I did allow earlier check ins, maybe 20 times. I never even got a thank You in return for the fact that I gave them 5 hours for free. I didn't get a thank You from bad guests and I didn't get a thank You from good guests. And I never got a 5* review saying: „The host was so nice letting us in earlier“. As a result of this, I do not allow earlier check ins anymore. Check in is from 4pm and that's it. No earlier drop off of luggage either – never. I don't even allow an earlier check in if it wouldn't be a problem at all, e.g. if I have no guests leaving the same morning. You know what I do on a day like this? I get up real late and have a nice breakfast at 11am.

Does my policy hurt me? Not at all. Recently I hosted a group of 10 people from the Netherlands. They were in my area at 10 am and had to kill 6 hrs till check in time, I got a 5* review from them. I have been executing this strict check in policy now for many years, and it has never been a problem at all, not in one single case.

Same thing with the passport. People have to show their passport on arrival. If they don't they will not enter my place. Why is it such a problem for some hosts to enforce that? You have a bunch of peole standing in front of You, if You don't let them in, what should they do? It will be a major headache for them to get alternative accomondation with such short notice. They will show their passport, they have not choice. Just go ahead and enforce it.

Many hosts believe, if they allow an earlier check in and do not control the passport, they are being „nice“ to their guests and they will get something nice in return. That is dead wrong. What happens is, that if You wave 2 important houserules before the trip has even started, in the mind of Your guests all Your houserules become negotiable. And You're gonna have nothing but trouble with these people.

To make it very clear: Every host who allows an earlier check in and who does not control the passport on arrival, is stupid. Hosts like these are the actual reason for the upcoming trouble during the guests stay and it is just their own fault. If You don't have the gutts to enforce Your houserules right from the start, don't host. Because You are not only hurting Yourself, You are also hurting all Your fellow hosts by ruining the overall guest quality.

That's what I think.

[Letti0]

@Ute42  You are so right I had a recent guest ask for a 5 hour late check out. She offered to pay me $10 an hour extra stay time because that's what her last host charged her. Hello, not happening. The other host set me up for this issue with her lack of enforcement on her rules as far as I am concerned.  I told her I do same day bookings if she wanted to book another night she was welcome to stay. She said she understood checked out before 11 AM and still gave me a 5* review. 

[Ute42]

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@Letti0,

that's what I'm saying. Being strict right in the beginning doesn't hurt the reviews at all. We can start being nice later, but in the beginning of the trip we have to be absolutely strict.

[Rosemarie9]

I absolutely agree Ute. I don't do early check ins anymore either, I enjoy my walk with my dog and have a coffee and pastry out in town. It is the small pleasure I have before I settle into cleaning and ironing etc. Guests are definitely getting much more difficult with extra requests and I just say no. I am booked up anyway, I worked hard for my reviews but the more you give the more they want. I provide a great space with lots of considerate touches but I won't be dictated to by guests anymore, if they don't like it they can pay hotel rates in my overpriced town, there are plenty who would appreciate what I offer. 

[Мария15]

@Ute42Thank you for a wonderful post. I am a new host and as you described I try to be nice. I know that I am doing wrong because the more I give, the more the guests request. When I give them an inch, they want to take a mile.

[Dawn33]

@Ute42  (part 2/2 of your comment to me )

You must have removed your comments to me from this thread, but if it was an accident on your part, here they are.

They were not drunk when I met them and gave the key to them. It wasn’t until five hours later when they arrived back from dinner and drinking that they were drunk.

I called Airbnb immediately. I did my due diligence. I don’t agree with you when you accuse me of ruining Airbnb guest quality.

 @Ute  (part 1/2)

[Dawn33]

 @Ute0 part 1/2

[Letti0]

@Dawn33  What I want to know is how do you keep your phone at 99% I have two, a personal  one and a business one and if they are at 20% when I go to use them I consider myself lucky lol...

[Dawn33]

@Letti0 It was at 2% before I charged it.  🙂

[Letti0]

@Dawn33 That makes me feel better I guess I am not the only one to let them go so low ;D

[Ute42]

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@Dawn33,

You are right, I removed my comment. Because by rereading You post I realized, that the drunk scene might not have happened at arrival but maybe later - as You now state.

[Sarah977]

@Letti0   As I just host a private room/ private bedroom in my home with use of the kitchen and outdoor spaces, and only host solo travelers, I have never felt the need to have a rental agreement nor ask for ID.

As far as the ID goes, it's only ever one guest at a time, and they have all, so far, had clear profile photos (no cartoon characters, kitty cats or close-ups of their tattoo) and were easily identifiable when they arrived. (Except for the one I thought was a cute long-haired guy in his 30's who turned out to be a good-looking woman in her 40's, but still, I could tell that was just my misperception, I could see it was the same person. We had a good laugh over it.)

I have only had 2 guests take liberties- 2 separate bookings of young girls who thought it was okay to bring their guy friend home for the night, in the middle of the night. I called both of them on it immediately the following morning (I wasn't about to get up at 1 AM and make a stink). In the first case, I ended up letting her boyfriend stay, as she was new to Airbnb and really wasn't trying to scam or disrespect and I charged her extra guest fee and they were happy to squish into the single bed together. The 2nd was an experienced Airbnb user, also a host, and should have known better. I didn't let the boyfriend stay.

I have reviewed each and every guest, except the latter one mentioned above. I was actually super busy, and didn't get around to it, nor did she review me. The other girl gave me a very short but great review.

In my experience, not just with hosting, entitled, pushy people need to be stopped in their tracks from the outset. They are used to getting their own way, therefore they have little initial respect for anyone. If they see that you are not a pushover right away, and you state your boundaries clearly, politely and professionally, they end up having more respect for you and will tend to behave better.

Hosts are much more likely to get a bad review from a guest who they allowed to be demanding and tried to accommodate their demands, or let things slide, or kept asking them politely every day of a 3 week stay to please leave the kitchen clean, because you've allowed those people to disrespect you and they will continue to disrespect you in their review. If they see that you're someone who is fair but can't be pushed around, they will show you more respect and will tend to leave a better review.

[Letti0]

@Sarah977  I agree 100% if you give them an inch they will want the full mile. I have had knock on wood good experiences with being blunt up front and saying no and why. I have used AirBnB's own policy and sent that in some cases to prove a point. The ESA dog/pet issue is one I hit up front a lot. I will accept both Service dogs and ESA's if they are legit as AirBnB requires, but not at all if they are not legit then I do not accept it. I throw AirBnB's statement that an ESA animal cannot be left in the house alone at any point. This usually gets the pet owners to cancel as they want to go out to eat and site seeing where animals that are not ADA can not go, so they intend to leave the animal at my house alone. I also ask for a doctors order on ESA's and more times than not they cancel instantly  when hear both these requirements. To date I am still an animal free zone. I am sure that will change at some point with an honest ADA or ESA animal, but for now I'm ok.

[Sarah977]

Basically decent, nice, normal people express appreciation for the things you do for them and view your caring behavior as a virtue.

Entitled, demanding, pushy people view going out of your way for them as a weakness.

And they will prey on that perceived weakness.