Hosts review

Sara1232
Level 1
Dunkeld, Australia

Hosts review

Hello everyone,

my question is a bit cheeky so feel free to roast me 🙂

I am renting a private room in our house and I had a couple staying with us last week. They booked for two nights. After they checked in and I showed them the house, they start complaining about things that are clearly explained on the listing. Like: the air bed, the sharing bathroom and the room that was smaller than expected and very hot. Size of the room excluded (even tho the photos are very realistic and nobody complained about that before), everything else is described on the listing. Now, it was 38 degree that day, understandeble very hot. But again, in the listing you can read that there is no aircon in the bedroom, but It comes wiht a cooler instead. Should they have thought about that before booking? Anyway, I did my best to accomodate them but they decided to just stay one night. I obviously refunded the money for the second night.

He left a revie already, which I am afraid It will be negative. So my question is: Is it bad hosting if I don't leave a review to him, so that his one does't show on my profile?

I am new here, I do my best to give the guest a good experience and I don't want my reputation to be ruined 😞

10 Replies 10
Gillian19
Level 10
St Leonards, Australia

@Sara1232 It will show on your profile anyway after 14 days. I would do a review 'nicely' saying that they shortened their booking as they hadn't read the details on the listing properly and give them an overall rating of 3. That is generally enough for other hosts to get they are not good guests!

I did't know that. Thank you for your suggestion, I will write one right away. 

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

@Sara1232  I just checked out your listing and, can I say, I think you have done an outstanding job of presentation for your modest little shared space.  It's lovely.  For that view of the Grampians I'd definitely consider your place.

 

The only thing I noticed is that the "Air mattress" thing is easy to miss.  It's only stated under the sleeping arrangements section, whereas further up in the description you call it a "very comfy double bed" - I suggest you add the word "air" before the "bed" to make this super clear.   The way you've made up the bed (great job by the way!) it actually does look like a regular bed.  As for the "cooler" - what exactly is one of those?  It's not a term I'm familiar with.  I think I would have assumed it was an air conditioning unit or something.

 

I hope this is helpful - it might help to avoid a repeat situation.  It really does look like you're doing a fantastic job though - all your other reviews are excellent!

Ben thank you for your advice. You are right about the air bed, it could be easily missed. I will change the description to make it clear 🙂 

For cooler I meant FAN. I will change that as well ehehhe

@Sara1232 - as @Gillian19 mentioned, the review from the gueat shows after 14 days regardless of whether you have reviewed them. The best thing to do is review as Gillian suggested.

 

You may also want to mention the double bed is an airbed in the actual description of the room. At the moment you need to scroll down through the description before getting to the fact that the comfortable double bed is actually an airbed.

 

The other option is to have a saved message you send to guests reminding them that they have booked a private room with an airbed & a shared bathroom. The number of people who don't read listings always amazes me, I've had a few guests turn up surprised that I'm sharing the apartment with them, despite my listing clearly being a private room...

ahha I know right?! I had people showing up early in the morning when I wrote that check in is after 2pm! A custom messge is a good idea, Thank you!

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Sara1232  Good advice you've received, nothing to add, except that 38° is pretty darn hot to sleep comfortably. Not suggesting you install AC, but could you maybe have a stand-up fan or something that would make it more comfortable in hot weather? You say there's a cooler, not sure what type that is, but having a fan that can blow air right on you helps a lot for hot weather sleeping. Believe me, it gets super hot and humid where I live in the summer, I don't have AC, and can sleep quite comfortably with my fan.

With a cooler I meant a fan. There is one to be put on the floor but a stand-up fan is actually a great idea! It would take less space as well, considering how small is the bedroom, space is gold. Thank you!

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Sara1232  One thing I'll share, because I live with fans on 24/7 for about 4-5 months a year, is that you have to keep them really clean. It's amazing how much a layer of dust anywhere on the front or back cover, or the blades, prevents the air from flowing properly. Having a brush around to keep it clean helps a lot. 

Also, when fans start to slow down, or even quit working, most people figure they're just dead and if they're not expensive, go buy a new one. But usually, it's just the capacitor that is dead. It's a little thing the size of a matchbox, has 2 wires and costs peanuts. You just take the fan apart, the capacitor is usually really obvious and easy to get to, you pop off the wire nuts on the wires, pop on the new one, and the fan turns super fast again.

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

@Sara1232@Sarah977  yeah it can get about that hot at our place indoors (like today).  We invested in some High Velocity Fans.  Apparently getting something over 100 Watts is the ticket too.  We got a couple of 140 Watt fans and they have 3 settings:  low, medium and BLAST OFF. 

 

We describe them as thus in the house manual....