How often do you give Guests honest low star rating and what for?

[Olga464]

Real examples would be very helpful. And how do your guests react, what are they writing back to justify themselves or humiliate hosts?

[Rachel177]

@Olga464 I have given low ratings for breaking my house rules (usually bringing someone back to their room) & for poor cleanliness.

Fro memory I've also given about 5 guests over 3 years of hosting the thumbs down/would not recommend. I've never had a guest respond to my review of them, good or bad. And the guests that I've not recommended haven't even bothered to review me.

[Sarah977]

@Olga464  I've been very lucky- I've never had to deal with objectionable guests, only a couple of incidents which were dealt with in the moment with no hard feelings. Both the same- young women thinking it was okay to bring a guy home for the night in the room I host for solo guests only.  The first one I let it ride, she was super sweet, clueless that she'd done anything wrong, new to Airbnb, and her male friend was also very sweet. I just let her know it wasn't okay to do that, never to do it in the future, and charged a bit more. The second one I kiboshed right away- they had woken me up at 3AM. I never reviewed her- I wasn't sure how, as she took it on the chin, didn't try it again, and was fine the rest of her stay. The first one, though sweet and no problems during the stay, left her room a disaster, garbage all over, wet towels wadded up on the floor, I gave her 1* for cleanliness (at least 50 pieces of wadded up toilet paper under the bed after she and her male friend left, you can just imagine what was on those) and 5* for all else and a nice review. She left a very brief, but great review and never called me on the 1* cleanliness, guess she got why.

She's the only guest I've ever had to give less than 5*s to, across the board. And it's not because I can't bring myself to mark down a guest, it's because they really were all lovely.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I give a bad review when someone makes me ANGRY.

For example, if the guest is late for an hour or more and doesn't let me know timely.

When they break something and don't tell me nor offer to pay for the damage.

When kids pee in bed and parents don't tell me or try to hide it.

When they do multiple wrong things

If they leave such a mess that I need an hour more to clean it.

If they are rude, entitled, demanding...

If they leave A/C on 19 C or heating at 30 C

.... In such cases, I have no mercy.

But, if the guest breaks something, tell me immediately, apologize and pay for it, then he will get a good review. Accidents happen.

If the guest break something, don't tell me, don't offer to pay... but pay eventually when I ask for it then I usually don't leave a review at all or my review is blah

If he breaks something, don't tell me and refuse to pay then he gets the bad review.

We had one angry couple who wrote a lengthy bad review for us and lengthy answer to our bad review, but they were an unhappy old couple from the moment they arrived. They blamed us for their own mistakes. If most of our guests would be like them we would stop hosting loooong time ago...

[Olga464]

@Susie111  I personally can not handle loud noise during silent hours and when electric devices are left in use when person is not in the house. I made additional info table. and put it on the wall in the room.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I like the remainder with images, good idea @Olga464 

[Susie111]

@Olga464 

I agree with Branka about everything she wrote.

Last weekend I had a guest who apparently got food poisoning

at a wedding and totally pooped the bed.

Luckily the matress was saved.

But because they apologised sincerely, they got a good review

from me and I got a great review back from them.

Another guest was what we call here in Australia for a "bogans" a.k.a. rednecks.

But you don't want to judge, because you want to believe that the guests are good people

because of the 2 most recent reviews was okey.

Oh boy! What a mistake that was!

Not to go into the details, but they where disgusting.

And they got a thumbs down from me and a review that matched and I had to

call CS to help them to block them to book with me ever again (just to make sure) and after

explaing to CS they flagged the guest also.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

I'm kinda like @Branka-and-Silvia0 

In 2yrs of hosting I wrote one bad review for 1 guest....... it's not that he did something hugely wrong but rather a series of many little things being repeated despite "friendly" reminders..... along with an attitude problem. 

I'm sure plenty of other hosts wouldn't have given such a negative review..... but we host from our home and we take rude,  entitled attitudes or passive-agressive behavior towards us in our own home seriously. 

[Olga464]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 , could you please specify what was the exact situation and reaction of that concrete guest, so, me and other hosts would be familiar to this possible pattern of behaviour inside the house. Thank you.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Olga464 

Here it goes.....this is going to be very long. I ranted quite a bit near the end of that problematic guest's stay...... part of this is from a post I wrote before. 

.......What we WANTED to say in our review was that he left crumbs all over the kitchen all the time and often did not wash cups/plates properly (food/coffee stains and soap residue still remaining), he never turned lights off, he used wads and wads of kleenex and TP (nearly double consumption compared to our other long-term guests), did teeny tiny loads of laundry on a full load setting every 3~4 days for the entire 4 months he stayed with us (on average 2~3 loads per week, each load less than 7~8 items counting each sock separately) and had a tendency to snoop (open and check/see what was in all of our cupboards, drawers, cabinets in the shared spaces) when he thought we wouldn't notice or thought he was home alone (one time, Henry was home taking a nap and he woke to the sound of every single cupboard and drawer being opened and closed - we checked later and nothing seemed missing. To be honest we didn't have any valuables anyway, but that's not really the point!) Also the guest mentioned at the start of his stay he wanted to "share food" with us a couple times when he didn't have any dinner plans but actually what happened was he would sit and wait to be served and after eating say thanks and leave. Never offered to help set the table, never contributed to the meal in any way (or offer to split the bill if we were having food delivered) or help with clean up or dishes. We avoided meals with him after that or would choose menus we knew he wouldn't be interested in trying 🙂 He also took our guest towel with him on a trip, brought it back damp and smelling totally disgusting (like rotten fish!) and also kept taking our guest towels to the gym even though we specifically said all amenities are for use at home only and our guest towels should NOT be used as gym towels.

Also, when Henry and I mentioned nicely and casually....... "Hey we noticed the lights on after you left a couple times. We'd really appreciate if you could make sure to turn the lights off when you leave. Thanks!" what happened was.....we found not only the guest bedroom lights on but he started leaving the guest bath, kitchen and living room lights blazing as well. Same for dishes. He kept placing greasy (not washed) or soapy dishes on the dish drying rack we use for clean dishes - which we asked him not to do. A couple days later he placed wet and soapy dishes straight in the cupboards. We ended up having to remove all the plates and bowls on the shelf to wipe the shelves and re-wash all the dishes before putting them back. This happened twice. Also, he kept throwing used kleenex in the recycle bin with the cardboard boxes/newspaper - we told him used kleenex had to go into the general waste bin. He then started throwing the used kleenex in the aluminum or plastics bin. When throwing away food cartons we ask they be rinsed so there is no food bits or sauces remaining......so it doesn't stink up our recycle bins. He once dumped a cake box that had leftover cake and icing still in it as-is into our recycling bin and he managed to some of the icing on our walls and floors, which we had to wash. Several times he started a load of laundry then just left (to meet friends or whatever) then when Henry or I messaged him after finding wet laundry still in the washer (which will stink up the washer and make it moldy) asking him about the laundry when he's coming home, he'd go "I forgot about the laundry. Do you mind taking care of it for me? Won't happen again" We hung the laundry for him the first 2 times, and after that  just put everything into a large basin which we placed next to the drying racks. - which is why we knew exactly how many pieces of clothing were in one load of wash! 

So as you can see...... he didn't do any permanent damage but he was passive-agressive and arrogantly rude the entire 4 months he stayed as our guest. 

Henry and I continued to maintain a professional attitude. We were helpful, polite and friendly-ish but kept our distance. We did continue to make comments about our expectations which of course were always accepted with a "Oh~ I'm so sorry. Won't happen again" but he'd  take it to the next level a few days later as if he was daring us to call him out. We couldn't PROVE he was intentionally acting rudely towards us so we all did our best to maintain a calm and pleasant facade. Of course we (especially Henry) was boiling made inside. 

He actually left us a very nice review. Ours of him wasn't so nice. 🙂 

[Olga464]

@Jessica-and-Henry0  I had all that on a slow February season.

Rewashed the entire apartment after 1 few days  guest as after a long term stay.

Plus, the girl kept earning some cash in nightclubs, as I understand she ran out of money.

And by the end rented something 3 euros cheaper per night.

And I was left with her blanket smelling like herring ( had to throw it away as  I bet it's ven ereal desease ).

On our land as sad as it sounds  3 bucks difference in price makes a huge difference. Budjects of topmanagers are all cut. And if person gets some financial support for a trip from the office, they prefer to put it in a pocket and get the cheapest deal on airbnb. I had it with top management of many world wellknown companies, the guys were slavic, ut comming from Germany, Switserland, Austria, France, where they were based for working contracts. So, Dear Jessica And Henry, it's a worldwide problem. People are getting more poor, more picky. more inattentive because live in a smartphone.

My neighbour had a situation once where his client stock the box from porrige into the toilet hole and complained why the toilet is not working. When guys came to fix up the problem the guest continued to catch pokemons all over the apartment.

[Olga464]

@Jessica-and-Henry0  Your guest behaved the exact way the swedish husband of my sister did in the begining of marriage while visiting our family. I met them 5 years later, and he behaved like a well trained dog. Now I can only imagine what effort it cost my sister to reach that level of obedience.  With airbnb at least you are getting a short term financial deal. With husbands it's a long term and much more complicated.

[Huma0]

I don't think guests can see the star ratings so you are unlikely to have any reaction from them to that, only a reaction to the written review. A lot of guests don't even respond to that though because I don't think they are always aware that they can respond.

I will knock off a star here or there if I feel it's deserved, e.g. if someone left the room in a mess, broke a few house rules or was a bit hopeless with communication. If the guest was messy but great in every other way, I might let it slide.

It's very rare though for me to give less than 4 stars for anything or a thumbs down. Examples include:

- Guests who caused damage and refused to accept that they had. They became rude and aggressive after I brought it up, even though I didn't even ask them to pay for it. This has happened three times and everytime, these sets of guests did other annoying things/broke rules, like leaving the front door unlocked, taps running, shared bathrooms in a mess, messaging me at 1, 2, 3am about non-urgent matters, eating meals in the bedrooms etc. etc. One even left a card for me with a rude, passive-agressive message inside.

- The guests who arrived hours past my check in and then ignored all requests to pay the late check in fee. Again, the guests broke numerous rules and were generally a pain, e.g. hung their sopping wet laundry all over a communal bathroom and all over my expensive furnishings even though I had expressly asked them not to do this and had offered to do their laundry for free. They also checked out two hours late, made excessive noise until 2am and left everything a mess. Rather than thank me for the Christmas cards/gifts I gave them, they threw them into the bin unopened, but they seemed very happy with their stay!

- The sour, bitter, unhappy couple who made my life miserable for eight days. Couldn't cook, wouldn't eat out and instead seemed to think I should be feeding them three meals a day even though this is not offered on my listing. Went through my personal cupboards and helped themself to whatever they wanted and made totally unacceptable late night noise actually scaring my other guests. Expected me to plan their entire trip, set up their phones, and run around after them and couldn't even turn on a light for themselves, but never thanked me for anything, but rather complained incessently about any stupid little thing. Didn't bother to inform me they were going to be hours late, ignored any instructions I sent them and then blamed me for getting lost. Were rude, unfriendly and generally quite vile.

Guests like these get a thumbs down because I wouldn't wish them on anyone.

[Olga464]

@Huma0  I had all that during last 6 months. ))) Understand you perfectly.

[Huma0]

@Olga464 

The guests I described were over a period of about a year and, funnily enough, around half of them stayed at Christmas time. Weirdly, Christmas seems to attract problem guests (although New Year seems to be fine), so I am seriously considering blocking my calendar for those dates this year! 

If I had to deal with all of that in six months, I think I would stop hosting!!