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?

[Olga464]

@Huma0  I once dealed with a horror writer from Australia, published in London  who went into drinking the entire week on a second day of his trip, killed all white textile surfaces with the dirt.  And wanted to run away not informing me. But I knew that, as I am inhouse host, so I locked the second lock on the entrance door in advance. And told him if he doesn't pay for dry cleaning,  he will go into the jail and loose all of his tickets pre-investments. It was a question of 50 bucks dry cleaning fee. He paid finally. Screamed at me that it is his price to look at ukraininan crazy people and ran away.  So, When i hear " I'm a writer" I always ask what niche of literature the actual writer is practicing in. As I do not want the horror stories in my apt. anymore. People absolutely loose control on our land. 

P.S. The writer was from booking, not from airbnb. Although I think, he got already blocked on airbnb for his behavior. What heps is raising the price. And not getting booked in a first line. As for holidays, yes, all wrong people are attracted to rooms, as everything else is already occupied.

[Huma0]

@Olga464 

Did the horror writer leave you a horror of a review?

Good point RE holidays, but usually the guests who book my place for Christmas have booked it months in advance, so I wonder if there's some other problem.

Yes, also to raising prices. I am always booked so perhaps I am charging too little? Airbnb wanted to take some photos at my house but said it would be best to do it on a day when no guests were staying. I told them they would need to wait until September for that!

[Allison2]

I know some families simply don't have the space to host their relatives over the Christmas holiday, but I have to imagine a pretty good percentage of those folks stayed at a hotel or Airbnb because their family didn't want to deal with annoying Aunt Sally and Uncle Bob.

Perhaps you need to ask for endorsements from family if they want to stay over that holiday!

[Huma0]

Oh, and as for guest reactions.

Of the first type of guests (the damage causing ones) one left me a terrible review and ratings (the girl who left the passive agressive card) but Airbnb removed them for being inaccurate and retalitory and left my review of her, so the last laugh is on me. Another left me an okay review and 4 stars. The third didn't leave a review.

The late check in/late check out, crazy laundry girls did not leave a review.

The couple from hell left me a terrible review and 3 stars overall. I didn't bother asking for the review to be removed as Airbnb seems to have now taken the line that a guest can write almost anything they like, even if you can prove it is untrue. It's my only 3 star review, but I don't care. It didn't effect my overall ratings or bookings or Superhost status and I know there is nothing I could have done to please to please those people other than cooking them three meals a day for free (never going to happen).

I don't worry about how guests respond to my reviews as that appears on their profile. It's more important to think about how you respond to reviews guests leave for you. I often think it's not worth responding to a negative review because it just brings attention to it. Guests can see that these are 'outlier' reviews when they are surrounded by all the other glowing ones.

[Olga464]

@Huma0 I respond in lawyer's style, strictly as in the army. That that and that rule was broken. No romance here. Just like robot.

[Daniel1598]

@Olga464 I've been very fortunate to have almost 100% excellent guests. There was only one individual over my several years of hosting that I had to give a negative review. This individual asked for many things that were not a part of the listing. For example, at the last minute she asked to arrive earlier than requested and then asked if her friend, who helped her drive across several states, could stay one night as well. I was actually fine with accomodating that request as I understand that cross country travel is difficult to coordinate sometimes. But the additional requests did not stop throughout the stay. It ended with her asking to cut the stay short as she found a place closer to work. Thankfully every other guest has been wonderful to host!

[Cynthia469]

We just had our very first guest, and coincidentaly left our very first negative/would not recommend review. 

Guest made a reservation for 1. There were atleast 8 people there but as many as 11 at one time. Homeless. Kept sending her kids over to my yard to play unsupervised (when I asked her to supervise her children, she said "they don't need no supervision" and closed the door in my face). Left hot pocket explosion in the microwave. Cleaned me out of every soap dispenser, roll of toilet paper, coffee bar treats such as large pump of starbucks flavored syrup intended for multiple guest stays, etc... she packed all these items up "to go" before she left. Checked out 2 hours late, sent little kid over to ask for more time. I could go on... so much more, but I think you get the point! Just a bad bad guest. I should have evicted her but took pitty on the sweet little kids. I did however, leave her an honest review so this doesn't happen to another naive host!

Ahhhh.... thanks everyone for letting me vent! Next guest checks in tomorrow. Let's hope this bad experience was just a rare fluke!!

[Olga464]

@Cynthia469 I live only 2 rolls of toilet paper. But I am inhouse host. Before I left 4.

2 were instantly used on a daily basis.

Then I started to leave only 2.

And... Oh, miracle! 

1 toilet roll is lasting for 3 days already.

I also got rid of all olive oil in the house. 

It doesn't stimulate guests to cook.

And I offer coffee machine but no coffee. 

Tea bags only.

They are offraif to turn the coffee machine on. Which makes less mess.

But I have  a special folder for all electric devices in the house.

If you wanna use, buy yourself coffee and read the instructions. But people are lazy. So, it saves me from the mess.

[Olga464]

Leave  toilet rolls, sorry

[Sarah977]

@Olga464  The majority of my guests don't even go through one roll in a week. I'm always surprised to see the spare roll I leave still untouched on the shelf and the first one with some still left. But of course there are different size TP rolls- I get good quality ones that have a lot on the roll. I don't think that ends up being any more expensive than buying economy ones with poor quality paper and not much on the roll- they'll just use twice as much.

But I've known a**l retentives who seem to think they need to wrap several yards of TP around their hand.

[Olga464]

@Sarah977 Burdock leaves are the best. Organic. 

[Sarah977]

@Olga464  Oh, that would be great for listings that promote themselves as eco-friendly. Just a pile of leaves next to the toilet. No toilet paper at all. Any guest who complains, gets raked over the coals for booking a place that's eco-friendly yet being "part of the problem" regarding saving the environment.

[Olga464]

@Sarah977  ))))))))))))

[Lawrene0]

It's winter here, or I would get right on that, @Olga464 and @Sarah. Next year I will remember to dry enough of them for the year.

[Sarah977]

They could be quite chafing if they were too dry, @Lawrene0. We will have to experiment with the optimum level of dryness vs flexibility. "Special" pile of nettle leaves reserved for objectionable guests.