I got a really negative review

[Cara17]

I've been left a really awful review and I imagine it will be very damaging to this little business. Before her arrival I noticed that she had only booked for one guest but her correspondence mentioned 'we'. When I pointed this out and flagged up that there is an additional person fee she got very annoyed. I'll try to attach screen grabs of the conversation.

It was clear from the start that she was going to be difficult and I believe her comments about the bed and noise to be exaggerated. What she says in her review (location of kitchen, time we wake up, sofa bed size small double, style and photos of it) is all clearly stated in my listing. I believe therefore she didn't read it before booking. She didn't mention anything to us in person about being uncomfortable and in fact said everything was fine when asked in the morning. My partner even helped them with their map and gave helpful suggestions for tourist attractions and made sure they were ok. Also, she says its not possible to walk to the centre, whereas my partner AND MY THREE YEAR OLD, walk in every day in 20 minutes. 

I want to leave a reply so potential guests can see my side of the situation and understand that she is unjustified in being so negative. I've never had anything like his happen before!! Can anyone help? I don't know what to do. I am going to buy a memory foam mattress topper, do you think that's a good idea? I don't have the budget to change the bed really, and other guests say they sleep well. 

I've seen it suggested on a other similar thread to simply reply with "this guest would be better served with in a hotel type accomodation", but I don't think that gives enough information. 

Help appreciated, I feel really flat after this and so upset by the comments and worried that our family income will likely plummet. It has been the worst Airbnb experience we've ever had and has made me want to stop doing it. I literally got made a Superhost the day before this happened. 

[Jamie69]

Give it a day or two before you do anything.

I just looked at your listing. You have dozens of fabulous reviews, and one negative review.

I don't know if I would reply at all. If you do reply, make it short. One or two sentences.

If I were a potential guest and I saw all the great reviews and the one very wordy not-so-great, the truth is, I'd ignore that bad review and book your place anyway. I think it's clear to most people that the review was left by someone who would not be happy no matter where they stayed.

So... my suggestion is to either not respond at all to the review, but if you do choose to respond, make it very short. Something like, "We did our best to accomodate this guest, and we're very sorry she was unhappy with her stay." When you start getting into an argument with your guests within your reviews, it makes it worse than no response at all.

Jamie

[Ann3]

It's so painful when people are nasty and leave negative reviews!  But @Jamie69's advice is good.  I have responded to reviews a couple of times, and both times I have regretted it later.  Some people just can't be pleased, and she knew what she was getting herself into (or would have, had she read the review).  

[Zacharias0]

Dont feed into their negativity. Traveling and booking on AirBnB requires people to change their mindset. You can't do that for her and writing as much in your response to her review won't do any good. All you can do is take the useful bits from her review and toss the rest out with the garbage.

[Olivia-and-Olivier0]

best advice ever, Zacharias! I agree and after weeks and months... it matters how you get the positive out of it, and if you can change your listing to be more clear and prevent such people from even booking, if they have certain high-standars (what annoys me the most is that such high-up-their-horse people, are also hunting very low prices, then complaining it wasnt a 5 star resort) 🙂

[Robin4]

@Cara17

Well it looks like you have posted your review, and, you are right, hers is not great! Cara and I am so pleased you did not get stuck into her with your public response! That shows you to be very restrained and definitely a fine quality host.

To the heart of this issue though, sofa beds are really emergency accommodation! Would you sleep on a sofa bed as your primary bed each night? You wouldn't, and there are not many people who would choose to. They satisfy a need but that's about all!

The bed is the hero of any accommodation.....with a good one you will always get a good review, even if other things were lacking, but if someone rolls around on an uncomfortable 'slab of something or other' all night.....this is what will happen.

I know that everything boils down to money Cara, and apart from that bed your listing looks wonderful, beautifully clean and the ensuite looks fantastic, but Cara, there are ways and means when it comes to the bed.

I dropped off a few things at our loval Salvation Army charity shop the other day and I went in and had a look at what they had on offer. I did notice in the furnishing section they had a dozen brand new good quality Queen size mattresses still sealed in plastic and some really great looking headboards and bases. For less than $200 (100 pounds) I could have put together a good bed, and along with some nice linens from Spotlight, had something I would have been proud to offer a guest.

I can tell you from my experience Cara, a good bed will guaranttee you good reviews. Put your sofa bed aside and leave it for emergencies or that extra child that always seems to turn up with the guest! You won't regret it.

Cheers.....Rob

[Andrea9]

@Cara17@

It's unfortunate that you had such a damaging review starting out. It always stings like hell, but use it as a way to figure out how to prevent this in future.

Since you seem to have researched the forum and read threads, you'll also know that guests don't read and which is why we have to be pro-active with regards to this. If you have IB, it'll be difficult to do, unless you mention again in the pre-booking message that they need to read your description about what is (not) offered and whether it's a good fit. Means of course that you have to be as clear as possible in your description and not mis-represent or hide things that might bother the guest.

Before accepting a request or replying to an inquiry I tell them to make sure they have read the description and are aware of what I offer and what I can't, the room description, the narrow stairs.....

This has resulted in a couple of inquiries or requests being retracted - better than a less than great review. Or has resulted in a conversation back and forth to clarify and them booking anyway. But nobody can now 'complain' later about all the stairs for instance.

Reg. Reviews, here's some help for the future:

professional tips replying to negative reviews

dynamite thread with loads of review tips (some parts might be re-worded as replies)

And if a guest's review is really off and full of lies, I've seen a host once reply with "This is hilarious! ....."

And for underbookers, this is how to handle them:

additional advice re. this

Try to bounce back from this nasty guest as quickly as you can. There will be much nicer ones in future and knowing what that's like also helps in handling any bad ones following.

[Farah1]

@Andrea9 the "this is hilarious" can be a respond to one of the review that I got. This guest said that my apartment has lack of coziness and feels like a dorm room... I really want to ask him where did he go to college, but of course I did not ha ha. I also wanted to say that I take it as a compliment, a luxurious dorm maybe 😄

My listing is accurate, what you see is what you get, so why did he book this "dorm style" (his word), at the first place? With experience, I get calmer to respond to a false review. Of course, it gives me an uncomfortable feeling, but my future guests do not need to know about it 🙂