I need to vent

[Rachael171]

If I could create a meme on what it's like to be an Airbnb host, it would be something like this:

Host:

Spends hours creating an immaculately clean space and comfortable/hospitable stay. Creates highly detailed listing and guidebook, immediately responds to every guest text. Leaves complimentary snacks. Gives deep discounts for long term stays, etc. etc.

Guest:

*messages host* I found a crumb of dirt and an ant!! This place is a dump!!!!

Host:

*comes to clean after the guest checks out* ...Entire place is trashed.

Guest:

That's bull**bleep**!! I left the place in great condition! I refuse to pay for [fill in the blank]. *threatens host with bad review.*

*****Please share with me your nightmare guest experiences and help me feel better about the **bleep** I've hosted recently. 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Jacqueline848    I've never liked it when hosts say that low prices bring low quality guests, because that hasn't been my experience at all. However, I think that depends a lot on where your listing is located, what brings guests to your area, and what attracts them to your listing. If it's mainly that it's quite budget-priced, rather than being based on what you offer, the photos and your reviews, then by all means, I think it's good to raise your price.

Sounds like you're getting the kind of guests who expect the Ritz for the price of hostel room, but I'd venture a guess they're also the ones who seem to have plenty of $ to spend on the latest iphone, the trendiest clothes, a great haircut, and going out clubbing with their friends

One suggestion for you- since you actually get lovely written reviews which indicate that your guests are pleased with the accommodation and your hosting, you perhaps should start educating your guests a bit about the Airbnb review system and how it affects hosts- they may simply be clueless about that, as most guests are. Guests who have no complaints during their stay, and write a nice review, yet rate you down, don't usually have any intention of hurting you or your listing- Airbnb tells guests that 4*s means "Good", and in a sane world, there is nothing wrong with "Good". Try to find a way to explain to guests, since you are a home-share host (so am I and this is what I do) how Airbnb rates hosts as compared to what they lead guests to believe. It doesn't mean you pressure them for a 5* review, but that you simply explain to them how harshly Airbnb deals with hosts and that when they tell guests that 4*s means good, they turn around and tell hosts that 4*s isn't good enough.

I had a wonderful guest, who when I explained this to her, she was shocked- she said she had left 4* reviews for the other places she'd stayed because she was under the impression that was a good rating- she said she liked the places and the host and would certainly book there again-she just had no idea. She thanked me for explaining, said she felt terrible that she might have hurt these hosts by leaving that rating, and said she'll never make that mistake again.

[Jacqueline848]

Thank you Sarah, I guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle because I usually get nothing but 5 star ratings on all aspects, except from women in the age group of 20-30. So nearly all my guests know what 5 stars means. Today I studied similar facilities in my neighbourhood and noticed that all superhosts are below 4.8 now. I guess we all suffer from the same **bleep** 🙂 . Oh and I noticed all my collegues (similar hosts in the neighbourhood) raised their prices substantially. And yes, it is very depressing if some bitch decides for no reason at all to downrate my accomodation. That is the same as downrating me as a person.    

[Nima11]

So, what do you do with women between 20 and 30?  Do you decline their reservation?

[Rachael171]

@Jacqueline848 

Thank you so much for sharing! Yes, I feel much better this week. But not because Airbnb customer service has gotten back to me or anything... because they haven't!! And it's been a week. I just keep writing in the customer service thread, "Hello?" "Hello?" "Hello?" They're ridiculous. 

I agree with you. I just raised my nightly rates and my cleaning fee and lowered my long term stay discount. 

[Nima11]

You are absolutely right.  I got my first reservation since March 13 that every reservation I had was cancelled on July 26.  I spent a day and a half cleaning and re-cleaning the whole space.  I took everything except the mattresses out and washed again.  Disinfected the whole place and it looked so clean and nice.  These 2 guests came from Maryland, they brought some overnight guests without my knowledge or permission, trashed the place, stained the mattresses, broke some stuff and left the broken glasses all over.  Left cigarette buts ( against no smoking house rules) and left.  They claimed they did not damage anything.  It seems like I have no options.  Now after they left, I receive an email from Airbnb Community Help that a neighbor about half a block from me has reported that they were smoking in front of their home at 11 pm at night.  Someone by the name of Nash has sent me the email with a threatening tone that this time they let it go by, but next time they take action (against me).  Am I supposed to follow the guests at 11 pm in my neighborhood and see where they smoke and stop it.  They did not even honor my request in the house rules not to smoke inside the house, how am I expected to stop them on the street and at 11 pm?

[Rachael171]

@Nima11 

Omg, what a nightmare. Did you submit a damage claim and is Airbnb helping you get reimbursed for the damage?

[Nima11]

@Rachael171 ,

Yes, it was a nightmare.  I have submitted a claim to Airbnb, they contacted the guest and he denied.  Now I am waiting to see what Airbnb can do.

Meanwhile a person from Community Help contacted me that one of my neighbors has complained that my guests were smoking at 11 pm in front of their apartment building.  I explained to him that the guests did not follow the House Rules and asked him to read my review. He had a threatening tone and told me that Airbnb will not take action this time, but it will take action if it happens again.  What was I supposed to do? Follow the guests at 11 pm on a street corner to make sure they don't smoke there?  No empathy for an abused host!!!

[Jacqueline848]

@Nima11

That sounds like hell. I would ignore the threatening email. I remember very well when I started hosting, I got nothing but threatening messages from Airbnb because I refused 'direct reservation'. They would not promote my add, I would not be able to become a superhost and so on. Within two months I got an email that I was superhost. Also, my add is not hidden, as they 'promised'. So their threats are nothing but hollow words. Take care. 

[Nima11]

@Jacqueline848 

Thank you.

[Pia347]

We have just been a guest for the first time.  I brought my own rubber gloves, soap, etc. We washed the towels every single day.  The house was filthy.  I have pictures.  Also we took a video when we left in case there would be claims we had left the property in poor condition.  It sounds like from our experience and yours that @Airbnb should be a thing of the past.  We will certainly never use it again and I can't imagine why you would want to expose your property to hooligans.  Another nice feature is that I'm now receiving hostile texts from the host after my review has been posted.  

**[Private conversation removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

Here is a photo of the washing machine.  Yes - that is hair and soap stuck to the detergent dispenser.  I cleaned it and did not use it though we washed the towels every day.  Also, when we left all of the towels were left in the washer (even from the master bathroom upstairs).  

Again - my vote is to never have anything to do with @Airbnb again.  My condolences to you abused hosts.  

[Sarah977]

@Pia347  Thanks for expressing sympathy for abused hosts. Not many guests do that.

If you arrive at a listing that is unacceptable- dirty, non-working appliances, not as advertised, etc, you aren't held captive there. You are supposed to first notify the host, and if they can't or won't do anything to correct the situation, or get nasty with you, you then contact Airbnb, tell them the issues and that the place isn't fit for anyone to stay at, and ask them to rehome you, if possible. I would never just continue to stay in a bad place like that.

There are many great hosts with clean, comfortable listings out there. Airbnb can't physically check the millions of listings on their platform, so unacceptable accommodations are eventually eliminated by guest reports and bad reviews. 

I'm curious- on what did you base your decision to book this particular listing in the first place? Because there are many reviews of this place which state that is wasn't clean, and it doesn't have high ratings. 

And if you ever do take a chance on an Airbb again, which has good reviews and ratings, when you go to review, try to keep your review brief. Your review is a way to warn other guests and few people will bother to read through a one paragraph full page review. There's no need to list all the things that were dirty- a simple "If this place had been cleaned before we arrived, that wasn't evident- it was quite filthy" will suffice to get your point across. I understand wanting to be thorough in your review, but best to condense what you have to say so other guests will read it and beware.

[Pia347]

We thought of leaving a few times.  We were very conflicted.  

(a) We had a packed car because it is not a hotel.

(b) We had a cat along.

(c) We didn't know about re-housing.

(d) We didn't think Airbnb would rent out sh*th0les

(e) We were absolutely DESPERATE for a holiday - so we spent almost all of our time outdoors.

(f) COVID has beaten us down and we were just too discouraged to do much of anything.

(g) We wondered if most Americans are just fine with this stuff and we are just clean freaks who wash their baseboards at home with bleach once a month.  Again - it's a pandemic and we're not ourselves.  The cleaning is us - the wondering if we were the only people in the country who clean things - that was a bit out there even for us.

(h) We had never rented a place ever before in our lives.  We are hotel people 100%

(i) I don't think we knew what we were doing with the reviews.  Still I sure hope this is some over the top experience.  You saw the text the guy sent me.  

(j) I think that Airbnb's manner of review is garbage.  We prepared something with bullet points and were unable to include it.  We even had a few positive things to say that didn't fit in the character limit.  If people who are interested in reviews and the reviews are important (as you point out) I would always consider more information rather than less as a positive.  Saying, ""If this place had been cleaned before we arrived, that wasn't evident- it was quite filthy" does not suffice for me. It could lead one to the conclusion that it will be fine if it is cleaned before I arrive.  I would hope that facts and examples and photos would be allowed on reviews so someone could actually understand the quality of the property.  Perhaps that is the problem with the reviews at all - they are these vague and unhelpful singe sentences and no photos. I've got 15 photos of this place I could attach.  

(k) We picked this location because it was driving distance from where we live and the pictures looked good.  And we didn't require anything fancy - we thought clean was guaranteed at a minimum.  We also thought that Airbnb homes would be well maintained.  Silly us.

(l) I have to take your word for it that unacceptable accommodations are eliminated by guest reports and bad reviews.

(m) I do have tons of sympathy for Airbnb hosts who have a dreadful experience with renters.  It must be awful.  

Thanks for your thoughtful response to my comment.

[Sarah977]

@Pia347  This place has a 4.5 cleanliness rating. That's not good- a place which is consistently clean will have a higher rating than that (4.8-5 usually). But maybe you didn't know that or didn't look to see the rating. And, like I said, there are several reviews which mention that it wasn't clean. So that's the guest's due diligence to check out.

Airbnb isn't going to remove a listing just because a few guests said it wasn't clean- what's considered clean to you or me may not be an issue for others. A group of 20 year males might not have been the least bit phased by the yucky washing machine, in fact, they might not even notice.

I got a chuckle out of your comment about whether your standards are just way high compared to most. I clean every square inch of my Airbnb private room/bathroom-  from ceiling to floor, including the baseboards 😜 I even flip the bedframe on its side and vacuum the underside of it. Honestly, there really are many, many super clean Airbbs- you just happened to be unlucky enough to choose one that wasn't.

Reviews- yes, as I said, I know you wanted to be quite specific and thorough in your review, but if I were a guest, the word "filthy", would be all I needed to read to eliminate that listing from my search.

[Ann72]

@Pia347  I liked your review.  The tone was calm and factual and I loved the part about the two fans.  I can't believe what you went through, and the fact that there are hosts like Rolando out there actually frightens me.  The cynicism behind charging so much per night plus a $450 cleaning fee and then delivering something so far below sub-par is a slap in the face to every good hard-working person looking for a simple getaway.  And every host who really cares about the guest's comfort.  Just loathsome.  I hope your review puts a serious dent in his future bookings.

I have used Airbnb only a few times, but as an experienced host, I know that even one review that mentions unclean or unacceptable conditions is a very bad sign.  Most people aren't confrontational.  They'll say nice things but drop a star here or there.  And now we know that Rolando had probably threatened previous guests to force them to leave good reviews.

I wouldn't blame you for never using Airbnb again, but there are a lot of great places out there.  And almost all of my guests have been unbelievably nice, luckily.  Just remember that, unlike Amazon ratings, anything under a 4.8 will probably not appeal to you as it wouldn't to me.  🙂

[Rachael171]

@Pia347 

You're right. It goes both ways. Guests have nightmare experiences too. I agree with you that the Airbnb business model is failing HARD right now.