List of Guests Who Leave Unfair Reviews

Jonathan477
Level 3
Gulfport, FL

List of Guests Who Leave Unfair Reviews

After 4.5 years and hundreds of guests in our home, I find the review system is broken. Or never really did work. This is after getting two 4 star reviews in a short time. 

 

Maybe that sounds petty but they unfairly pull down the average.  They were two short term guests, one of whom said he did not read a single word of the listing before or after booking, and even after I cautioned him to by email.  First time on Airbnb, he thought he was renting a party house. My wife and I did our best to accommodate and they had great parties past 3:00 AM.  We could have lived with it...life throws you curveballs sometimes, but in his review, he left a four star overall rating.  I emailed, asking if it was a mistake and even got Airbnb to talk to him.  He was happy with his choice.  Did I mention, my 73 year old wife dove in the ocean and saved an expensive Go Pro camera his 30-something friend had lost?

 

The transaction isn't done until the review is done.  Would you like to host this guy?  There is nothing in the review I left that would warn you. We need a system, outside of Airbnb, to list those people who will accept your hospitality and happily damage your livelihood with unfair reviews.  Yes, this might be subject to abuse by poor hosts, but every host I meet is making a great effort. It's very competitive.  Guests are not held to anything like the same standard.  Perhaps this would push Airbnb to fix the system.  For starters, they could educate guests, some of whom think 5 stars is like a 10 in the olympics. (I had a guest take off a star once because she was too heavy and weak to pull herself up out of the pool.  Her own words...!).

 

If something like this already exists, please let me know...maybe it's on FB, which I quit years ago. We go all out for our guests and even something this small takes the joy out of it.

25 Replies 25
Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Jonathan477  The list of our faults as hosts is endless. My recent 4 stars were for giving the guest’s daughter lice. Not only lice doesn’t live outside a human body for more than few hours, but also that particular listing had brand new beds and bedding and they were the first guests to sleep on it. I take away: we should always review our guests based on their true conduct

Xisca0
Level 3
Banyalbufar, Spain

El sistema de evaluaciones siempre ha sido injusto y seguirá siéndolo ya que airbnb no tiene ninguna intención de cambiarlo. Hace un tiempo, en la ultima revisión de evaluaciones se dijo que eso iba a suceder, que cuando un host recibiese una muy mala evaluación se compararía con las anteriores para así poder comprobar si era realmente injusta, pero en la practica no es real.

Mi experiencia; Recibo una reserva de tres dias, en ese momento el huesped se pone en contacto conmigo via telefonica pidiendome poder alquilar una semana completa saltandose las normas de airbnb, le respondo que no es posible, me pide por favor que por lo menos le deje quedarse una noche mas, sin coste alguno ya que tiene que coger un avion a las 5 de la madrugada, siempre me guardo un dia despues de cada reserva para poder preparar la casa para el siguiente huesped con tranquilidad, asi que no me resulta un problema y estoy dispuesta a hacerle el favor. Dos dias antes de su llegada, le mando un mensaje preguntando su hora de entrada en la casa pero no me responde, asi que el dia antes por la noche decido llamarle y quedamos a las 4.00 de la tarde del dia siguiente. Mi casa esta en el campo, por lo tanto no tiene una direccion concreta o facil de encontrar, asi que suelo quedar con los huespedes en un parking cercano, asi que alli estoy yo a las 4.00 en punto, pero no llega nadie, a las 4.30 recibo una llamada diciendome que no han podido llegar, (yo ya me habia dado cuenta de eso 😉 ), pero que tampoco sabian a que hora lo iban a hacer, ¿?¿?¿?...Yo, un poco molesta, les digo que bien, que yo me subire a la casa y que cuando esten en el punto de encuentro me avisen, eso sucede 1.30 minutos mas tarde. En mi anuncio tengo puesto que si el huesped quiere aparcar al lado de la casa necesita un coche pequeño, pues el señor aparece con el mas grande del mercado, bueno, pienso que va a querer subir sus cosas conmigo y dejar ese auto en el parking (dista 3m caminando desde la casa), pero no, el señor quiere subir con su gran coche hasta la casa, le digo que el camino es complicado, pero el insiste, quiere subir, quiere subir y al final sube, con problemas pero lo hace, porque el es un valiente y la cosa de las normas no va con el. Bueno, todo esta bien ya llegaron, la casa les gusto y pasaron la 1ª noche sin problema (la reserva era de tres noches, aunque se quedarían cuatro), el segundo dia por la tarde me mandan un wasap preguntando donde se enciende la luz de la terraza y como comentario adicional me dicen que han visto algunas hormigas, (están en el campo), les digo que las maten con un insecticida que hay en la casa y que procuren no dejar migas en el suelo ni comida ya que al ser un año muy seco, esta habiendo muchas en esta temporada, pero bueno todo cordial y bien, hasta que a las 12.30 de la noche me llaman diciendo que han llegado a la casa que la terraza esta llena de hormigas y que les de una solución, les digo que vivo lejos y que lo único que yo puedo hacer a esa hora es tirar insecticida, y que eso lo pueden hacer ellos, que yo al día siguiente a las 8 de la mañana estaré allí con un fumigador. No duermo en toda la noche pensando en que lo están pasando mal, pero a las ocho me presento allí, veo todas las puertas y ventanas abiertas pero no escucho a nadie, pienso que están durmiendo y me dedico a fumigar por fuera, (aunque no veo ninguna hormiga), pasa una hora y nadie da señales de vida, así que decido mandar un wasap, preguntando si están despiertos y me contestan que  no están en la casa que se han marchado, dejando todo abierto,  no se puede estar de hormigas. Yo entro en la casa y no veo ninguna hormiga, por ningún lado, (hago un vídeo), se lo digo a ellos y me contestan que es que las hormigas salen a partir del mediodía ¿?¿?, pero es que yo el día anterior había estado todo el día en la casa  y no vi ninguna. Ellos tienen vídeos , por lo visto, de la cantidad de hormigas, cucarachas y gusanos que hay en mi casa (algunos estoy convencida de que son falsos pues hormigas no digo yo que no pueda haber, pero toda esa clase de fauna que ellos vieron no es posible),  pero esa es la prueba que presentan a airbnb para que se les devuelva el importe de las tres noches. Eso a mi no me importa mucho, aunque me sabe mal y me duele que alguien haya tenido una mala experiencia en mi casa, son sentimientos encontrados, por un lado se a ciencia cierta que es una exageración, pero por otra me siento mal. Pero claro, ahora viene la evaluación que me va a estropear todo el trabajo de un año. Airbnb ya les dio la razón a ellos, sus vídeos falsos valen, los míos verdaderos no. Según ellos la evaluación no importa, yo puedo responder y evaluarlos mal también, si, pero ellos con borrar su perfil y hacerse otro lo tienen solucionado, a mi me estropean el trabajo de 5 años, el sistema de estrellas es injusto, pero a airbnb no le importa, o si le importa no hace nada . Tengo muchas reservas, suelo tener la casa ocupada durante todo el año, estoy pensando en dejar de trabajar con ellos, porque este tipo de situaciones, nunca me había pasado, me decepcionan y me quitan las ganas de seguir esforzándome. Airbnb va bien mientras todo va bien, cuando tienes un problema solo ganan ellos, esta claro, una pena.

totalmente de acuerdo, Airbnb no hace absolutamente nada, aunque les des todas las pruebas no hacen nada. 
No protejen ni con todas las pruebas a quien les da el dinero que somos nosotros. 

Ian-And-Anne-Marie0
Level 10
Kendal, United Kingdom

@Xisca0 

The common factor amongst many bad guests is that they don't actually read the description of your listing. Then, when something is not right for them, despite you already mentioning it, it becomes your, the hosts problem because they didn't read !

 

Its a good job that you went to fumigate the (non-existent) ants otherwise you would never have known the guests had left and they had left your house unlocked with all the doors open.

I find this extremely frustrating as my place is not located in the historical center of Milan, which guests can clearly see before they book, yet they continue to vote 4 stars or even a recent 2 stars for location. My listing clearly states that the place is not in the center plus AirBnb shows the general location on the map. This general location shows that the place could be closer or further to where you want it to be than it actually is depending on where AirBnb drops that circle.

I'm dumbfounded by the ignorance of the behavior and reviews of some guests, who as the above comment mentions, they don't read the listing details and house rules.

 

Suzanne302
Level 10
Wilmington, NC

@Jonathan477  There is a "Blacklist" group on Facebook with a spreadsheet listing these types of guests.

Famille8
Level 2
Fréjus, France

And also how do we, behind the reply we can do on a review by a guest, report guests who use our home for weird activities. I strongly suspect a guest (a young lady from Russia) to have used our home for illegal activities. She also let a very bad review after harassing us for 2 weeks to get refund for any reasons including the insecurity of the area (Saint-Tropez, one of the most famous and policed village in Europe)...

Since she did not get that, she blamed everything, including the fact that we showed late to the welcome meeting, to which she did not show up and rather sent another Russian lady and a weird French guy...

There should be a way to report that kind of behavior!!! Because, getting a 1 star for a newly renovated, fully equipped, near the beach flat, makes no sense at all...

Hi, I used to live in Fréjus. I am a host now in Florida. Which part of the city are you?

 

Peta8
Level 1
Mcgraths Hill, AU

I think there should be a block or ban that hosts can put on guests. 

I too have the gutless wonders who rave about the stay, talk to your face, then go away and leave a 3 or 4 star rating. 

 

I had one person mark me down because SHE didn’t like the couch. WTF? 

She claimed there were dirty pots and cutlery. 

I am very thorough with cleaning , vacuuming and only had a glance in the cupboards and drawers, which looked fine to me. But still, to mark down to 3 stars, I don’t want her back at my place EVER. 

 

Another wrote “bathroom was not clean”. I wrote asking which part was “unclean”, because I do the same clean for each and every guest. If there was something “dirty” it’s still dirty and I’d like to know exactly what it was. 

No response. I’d like my star back, thanks. 

You can block a guest, but as far as I understand it only applies to your relationship with this guest: 
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2020/how-do-i-report-a-message-or-block-someone-on-airbnb

Thomas1033
Level 10
North Tonawanda, NY

We’ve had exactly 3  (4 )star overall ratings.  One because our washing machine and dryer are in our basement and not in the third floor apartment.  One because it took 5 extra minutes to get to place they wanted to go and felt it was not as good a value because of that and most recently because we had to ask them not to let their toddlers run until 145am over our heads the second and third nights as we got a whopping 2.5 hours of sleep.  Had to keep brats quiet equals 4 stars.  We no longer will host children now and are rethinking our rental strategy as in no more short term rental.  After one year we figured out we came out ever so slow slightly ahead versus full time tenant and we had to do all the cleaning.  UGH!

@Thomas1033  If you're making little more with your Airbnb than you would with a full-time tenant, not to mention nit-picky reviews and inconsiderate guests, I'd sure be going with the long term lease responsible tenant. Most of us signed up to host anticipating that it would be a pleasurable experience in addition to making some extra cash. It's not worth having stress in your life if you can avoid it, for a few extra lousy bucks.

If I got guests like that, for little profit, I'd quit the STR business. I've been lucky and get great guests. But I only started this because I had a guest room that sat empty most of the year and figured I might as well make some money on it and might meet some cool people, which I have (don't want a full-time roommate in my private guest room). If it became a hassle for me, I'd go back to letting it sit empty whenever friends or family weren't visiting.

Chiara572
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

I'm with you 100%

We started hosting last month and never thought the rating system would be so flawed

Twice guests thought that 4/5 stars were a fantastic rating, so did I before airbnb...

The last guest actually texted me privately saying that they were super happy and that left me a good review...4 stars

Guess what, a guy completely new to airbn who thought his review was good, definitely not damaging

 

Anyways the point is that a lot of people think that 4 stars is actually good, and to be honest I thought the same when I was only a guest.

With this rating system I literally have paranoia when we have guests, it seems that a little nothing or one unread description suffice to damage the listing

 

As a host what can I do to get 5 stars? Do you literally bribe people?!

It's a private ensuite room in the smack centre of london, new place, flexible check in/out, clean, with snacks/coffee...literally going out of my way to make guests feel at home and welcomed...what else?!?

 

I feel airbnb should be clear with travellers that 4 stars is actually bad for the host

Or maybe Airbnb should make use of the other stars so the rating is more credible?

 

 

@Chiara572  It's not that guests think that 4*s is good, Airbnb tells them  that 4*s is good. That's the infuriating part.