Quick phrases for guest reviews - Cleanliness

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Fellow hosts - I struggle with writing an effective phrase for guest reviews that indicate that they were dirtier than normal.  

You know, the guest who leaves soap and shampoo all over the bathtub, huge globs of toothpaste in the sink or makeup smears on the counter, hair everywhere, extra garbage to pick up, the hair dryer, iron and ironing board left for the host to put away, sheets or towels that had stains to be treated but weren't ruined (a skidmark or makeup), and maybe missed the toilet a little or left you some extra cleaning to do in the bowl.  Stuff that can be taken care of but will cost you an extra half hour or hour of cleaning to get it all sorted.  

Do you have a short, effective sentence that you use in a guest's review that indicates that they were a little dirtier than normal?  

[Emily140]

@Lauren0, believe me I struggle with all this too.  So, should one bad fit cause everyone to feel locked out of the other rooms and distrusted?  Me thinks not.  If it starts happening a lot, then re-consider.  I will keep taking dogs and loving on them, even though one group took advantage of me and put a gross meat-covered bone on my bedroom carpet...

I might wait a few days to regain my calm, but I would not wait 14 days to review to prevent them their opportunity.  Their side might be interesting, if they bother.  It might be self-defeating.  Remember, you always have the opportunity for a public comment below their review, where you could re-iterate that you regret not asking more questions about this family to ensure your farm would be a good fit for this particular family as there was little information provided upfront as most of your guests do provide...  Bam, enough said for future guests to "get the picture."  Future guests see their review along with so many positive reviews.  The people you want are smart and will not be affected.  And, remember, even if they ghost out and create a new profile, your review shows on their original profile.  When I have any doubt about a guest, I click through to see what they wrote on other hosts vs what other guests experienced.

My one negative experience the guest wrote a glowing review about how awesome I was and how I even walked their dog for them so they could stay longer at their concert.  Um, yeah, I walked the dog - and it wasn't easy to coax him out - because they left him in my cabin 8hours..... it was hot in there and I was stressing out about the dog needing to pee and cool off so I spent an hour dealing with it which I had not planned.  At that point, I texted them that I let him out.  What the heck, they might as well know at that point.  But I had a lot of unecessary stress--and I saw the gooey bone, which really made me mad.

Think about it --irresponsible people have had uber-responsible people pick up after them all their lives; so while you were burdened, they were happy as clams and just might write a really positive review of their carefree experience, lol 😉

Please, carry on with your best hostess self - it is what gives you the joy of home sharing.  Nobody here is in it just for the money.  There are easier ways to make money!  I am slowly developing a little bit of structure (the "check out list") and kind of a structured template with "keyword" reminders for problem guests so that I get through the review with the least anguish/stress for me.  And so I remember, again, there IS a property for everyone - we are not criticizing them personally just providing appropriate feedback to help steer them to the properties that are a better fit if they don't have the self-awreness to do it on their own.  (Perhaps they are renters and don't really understand, or perhaps grew up very wealthy and everything was taken care of, so again, they don't understand what it takes to pay bills, clean, source the water, etc.)

I had guests a few weeks ago - a couple - who shared a towel.  They were former AirBnb hosts and it showed in every way.  They understand how much LAUNDRY WE ARE DOING!!!!  And they were careful to sort all their plasic/paper/glass for recycling.  They were simply environmentally-conscious humans.

Don't let that one negative spoil your joy!  We're here for you.  This helps me too 🙂

[Lauren176]

aww you have made me feel so much better thank you

[Esther700]

Is there a way you can just include into the price the amount of people staying (like just have a standard price)? I live in the US, so maybe it's different here but it can be annoying to have to pay per extra person, so maybe just include those costs into the overall price like you do with cleaning, might be the easiest thing to do to avoid people like that (there will be people who disrespect your rules, so if its a loss for the whole because of them...)

[Sarah977]

@Esther700  Sometimes hosts will have a place that sleeps 6 people, but they really prefer only having 4 guests. If they priced the place so that it would be profitable to host 6, then a group of 4 would be less likely to book. Or lets say there are 3 bedrooms that each have a queen or king size bed. That would suit 3 couples travelling together or 3 single friends. Should 3 people pay the same as 6? Six results in more hot water, more towels, more coffee and soap and whatever else the host provides. Plus, depending in the group, more wear and tear, more mess, etc.

[Emily140]

Why would anyone hate paying an extra person fee when the blended cost per person is way lower than if a single person booked the space?  And it's so much more work and higher cost for the host...

For my Napa cabin it was a huge amount of work to rearrange the living space to set up an awkward (but very comfy to sleep on) futon into a bed, with mattress pad, linens, pillows, comforter, etc. and the second set of towels.  It's an increase from two loads of laundry on turnover to five (and remember we often only get a few hours to accomplish this between guests, with most departing guests wanting to stay late and arriving guests wanting to come early).  Add a good half an hour to put the living room back together, which takes two people to re-set the futon.  Then there's double the dishes to do.  Twice the coffee used (pricey stuff when you provide Peet's like I do).  Not worth the extra person fee for me, so if a trio doesn't book my one-bedroom space, no problem for me!  Extra people also often mean more cars to park.  In my situation that was a real challenge.  It's just silly (sorry) to think that extra people is not extra work/use of host/property. 

***I do wish Airbnb had an *extra bed* fee.***  As there is a difference between a couple in one bedroom, with one car, and two friends with two cars needing two beds. 

We hosts need the flexibility to add those charges so the single traveler and couple traveler don't have to pay the heavy cost of the over-stuffed property.  Kinda like flying United without luggage; you get lower cost by using less space on the plane.  Even though I love the simplicity of *2 bags fly free* on Southwest, paying for what you use is quite equitable.

[Emily140]

Apologies I keep thinking about this.... I would also consider the guest review history.  Many of us who allow Instant Booking have a rule where only guests recommended by other hosts can Instant Book; everyone else must request approval.  SO, if your guest who left a mess/burden has prior positive reviews, then they have an investment in that profile.  They have the opportunity to respond to your review in a positive way to alert future hosts that they have learned something. And hosts with particularly sensitive properties can either decline or up their security deposit. If you are the FIRST review, they have nothing to lose by abandoning their profile and starting over with a new one. 

[Wendy-and-Frank0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0, I have to scrub the shower, toilet, sink, floors, linens anyway so I don't care if they're dirty or not.  I wouldn't give them a lower rate for that.  My opinion.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Wendy-and-Frank0 - exactly what I'm saying.... the toilet bowl needs to be scrubbed but 99% don't leave me residue on the floor where the male missed the bowl and someone had an explosive bowel movement leaving me splatter on the underside of the seat (anyone had a guest yet who leaves the bloody tampon mark under the seat - gross! ).  Towels and sheets need to be washed, but in this case, shart mark in the bed, mascara on the towels and in the bed (in the middle of fitted sheet no less - face down, butt up I guess), plus, they choose to eat strawberries in bed, because despite our request to not eat in their room,  there were "sprays" of red dots on the duvet and pillow shams.  It all came out with some extra scrubbing and copious amounts of Shout and nothing was ruined.  But man, did I have to work ALOT harder.  They left wedding debris (pins, plastic, hangers, tags), threw a pair of jeans in the tiny bathroom garbage, along with the strawberry remains (was alerted to those by the ants!).    Nothing permanent, nothing worth saying you wouldn't host them again, per se, but they were thoughtless and less clean than the vast majority of our other guests. I wanted to say something general about the entirity of the situation, not list each petty thing like I did above.  A general phrase.  In this case, I did use @Beth44 suggestion of "not as tidy as the majority of our guests" and then wrote them some private feedback letting them know why we said as such.  The situation is long since passed now, but I'm always seeking new and better ways to improve myself and my reviews.  

[Sarah977]

---

@Wendy-and-Frank0 wrote:

@Alice-and-Jeff0, I have to scrub the shower, toilet, sink, floors, linens anyway so I don't care if they're dirty or not.  I wouldn't give them a lower rate for that.  My opinion.

---

   I agree about the bathroom. Whether a guest left toothpaste all over the counter or splatters on the mirror is immaterial- I thoroughly clean and sterilize the bathroom between guests anyway. Nor are a few pieces of garbage strewn around a big deal- what does it take, 15 seconds to pick it up?

If a guest left wet towels wadded up on the floor to mildew, didn't wash their dishes or wipe up food and sticky stuff in the kitchen, left a filthy greasy stovetop, left open food in the bedroom to attract cockroaches and rodents, that's a different story and I would mention it in a review- "Unfortunately, cleaning time required after xxx's stay was far more extensive than normal" and 3 stars for cleanliness, unless it was a total pigsty, in which case I'd have no qualms about a 1 star. I do always try to mention positive things about the guest (assuming there were some), simply because I think that's fair and if a guest sees they have received 5 stars from a host in other categories, they may look at that and realize they need to step up to the plate on cleanliness, rather than being defensive and thinking the host is a just a jerk.

[Susie0]

They totally made themselves at home? 🙂

[Kelly144]

I struggle with this too. Sometimes I just don't have anything positive to say, but the extra mess isn't end-of-the-world stuff either. In that situation I'd give 4 stars on cleanliness (if it was 3 or less I'd say something about it) and I leave it loud and clear with what I don't say.  "I hope X enjoyed their stay". That's it. No mention of anything else. I think that is polite enough to not offend, but other hosts would definitely know that something was up. 

[Kate292]

Great Kelly,  I’ve just used this “I hope X enjoyed their stay!”  for latest messy/ disrespectful guests. 

For exceptionally fussy guests I say “guests may be bette suited to a commercial hotel setting”

[Mike1034]

Not sure I will understand what the implication of your sentence. I am more intended to have something like “Guest could have done better by keeping the place clean”. This will help other guest to make their selective decision and the guest may change his behavior a little when he books his next Airbnb.

[Frank-And-Monique0]

Hi,

Totally new to being a host, like we just had our first guests this past weekend.  Not sure what we were supposed to expect.  How do you handle when they say there will be 6 people but there were 8?  And your sentence above about "guest could have done better by keeping the place clean".  I wonder will that upset the guest and they will "ghost" themselves.  

[Frank-And-Monique0]

Hi Kelly,

We just had our first guests this past weekend.  Not sure what we were to expect.  Like you said the mess they left was not world ending.  However, there was no communication whatsoever from them.  We were told they would have 6 guests and they had 8.  How do you handle that?  Or does that matter to you?  We really are not set up for more than 6 people and really do not want to have more than that.  I hope you don't mind me asking your input.  I felt like I related to your comment and I'm totally going to use your Quote.