Respecting House Rules

[Ciern0]

Dear hosts,

Recently I have encountered the same problems over and over again.

I have guests who checked in my place and do not follow rules at all. 

For example : do not smoke in the house.

After they checked out, I realised that there are lots of cigarettes butts around the house and of course leftover cigarrettes. 

I then requested their deposit to be forfeited and leave them an honest review. To my surprise, they will just disagree to the deposit and leave back a bad review to me and this affects my rating. I really hope that Airbnb will help to strengthen evidence that we provide by option to upload photos to show the defaulters, and the justification of reviews. 

Some of the details are mentioned clearly in the description and I assume guest booked with us full understanding of the house. For example, we mentioned that there's only one toilet in the house. However, we were given a bad rating for having only one toilet. I find this very irrelevant and irresponsible for leaving such review when guest agrees to book upon agreeing everything as described. 

Airbnb is no doubt a beautiful platform and I love how the reviews work mutually. However the hardwork of hosts are prone to humiliation and unfair treatment. I appreciate hosts around could share their ideas as to how to react towards unfair reviews. 

Cheers. 

[Mike77]

This has been gone over before in the forum.  Many times.  Please use the search function at the top of the page.

1. You leave your own rebuttal to their review with your opinions on the guest's behavior.

2. You don't get excessive in your rebuttal.

3. You accept the bad review and move on.

Mike
AirBnB Treehouse for Rent
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7292887

[Sora0]

sometimes not too strict on the rules that you have set. i do state no smoking inhouse allowed but i still saw cigg butts in the toilet bowls. however, when i stepped in the house my unit was still in great condition and no smell at all. so i did not claim against the guests. my advise is to be flexible unless the guest has caused serious damage to your unit.

[Kevin-s0]

That sucks Ciern.  I had a similar experience.  I left an honest review of the guests and they slammed me in their review.  I think as others said, you do just move on and accept it.  My ratings also went down.  I`m still getting many good reviews, and many, many bookings.  I think as long as you have many good reviews of you, they counter the one bad one.

I just decided to go on, and keep trying to be better, and keep trying to make money.  And try to do a better job of choosing guests.

So I get far more good ones than bad ones.

Red flags for me:

A fake profile picture of a cartoon character, a teddy bear or scenery.  I have found some of these guests to be bad guests.

(I now report any guest to Airbnb that doesn`t have a proper profile picture of their face. Airbnb asked me to do this.)

People who say they can barely afford to reach our area.

People with strange profile pictures

People who address me right off the bat in their native language.  It shows me they are rather lazy, selfish, or expect to be served in a language I do not understand

I have decided to raise prices a little in hopes of getting a better "class," of guests.  

I`m still tinkering.  I try to read what others are doing.  Hope this helps!

PS In spite of the bad review, I still made superhost!

[Mark166]

I agree with the initial poster....from Malaysia I think...

the system does not protect or assist hosts enough with respect to problem clients...

I have put some posts...

(if a group has 4 young people, 1 bad review as a damage group....then they just get person number 2 to register...and to make new reservations....and they go on using Airbnb and hosts sufferring damage....

not correct...

Airbnb needs to change its system....

but might require host presssure to do it...

---

B) If I have a group that repeatedly breaks the house rules....in a serious way...

then if I stop giving them access to the apartment (change the locks) then I get a penalty of 100$ from Airbnb  !!

Why does Airbnb allow hosts to have house rules if we are then fined by Airbnb if we apply the house rules !!??

In reality it appears that hosts are , in reality, not allowed to have house rules !!.....just that clients do not know that,  'yet' !

Mark

[Spices0]

Hi Kevin, yes I agree with you, accept and move on. And yes the profile pic, I totally agree with you! 🙂

[Superhost-William-and-Sh0]

Most of the time, I'm too soft heartened and didn't charge them additional fees if they break my house rules. I also dunno have the energy to argue with them, it wastes my energy and time. One of my customer give 2 stars for my location at Maritime, Karpal Singh Drive. I'm totally speechless and he owns a car too. Those type of problematic guests are not worth our time. What I'm trying to practice now is to give a honest review and will not give 5 stars review to all my guests! Previously, I just gave 5 stars rating for them but....... 

[Superhost-William-and-Sh0]

I fully agree with you! 

[Grazi0]

I am having problems with my current guests. 

First of all, the guy said it was only two guests, and that specific room only has two guest sofa-beds and it's small. 

Also, before anything, I had other guests checking out at that time, so the mother of this guest just entered my house like a total stranger, and instead of knocking and introducing herself, just entered my house with a petulant and arrogant attitude, showing her cell phone to me, saying that her soon has booked a room.

Turns out that his mother with other 3 kids, were coming in the house and settled in the room. 

SO NOW I HAVE 5 people in this room, because we try to keep our HUMAN PHYLANTROPY, and good values, to make people comfortable and HELP THE ONES WHO NEED.

But I like honesty, not only 5 people are in my house, but they come in and out since the time they checked (WHICH NOBODY TOLD ME THE TIME THEY CHECKED IN, THE MOTHER JUST ENTERED MY HOUSE UNADVISED). 

Nobody told me who was coming, and he lied about the quantity of guests. 

Ok, they enjoyed a WHOLE DAY at my pool, even if I said they had to wait a little bit since today was cleaning day and had chemicals in the water, they insisted. 

Each one of the 5 guests staying in my room, took a shower of approximately 45 minutes. 

Now, the front door area is smelling like marihuana. I don't like that. And my door is BEING SLAMMED still, EVEN WHEN I ASKED THEM NOT TO. 

I don't call the police, because there is no aggression, but I am not comfortable with this. 

The woman is aggressive, arrogant and demands a lot of things in a really uneducated way. 

I NEED HELP!

[Thomas--Tom-0]

I also agree. Airbnb is not helping hosts with difficult guests. I feel that you either have to deal with guests not treating you well, not following house rules, the last guests lost our house keys (we had to pay to replace them) and they did not follow house rules even after I reminded them nicely about it. And if you try to do a resolution, the guests retalliate with bad reviews. I am pretty tired of it personally. I enjoy airbnb travel and most of my guests are wonderful but the system is broken. Airbnb should be there to support hosts. We either suck it up or if we try to get a resolution then a guest will give a bad review  Airbnb states that they do not allow unjust reviews but it is not true.