Review Help!

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

We had guests check out this morning and our housekeeper was not impressed. They left our house a mess!

Our house rules are very clear and typical from what I’ve seen from other vacation rentals. We ask that guests load and start the dishwasher, take the bedding off the used beds and start a load of dirty towels.

They did none of that. And they are Airbnb hosts!! They have all 5 star reviews, but none are from them being guests. They’re all from guests who they’ve hosted. 

Our housekeeper sent pictures of dishes all over the kitchen and the rest of the house, towels over the lamps on the bedrooms? Beds unmade and unstripped ... stuff just everywhere. It’s dissapointing, but I am struggling with how to review them.

We just made our 10 five star ratings for our Superhost status and im worried that they’re gonna be our first less than perfect. 

Help!!

[Letti0]

I would review them honestly. As hosts they should be ashamed of themselves they know better. I would wait to late night of day 13 or early morning of day 14 to review them unless they review you first. They can not expect you to review them kindly just because they are fellow hosts. Thumbs down, 1* for cleaning and 1 * for house rules.

[Elizabeth429]

 Hi,

I am with you regarding loading and/or unloading the dishwasher. However, as a guest, I wouldnt myself strip the bed or load a washing machine. Neither do I ask my guests to do so.

Nevertheless, if the guest agrees to follow your house rules, so they should!

Why are you worried about their review?Just review them accordingly regardless the fact they are hosts themselves.

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

Elizabeth, 
That is so funny about the beds! It's very common in Long Beach, WA where we have our vacation home. We built it last year and have been going down there for years. We've stayed in dozens of vacation rentals and it's always been a thing there.
A couple of days before they checked in, she was messaging because our door code was wrong in one of the fields on Airbnb, so I sent her the actual code. She was saying how confusing the whole thing was. I sent her the portion of the welcome letter with the correct info and apologized, but the whole conversation felt odd to me. I mentioned to our housekeeper that I had a bad feeling about their stay. 
In regards to her prior reviews, they're all 5* for hosting. There aren't any reviews for being guests. They're able to instabook using those reviews, but they don't actually have any guest reviews... kind of a backdoor, I guess.

[Kathie21]

But is it just untidiness that is easily resolved, or are there issues like spills and stains?  Did they flout any other rules like smoking in the property or bringing extra guests?  If not, I would maybe give them a middling 3.  They weren't the worst guests you could have had, and their impact is gone within the day. 

I actually prefer that guests don't strip the bed or put laundry on - it means I can spot and treat any stains much more easily before they get set in.  Especially any blood spots, which become next to impossible to remove once they've been in hot water.

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

I think just the untidiness. I was also thinking a 3*. Just have a yucky feeling about it.

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

I'm more wondering about the wording. It's so awkward! ha!

[Lisa723]

FWIW we have exactly the same check-out instructions in our vacation rentals. As you say it is not at all unusual.

Also, my experience is that fellow hosts are much pickier reviewers, so your expectation of a non-steller guest review is probably not unfounded.

For your own review wording, maybe something along the lines of "xxx left the house undamaged, and followed all rules except those regarding check-out tidying-up; some extra post-stay clean-up was required. We would [not] host them again."  Just tell the truth.

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

Thank you! I’ll try to just keep it simple. 

Its so frustrating. She messaged me at 9am that they were gone. Didn’t use the extra time or even the time given to clean the place up a bit!

[Lisa723]

If you take it personally you will drive yourself crazy in this business. The longer you host, the more you'll find that guests are all over the map.

(Speculating here, but perhaps this host doesn't charge a cleaning fee and you do, and she's a person who has the principle that if you pay a cleaning fee you should not have to clean *at all.*  Some hosts think that cleaning fees are just wrong, and a way to low-ball your base price wrt your competitors. I don't personally agree with that at all but I know that view is out there. If this is the case, brace yourself for your "value" rating... 🙂 )

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

Interesting. I hadn’t considered that. I looked up her listing and it actually states, no shoes in the house and please clean up after yourself!

they rent a room rather than an entire house, and charge a $25 cleaning fee. 

Definitely not taking it personally, just looking for some guidance. This will be the first review that’s less than 5* on our end. 

[Lisa723]

OK, there goes that theory.  🙂 

[Steven-and-Rachel0]

I appreciate the feedback! Thanks to you all. Hopefully, this is as much as we’ll need to deal with being that it’s not the end of the world. We’re pretty mellow people, but I don’t want them to come again, so communicating that is uncomfortable. 

[Emilia42]

Please leave an honest review. All will be okay, and if they do write a not so stellar review you will feel better that yours is truthful.

"XXX showed good communication and great hosting reviews, however, our housekeeper was surprised by the state in which the rental was left and it did require extra cleaning. Checkout rules were not followed and therefore I cannot fully recommend them as guests."

[Letti0]

Unlike most of you I have an extreme issue with hosts as guests that do not follow rules or cleanup after themselves, especially when they demand their own guests do this. It's just something that bugs me big time lol... So I would review them harder than a guest that is not a host because I also know they will review me with a more harsh attituide on things than a regular guest would knowing they were wrong in their behavior. We hear about it happening all time on this forum. Just my humble opinion.