Review reciprocity

Nicholas237
Level 2
Waipahu, HI

Review reciprocity

Hi! I am a brand new host, and unfortunately my first experience was a bummer. The person really took advantage of me. It's a long story that I will spare you, but suffice to say that the person cancelled their reservation one day into it, with no communication, after having looked at my place and talking to me about it, but without actually checking in. The person also mentioned needing my place as a "contingency." Finally, the person lied directly to me during the reservation phase, promising to complete their reservation and stay with me, if I would decline another potential guest who had requested reservation of said person's same days (but for LONGER), because said person's original reservation request had expired. I was trying to do said person a favor!

 

This person has like 6 5-star reviews as a guest, so far. I would just like to get some advice about how harsh I should word my review and how  to rate this person, because since I do not even have ANY reviews yet as a host, I'm afraid that this person will write a retaliatory review of me. I'm sort of trying to avoid that, since it will be the first review of me (and you know first impressions!). I want to be honest about this person, but is there any alternative route I could take that might end up as a win-win for both this person and myself (and the hosting community)? I know that I cannot control how this person reviews me, but...  ?  Any advice from long term and/or "expert" hosts is appreciated! (I have 11 days left to write my review)  Thanks in advance!

5 Replies 5
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

Your guest cannot see your review of them before writing their review of you. Reviews are published after both parties have reviewed, or after the 14-day review period closes, whichever happens first. Write an honest, factual, and unemotional review.

Thank you, I really appreciate it. 🙂

City-Limits-Ranch0
Level 10
Watsonville, CA

If you don't really want them to review you then you should wait to the last minute to review them.  They may not review you if they don't get the email telling them that you reviewed them.  All you need to say is that the guest did not stay with you.  Give them all 1 stars and a thumbs down and then block them.

I guess I consider her dishonesty (and lack of candor -- her excuses were ridiculous) to be a worse problem than a technical failure to stay the course. The latter could be because of circumstances outside someone's control, or even just human error -- I can handle that, if they admit it. Dishonesty and lack of candor, though -- you can no longer trust the person, and how are you going to host someone you can't trust? 

I'm ok with giving a person 1 star, though, but I just wanted to see if there were some well-worn community ways of handling this, or any unspoken rules that most hosts went by. Thank you for your reply!  ps. Thanks for the tip about waiting till the last minute; I was already pondering that... 🙂

Sandra856
Level 10
Copenhagen, Denmark