Reviews

[Elisabeth40]

Over the past 6 years of hosting I mentioned a pattern and would love to hear your opinion on it.

My long airbnb hosting journey showed me, that the majority of the guests who use airbnb for the first time, are very angry people and demanding.

Most of them have no feeling for the value of things. I asked myself why? And I finally came to a personal conclusion that this problem is a lack of experience with using airbnb. Out of my observation I see that the first time users lack on empathy and have an imagination about how they want you and your home to be.  There is a lack of tolerance and acceptance. I feel like the guest needs time to understand the concept of airbnb and accept indifferences and learn to value the nice opportunities. Till now I never declined on guests, who don't have reviews, who never used airbnb before, but today I think, I am scared of people who come off, as they would know it better, how you need to be. 

I would love to open a petition  to restrict new guests, who have no experience in airbnb to be able to give hosts reviews for the first 5 bookings at different places. Because I am tired to give people chances and be demolished by they lack of understanding and their aggressive entitlement. I feel like a guests who wants to profit from this community and the value must gain/ learn certain understanding and feeling before they get weaponized with reviews. I do think I am an experienced host, but I am more and more scared to host guests who never attended any airbnb places before, because I do not want to risk my value to someone who lacks respect towards all my work and my personal experience. Hosting is more as just giving your guest a place to stay. I am very accurate in what I sell people here, I do get upset about people who cannot read listing description and house rules and dictate and judge me how my personal space and my persona needs to be. I am definitely tired of people who do not have understanding for values and effort. I also think it's wrong to give reviews on the first place you ever used in your life through airbnb, if you as a guest have no comparison at all.  

[Anonymous]

@Dale711  The title of this thread is "Review." But that is a silly thing to worry about. I mean, you could teach a course on how to avoid bad reviews, considering how frequently you delete and re-animate your terribly reviewed listings.

Based on the original post, I think we all presumed it was going to be about a fussy/entitled/demanding guest, but this whole pepper spray story is quite a plot twist. There's obviously a portion of the timeline missing from this account - how does someone "accidentally" go into someone else's bedroom and pepper-spray them? What could a sane person have possibly been intending to do at that moment, if it was something other than spraying  mace on their host? 

I can't deny, even though I can empathize with the host's pain and suffering from what must have been a dreadful burning sensation, this is just one of the craziest Airbnb stories I've ever read, and i still doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to me.

[Dale711]

Salut @Anonymous,

With my respects-

You mean  " she " is crazed and making it up on the weekend, with the weird and fake stories to entertainment the CC?

And I'm the producer should broadcast the stories ending?

That is interesting 😂

Peace!

[Anonymous]

@Dale711 I didn't say the story was "fake news." But none of us have the contextual details that would make the pieces of it align, so it's really impossible to have an informed opinion on what's going on here. Maybe the guest is crazy, maybe the host is, maybe they both are. I can't make heads or tails of it, but undeniably this is an entertaining bit of schadenfreude.

[Elisabeth40]

I agree @Anonymous, I am ok with you calling me crazy. For some reason I never spray when I travel at other people's home's pepper spray. Yes, maybe there is some sort of mental incapacity involved, but it's not my business to judge and I am not the right person to determine that. I did found it very scary to wake up like that.

[Helen350]

Read ALL Elizabeth's reviews and you will 'get it' @Anonymous . I think  @Ute42, @Sarah977, @Kia272 ,and myself know what's going on here..... Maybe she wants to be a knight in shining armour too much for her own good?

- Note to self to stop trying to help!

[Kia272]

@Helen350  You've gone above and beyond in trying to help this person. It appears that she doesn't actually want help, she only wants to complain about how AirBnB guests are not conforming to her ideals. 

It's pretty comical trying to reconcile the "I want to love and welcome everyone" vibe, with how rude and angry she has been on this forum, taking offense where none was intended.

She also went full-on nutcase in her responses to a couple of reviews. Go figure when you say you have to "love all people" and that's why you are welcoming them in to your home. 

[Elisabeth40]

@Anonymous 

this are kids andrew. I never said they went into my room. why they sprayed pepper spray I don't know, what happened I don't know, I was asleep, You will be surprised how this pepper spray works, you do not need to spray it onto the person, it's enough to spray it in one room and your entire place will be affected. I have a heater which sucks in air from the living room and blows the air through the pipe into the other rooms. It has a strong blow. Me and my other guest in the room, we both couldn't stay, we needed to leave my place and waited for hours on a street. It didn't only me, also my other guest. As I already stated it earlier, I do believe them, it was an accident, but at the same time, I do not think it is ok to spray pepper spray at someone's home. Some kids in new york have pepper spray, knifes, even guns. All this things in wrong hands can cause accidental harm. As much as I love and embrace everyone, I came to a conclusion I cannot host everyone and I do not think it ok to use this at my place, oh yes I threw up, I was affected by it. But I do believe them, it was an accident.

[Anonymous]

@Elisabeth40 The propensity of Americans to overcomplicate their lives with weaponry is something I know pretty well; I'm American myself. But I hadn't taken in that the pepper spray was sprayed outside your room; thanks for explaining.

How old are we talking about when you say "kids"? You have to be at least 18 to have an Airbnb account, and that seems old enough to know not to discharge pepper spray for fun. You're allowed to drive a car at 16, which is far more potentially dangerous than staying in an Airbnb, and the overwhelming majority of teenage drivers actually do manage to use their two-ton death machines responsibly. 

[Elisabeth40]

@Andrew0

@Anonymous 

I didn't asked how old they are, but I would say not older than 18.

Why I called my headline of this group "Reviews",  I am ok with having couple bad reviews, I am even ok with being not a super host, I actually never been a super host before and I personally find it very difficult for me to hold this status and I also don't see how I can, for me it would be much easier to be not a super host, because I do not want all this extreme expectations from my guests which are attached to a super host status. I even believe here are many places which are better than mine and more luxury than mine. Mine is just a regular artist loft in brooklyn and not some polished loft in Manhattan, what many tourists probably would expect, after watching TV.  Speaking of the reviews and why it is for me important how people review, because I figured reviews attract the same type of people. Do you see I posted a review below, the guest was very nice, but what this review does to me is, I have now a wave of guests who claim I have a ghost in the guest room. I personally never seen a ghost in my entire life. I do feel like this review attracts local young people who believe I have a ghost here. One girl even goes that far, she wanted to show me where the ghost is in the room and she also says the ghost wants her to tell me ........ So I had maybe 4 guests after this ghost review, who develop this ghost hysteria. I personally don't care about ghost, if they have fun with it, fine to me. The point is, if anyone leaves me a review which will make them attend here with pepper spray or guns, that's bad. During covid I do not have tourist guests, my guests are local young people who make holidays from their parents. 

[Elisabeth40]

@Anonymous 

I am tired of hosting at the moment, it even doesn't make fun anymore. I need to move on and get myself a condo. That would be the best for me. It's just not what it was before or maybe I grew out of hosting in new york. I don't want to parent my guests. It's time to move on. In december 2019 I almost signed a new lease for a new place, but then I was very glad I didn't because I saw covid coming and the pandemic cost me all my savings, I am not american so I didn't got any unemployment money or other help. I do not experience fun hosting at the moment, I feel like I am too old for being a host in new york.  

[Colleen253]

@Elisabeth40 "I am tired of hosting at the moment, it even doesn't make fun anymore". Fair enough, sounds like it's been a rough go.

The pandemic has definitely changed the way we need to approach hosting. Even for those of us who don't home share, and list entire places. You could no doubt improve your experience by screening your guests instead of taking any and all comers. Best of luck to you, going forward.

[Ann72]

For four and a half pages I've been under the impression that someone walked into the host's bedroom and sprayed pepper spray straight at her while she slept.  Thank you, @Anonymous, for getting the facts sorted out.   I couldn't understand how this could be an accident.  Now it makes sense.  Distressing incident, @Elisabeth40.

[Elisabeth40]

@Ann72 and @Andre1  sorry for misleading, I was very upset about it, I must say, it did hurt me physically and emotionally, but no one walked into my room and sprayed into my face. I found it traumatizing to wake up like that and not understanding what's going on, I don't have any experiences with pepper sprays, I never got pepper spayed before and it was hart to asses what it was. 

[Elisabeth40]

@Dale711 

THANK YOU. And for now there is no other way as being selective obviously, sadly. 

[Gary-And-Rose0]

Always have first conversations prior to booking. Lots of questions. 

The moment they start to manipulate what your are offering it’s an immediate red flag. Can I park a boat in your driveway. Nope. We don’t want any pillows on anything we bring our own. Nope. It says no pets we have a very nice dog. Nope. It says no smoking can I smoke. Nope. 

I find anytime during initial conversation they suggest or manipulate it’s now a red flag after 65 stays and 4 years. 

all of my attempts to keep our 5 star rating and hard work is has been crushed by a first time stay. I only book ones with good reviews. We mostly get monthly stays. It’s not worth the stress and risk of losing our SUPERHOST