Your home is clean but not super clean and left 1 star review!!!

[Josh270]

Recently I got a bad review from a "strange" customer. She's from the Netherlands so I suppose her English even better than mine. I have two listings, one is a private room and one is a single bed in the living room, the house locates in the middle of Melbourne CBD so you can imagine how expensive of the rent.

She booked one night in the living room. Even though, I state very clearly that there is me, maybe one more guest in the private room and one in the living room (in this case is her) but she left the review that she didn't expect there is someone in the house except the host. She paid only AUD35/night plus AUD10 cleaning fee and she expected she can "occupy" the whole space? So she left me "1 star" review for "inaccuracy".

Then she said my home is clean but not "super clean" and also 1 star. ^#$@#$@%%. Also she complained about the notes in the house. Since I'm working full time so I have to leave the notes so the guests know what to do when I'm not at home, is it a problem????

And again 3 star for communication because she blamed my listing is not correct, she didn't expect someone else in the house.

When she came, she washed all of her backpacker clothes after long days in different hostels and hand everywhere in my house, turn on the fan whole night to let it dry off quickly. Sometimes I don't understand some humans, especially come from the privillege countries like Netherlands. Can someone be a bit human being so this world can be a better world??

I have 70 reviews and all good but her review and attitude really let me down. I spoke to Airbnb 3 times and of course they do NOTHING and kept saying it's not violate the policy.

She's also the host on Airbnb, I hope she read this message and I hope one day you will have a similar guest at your place. I'm a Buddhist, I'm strongly believe in karma, trust me..

Her review:

"I slept here one night. The room was small but ok. There was another guest in this small place who i not expected.. i could use the bathroom, kitchen, washing machine and gym. That was all ok but in the house are everywhere papers with rules so its a real rental place. Josh is very friendly and nice person! Appartement was clean but not super clean.. its a cheap place for a overnight stay!" (1 star for accuracy, 1 star for cleanliness, 3 star for communication, the rest 5 star => overall 3 star)

[Robin4]

@Josh270

Yes Josh, it was her perception of the stay so Airbnb will not remove it.

I have said many times here on the community centre do not leave post-it notes around the place, it offends guests, they feel they are paying for the use of the space and do not want to be all the time confronted by things they are not permitted to do!

If you have things that guests are either permitted or not permitted to do, itemise them in bullet form in your listing description, they can't argue then because these items were there for them to see before they booked....not just something thrust on them when they arrive.

The second thing Josh, did you disclose to the guest before her arrival that there was also another guest in the listing space? If it was just some vague thing that you list two spaces in the listing description a guest may make note of it, or they may not, but sharing spaces is a really important thing for guests and it is really your duty to say before arrival that the other listing is also currently let so there will possibly be interaction with another guest.

I am not saying these things to criticize your Josh but you can see what happens when you 'spring' these things on an unsuspecting guest.....they will cane you in the review! She did speak well of you and gave you a five in some areas, just not the ones where you ambushed her!

All the best for the new year Josh.

Cheers......Rob

[Josh270]

Hi Rob,

Good point for the notes, maybe I should minimize it. But I got some fire alarms triggerred before due to the guest cooking when I was not at home. Or some guests just let all the hairs, beards into the sink and it stucked and I had to keep put more baking soda, wake up at 2-3am to put more boiling water so the guests can use the sink next day. I will try to remove some unnecessary ones then.

For the room, definitely I've mentioned clearly. There was 1-2 female guests change their mind after they checked-in but I was ok and refund full amount of money, I have no problem to do that. What made me really sad is I was really nice to her and I don't know why she could leave me a bad review even it's totally not true at all. And I feel Airbnb is just busy to collect money for every booking and don't care so much when the problem happened. 

Just now, there is one guest suppose to check in today but she missed the flight so she will come tomorrow. And I'm very flexible to alter her booking so she doesn't have to pay for tonight. I'm always trying to be a good host and being a good human but there are some people really make me down sometimes.

[Robin4]

@Josh270

Josh, I am sure you are a thoughtful and helpful host but, as you host for a while you get to understand the way guests think. You have to realise they don't see your property the way you do. Lots of things that are obvious to you are totally strange for them.

The main issue we are fighting though Josh is the review system! From the moment a guest leaves they get an email that says. 'Your stay with  xxxxxxx has finished, great, leave the host a review to say what you thought of your stay and let the host know what they can do better for future guests'! .....They are being coached to find a fault, find something wrong with the stay or the property. It is very hard to fight a company who are hell bent on being critical of their hosts! But for some obscure reason Airbnb excell at it!

Cheers......Rob

[Marilyn43]

It's all very well to list things in bullet-point, in your listing Robin, but I find that the guests who complain the most are the ones who have NOT READ anything on the listing. I had guests recently who complained about not being able to use my Spa bath, and that there was noTV (although I have a TV with DVD and 30 DVDs available for them) and taking their shoes off to enter (when this is a Buddhist household). All of these were in my listing and even though they admitted they'd read all these before booking, said they were still disappointed these things were not available. Privileged ENGLISH visitors. And by the way I am English by birth.

[Sandra126]

Josh is extremely clear in his description, she has clearly not read it. Fortunately you have heaps of reviews which average it out, also her review sits really low unless you search from the Netherlands. I can't see it at all, too far down. Geo-sorting!

Great place Josh, so cheap too. Good budget option for Melbourne travellers.

[Josh270]

Hi Sandra,

Thank you for checking out my profile and a very sympathize note. Actually I had a housemate before but we had a bit problem on the cleanliness so I decide to stay alone and list the room on Airbnb instead. The living room one half for Airbnb to offset the bills and half for couchsurfing. As a traveller, I did try my best to assist many guests and treat them as a friend. But then I realize that being too nice to some people end up might hurt myself a lot. However it won't stop me for being who I am. The review only let me down for few weeks, I hope other guests can be better. And I hope your listing is working well too. I went to Daylesford last year to volunteer for a LGBT event, love the place.

[Sandra126]

I was a Chillout volunteer last year as well! Visit again! Lots of great accommodation...

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Josh270

 guest who arrive unhappy and angry will stay and leave unhappy and angry ... and will blame his host for his miserable stay and life in general.

@Robin4you are inhouse host and you don't need notes all over the place . We are off site hosts and need them . A lot of them 😞  I hate notes and restricted the number of them as much as I could but, belive me, I will have to put few more and with big bold letters. To have those informations in our listings if faaaar from enough and even having house manual on the table doesn't help a lot. Nobody reads it.

For example we got a review few weeks ago saying "Hot water is restricted,, we couldn't shower in cold water..."   This guest is not the first one who didn't know how to operate the simple faucet and to wait 30 sec until the hot water arrives from the water heater through the pipes to the faucet. Those guests are usually from Australia na USA . So, I will have to print "faucet user manual" with a picture and tape it on the wall in the bathroom. 

We also have a note on the main door where it says "always lock this door with a key" but still 1 of 10 our guests don't lock it. Without a note - 1 of 10 didn't lock it.

We have a note "please don't wipe the floor and dirty items with bath towels" and since we put it in the bathroom we don't have heavy stained towels any more. Before - we had to throw away at least 2 towels per week 😞

So, what am I trying to say - notes are necessary , too many people don't use a common sense nowadays ... Instructions are written in our hause manual but nobody reads it.

And yes, 300 reviews and just one guest wrote he was irritated with our notes.. Good, as we wouldn't like to host him again anyway 🙂

[Josh270]

Thank you for your sharing. I guess my guest has a limit budget and high expectation and she lives in a small city in Netherlands with big house and big yard. She said Melbourne is too big for her even compare to Asia, Melbourne is so tiny city. So i understand she expects a big place with that small budget but it's not gonna happen in the city center in Australia where is the rent like New York or London and minimum hour rate here is AUD18.9/hour so everything super expensive for travellers. 

Regarding the note, the smoke alarm was triggered twice when I was not at home and luckily the fire truck didn't come cos it was stopped after few minutes. In Australia if they fire truck comes, we have to pay AUD3,500 for their trip, I'm not kidding but many of them don't know much about living cost here so they feel like I'm joking or being difficult.

I have guests use face towels to clean her shoes too 🙂

Back to this guest, I guess you are right. Maybe she didn't happy or angry with something, she said my bathroom was not clean and leave only 1 star but ignore the whole house cleanliness. Even she was not tidy to wash all of her clothes.

Another guest of mine was drunk or something and "pee pee" inside the bathtub, horrible experience to clean his mess. 

[Yulianna0]

@Josh270, may be to ask her to come and to give you a master class in cleaning? And you will inspect her work as she did:) People are not reading, even not looking at the pictures... very common and frustrating 

[Clara116]

@Josh270 sorry you got the 1 stars and 3  and that it really upset you. You mentioned you were upset on another guests review and so you draw extra attention to that. You might not do that again in the future. Maybe you thought that would be private - but, it is public, sorry. 

I was totally on your side and feeling bad for you until I looked at your listing. I am Sorry but I am confused. It is NOT clear - and think many people do NOT speak English as a native language and you use all the negative expressions in writing -  it is NOT - well, that is confusing when translated into some languages. Also, your pictures do NOT show me EXactly where my couch is - they show all the great pool, gym even a bedroom. Yes, the title says it.....but, So I would be confused. I wish I could say differently but I can not. And we all know that when looking at places we have about 8 seconds for them to flip through photos and pick the one. Your photos are fabulous for that super cheap price. - I would charge way more for a private bedroom as compared to sleeping on a couch. And the washing machine is generous of You and people will abuse that priveledge for sure. It doesn't raise the value for some people. They are brainless.

You are a very kind host. That is obvious and sensitive and I hope this will help you realize that folks can be not so sweet - try your best not to take this personal. I know it is hard. Your kindness would be loved by people like me. BUT many will not appreciate all the generous you do. Just be proud that you are so and don't expect them to get it. 

I would only show pics to truly demonstrate what they sleep on - how it is for the couch surfer.  That's my honest take on everything. Understand PEOPLE do NOT read listings....most people. So pretend you are searching for a bed. DO NOT read anything and shop by photos alone - I bet you would pick your place. I would. 

@Robin4 does have it right - folks don't read - Maybe if it was on Facebook or Instagram they'd read about the stuff - but on notes and such. I think not - Even house manuals sitting right there with all the info.....HOW to make the A/C turn to HEAT..........nope - they don't read or contact and just push buttons and shut it all off. 

May all your guests be better - plus your reviews have all been so good, its a clean ding - but that will go away soon. 

It happens just don't draw extra attention to her negative review and focus on the next GREAT guests. all the best, Clara

[Josh270]

@Clara0 thank you for sharing. Actually I tried to delete my post but I don't know how to delete once we posted on Airbnb Community :). And yes, my English writing is not that good and I did use some negative expressions, I didn't use google or something to translate it. I wrote it after all frustration with some guests so maybe I will re-write a bit nicer. Also thank you for the notes regarding the photos.

[Sarah977]

@Josh270  A few ideas for you- instead of post-it notes all over the place, which can look messy and offend some guests (What, does he think his guests are idiots? Well, actually yes, they've proven themselves to be), go to the second hand store or a dollar store and pick up some small picture frames Then print out instructions for various things, put those in the frames and hang the frame near the thing they need to know about. You can paint the frames in bold colors, use fonts that are bold and easy to read and use some graphics on them to draw attention, people are drawn to visuals and pictures, but not so much to writing.

For the sink drain that you have to keep cleaning out and unplugging- get a small mesh sink strainer. I have one in my guest room sink and that works well. You just need to clean it out on a daily basis, otherwise it's  gross, but it will save you having to clear the drain. (of course don't clean it by washing the hairs down the sink, I take mine out in the yard and hose it out outside.

I didn't look at your listing, but if, as Clara suggested, you might improve the English (it's admirable that you didn't use Google translate- it's notorious for mangling translations) maybe you have a friend who is articulate and fluent in English who can give you a hand with that?

 As for your guest- I used to be married to a Dutchman- as they say "You can always tell a Dutchman, but you can't tell him much." (told to me by him and other Dutch, they seem to be proud of it and think it's funny). 

[Thomas1033]

@Josh270  hi this is Yvonna cohost with Thomas.  My mother is directly from the Netherlands so trust me when I say this.  The “Dutch” are picky beyond belief even though so many like she have lived in less than stellar homes and boy do they like to complain.  Try not to take it personally.  Thankfully it hasn’t completely rubbed off on me!  Lol