two negative reviews have basically put me out of "business." FIVE STAR ratings elsewhere!

[Jennifer94]

The first one was a group of college students.   TONS of emails back and forth about no drinking, ect.   I took a risk and they trashed my house and said there were "flea."    I sent Airbnb the photos and they paid me for damages/excessive cleaning.  Ouch.

Second guest was even worse.    Ya know the type that start building their "case."   He asked to check in early over Memorial Day.  Sure. Within a matter of an hour the photos started coming.   He said his kids were "sick" from the dust and bugs.   The house was professional  cleaned, but it had been unoccupied for a few weeks.    I told the guy I will find someone over the holiday weekend to come back and RE-CLEAN the place.   Photos continued to come and he contacted Airbnb after spending a night asking for ALL his money back.    Didn't matter that I did what I said and found someone to clean over the holiday weekend, be left the next morning.   I had to spend time with Airbnb since initially they gave him ALL his money back before they even talked with me (after a long convesation they charged him for the one night, but no cleaning fee).   He wrote me a horrible review.  

I have never recovered from this review.   It makes no sense if he was that detailed oriented why he would rent from me because I'm pretty sure he read the first crappy review.   

I know you can't take this stuff personally, but I did.   It hurt.   And this is how I help pay my bills.    Here's my question... I had a professional Airbnb photographer come out and the photos look GREAT.    But I honestly took the listing off because of the reviews.   Is there any way to "start over?"

Thanks for your help.

[Marcus0]

@Jennifer94 it´s tough.  Was there much truth in what both guests reviewed you on?  I can only assume that you do not live near the property and you have no way to measure how good the professional cleaning service is.  I do not know how many times we have had this problem, but because we live in the same neighbourhood we are able to pre-inspect the property before guests arrive.

I guess you also have to be very careful how you respond to these negative reviews online.  If you are seen as accepting and understanding, with a promise to fully resolve these matters, then it shows compassion.  But if you challenge it, potential new customers would find it hard who to believe.

My suggestion is to respond to the current review in a compassionate manner letting the past guest know you have taken their feedback on board and you will personally attend to any matters.  Re-assuring any new customers that you have attempted to be as accomodating as possible.

How do you do check-ins?  Do you have them collect keys from somewhere.  I really suggest a check-in person that IS NOT THE CLEANER.  This person needs to have a good eye for presentation and any seen problems.  This person can quickly attend to matters if need be so that every new guest is presented with a lovely property.  Even having this person meet them at check-out will make a whole lot of differene to making your property run smoothly.

The property looks great on the photos and i am sure you can recover quickly.  Before you know it these reviews will be pages away from the front of the listing.

I hope this has been of some comfort and help for the future.

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Hi @Jennifer94,

Did you check out this guests reviews before accepting him.  I am afraid you are probably not the only one he has affected.  I am also surprised that Airbnb is letting his review stay as usually if a guest cancels, they cannot review you but there seems to be no concensus on this.

[Ed-and-Hugh0]

I think the cancellation probably has a bigger impact than the reviews.