1st time hosting with difficult dirty guests...

[Rachel2063]

Hi, My husband and I just started our Air BnB and our first guests were listed with 4.5 stars (but little profile info and never responded to our messages). However, after only one nights stay, they trashed the place (literally trash and food all over the house...). We found cigar ashes all over side table and food stains on bedspread. Already used s*x toys in dresser drawers... It took us 4 hours to clean an 1000 square foot house. They entered the house and hour before check in. The day of check out we had to wake them up 2 hours after the check out time and politely asked them to leave as we had new guests in 3 hours.

What do we do? Leave a polite but not so great review? We don't want to look bad since it is our first guests! But we don't want other guests to be burned. I was tempted to request an extra cleaning fee but I should not cause trouble the first time around, right?!

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Rachel2063  Sorry this was your first experience. But it gives you a lot to look at and change as far as vetting and dealing with guests.

Star ratings mean very little. They are subjective and you have no idea why they were given. Written reviews are more informative. A guest who doesn't answer your messages is a red flag. Don't just ignore that. 

If a guest has scanty information, ask them for more. If they don't answer, try texting them, asking them to respond to your Airbnb message. If they still don't respond, contact Airbnb to say you are uncomfortable with the booking and ask if they can please do a neutral cancelation with no penalties to you. 

How did the guests manage to enter an hour early? What is your check-in  system? 

A check-out time reminder sent the evening before is a good idea. Do not allow guests to stay anywhere near 2 hours past check-out time. 

If you are using Instant Book, turn it off so you have an opportunity to communicate with guests before deciding whether to accept or not, at least until you gain some experience. 

Do not take one night or last minute bookings.

Absolutely leave an honest review. Don't concern yourself with being polite- these guests were certainly not at all polite. Just be professional, state the facts- Guests did not respond to any of your messages, disrespected check-in and check-out times, left a huge mess behind that required extensive cleaning time. Not recommended. 

Who are you afraid you'll look bad to by leaving an honest review? The review will be posted on the guest's profile, not yours. Future guests won't see it. And other hosts will definitely appreciate you warning them. And I sure wouldn't give a thought to "looking bad" to those awful guests. Also guests can't see the star ratings you leave them at all, so slam them on those. 

You have a lovely home, how awful that the guests trashed it. It's unclear from your listing description whether you live in the  same building, or next door? If you are on-site hosts, mention that prominently  in your listing info. Guests with ill-intent tend to avoid places where the hosts are nearby. And be aware that bad guests target new listings, assuming the hosts are inexperienced and they'll be able to get away with things, so you'll have to be vigilant. There are threads on this forum that discuss red flags to watch out for. Do a search for "red flags".

Make sure your price isn't so low that you are attracting riff-raff. Never follow Airbnb's pricing tips- they are ridiculously low. 

[Rachel2063]

Really appreciate you taking the time to answer with such detail! We will move forward with your advice. We are not on site hosts, but do live close by. We have keypad entry with a timing decide that allows entry at certain times.  However, I believe we may have allowed the code to work before the official time ...which we will now fix! 

[Anonymous]

@Rachel2063 

Guests staying a little longer might at least keep the home tidy enough for their own comfort, but one-nighters have no such incentive. When you look at the ratio of work you put in to the income they generate, they're just not worth it.

Lots of great suggestions from @Sarah977  there on how to prevent these situations, and that short factual review is just right. But when it comes to cleanliness, you have to do your part to get across expectations too. Your House Rules can include instructions for food and trash removal, which you can reiterate in your checkout reminder the night before departure. The no-smoking rule should be accompanied by a note on where the nearest place guests may smoke is. And while soiled linens and awkward evidence of sex are things you'll have to live with, you can ask that food only be consumed in the designated dining areas. (Once again, the more effective solution is to increase your minimum stay - people are more careful not to get the sheets super nasty if they have to sleep in them longer).

[Rachel2063]

Thank you for your specific response! We did list the no smoking rule, but will make sure to have it on site as well!

[Marg11]

Cheered me up as after a 2 day stay we shouldn't have allowed. Not dirty just called a racist!

He had 2 previous poor reviews out of 4 but we thought we would give him a chance. He left early and although we were up he didn't come to say he was leaving and his companions hadn't heard or read our house rules.

They had to be asked to strip the beds and hand over towels for washing when due to leave. Yes, in our house rules as we are in our 70s and in return offer cheap stays.

Hubby had to wrap food rubbish and removed copious water bottles with water and caps on, left in the landfill bin. Then he has to remove food and more water bottles from recycling bin. Bottles and cans go in our charity bin empty and without lids which are recycled separately. We even have our city rubbish illustrated instructions on the fridge.

Mostly while staying they sat on our verge lawn vaping which we found odd in our conservative neighbourhood. We wonder if they were also using drugs and there were lots of cigarette filters in the recycling too. 

However, I coped until these disrespectful guests suggested I was racist, against whom I don't know, as they are French. We have friends and acquaintances from all around the world plus have hosted guests of all races and religions.

After contacting 'Airbnb 'Help they tried to phone me while I was showing our next guests our flat so I haven't heard if they are going to look into this. I have written a negative review and as the last guest to leave threatened to leave us a negative review I expect I'll contact 'Help' again and see what happens.

Still feeling very shocked and abused.

[Sarah977]

@Marg11  I'm so sorry you had to deal with this. What jerks. I no longer believe in giving some complete stranger who others have said were no good, a "chance". It's one thing to put up with some jerky family member once in awhile, but strangers? Forget it- I owe them nothing.

Were these guests white? If so, how could you be "racist" against them anyway? French isn't a race, it's a nationality. 

[Marg11]

@Sarah977 Once a teacher always a teacher hoping to help people grow up. However, this is the worst I've had bitten after years as a nurse, public servant, chalkie and volunteer. Just arrogent males who possibly immigrated to France but yes, white. If they had been otherwise I'd have asked some of my African friends to drop by. 

Still upset but waiting to see if they write Airbnb a 'racist' review then I will really complain.

Thanks for the sympathy.

[Sarah977]

@Marg11  I have to agree with Andrew that your response is entirely inappropriate and makes you look bad. You should ask to have it removed asap.

A response is not another opportunity to review a guest. You already did that. A response should only  address what is written in the public review, which in this case is a very positive review which required no response at all.

Everything you wrote in that response is what should have only been in private feedback to the guest if you felt it necessary, and far more concisely, not every detail of what his friends did wrong. 

I also find your review to be extremely nitpicky and if I were a guest reading that, I would not book with you. It's one thing to simply say that the guests left the place in a state that required extensive cleaning, but "there was a water bottle under a bedside table?" Seriously? That sounds so petty and quite frankly, crazy for a host to complain about.

And I am also confused- you affirmed that the guest was white, but he is obviously not, unless he used someone else's profile photo.

[Anonymous]

@Marg11 I don't know or care whether you are racist, but the guest you're referring to is quite visibly non-white. I can't begin to understand why you felt the need to write a long, rambling negative public response to his positive review. It only makes prospective guests think you're angry and unstable. 

I guess if the rules require guests to strip the beds, they should do that, but honestly it doesn't really make sense to demand that in the first place. It doesn't save you any cleaning time, and it makes it harder to inspect for stains and damage. 

[Dave1074]

Bad guests and scammers target new hosts.  Read up now and stop learning things the hard way. Forget about extra cleaning money - you won't get it. 

They deserve a bad review, so write one and save it until day 14 of the review period.  If you don't know about this yet, read up on it - be a prepared and well-read host. 

Write something like, "Terrible Guests!  Smoking!  Left our place FILTHY!  Stains all over linens and floors!  Poor communication and very late Checkout.  

Make SURE to hit NO for "Would you host again".  Give them 1 STARS FOR EVERYTHING.