A plea to all hosts

[Tania-and-Andrew0]

Hello all!

Over and over again I keep finding posts of hosts asking for advice after a negative experience and if they should or not give a bad review. 

Here is my plea: PLEASE, do not hesitate to leave a bad review. Airbnb is a growing community and more often than not guests do not even know they will be graded upon their stay. We need to protect each other, especially hosts that do not share the space with guests are in even more danger from abusive people.

I know it's hard to speak ill about someone you just shared your space with and probably had nice times. Guests can and will request reviews to be deleted if they get too heated and personal. Just make sure you remain neutral, straight and to the point. Especially the key phrase "I would not welcome them back nor recommend to any hosts".

I have had bad experiences with guests that are new to Airbnb or, if they are not, they still think you're a hotel and expect the same service. This is why I put something like "the guest did not follow our house's rules, he/she would be a better fit to a hotel or at a place that has little to no rules. I would not welcome him/her back". If they are new you can just say "guest was new to the Airbnb experience, was a really nice person but did not really get the hang of this. Probably with more Airbnb experiences this could improve" and give personal feedback of the does and don'ts of staying as an Airbnb guest.

Please, PLEASE, always leave an HONEST review. PLEASE.

Thank you.

[Jeanette37]

Wow!  That's some serious problem you've got/had there.  What you've done as a result is probably the right approach as you certainly don't want to "set him off".

[Barbara175]

@Deborah1 How can you warn hosts if the reviews are only published if host AND guest write a review?

[Kelly149]

@Todd-and-Reese0 It is totally immaterial if they will review you or not. Your review of them stands alone. They cannot see what you write until after their review is written or the 14 day period expires. 

Write the review. Please. 

[Kjesten0]

This is my understanding also. I believe that true and objective reviews help us all to prevent many of the unacceptable behaviours being repeated.

[Kjesten0]

Sorry, objective reviews.

[Kjesten0]

A couple of weeks ago I had guests who disregarded the house rules in relation to check out and not smoking. They also left rubbish including food throughout the suite. However my main complaint was that the profile photo was not of the guest a male but that of a young female. I felt this was unacceptable. My feedback was negative but objective because I believe that had other hosts given true feedback I would not have accepted these guests.

[Tania-and-Andrew0]

Hello @Kjesten0,

You should also report this to Airbnb as it was probably a third-party booking. Please contact them and flag their profile.

[Cheryl109]

Ok, how do you contact AirBnB?

[Kathryn100]

please tell if you ever find out. My ad says £60 though actual price is less most of the time. I don't know why or how you make them put it right.

[Cheryl109]

I just would appreciate some customer service as a host and as a guest!  First, I have been receiving somewhat threatning emails from AirBnB automated support that one of my guests are having problems checking in.  Well...this was the host that we had a problem with as guests.  My boyfriend & I recently did a road trip to Texas, USA.  One of the stops, Austin, TX, had great communications with the host, but upon showing up at the appointed time, we were greeted with a very non-friendly woman.  My boyfriend, with all support, said no.  They have a strict policy, but it felt as though they might be taking advantage of that.  I would just like to get this straightned out as I have a great record so far and it would be devestating to me to have something like this to destroy my hard work and passion.  I'll post as soon as I ever find out how to actually get a hold of them.

[Rachael26]

@Cheryl109

There is a contact telephone number on your reservation email. There is a phone number and an email on your host dashboard. There is a list with over 30 countries and the telephone number for each one on the Airbnb site. There is a helpful guide on how to contact Airbnb that was written by host experts Dave & Deb last year. There is a search box - which if you type in 'Contact Airbnb' the answer and lots of info and posts magically appears. Next time you see a contact tel number - put it in your phone so you don't have any delays.

Twitter works best (@airbnbhelp) as well as Facebook.

If you remember that this is an international company with over a million guest and hosts on any given day - so using the telephone will always be a bit hit and miss - and one method that Airbnb hopes will only be used for the emergency and urgent issues.

Best Wishes.

[Jo133]

You go to the price settings and set the price. Not the calendar, the the pricing tab. You might have set £60 as the base price.

[Jeanette37]

Hi Kjesten.  Yes, I'd be reporting them to Airbnb and having them flagged.

[Joanna85]

I host a lot of people who have no reviews and am happy to leave reviews for them because I notice in the Community Forum there are LOTS of hosts who won't accept someone without a review, which is a shame because there are a lot of good people out there who are looked over because they are first timers to Air Bnb.  

What I struggle with lately is that I have had hosted many guests- enough to rate a good one, a bad one, and a difficult one.  I just had a guest who had glowing reviews from other hosts but for me, they might have been one of the worst guests we've hosts so far.  Was it me or them or did they have a situation before they arrived???  I don't know...lol  Would other hosts write good reviews when the person wasn't a good guest?!   But she had GLOWING reviews besides mine, so maybe there's something wrong with me lol...or maybe she was like this at her other stays and the hosts lied in fear of a bad review.  Either way, I would have prefered to read honest reviews about the guest so I could see it wasn't just my experience of that person.  I feel that if the person is going to leave a bad review, they are going to leave one, so just let the chips fall.  It is not a big deal to get a bad review once in a while..I host enough that for me, one won't make or break me because there will be ten good reviews to go above the bad one. However, I would like all hosts to be honest...I don't think a guest cares as much as a host about a review.  

[Emma94]

@Joanna85 I think it's not the review that ruin hosts. It's the star rating that can drag you down from being a 5 to a 4.5. Then the nasty auto message from Airbnb telling to you to fix it or they will ban your account. This is why everyone mainly hosts need to stop acting professional and let it loose. Write as much detail as possible when you have a bad guest don't leave out anything.