Booking enquiry by guest who had bad review

[Dora149]

Hi fellow hosts,

I had a booking enquiry by a guest who had one very negative review with host stating that "the property needed redecorating after the stay".

All other reviews for this guest are however positive. It is impossible to contact the host to request more infos as the property has currently no free dates available.

I am obviously concerned but also tempted as this booking request is for a long-term stay.

What would you do to assuage your fears? In the event of me accepting this booking and it being a negative experience, has anyone dealt with the Airbnb claims process and how did it go? How difficult is it to make a claim and get it settled?

Thank you for your time and advice.

Best Wishes

Dora

[Sarah977]

@Dora149  Sorry, I was wrong (see my replies to @Susan151 below). I may have been confusing the fact that guests need to put in dates to send an Inquiry, even if they don't actually want those dates, with what appears to be a reality that you can only input dates that are available. 

However, I have read several posts here lately from hosts confusd as to why a guest was able to send a Request for dates that were already booked. But that might just be some Airbnb calendar glitch.

[Dora149]

Hi

sorry my fault for wording wrong. It was a booking request, so I had to reply.

I don't offer Instabook anymore as my property is listed on other pages as well and i need to avoid double bookings. So hence I had to decline.

I only found out by chance that they would be bringing a child - cheekily they "forgot" to mention the child. I saw that it was 1 adult and 1 child on previous bookings they did so I asked..

Best Wishes

Dora

[David6]

Just had a 5 day booking and was concerned as 4 or so good reviews and then 1. ‘Smoked in my flat.’ 

So I contacted guest,  and he absolutely assured me this would not happen. I felt reassured, as this was now documented on the Airbnb messaging thread.

And the apartment was left really perfectly at checkout. Sometimes things go wrong and maybe the guest learnt from it? 

[Sarah977]

@David6  Wow, nice to read that you had a great guest, rather than all the bad ones you have to decline 🙂

[David6]

@Sarah977  Funny 🙂

i have another business Sarah with other listings across all platforms. So 9 listings in total. 21 rooms and many 1 night stays,  so as you can imagine it’s a lot of guests per week! And law of averages   *some* are problematic (as I maybe host more per 1 week, than some hosts do in 6 months?) .

But if you ever have time, read my reviews. 650+ and nice compliments and a superhost for several years. All is good 🙂

I actually didn’t post on this community for 3 years 🙂 as find the subliminal back biting a little naff & boring TBH.