Difficult guest

[Catherine1718]

We have a guest arriving in two days time - I’ve already had 43 messages from him asking questions - most are already on our listing. For the first time in three years I’m not looking forward to hosting. 

[Catherine1718]

With still a day to go to their stay our guest asked another question - this time about local phone numbers for local taxi companies. I said his questions were worrying me - and asked ‘have you been away from home before and do you have a smart phone’? But I did give him numbers. I’ve now been accused of offending him by being ‘passive aggressive’ - I expect we will get our first ever bad review 

[Cathie19]

The difficulty here @Catherine1718 , is that this guest has an issue of some sort or other.

If I had seen this on 6/8/21 I’d have given this advise:

They are now suggesting you are being passive aggressive? I’d be contacting AIrbnb and suggesting truthfully, that you do not feel safe for this guest to be in your home, now that they have openly been negative to you. They may have your address, but not your keys. I’d suggest the cancellation takes place before they arrive, cancel then review.

But as I’m seeing this 10/8/21, may I send you positive thoughts and wish you all the best. Please do ensure you document everything. If you need to change the locks after, so be it.  If the stay turned out okay, what brought about the change?
Please also let us know how things are….

🙌🏼. My dad use to have a saying which is very apt:

“Better an empty house than a bad tenant.” 

I also have a few other thoughts:

-   You were querying this guest’s communication, so your gut was already raising red flags…..
Remember: Stay true to your instincts and gut feelings, for they are rarely wrong.
The few where you may be wrong, are unknown and wearable…….

-   You are a great and caring host with excellent reviews that will hold against any outlier, which might or might not  come your way - to fight, or leave. Be kind on yourself, not just your guests. 

-   You are the boss of your own space

-    Don’t doubt yourself in the future…… 💐

[Catherine1718]

Thanks - the guests did stay. They didn’t ask many questions once they were here - but they didn’t seem to know basic Airbnb etiquette. They made no effort to leave the place clear and there was a used condom under the bed. Ugh! I didn’t review their stay as I didn’t want a bad review back that would ruin our unblemished record 

[Brian2036]

@Catherine1718 

Please consider leaving a short, factual review.

They can't see your review until they post one of their own. If they're ignorant they may not know enough to write one.

If you don't want them to leave a review, just wait until the last minute of the 14th day after they checked out and they won't be able to leave one.

The rest of us really need to be made aware of guests like this, and if they don't get the reviews they deserve we won't have any warning.

[Kath9]

@Catherine1718, I totally agree with @Brian2036 here. You should always review guests because, as I've said time and again, we hosts only have each other to rely on. This terrible guest has now been inflicted on other unwitting hosts. Guests cannot see your review until they have left one themselves. If they do leave a bad review, you have the chance to leave a public response.

[Emilia42]

@Catherine1718 Do you have any reason to believe this guest would give you a bad review? You do know that reviews are blind so the guest in no way can be influenced by your review. On the flip side, a guest can still write a host a bad review whether the host leaves the guest a review or not. 

[Tracy608]

I like to ask for advice in hosting with a difficult guest syndrome too.

I he turned up with extra guest I as a new host asked Airbnb they said I had to add it on not them. Which means I accepted the guest. However the price was reduced for extra guest. I really had no idea. Then the guest abused me at the door as there was extra fee. I was in shock as it was late and intimidated. 

I rang Airbnb again they said it's fine. I said no. 

Then I asked if he paid what amount as I was on my phone needed to know what was going on. Airbnb support person told me the guest was in arrears but however it went through at that price on the listing it was double. 

So that not my fault. So Airbnb told me they rectify it.

But guest refused got angry and disturbing other guest. Then Airbnb told me I had option to move them or cancel them due to this issue. 

But in morning Airbnb said no they had rights to stay they paid this reduced rate by mistake. What.