Do you allow guests to break house rules so they do not give you a bad review?

[Letti0]

I'm seeing a startling large pattern lately, especially since they changed the SuperHost qualifications on AirBnB. But it's not just here but on other hosting forums for other sites too. Hosts are over looking extra guests they can prove and not confronting their guests and letting them stay free when they clearly have a fee that should be paid. Guest check in way too early or check out way to late and they say nothing. Leave the place a total pigsty and they do nothing or say nothing. Guests bring vistors on to the property without permission; yet you look the other way. Allow the guest to control the environment, rather than the host this one is more related to shared homes than entire houses and appears to be happening to more and more hosts in the last 6 months or so. Guests asking for things you do not supply, but you go the extra mile and give it to them anyway to make them happy and it continues to happen again and again once you give in once. There's a lot more but those are the bigger ones. I been seeing a lot of. 

More than half of the hosts do not leave any reviews of the guests at all with the bad behavior out of fear of a retailory review. I have also noted that a lot of hosts do not actually understand the review process at all and think if they don't write one then the guests won't appear. Also that many host never leave a review for the guests good or bad. This is troublesome for a few reasons. One a guest rent out places from hosts that do not review at all and have issues renting with hosts that require reviews. Bad guest get to repeat bad behavior at another hosts place without any warning to future hosts. Some guests won't review a host that has not reviewed them first, the logic is if they can't bother I can't. 

For the first 10 reviews I let things slide a little, but not anything major. I also use the stategy of reviewing the guests immediately and usually get a review back within 1 to 24 hours, then I ask about the issues that came up on check out along with any costs involved if there were any there usually isn't, since it has to be a claim worth putting in the effort to get before I bother. This has been a very useful method, so far anyway. I am now at the point I will confront them during the booking stage or when they show up with extra guests issues, infants being paid for, vistors showing up, etc. Reviews be danged. I will not be abused or taken advantage of by my guests. I prove a great place with many extra amenties they will not find elsewhere for the most part. I let the place speak for it's self now. I understand all hosting styles are different, but why do so many hosts allow this abuse to go on and continue renting to the guest or guests and not get AirBnB or whatever site to cancel them and get rid of them? It just boggles my mind. 

The other thing I have noticed is very few hosts actually have rental agreements with their guests. I not only have the rental agreement I get a copy of the government ID. My guests do not really have an issue with this, out of all my guests on all the sites I list on only one has refused to sign it and return it. They cancelled. No big loss in my mind. Also surprisingly many hosts are not aware of the host and guests email's provided by AirBnB to send the rental agreement and ID back and forth via PDF and JPEG. 

So my question is are you one of the hosts allowing major House Rules to be broken for fear of a bad reviews and if so has it really stopped the bad reviews from bad guests? I personally don't see how it would, but I'd like to know what your actual experience has been.  

[Jessica-And-Ryan0]

You cant retrain human behavior, you can only retrain your own ability to gracefully handle adversity.  When running a business, you have to ask yourself "what is the upside" and "what is the downside" if you confront a customer?   Remember, they are not running a business (they are running a vacation)  and they dont feel vested in your five star reviews.  We are not running Hiltons or Disney properties.  However, the very best hosts will find a way to make the very worst guests feel important and happy after a stay.  Usually this means swallowing your pride and that is hard indeed.

[Sarah977]

@Jessica-And-Ryan0   I completely disagree with you. There is no reason for a host to "swallow their pride", allow themselves or their homes to be disrespected, or put themselves out trying to accommodate the demands and expectations of bad guests, or make "the very worst guests" feel important and happy. These are not the requirements of "the very best hosts".

The very worst guests already feel important, or they wouldn't act like that, and they are always happy when they get exactly what they demand. All you're doing is reinforcing their entitled behavior.

If you choose to host in that fashion, and reward nasty guests for their bad behavior by bending over backwards for them, that is your prerogative. But don't judge others to be less than the best hosts because they aren't willing to be disrespected or knock themselves out for unappreciative people.

Attitudes like yours explain why hosts end up getting horrible guests whose previous hosts gave them glowing reviews.

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 Well said. And let us not forget: Some of us traditional, non-commercial hosts are still sharing our HOMES. As in, our PRIMARY RESIDENCE that we pay mortgages on and all the other expenses that go along with home ownership and running a short term rental, including having to buy commercial insurance because Airbnb's 'Host Protection Guarantee' is more often than not a guaranteed headache.

I am happy to host; I am happy to go the extra mile for my guests (e.g., it is inexplicably muggy on the beach this week so I am running out to buy a stand up fan for our current Airbnb guests) but I am not willing to cater to entitled guests or guests who manipulate the system for their own benefit when I offer a 5 star environment that they can't even find at the resort next store, and they get this at less than half the price than the resort charges. 

I really wish that hosts here would stop imposing their own values, beliefs, and ways of doing things on other hosts in a manner that suggests a 'shaming and blaming' undercurrent, as in "If you did things the way that I do them,  you wouldn't be having these problems right now". I see this WAY too often here on these forums, and I find it somewhat annoying and tiresome. I have over 150 five star reviews and earned super host status the first month I opened. I run a tight ship, have boundaries, and my guests have no complaints. Even the guest I mentioned above gave me a 'rave review' upon check-out - Said it was the best place he has ever stayed in his life, and that we took hosting to a whole new level.

As the saying goes, "Without boundaries, there is no true freedom." Meaning, I refuse to be morphed into a codependent with no boundaries out of fear of displeasing my guests or Airbnb, as this serves no one in the end.

[Victoria567]

What’s your wee secret to making your very worst guests feel important and happy?....apart from several drams of good malt whisky?

I find that it’s the entitled guests, that no matter what you do for them, will never feel happy because they are too busy caring about their own self importance!

It’s ME ME ME as far as these ghastly types are concerned! Of course they don’t feel vested in anything or anyone else as all their efforts are fully vested in themselves.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Victoria567

I think the secret would actually be about how to screen for and avoid (at all costs) those types of entitled problem guests. Nothing in the world can help to make these types happy or satisfied because it is their life purpose to make others miserable and find something to complain about. 

[Yulianna0]

I found that extreamly polite and cold treatment is good for such guests. As soon as they start with their strange demands I transform myself from kind and caring person into cold robot. Surprisingly it worked. 

[Jessica-And-Ryan0]

I said nothing of giving a bad guest a good review.  (Prefer no review for a bad guest.)   I respect your view and standing up to a house rules viloation is definately not wrong of you.  Cheers!

[Letti0]

@Jessica-And-Ryan0  You are hurting other hosts by not giving an honest review of your bad guests. You are passing them on to other hosts when you could be giving them a heads up to warn against hosting them. As to your hosting style it's up to you to chose it, but you are one of the people I was referring to in my orginial post on this topic. You take all the crap from guest and do what ever it takes to make them happy and you do not leave reviews. You are causing issues for other hosts with these actions. I don't want your guests and most other hosts wouldn't either. You're not doing yourself or any of us other hosts any favors tolerating this because these entitled guests will be more demanding as time goes on, since you gave in they will expect to badger other hosts into doing it also. 

[Sarah977]

@Jessica-And-Ryan0    I cannot fathom showing more respect to horrible guests than to other hosts, who are working as dilgently as you are to run a successful business.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Jessica-And-Ryan0

The reason you got such a terrible nightmare of a guest is exactly because other hosts before you did the exact same thing you are doing now - not leave an honest review for bad guests. 

As a fellow host, please help to break the vicious cycle by leaving honest thimbs down and not recommend reviews. 

[Fiona309]

I wholeheartedly agree. I work 8-4, collect my children do an hour turnaround and inevitably the guest texts me all day asking where I am or they arrive bang in the middle of my children’s dinner or bedtime. I clearly state no early check in yet time and again I run a mile home and back in my lunch hour. This is making me want to give up

[Victoria567]

Hello @Fiona0

I was feeling like giving up a couple of weeks ago after a series of entitled guest bookings.

I now write in my description.

Check- in between the hours of 16:00 hours to 21:00 hours.

No check-in before 16:00 hours.

Check-out before 10:00 hours.

I had one couple appear at my door insisting they check- in at noon.

I politely reminded them that check-in was from 16:00 hours to 21:00 hours.

They stated they did not know and I replied it is clearly listed as check-in from 16:00 hours and that they could park their car outside on my drive whilst they explored the area.

The girl insisted on saying the bedroom and using the facilities and I politely refused sayingbthe room and bathroom were not cleaned or ready yet( number one rule in the hotel industry never let a guest see an unmade bedroom or dirty bathroom.....you will get slated for it)

So I sent them on their way.

I got a 5 star review but a private comment, that I was disorganised and did not give them a warm welcome!.....be warned, give an inch and take a mile and let air bnb totally take over your family life!

[Jessica-And-Ryan0]

My hat is off to all the hosts in this thread who are able to successfully put the guests in thier proper place and point thier faults.  The DMV also shares that approach, and they have millions of customers.    I did not realize my comment of serving the guests and forgiving guest mistakes would stir such controversy and make me the target of other hosts vitriol, and indeed, even the blame for thier own bad guests behavior.  It seems world class companies like Costco, Nordstrom, Hilton, Disney, Amazon, and all the other places I love doing business because of a customer first philosophy, are also to blame for all this entitled customer attitude we as hosts deal with.   Its unfortunate that one hosts' life philosophy of service and forgiveness makes them the named source of problems for other hosts.  I think there are many guests who wont return to airbnb because a host wouldnt extend a common kindness, or make an exception to a extenuating circumstance.  All these guests are people first.   Compassion and understanding is the core of successfully dealing with other people.  Anyone who hasnt tried the compassion, generousity and forgiveness style of life should try it a bit.  You'll be shocked at the sweet peace and harmony it brings.   It's my philosophy and I believe it make the world a better place and ones airbnb business more successful.

[Victoria567]

And there are many of who do not like doing business with Amazon, Hilton, Costco and the like.

They pay their staff minimum wages in appalling conditions including the company cultivation of a servile attitude that passes for customer service.

To top it off, they make sure they are registered in tax havens, so they pay the absolute minimum in taxes taking part, in elaborate tax avoidance schemes rather than pay their fare share of the tax burden, in the countries they operate in.

Again it’s all down to a difference in cultural  values.....one persons great service is another persons servitude.

[Victoria567]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/amazon-and-starbucks-take-reputation-hit-after-tax-...