Guest/Host safety (COVID guidelines by Government) V/S A Guest that complains about closed common areas & why restrictions are being imposed

[Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0]

Which should be given preference (amongst the things in the title). If a guest asks to access the kitchen OR not wear a mask despite Govt. guidelines & our own sane thinking telling us to follow COVID safety protocol, then, do I satisfy my guests demand by putting other guests in jeapordy & attracting a Govt. penalty OR do I politely tell the guest that the Govt. guideline restricts us from allowing you to use the kitchen & mandates you to wear a mask & satisfy his request by cooking him a meal by myself.

[Anonymous]

@Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0  Airbnb guests do not have the privilege of making any demands in your home. If they don't wish to abide by your rules and restrictions, or obey the local laws, the best solution for everyone involved is that they terminate their booking and stay somewhere that suits their needs better.

[Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0]

@Anonymous Exactly ! This question came out of a recent experience I had with a booking wherein my local Govt. passed a notice to all homestays/hotels that guests should not be allowed in common areas due to a 2nd wave of COVID in my area. So, naturally I communicated the same to my guest on checkin & offered to cook them meals or heat/store their stuff anytime in lieu of closing direct access to the kitchen. They were more than happy with my gesture, kept giving positive feedback all throughout the stay, hence I had no reason to terminate. Then their stay ends & they put out a review saying that access to amenities (kitchen & laundry - for which they didn't even enquire and is free of charge with the room) was restricted & gave me a 3 star rating with a 1 star in value, while mentioning that they were blown away with my care, hospitality & found the place to be excellent & worth recommending to friends/family. When I clarified to the guest that the restriction was not in my control, but a local temporary guideline, he apologized & asked me to have the review removed with his approval. BUT, upon forwarding this request to Airbnb, they gave the stupidest reply, that since this is just one negative review, amongst 70 something highly positive ones, just ignore. Whereas I am about to loose my superhost status just cause of this 1 negative review (that too not cause of anything I did, but cause of COVID, safety & govt. enforcement). Is this fair ? How can I possibly challenge this ... The guest is in my favor, but Airbnb somehow doesn't care.

[Anonymous]

@Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0  Superhost status is not a meritocracy, and it's not designed to be "fair." The entire point of all of these arbitrary rating systems and status markers is to manipulate you - as the owner of the actual inventory - into being submissive to the listing service and overindulgent of your guests. Neither of those habits is in your best interests as a host. 

Over time you'll find that Airbnb will try to pressure you into a lot of things that aren't in your best interests - pushing prices below market rate, activating Instant Book, accepting inappropriate requests, tolerating rule-breaking - because it benefits their bottom line. That's just how Americans do business: they signal superficial virtue while pulling rank and screwing over anyone in sight. But the fact is, you're the client using their product for your business, and if they're not serving your needs, you can take it elsewhere. Every time you try to challenge a rating, all you really do is reinforce the idea that we're all just gadgets that can be controlled with primal anxieties. 

When you find yourself feeling emotional about information you've received through the Airbnb platform, never forget that they've deliberately designed the system to prime you to feel that way. You're a hospitality professional, and yielding to this manipulation is beneath your skill set.

[Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0]

@Anonymous - Wow ! You've bluntly translated what I felt while dealing with Airbnb support. It was seriously surprising for me to see that the host & guest both were in agreement to remove the review, as it was not a correct description of the real experience, but Airbnb just goes ahead and says "we know you're right and resonate with your issue, but lets not do anything about it". LOL !

[Sarah977]

@Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0  Not all hosts agree with doing this, or feel comfortable with it, but as a home share host myself, who has quite a bit of interaction with guests, as it seems you do, I try to have an Airbnb review discussion with guests at some point during their stay. I don't do this with all guests, for instance if they only stay a short while, or keep to themselves, or if they are veteran Airbnbers and already understand how reviews work.

 But with those I might sit around and have coffee or share a bottle of wine with, at some point some Airbnb discussion takes place. I might ask them about their previous Airbnb experiences, or they might start talking about it themselves.

For me it has to be within the context of a natural flow of conversation-I would never pointedly tell guests I would like a 5 star review. Instead I mention what I really feel about star ratings- that they are so subjective as to be useless, that neither host nor guest knows why that rating was given, and that I think there should only be written reviews. In the context of that conversation, it's easy to let guests know that Airbnb considers anything less than 4.7 to be a fail and that hosts lose Superhost status for anything less than 4.8.

What I can tell you is that all of my guests have been shocked when I tell them that. They have no idea how ratings affect hosts, and most guests have no intention to hurt a host. They ask why Airbnb tells guests that 4*s is "Good", if they don't consider it good as far as hosts are concerned, to which I say "That's a question guests should be asking Airbnb".

Guests don't like being led to think that they are leaving a good rating, if it isn't, anymore than hosts like receiving them.

And I can guarantee you that the guests I've clued into this don't leave 3 or 4 star ratings anymore for places and hosts they liked and where they would happily stay again- they simply didn't know a 3 or 4* rating could have a bad effect.

Airbnb tells guests 3*s means "met my expectations". There really shouldn't anything wrong with meeting expectations, but there sure is when it comes to Airbnb and hosts.

[Tarunbir-ਸਿੰਘ0]

@Sarah977 - I understand what you're saying, and I do explain the review system BUT only to people who don't drop me a review by the 7th day with the assumption that they didn't understand the feedback system. BUT I personally don't feel comfortable asking the reviewer to drop me a 4-5 star review which would implies I did good. I do this in a more subtle way by asking the guest of how we're doing & if they have any negative feedback/issues every few days of their stay & instead fix the issues (this has worked for me till date).

In the above mentioned case, I encountered a booking wherein 2 issues happened

1. The booker/reviewer didn't stay with us.

2. The guest who stayed with us gave us highly positive feedback, but then the reviewer just pointed out everything negative that was already catered to & later even apologized for their act, cause he realized that 3 actually is not "met my expectations" but is "bad" & he judged me too harshly cause they actually loved the stay.

I certainly wouldn't have cared, but Airbnb bluntly threatened me with an email saying we're disabling your property for 5 days & dropping your rank which will prevent you from getting booked cause of 1 negative (un-intentional/mis-guided) review by a 1st time booker.

I even received another reply from Airbnb today saying you should have communicated the govt. guideline prior to the booking to the booker, whereas I already informed them that I got the guideline on the morning of the guest's checkin. They are just being silly with their responses. I just want to understand the hesitation to act, whats preventing them.