Guest issue

[Kimberly624]

Good morning, I currently have a guest who, a couple hours after arrival opened the windows to the tiny cottage. In my house book at the site, I ask them to read the tagged page, ask guests not to open the windows but rather adjust temperature to their comfort level.  The guest thought this rule or request was ridiculous and proceeded to open the windows. One window does not stay latched and therefore he complained about that. Another window he stated the blinds were broken and would not go all the way up. After much back and forth on the site he asked for a phone call which I gladly accepted. What proceeded was her rant about how it is ridiculous that I don't allow guests to open windows. He continued to repeat this even though I told him that he could open the windows but please close them when he leaves the house. He told me it would have been a deal breaker if he knew this prior so I am now going to update my listing to include this information prior to any bookings. I have never had this issue prior. I offer to refund him and find him and do place to stay in my area. He did not want to go through that.  I had my handyman go to the house but not much can be done for a window that doesn't latch. I gave my guest a $50 credit back for his inconvenience.  Once that happened he thanked me and said he's going through some medical issues and semi-apologized for his behavior. I was empathetic; people lash out or get upset more easily when they don't feel well.  My concern is my rating.  Should I ask him if he intends to give me a poor rating, or just move on ?  I work hard to maintain a strong rating and stay in top 5% of listings.  I'm not sure I can give him higher than a 4.  He has 7 other ratings, all 5 star, so this must be an isolated incident.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Kimberly624 

To me it sounds like you handled the situation well!

Some things I can think of:

1. Just to be safe, I wouldn't ask for a positive review in the Airbnb message thread - conversations are "read" and (mis?)interpreted by bots. I don't know whether it would count against you at all if you did, just saying that I wouldn't 😀. Things that count against us are often not seen by us, they may just push us a little bit lower in search rank.
2.  If you do decide to mark the guest down, note guests can see the review that you write, but not the stars (even after both reviews are published, the guest view doesn't show stars).
3. For the future, I'm not sure about this part "not much can be done for a window that doesn't latch". It may be true while there's an irritated guest inside the listing, but given enough time between guests, it should certainly be fixable. (As for the blind, they do tend to break and curtains are usually more guestproof)

[Paula]

Sorry to hear about this situation, @Kimberly624, Have you read Shelley's comments? Have the guests left you a review since the time you posted here?

Keep us posted.

[Kimberly624]

Hello!  Yes, I read the comment, also I've updated my policy with opening windows.  I gave the guest a $50 credit.  He ended up saying he enjoyed himself and would like to stay again.  😊