Hosts giving 5-star reviews, despite the experience (or the truth)…

[Gordon0]

Just had two guests (’recommended by’ 5 hosts) check out. And quite frankly, I couldn’t have waited much longer to see them leave.

In short(ish); 

Turned up at 22:30 (despite stating ‘2-3pm’) having decided dinner with friends (without telling me, natch) was more important than my time. Parked in wrong space (despite clear instructions), struggled to open the door (why, just why?) and when they did get open it, slammed it like their lives depended on it. On every subsequent exit and entry.

Spent three days being loud and generally annoying.

Last night I got a message (followed up by a call from an unknown number…which I answered, more fool me): “we left our keys inside, you need to come home”.

When I did, no thank you. 

But I was (rather unpolitely) informed they would be leaving their cases the next day (check out day) until 10pm, because they had night flights home.

Erm, no you won’t, because we’re leaving for our own holidays the same day.

“Ahh, no more guests - we’ll keep the key”.

My “Nope, sorry” met with a pair of ar5e-smacked faces. 

Left the room in a right old mess (I don’t charge a cleaning fee). Four bags of rubbish (the bins are a 30-second walk of the house), half-eaten yoghurts on the dresser, more hair on the floor than a hairdresser’s on a prom-night, and more. And all the walls suitcase-scuffed (those Rimowa ones make a fine mess), and towels a soggy heap on the floor.

Not a quick read, but my somewhat long and drawn-out point/question is, why do hosts feel the need to give guests the ‘thumbs up’ when clearly they can’t wait to see the back of them. These two hadn’t changed their ways for me only, surely?

[Alon1]

Susan (in Belgium), yes, of course.

One of the staff came down to explain what I already knew, namely that London HQ no longer deals with Customer Services. Some years ago it was trasnferred to Dublin, so I was looking for a recommendation to address this issue.  The lady who spoke to me in person gave me the name of her colleague in Dublin. She then phoned me from Dublin within a few  hours, spent half an hour with me on the phone, and as a result put me in touch with a person in USA. He sorted the matter out in quick time. In fact he went further than my immediate concern with an undisclosed 3rd Party Booking which led to a **bleep** review and  pause in the listing. It was the only time I felt the need to ask a Guest to leave early, (because he was a clinical paranoid making it extremely uncomfortable for me and others in the house) and his friend, the booker took his revenge in Review. The Airbnb person in USA then asked me if there were any similar 3rd Party infringement Reviews I would wish deleted. I added two to the list, and he deleted them as well. 

I would only add an historical note. When I first set up an Airbnb account in 2012, Airbnb London HQ was run quite differently. It was a small intimate operation, and we could regularly meet the staff at various events organized by them, and phone them directly in London. One man was especially helpful, as it followed shortly after my mother's death, and he encouraged me to start hosting and help me set up the account. With all the issues related to Death Duties in UK, I didn't actually start hosting for another  year. 

[Huma0]

@Alon1

Yes it is just like a third party booking, only not exactly, because it wasn’t Someone using their account to book for someone else. The bookings were made from the account of the person staying. So the guest who arrived was technically the person who booked.

The thing is that the guest for some reason or another (usually language barrier or technical ineptitude) had got a family member to actually sort everything out for them via the account. That would have been fine if the family member had been honest and said, ‘Hi, this is Tatjana’s son. She doesn’t speak very much English so i’m translating for her.”

instead, Tatjana’s son, using Tatjana’s account, books for her and pretends to be her, answering my questions, e.g. confirming they’ve read the house rules. Meanwhile, Tatjana, the actual guest, has read nothing and just been passed on basic information by her son. She arrives knowing nothing much about the listing and proceeds to break the house rules or is upset because she didn’t realise I have shared bathrooms, for example.

so it’s not technically a third party booking, but might as well be. Not sure how Airbnb would deal with that?

[Alon1]

Huma,

In the case you describe re Tatjana and her son, I doubt Airbnb would do anything. 

Best you can probably do is give a detailed Review describing exactly what happened, warning other English speaking Hosts about T & her proxy, and give thumbs down, ie. not recommend her.

You could also red flag her and request Airbnb contact T to advise her about future bookings.--However, I would not hold great expectations of Airbnb bothering to follow up.

       A few months ago I red flagged one inquirer due to discepancy between name and profile photos. 'Lorenzo' had 2 profile photos, one a formal one of a white man, the other of 3 young black men in a Selfie! Thus my initial thought related to a 3rd Party issue. 

      However, I could easily image trace the former photo on line. It belongs to the Digital Director of the National Archives, John Sheridan. Worse, this was a fully verified profile with Government ID. There was no further details in the profile and no reviews. The inquiry was for a one night party--  I initially responded to 'Lorenzo' highlighting this discrepancy as the principal reason I would not go further with this inquiry. Lorenzo quizzically replied: 'I have two profile picture?' My response began: 'YES. Incredible that you even ask the question.....'  'Lorenzo's final reply: 'Thank you for alerting me to this I will endeavour to have it corrected.' 

I didn't take this response seriously, more so as the account had been set up in August 2016. To my mind it was now a case of Identity theft to be urgently reported to Airbnb. I not only red flagged but called CS to make sure it was dealt with. Airbnb email confirmation that the case was clearly a violation of Airbnb T&Cs and the profile would be deleted. This would be done asap, but it could take up to a month due to the load of cases. -- That was mid October, and Lorenzo's profile is still there today.

   Since I periodically visit National Archives for research for a book I'm writing, on my next visit in a few weeks time, I will take all the evidence and present it to Mr Sheridan in person. Mr Sheridan can then decide if he wishes to do anything about it, in which case he could contact Airbnb directly or report the matter to the police.

The long and the short of it, that I don't place great faith by Airbnb to address serious issues. The corporation has become so bloated in quick time, that there seem to be very few people employed in the organization who are actually competent at their jobs. -- As previously described it took considerable time and effort to have three Reviews deleted which were clearly a violation of 3rd party rule, and searching for someone competent to apply their own policy was like the proverbial search for a needle in a haystack.

[Cathie19]

🧐😖😤😫😭

[Karl-and-Anneke0]

We have had similar problems where people have not read description or look at pictures & then complain in review about our location or something else which was clearly in our description but they then rate us poorly because of it. 

[TracieandJason0]

@Branka & Silvia

I wonder if I had the same guests you had... xD

[Gordon0]

Believe me, these two are going to get a truthful review. I'm thinking something along the lines of (which I keep changing):

While pleasant enough, there were more than a few hiccups during their short stay.

Although they promised a 2-3pm arrival, stopping off to have dinner (without letting me know) meant it was much later (22:30).

On their final evening they forgot the key. While I appreciate we all make mistakes, the onus was definitely on me to curtail my dinner plans and return home. 

They also left the room quite messy (I don’t charge a cleaning fee) with an open half-eaten yoghurt on the sideboard and bags of rubbish left for me to dispose of.

Josie and Nick - certainly on this occasion - should have paid the going rate to stay in a hotel.

[Mariann4]

How the heck am I as a non-native English speaker understand "the onus was definitely on me to curtail my dinner plans " @Gordon0 😅

(I understand it somewhere along the lines of "the pressure was put on me to cancel my dinner plans"?)

Please remember that I would like to understand your warning...

Mariann 🙂

[Susan1188]

I suppose if you posted this Gordon it's that you want feedback?

Your remarks are justified and witty but I would keep it much more factual, less emotional and judgemental.

I wish I could go back and change my recent reply to a review in this sense.

Josie and Nick were pleasant guests.  However I would decline hosting them again.

- instead of arriving at 3pm as agreed and specified in the house rules, they first had dinner without informing me and arrived at x o'clock

- rubbish was left in the room, contrary to house rules (note - you do state that guests must take out the trash in your house rules, right? - just because you don't charge for cleaning doesn't mean the guest will conclude he has to clean)

- after forgetting the key one night they called and expected me to return home on short notice curtailing my dinner plans

[Carolyn330]

To add to what Branka said, these are the same guests that lower your star ratings because of their ignorance.  I have had comments stating "there was no kitchen" when all over the listing indicates kitchenette with microwave, fridge, coffee maker.  Unfortunately, we cannot make these folks read any more than past their own nose.  This is why they allow us to make a public reply

[Ange2]

I agree with @Emilia42  re: no way of telling what the hosting situtation was like when guest received rave reviews,  and that is the problem.  I have accepted great review guests only to find they were terrible: was it a one off?   Did I get them on a bad week, were hosts not telling it how it was for whatever reason?   It's tough to know what a review really means when context is missing. The way I see it accepting a stranger into one's home is always a calculated risk, reviews are at best perception and opinion (even coercion and barter judging from some posts on this forum) based on a unique set of circumstances and cannot be relied upon as absolute predictors of future behavior. I take reviews with a pinch of salt and go on instinct but I do press the point that Airbnb is not a hotel set-up, no concierge, no 24 hr check-in, pay attention to description, rules,  blah! blah! blah! 

I recently accepted a couple with a 2 star terrible review. At first I thought help!  But then I looked at the review, their first and only review,  they had gotten 5 for communication but 1 for rules and cleanliness.  I didn't cancel them (that being a whole other Airbnb ordeal even with IB).  They were great guests, very responsible, respectful, clean, tidy and friendly from the get-go, they didn't need reminding of any rules or to clean up after themselves etc.  The first thing they did when they arrived was to take off their shoes, muddy shoes had been one of the complaints in their last review.  For future hosts their profile will look odd: one terrible review and one stellar review, two completely different experiences of the same guests.

[Yulianna0]

I recently had guests with two not nice reviews from the same host! He was mentioning cleaning issues. And in my case I can’t say anything negative about it. In fact they were very careful about things. 

[Paul41]

In the past I didn't review poor guests but now make a point to give an honest review of poor comunucatjob or poor behaviour. I review poor guests the last possible minute which is two weeks to the minute  after the original email inviting a review.

[Huma0]

I have also been guilty of being too generous with reviews and ratings but I'm going to be harsher from now on, having just experienced a run of entitled, rude, exhausting guests. Not the guests from hell, but still not people I would want back.

It used to take a lot for me to give a thumbs down, but I will be doling them out where they are deserved. I never copy and paste reviews but write each one individually, and I would never say a guest was clean and tidy if they were not. However, I have been guilty of overlooking mess or noise when a guest has been a lovely, friendly person.

As for being able to rely on previous reviews, no unfortunately you can't always. My worst experience was with guests who had pages and pages of stellar reviews. They were awful. Truly awful. However, I noticed that after I posted my less than positive (although probably far too generous) review of them, another host then also left them a review that would have made me think twice about the booking if I had seen this in advance.

Perhaps some hosts don't want to be the first to leave a negative comment when the guest has only positive reviews and need a bit of encouragement from someone else who found them to be a nightmare.

[Susan1188]

Or some hosts have read horror stories about the nightmare people can make for you if they are unhappy about your review, and decide it's just not worth the distress and negative energy?

I'm more for hosts agreeing on a kind of code, like explaining something in a way that would seem very neutral or positive to the guest, but that would speak to other hosts as a red flag.