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?

[Nikolai12]

Yes we all have different rules and expectations, however, these guests come into our homes and not into a hotel. So, rules and expectations need to be read and respected by guests no matter how different they might be. Therefore, if a host writes, guest left hair in the shower, you might not mind nand accept this guest, whereas another would not.  Reviews matter

[Marco65]

@Nikolai12 A long time ago I had two Canadian guests who, faced with a note of mine on a non fair use of air conditioning, replied "we pay and we do what we want," I think this is the way of thinking of a lot of guests.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Gordon0

I wonder the same.

Recently we hosted an elderly couple. They didn't read our listing description nor look at our photos so expected bigger bathroom and king size bed. They didn't listen our instructions and turned off their phones during the day of check in so they get lost ,ended up in a wrong city (!) and were few hours late without telling us anything. They didn't read our manual or asked as how to operate the simplest faucet but wrote in the review that we don't have hot water etc etc...

This guests had 5 glowing reviews so yes, we also host first timers because the risk is the same.

[Mark116]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

It's hard to understand how they missed the beds since they are bright blue and in the first photo?!  I wonder if they thought they were booking your other listing or something?  Otherwise, that's just nutty.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mark116the same as they missed the size of the bathroom and bath tub, they didn't look at photos 😄 

[Alon1]

Branka & Silvia,

There are numerous variables to the issue raised by Gordon. One of them is manifestly obvious in this case from the Guest Response to your Review, copied below.

Response from Carolyn:

There is a lack of communication between mother and daughter. I messaged that when we were leaving Belgrade to drive to Zagreb we would not have phone or Internet availabilityWe allowed for time delays when we gave our anticipated time of arrival. This information as well as our bed preference was emailed to Branko. This was apparently not communicated to Silvia , as she tried to contact us by phone and we were not given the bed choice we had selected. The address information given us by Branko which we put into the car sat navigation led us to a location nowhere near the apartment. We then just headed for the centre of Zagreb trying to find the apartnpment. We drove around for over two hours in Zagreb trying to find the apartment. When we finally arrived Silvia was hostile to my husband because of our late arrival. She was very put out because apparently she had another appointment. I apologised for being late explaining the GPS situation. This was a very disappointing experience with this host and did not make us feel welcome. Silvia rushed through the checki in and made me feel uncomfortable with the whole situation. My husbands response to Silvia was a reaction to how he was greeted by this host. If this had been my first Airbnb's experience I would not have chosen them again.

--------

Consequently, presenting a one-sided view for the benefit of your audience here on a Host Forum isn't necessarily helpful. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Alon1

I wish this guests took just a fracture of time needed to write this response and their lenghty public and private reviews,  to actually read our listing , our messages and instructions and to let us know they will be late . Or at least to answer our phonecalls. But they didn't.

They made a chain of mistakes from the moment they booked until the moment they checked out and caused themselves dissapontments and problems they wouldn't othervise had.  They arrived already frustrated and angry and after that point nothing was good any more while in fact,  they just needed someone to blame.

The point is - 5 glowing reviews doesn't guarantee a great guest.

[Alon1]

Branka & Silvia. Thanks for response. I agree no amount of 'glowing reviews'  guarantees. Indeed,  I'd go further to say there are ultimately no guarantees in this enterprise; nevertheless, by and large it works very well, even for Gordon. Otherwise, it's unlikely he or many of us would be doing it for so long. -- Thus the question surrounding his current complaint should be contextualized in view of his hosting for 6 years and well over 200 Reviews. If this is the first time in 6 years that he's experienced this anomaly then he's very lucky. But he then draws a wider conclusion about Hosts not properly reviewing, which begs the question what he makes of the numberous Hosts who did review his great guests with whom he had no such problems?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

well @Alon1 and @Gordon0 either they didn't have any problems with same guests or they did, but didn't left a review or just copy pasted the same review as always . It is hard to tell...

We knew we will get a bad review from the moment my daughter met them because from our experience we know when the guest come unhappy he will stay and leave unhappy .... and we will be the one to blame for his miserable stay ( and life in general)

You know the saying:  Happyness is not out there - it's inside you.

[Alon1]

Branka & Silvia, "it's hard to tell" says it all. Indeed, it's very difficult to speculate about a whole series of reviews from people you don't know & their hosting experience of any guests. All you can go by are the Reviews and your interaction with the Guest during Inquiry.-- In this case, Carolyn has 7 reviews: 6 glowing ones and your contrary one. If Carolyn sent me an Inquiry, I would draw the prima facie conclusion that Carolyn had one unfortunate experience, and even in this case, I can see two sides of the coin. In short, it would not deter me from hosting her. 

It seems my view is reflected in the two Host Reviews following yours! It certainly didn't deter them, and both are experienced hosts, even Superhosts, with lots of reviews. 

Consequently, truth to tell I find it disconcerting that you try to blemish or dismiss the Reviews of the other Hosts as automaton or otherwise, somehow inconsequential.

Finally, I can only reiterate that Gordon highlighted what seemed to be a single experience. I would invite him to put it in context of his preceding 226 Reviews over 6 years. That would require a considerable amount of archival work featuring probably several thousand reviews of other hosts. And as previously mentioned, there are so many variables to take into consideration, also indicated by other contributors to this post. 

[Susan1188]

They can't use a smartphone so they cant see the listing, the photos, or use waze or send a text on arrival day.

How on earth were they able to reserve your place I wonder?

I had similar issue with a guest who could not use the smart phone, it was fine for booking the apartment but when it came time for her to leave a review after a help-intensive stay, I was out of luck.

[Yulianna0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0, are you sure that they booked themselves? With such behavior I have serious doubts. 

[Huma0]

@Yulianna0

That is quite possible. I have had guests stay who had clearly knew nothing about the listing when they arrived. It turns out that the room had been booked by their son or daughter or a spouse posing as them in the the correspondence prior to the stay.

So, the person I was communicating with and who confirmed they had read/agreed to all the house rules was not the person actually staying. The person/people actually staying had read nothing and therefore felt they had agreed to nothing. It's often a recipe for disaster. 

[Alon1]

Huma, 

What you describe is clearly a 3rd Party booking which infringes T&C 4.14. 

If you were not aware of it before the booking, i.e. the person booking did not disclose it, you can terminate the booking at any time, even asking the guest to leave. 

If you continue with the entire booking, but then get a bad Review, you can get the Review deleted. 

In the past 15 months I had three such undisclosed 3rd Party bookings. All proved problematical and ended up with bad reviews. The issue was compounded as two of the three were for the same listing, which caused an automated 'pause to the listing' for 5 days.

I complained to CS. Initially my plea repeatedly fell on deaf ears over the phone. So I went to the London office to speak to someone in person. She put me in touch with Dublin HQ, and they in turn with someone in USA. Finally, the 3 negative reviews were deleted. It took a month all told.

[Susan1188]

Are you serious you actually went to the office and they actually met with you?