How do I rate this guest??

[Alison1039]

Hmm, not sure how to rate this guest? 

Started out with good communication, then stopped after sent check-in information. 

1.Turned up with 2 cars, my space is for one.... I'm flexible with that but have always been asked.

2.Spent most of time in separate cars for hours after they checked in outside?

3. Must have turned off fridge and all appliances from main box?  It was turned off when I got in after they checked out.

4. Checked out 40 minutes late

5. Took a recycling container 

Never reached out until I sent them a message thanking them for choosing to stay, hope they enjoyed stay and asked without accusation if prehaps they could have misplaced the recycling container somewhere in the guest suite? 

Promptly responded "no haven't seen container" 

I took new photos yesterday before they arrived, the container was there. 

I message back at this point realized they don't want to just admit taking it, that I'll buy another one but hope they enjoyed their stay. 

Then get long response back saying it was wonderful??? The suite was left tidy other than lots of dirt tracked in from rain. 

Any thoughts? I'm torn, but this is long list of things?? Let it go???

[Marie8425]

@Alison1039 

Personally even if I know they did something, if I maked the decision not worth the argument with the guest I don't publicly share.  I did have a situation recently of just minor things, but yes irritating because stupid like stealing a bin. I marked a 4 on communication and just stated lack of communications caused minor convincentes to me. No don't want to Host again.

[Alison1039]

That's where I'm leaning, irritated but moving on

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Alison1039 

Alison guest come in all levels of acceptability but your reviews come in an incredibly narrow band of acceptability.

Your first duty is to protect your future business. As hosts we are all the time trying to strike that balance between taking the high moral ground and letting the odd indiscretion go publicly unchallenged. If the guest is not going to own up to the recycle container it's no good continuing to pursue them. All it will do is get their backs up and get you a revenge review which will have an effect on your future business. The fact that they were casual with your house rules would probably be better left to your personal comments rather than the public review. The most I would say is "***** possibly struggled a bit with the house rules, but nothing we couldn't iron out!"

At times you are going to have overlook issues that don't have a big impact on how you run your property. Make it a policy to always part with a guest on good terms, disagreements happen but I have only ever struck one guest parting that didn't end up with a handshake! 

That is why in over 760 Airbnb reviews, I have never had less than a 3 star review....and I have only had a handful of them.

But the spin off from that is, I have a full booking calendar month after month, guests trust what they read.....and that means money in the bank!

Cheers........Rob.

[Alison1039]

Rob,

Very sound advice, you make so many really good points. I'm running this as a business, think because it's part of our home overall I sometimes take it personally...learning to separate my worlds and run my Airbnb as a successful business....

Thanks! really appreciate it your response, 

Alison