How do hosts respond to angry guests who get in touch after receiving a negative review?

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

We are fairly new to Airbnb and we are finding the guests we are getting through far less respectful of the property with more damage and breakages than we have had to cope with guests from our other site, which we have been using for over 4 years.

Initally I have not given anything but a favourable review but some guests left a couple of days ago and didn't tell us they had broken the toilet flush button. When we found it at 12pm we were frantic as we had guests due at 2pm. 

Cut a long story short I reviewed them and gave them an overall favourable review but said we'd had to grade them less than 5 for not communicating with us about the toilet. One irate guest phones less than half an hour later and leaves a very angry message. Very unhappy we hadn't contacted them they never leave a place with anything broken etc etc. What would I have achieved by ringing her? The toilet was fine when they arrived and broken when they left and they didn't tell us, it's cut and dried. This guest has stated she will complain to Airbnb and I'm wondering in other hosts' experience will Airbnb challenge us for not contacting the guest first before writing the review? Our experience shows us those people who want to let you know about damage and breakage will do so willingly. Those you have to contact, never say "oh yes, sorry we forgot to tell you" or "yes we broke it" they always say it was ok when they left. So where do you go from there, because if you continue to challenge them you are more or less saying they are lying to you....although it seems guests usually level this at us by inference and this guest today actually said I was a liar.     

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

@Donna240 Yes Bruce and I have been talking about pricing tonight and pitching against local competition. There are actually 3 small Manor houses which are very nice and a significant number of holiday lets, which vary in quality. Few however have our aspect over the valley and the view is worth money I think.  When we started out we decided we wanted to have good quality things in it as we'd been to a few Holiday lets ourselves and most had tired furnishings, broken equipment, poor wifi etc and we'd paid a fair price to use them so that had motivated us to present something in good condition.   Thank you for taking time to respond. 

[Fred13]

Donna, I hear you. Charging more is in many ways the toughest thing to do. I started $250, then crawled to $295, $350, $395, and so on. One thing I do subconciously, IF charge more, give a 'reason', meaning make sure to mention something new.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Anita-And-Bruce0

In my view your offer is far too cheap and you could probably double your price. Just accept that it will not sell like a hot potato in winter season.  Renting at a loss is just pointless. 

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

@Marit-Anne0 Thank you. I've just written about this above and guests who are coming are actually saying this to us. I think we will look at this more closely in the coming months. We'd dropped the prices after Airbnb suggested we were asking too much.  

[Marit-Anne0]

@Anita-And-Bruce0

You must simply ignore the airbnb price tips - they are often beyond ridiculous and compare whole homes to private rooms and to studios when you offer a 2 bedroom duplex (my case).  Set your own prices according to the competition and general price level in your area.  Cheap attracts cheap and you are literally paying the price.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Anita-And-Bruce0 - you might want to correct your profile.  It says you are from Durham, North Carolina, in the United States which I suspect is not correct.  Additionally, you should provide some information on your profile about the type of host you are and how you personally like to travel.  Right now you have provided no information to potential guests about the kind of host you will be to them - which may be a part of the problem with the types of guests you are getting.  To me, it's very impersonal with no description of who you are and with no profile photo, which may appeal to guests who won't be invested in you as their host or in the property's care. 

Also, when writing a review, it's not about you in that moment, but about the guest and the guest's behavior. So to @Matthew's point, keeping the review factual is key to keeping the relationship professional and minimizes the potential to make the receipient feel attacked - and therefore want to attack back.  There are lots of topics in the Community forums on how to write a less-than-stellar review of a guest should you find you need assistance in the future.  

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/280/how-do-i-edit-my-account-settings-or-profile

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/336/what-are-profile-verifications-and-how-do-i-get-them

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/67/why-do-i-need-to-have-an-airbnb-profile-or-profile-photo

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0, Thank you . I've checked this and the listing is stating the property is County Durham, UK and when I switch to travelling and do a general search for County Durham, Uk. we come up straight away. I seem to be N.C. for the Community and I don't know how that can happen, do you have any ideas please? 

I'll have a look at your links and take on board your comments regarding review writing. 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Anita-And-Bruce0 - the location of the listing and the place where you, personally, say you are from are 2 different things.   You can have a listing in another city/country than the one in which you live.  Your profile says you, as a person, are from Durham NC and your property says it is located in Durham England. 

Thus, to what @David126 mentioned, if a guest is looking for a non-engaged host, because they think you are in the states and the property is in England, it might attract some who will not be as careful since you will not be there to personally inspect between each reservation or that it is professionally handled, so therefore, being careful is not as important.  It might also be problematic when you travel and a host thinks its fishy that you say you are from NC but turn out to really be from Europe.  Easily explainable as a mistake, of course, but may cause some distrust with some hosts before you even book a room.  Same goes for the profile completion and profile picture.  You wouldn't be able to book with me and I wouldn't book with you because you don't have a picture of yourself and because your profile is not verified.  All of these details help build trust between guests and hosts. 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/4/how-does-airbnb-help-build-trust-between-hosts-and-guests

https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/building-for-trust-503e9872bbbb

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/272/can-i-require-guests-to-be-verified-before-booking

[Fred13]

@Alice-and-Jeff0The mention of Northumberland gave the location away, but nothing else does, why I asked above. Also, no mention of the ~English~ Countryside', something most people throughout the world can identify with and picture.

@Anita I hear you on the young, I try to avoid them like the Black Plague. Via personal information and more exacting description of your place it will help you appeal more toward those best suited to your lovely place (which is in the English Countryside!!) 😄

[Anita-And-Bruce0]

@Fred13 Thank you I'll certainly have another look at the profile and make more of the location so people can pin point us better and what the area has to offer.  I'm still  concerned about why it's coming up for some people as N.C. but showing me County Durham, UK. and I'm certainly coming through to the Community as N.C. .........if only!!!! 🙂

[Rene-and-Zac0]

@Fred13 I was suspect at “breakages” and then someone from North Carolina talking about a broke toilet? They’d have a spare toilet out back behind the shed if they were from North Carolina. LOL 

No offense @Alice-and-Jeff0 in Kansas, we don’t even have toilets yet. North Carolina is “fancy” to us. 

’You know it’s hard out here for a Host’

[Fred13]

Hahaha..I know the wording (and the guests from UK) of course insinuated England, but NC?

Say remember that odd bug where every other guest & host came from Kerrville, OK, even English people?

[Rene-and-Zac0]

@Fred13 I had an asan couple stay during “Thanksgiving” this past year. The booking profile said they were from somewhere in China. Well I sent them a message saying how they should buy food Wednesday because everything will be closed on Thursday.

I went on saying how it’s a big holiday in America and the tourist sights might be closed. 

The husband’s response was classic.

He says “ Happy Thanksgiving! We’re from San Jose!”.

i was done at that point and I got myself a plate of sweet yams, a drum stick and sat my butt down for some football. 

I was all about 1st world problems then. 

‘You know it’s hard out here for a Host’

[Fred13]

And here you thought you will be having a major cultural multi-national exchange, and he turned out to be from just down the street! 😄

[Steven313]

Recommend you be more pro-active. Before check-in, walk in your house an imagine yourself as a guest... then think what can be improved. Then do that.   Take legitimatel rental soft complaints very serious and deal with those.  Polite renters will leave you nice reviews but may subtly hint at issues which should be addresses, so look at fixing those.