I will no longer post a bad review about a guest

[Megan160]

I had an awful guest experience and tried to settle it with the guest personally. She stayed at a reduced rate and then needed to extend her stay. We gave her an even bigger rate discount. When she left, she left the place a mess. Dirty, greasy dishes, pots and pans. All the furniture was in dissaray, both sets of blankets/quilts had spots and stains on them, there were crumbs in all the beds on the mattress pads (which had to be hand picked off), and she ruined a set of sheets.

I took 3 days to cool off before I texted her because we really went out of our way to help this guest and she took advantage of us. I told her I was unhappy about the state of the place and asked her to pay $50 to replace the sheets. Prior to this text, she had nothing but glowing reviews and thanks for me in all her texts. She did not understand why she should have to pay for her sheets because I was a woman and the damaged sheets were a result of a "woman thing" and thus I should understand. I said I shouldn't have to pay for her "woman thing".

After much internal debate, I decided to warn other hosts and gave her an appropriate but still not brutal review, even leaving out the refusal to pay for damages and passing on her lame excuse for the mess. She then gave me a bad review, lying about my place and me. Prior to this review, I had 5 star reviews. Now people think my place is noisy and I am rude. My bookings have almost stoped dead in their tracks after her review. Plus, my 3 month pre-book for Jan-March canceled right after the review. I have contacted Airbnb twice about this to no avail. I had responded to her bad review, but not in much detail because I assumed that if I could prove it was a retaliatory review, it would be removed. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Not only will they not remove it, they won't even let me expound on my explanation to her bad review.

So frustrated! I am knee deep in the process of spending a lot of money to make my other 2 rentals Airbnb rentals and now I can't even get bookings in prime season. Airbnb penalizes us for trying to warn other hosts about bad guests.

[Christopher187]

I would not have tipped off the guest and just written a very bad review.  Then after the guest wrote her review you could pursue the security deposit.

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

In my case which is viewable on my reviews from her and my review for her, the guest ... just refused to discuss the compensation for the purple dye on the fitted sheet and the wrecked face cloth and immediately posted a review with a lie about the block being fishy and some other stuff.   I was just .... 

But I feel firmly that we must be honest in reviews - kind but honest because more of such guests could book otherwise.  

[Jiw0]

Haha.. I realize that this is exactly what the review system is making people do..   

However in a non-AirBnB world (a.k.a. a sane, 'normal personal interaction' world')  I would never think of doing that: playing nice to someone when she checks out, and then hit er with a bad review and payment request..  

But yeah.. I too tell every guest how awesome they were.  But if I have doubts if they had a truly great time then I don't review, because being teased with an invisible review is very likely to trigger the guest to leave a review of their own. 

Although, to be honest there is no personal gain for hosts to leave a bad review.  Other hosts have mostly been forced into InstantBook anyway and won't cancel a booking just becuase another host left a less than glorious review.  So there's really very little point.   

(Also noting that I've seen on these forums that many hosts have WAY higher expectations of guests than I do.. I expect the occational thing to break, I'm already happy if they tell me.  And I expect that towels and blankets won't last forever.. if I happen to end up replacing a couple a bit earlier than expected and some a bit later then so be it, it evens out. )

So if I have an InstantBook booking for a guest and I see that another host left a bad review for the guest not doing the dishes and leaving a mess then I'm seriously not going to cancel.. I mean that's what the cleaning fee is for.

I haven't bothered to read a guest review in months!  And besides guests change accounts all the time, or let their friend/mother/brother etc. sign up.  They already do that just to get some free stuff from AirBnB for inviting another guest, and they could definitely do it to make some bad reviews go away.  

The ONLY reason to review a guest is to tease them into letting them review you, IF AND ONLY IF you're confident they had a great time.

/End Cynicism mode. 😉 

[Kyi1]

I see your point that cleaning fee should cover dirty dishes, but only if you are renting the whole unit. For some of us, we are just renting out spare rooms in our home and we are not their live-in maid to do their dirty dishes. So, I usually make myself clear during check-in process to clean the dishes after using them. 

We have instant booking on, but still we are not hesistate to cancel a reservation if a guest has bad review which may cause problem. So we really appreciate reviews from hosts, good or bad.

[Sue1764]

Just my 5 cents... I also rent rooms in my home but I expect to do a guests dishes as part of the cleaning fee and service and I encourage the guests to just leave dirty dishes in the sink. I will say that most of my guests do wash up themselves but I do not expect it because I feel like I am competing with a hotel or motel and, since guests don't wash their own dishes there, it might not even occur to them they should do it.

I already feel like I have the best of all worlds... I make great money (and don't work outside my home) because of my guests and yet they do not expect as much from me as they would from a hotel (like clean sheets every day) or from a bed and breakfast, where I would have to get up early and make the breakfast.

I've had 99% great guests... one annoying but nice couple... it evens out.

[Christopher1112]

I think you have the appropriate model for your space. Mine is a guest house, 5 star consistently. House rules are clear as they must be and are the terms of service, many guests don't read them but 99% are respectful by nature. The odd guest is demonstrably disrespectful and gets an appropriate non-hostile and detailed review, the purpose of which is to outline issues for other hosts. We are self check-in on a large property and don't interact with guests unless requested to do so. Every interaction is documented and the property is monitored by an audio video security system, our pro cleaner also takes a full video of the space after reset so there can be no confusion of any kind. We do not currently have a cleaning fee and it hasn't been a problem other than the bane of summer- sun screen on linen sheets and the odd kitchen slob or bed eater. In the new year we will be introducing a cleaning fee specifically to recover costs of that nature as well as cleaning supplies on a annual rated basis.

[Sathya0]

exactly what i do!

[Paul-and-Zoe-Anderson0]

Correct Christopher!!!  That is the mistake that we made, but it will NEVER happen again! Thank you.

[Donald28]

Yup, you have to see all possibilities. Airbnb would likely reimburse you for the sheets if you put in a request with bloody sheet pics. No one wants to see that or deal with it. They'd pay. 

[Susan787]

Agreed. Never tip off a guest. I just had a two guests who had a extra person stay over last minute without me knowing. Spoke to her about it the following morning and she gave me a petty review. (Includng 3 stars for check in when they checked in 2 hours early!)  It's just not worh it.

[Kenneth12]

Except you have to file in 24 hours and before any other guest has checked in ...

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

You have to be honest.  What if they are mental and escalate in future bookings. 

It's not unkind or unlikeable to just be honest.    Wouldn't you have wanted to know if a previous host had found them shady? 

[Jiw0]

The shadiest person by FAR that I've met had great reviews.   But he was a certified nutter.   

With him I did actually look at his reviews because his messages were so weird. 

[Sue1764]

oh my... I'd love to hear specifics about his nuttiness! lol.

I do find it amusing how different people are... it's easy to assume everyone has the same manners and boundaries as we do, but people are quite quirky at times. Some have been raised by wolves who never taught them manners and I feel sorry for them as they probably don't realize all the ways it has negatively impacted their life.

Some people might have a slight mental illness or be autistic. I have many friends with anxiety disorders and one that is autistic so I've learned to look past the ocasional oddities and just be flexible.

However I do chuckle when I go to make up a room and all the electrical stuff is unplugged... that's happened twice... are these people who are "allergic" to electricity?

Also several guests, always men, who don't sleep under the covers but on top of the bedspread? I don't understand this one?

[Cynthia129]

Ditto to that. We've had one really crazy person and they had great reviews. I've also had one guest (and his friends) who almost destroyed the house, smoked, trashed linens, etc. and didn't want to pay for a pan to be replaced.