@Alex-And-Kate0
Alex, or Kate, this is nothing new, this has been going on for years!
We (as hosts) have had to put up with......
A/......a 'guest' who would carry a supply of bedbugs with them, and on the 11th day of a 14 night stay lodge a bedbug complaint to Airbnb and get, not only a full refund but, have the unfortunate hosts listing closed down until a satisfactory exterminators certificate could be produced.
B/.......a 'guest' would book a 14 night stay for a 20% discount and, 6 nights into the stay cancel the remainder of the reservation, get a pro-rata refund and the host would get stiffed into providing a 6 night stay at a 20% discount with little chance of re letting those remaining 8 nights!
C/......a guest books your listing for a one week stay and the day before their arrival discovers they have booked a listing which is in a different state to the one they required, cancels and gets a full refund!
Do I need to go on.....there are literally dozens of these scenarios and in every case, the outcome almost always favours the guest.
Alex, or Kate, my worse fear is that an incoming guest will find an unattached human hair somewhere in my cottage.....a left over from the previous guest! I go to extra-ordinary lengths to make sure my listing is not just clean but, seen to be clean. It's very hard to list in an old building....to a lot of guests, 'old means dirty'....you can't make it look like it was built yesterday.
What you have found out is, support from Airbnb might be difficult to obtain, and from experience over the years I have adopted a strategy to avoid these problems.
1/....... Potential guests fall into 2 categories....
a/.......Passive/complimentary: "Hi, my name is Rachel, my partner John and I love the look of your cottage and are looking forward to spending a few days away from the kids, can't wait to stay"! They like what they see, they have named themselves, have given me a reason for their stay, just want to pull out their credit card and book! I just know they are going to be great guests, I don't want to check on their background, I just want to welcome them.
b/.......Aggressive/demanding: "we are coming to your area for a wedding, is there off street parking, can I have a few friends over for for a pre-wedding drink, what kitchen facilities are available, what is the earliest we can check-in"......Hang on, I don't know you from Adam, and you have all these requests of me before you have even booked. Nah, I want to do a bit of checking, see what their last reviews have been like.
2/.......Give the guest something they were not expecting:
Have a little surprise up your sleeve, I have that 8 ft electric bed with a mass of 6 pillows, a $30+ cheese plate and a cupboard inbuilt drying rack in the bathroom for women to dry their personal clothing! They are not expecting these things but it gets the hosting off to a good start and when the review process comes around they remember these bits they were not expecting!
By using these 2 strategies I not only avoid a lot of potentially unsuitable guests.....those I might have a problem with but, I get the non-committed guest on side by giving them value they did not expect.
Don't expect Airbnb to insulate you from poor guests and reviews, in fact Airbnb are getting worse each year as far as protecting their hosts is concerned. Over the last two months I have noticed that a potential guest no longer has to send a host an introductory message when they Instant-book any more! All I get is a notification that a totally anonymous package is booked at my property on a certain date, no message, no nothing. And I am noticing that a lot of these anonymous bookings who refuse to answer even a welcome message have a very high reservation cancellation rate.
Each year Airbnb make it that much harder for us hosts to do our job.
@Alex-And-Kate0 I am sorry you may have lost revenue here but, if I can offer you some advice, tighten up your procedures, be a a bit more discriminating in who you accept.....it never hurts you to tell a potential guest your listing may not be a good fit for them....and it can save you a lot of heartache.
I have had a great relationship with Airbnb but, I don't expect anything of them other than to send me guests I feel comfortable accepting. In a couple of months we will hit 600 Airbnb reviews.
So my advice to you is, don't expect Airbnb support, make your business work for you, not Airbnb
Cheers.........Rob
