Is this draft review too harsh?

[Victoria0]

I've never written a critical review about a guest but our current guest may be my first time. I have set out below my draft so far. I've never written such a detailed review either. Normally my reviews are along the lines of "X stayed with us for Y nights. X was pleasant, friendly and tidy and I would happily recommend them to other hosts" perhaps with an additional line about something specific we chatted about.

Am I overthinking this? I may not see her in the morning before she leave as I'll be out on the school run but it seems unlikely her attitude (rude and dismissive like it's all my fault) is going to change.

Any views please?

"X stayed with us for one night. It was her first experience with Airbnb and she experienced some difficulties with the verification process which prevented her for being able to book initially. As there were no restrictions our end preventing the booking, I contacted the help centre on X's behalf as she told me she was unable to make contact. They were able to resolve the issue and X completed her booking. Upon check in the following day X was clearly rather cross about the difficulties she had faced in booking. I did the usual check in tour and explained the breakfast routine. This is clearly stated on the listing as self-service of cereal/toast but I explained that X was also welcome to help herself to freshly laid eggs from our hens. X expressed disappointment that she would be required to cook her own breakfast."

Assuming she leaves the room ok, I will add "X left the room in a clean and tidy condition" but I am struggling to finish the review. I'm not sure I can bring myself to say that I would recommend her to other hosts because she has been so dismissive and unpleasant and in over 50 hosted trips so far, I haven't yet had a guest like this who I actually don't want in my house again and genuinely wouldn't want to inflict on anyone else. I know it is not against Airbnb rules for guests to be miserable and not everyone is going to be friendly and want to stand around and chat but then again, do I want to share my home with people like her and do I want anyone else to? She was so snotty about breakfast too, it's not my fault she didn't read what is offered in terms of breakfast!

Advice please?

[Brittany1 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Victoria0

I think the review is a little too personal. I like to keep reviews short and professional and not to include specifics/air dirty laundry. In a different post, on the same topic, someone recommended something like this...

"The guest and I do not share the same values. We would not recommend this guest to other hosts."

I'm sure hosts have differing opinions about this but we look at it from a business standpoint. It would be very easy to give specifics about all of the obnoxious, awful, gross and rude things guests have done. But I don't think it helps future hosts anymore than saying, "We would not recommend this guest".

If you search on the community page for conversations about bad reviews you will find some great information from knowledgeable hosts.

[Victoria0]

Thank you for replying. I agree that it is too detailed. I have done a search on the community under 'bad reviews' and I like the wording "this guest would be more suited to staying in a hotel". She said she's never going to use Airbnb again anyway as she was so irritated so perhaps it doesn't matter much. 

[Brittany1]

It's still important to leave something though, so that in the case she does want to use airbnb again the host can be warned. Good luck.

[Victoria0]

Yes, absolutely. I will definitely leave something along the lines of the hotel line although. I had no intention of not reviewing her at all, I agree that that doesn't help anyone. Thanks again.

[Eileen4]

I once left a very detailed review because it was the second time a guest had stayed with me and there were problems. (His first visit was great.) Mostly it boiled down to his leaving early and leaving two friends in charge of my place. They didn't trash it, but it was untidy and they left with the key. I mentioned these things because I thought it would help the booking guest understand some things about trust and Airbnb. (Don't leave irresponsible friends in charge.) For me, it allowed me to state what my expectations were--no muddy footprints, wet towels on down duvets and return the key, please. 

I would state that this guest didn't seem to understand the Airbnb process very well and that maybe on her second time out she could improve by doing (you fill in the blank). Maybe she could try being more adaptive to her environment since she was, after all, sharing space with others. 

I've used the "better suited to a hotel" and I think it's helpful in some ways. But it doesn't provide much useful information to the guest or future hosts. I've written the hotel thing and been contacted by other hosts who asked for an explanation, which I then had to write out, annoying me all over again. These were newish hosts who weren't getting a lot of bookings and so were willing to take a chance on those "hotel" guests. So I don't think an abbreviated list of concrete things is wrong. 

[Amy4]

I've been hosting for 5 years, renting my home and individual rooms within it (500+ reviews). I don't agree with the replies that reviews should be vague and cleansed of any details. We are inviting visitors into our homes, and we really owe it to each other to provide enough detail that other hosts can decide, for themselves, whether the guest's behavior is acceptable to them or not. "Different values" is completely unhelpful in deciding whether the guest would be a good fit for another host's Airbnb. The cult of professionalism is a little too sterile for the sharing economy, which is about human-to-human interactions. That said, being petty and mean isn't appropriate, either. I recommend being factual and straightforward without blaming or shaming. I think the draft review you posted here does exactly that: states the facts without blaming or shaming. I, for one, would want to steer clear of a guest who treats hosts rudely. Without the details, how would I know that this would be a possibility. Consider this my personal request to other hosts to post reviews with relevant details. 

[Eileen4]

@Amy4 I agree Amy. The thing is, when I was contacted by other hosts I ended up having to write out a detailed explanation in response to their questions. That said, I know that I didn't have to do this--I was under no obligation--but thought, "I'd want to know too," so I did it. 

However, in the process of writing about my experiences, my annoyance with these guests resurfaced and I thought, "What the hell, the next time I'm just going to give a few more details in the review and leave it at that." The point being that I have enough on my plate as it is and, if I provide enough details the first time around, the next host can make a decision without feeling the need to contact me. 

I think that stating the facts in an abbreviated way (and not aiming for character assassination is fine). I've rewritten a few hard reviews (several times). Luckily, Airbnb creators had the foresight to realize that hosts can and do calm down after a day or so, hence the 48 hour editing window.  

[Peter0]

Agree with what others have said.  Nearly always with a bad guest write a review in draft on your PC, keep it and then post it a little abbreviated and to the point a few days later.  

I use the "In my view, xxx would be much better suited to a hotel or a traditional guest house than a homesharing structure like Airbnb where less is presented to you on a plate." This actually helps the guest understand that there are different solutions for different people.  And it puts new hosts off someone who isn't really in our system.  

[Eileen4]

@Peter0 Hi there, I love your "note to guests" and am going to steal it (well, sort of borrow it, actually). Hope you don't mind!

[Ma0]

I had a guest who recievd her only review from a former hosts, very bad review, I followed my gut feelings and she turn to be one of my best guest but I definetly count on hosts reviews and take them very seriously. 

[Hoss-and-Cathy0]

To all, I appreciate the input for all the hosts.

This is going to be a bit of a long winded windup to my question ... hold tight for a little background.

We had a booking, which we accepted hesitantly because we were going to be out of town.  We rent our guest house.

I explained prior to the guest accepting the reservation that we would be gone ... she was persistent about wanting to stay here & our place is self-explanatory, so we agreed to the booking.

She encountered a couple of issues (you can read the review she wrote about the property) ... while the guest did have some unexpected bumps in the road while here, they were grossly embelished.  Our housekeeper was here for 2 of the days that they visited and Pamela, the guest, never discussed any issues with her.  My husband spoke to her when we returned from our trip - no comments from their end.

And one just completely inaccurate ... Pamela said we weren't here when they departed, so she couldn't speak with us directly. I was in my kitchen on the phone observing them walk-out.  My car was parked in the driveway ... no attempt to touch base.

So here's the final lead-up to my question - I left her a "nice" review as they encountered some issues while we were out of town (which by the way, we were back east saying a final farewell to my sister-in-law who died while were there ... which the guest was aware of our situation & I had informed them that we would be in and out of contact).

I should have made note to AirBnb in the section where you can inform the company privately for other hosts to avoid booking this guest ... I was so annoyed by her review (and busy with family) that I didn't think at the time about contacting AirBnb.

It has been months since this occurred, but her review still annoys me.  Guest since then have commented that she must have been a handful ... however, not all potential guest might not feel that way & decide not to book us.

We are Super Host ... consistently 5 star reviews with the exception of this one & one other  ... when I was out of town & my husband in charge 🙂

So finally the question ... Is there a way in which we can contact AirBnb "after the fact" about a guest?

Thank you for your insight.  Cathy

[Louis22]

I have never had to give a bad review after hosting 21 stays. I have been lucky with my guests however I was a guest at a place in London last week which was badly advertised and certainly not up to standards. I wrote a review being as balanced as I could but letting people know about the room for them to make their own decisions even adding photos. My review did not get published as the host (whom I never met as there was a key left for me under a brick) did not write a review about my stay. So perhaps not giving a review at all will mean fewer stars for the guest (or host) who misbehaves. The reviews from my guests have been excellent but Im sure one day someone will not like what I have on offer and I would rather they wrote nothing than exaggerate a story. 

[Tracy0]

I would tend to avoid too much detail but include some concept of what the issues were.  She was new to airBNB and struggled to get verified and booked and her expectations were off as a consequence of not fully reading the listing perhaps - and when you gently explained them her irritation was roused.  I would say something along the lines of 'Though my experience is that she may be better suited to hotels than home sharing, this may be simply because she is new to the platform. Now that she is successfully registered after a difficult time doing so, and now that she is aware of how important it is to set accurate expectations based upon the details providing in the listing, I would hope she can become a great asset to our home sharing community.  Left clean/tidy/etc something positive).

[Tracy0]

Also, @Louis22 - your review will be published after 21 days regardless if the host publishes one or not. They are published together once both reviews are written....or after 21 days if the other party fails to write a review.