Need advice on potential guest w/bad reviews

[Farah148]

Hi! I have a potential guest with 2 negative reviews out of 36 stays, giving them an overall rating of 4.8. The last negative review was from 2022, where the host mentioned issues like unauthorized guests, improper parking, noise late at night, and a broken fixture. It appears the guest did not respond to the review. Since then, they’ve received 17 positive reviews. Would you be comfortable hosting them? They’re coming for a conference.

Any advice appreciated!

[Helen3]

That's a difficult one. How did the guest respond when you asked them about their negative reviews @Farah148 

[Farah148]

@Helen3 Waiting to hear back. I sent the following to them:

Good morning. Thank you for your interest in our guest suite. I noticed a couple of issues mentioned in some reviews from hosts. Could you please help us better understand what happened in those instances?

Will update if I get a response.

[Farah148]

@Helen3 He responded quickly and was polite. Given this, and that stay is not on a weekend and is for a confirmed conference in the area, I accepted the reservation.

[Helen3]

What was his explanation around the bad reviews ? @Farah148 

Hope the stay goes well .

[Farah148]

Hi @Helen3. 

The person essentially mentioned they’d be happy to elaborate, briefly addressing one of the concerning reviews about the host being out of town, which caused some confusion. However, they didn’t go into detail on each rule violation mentioned in the reviews. They concluded by pointing out that they’ve received positive reviews for a while now. Since their response wasn’t defensive and they were in town for a large conference during the weekdays, I felt it would be a less risky booking. The person just checked out, and everything went fine. They were gone most of the day.

[Helen3 · Accepted solution]

So glad to hear that @Farah148