Racist Entitled Guest roaming **

[Anthony608]

I wouldn't normally call out a guest like this, but I wanted to sincerely warn hosts in the ** area about this account:

**

This guest stayed with me for about a week and was all smiles during her stay, every day saying the house was great and that everything was going fine.  When she left, she did not leave a review at first and, as the 14 day window was coming to a close, it looked like she wouldn't.  Then, with only 2 hours left to leave a review, she left a single one line public review, 3 stars overall, and *slammed* the house in private feedback.

The issue is that her feedback appeared to be retaliation and possibly racist.  She stated we didn't really have a housekeeper and that the entire house was filthy and covered in dust.  She also stated our bathroom was filthy and that our "woolwork" (I think she meant woodwork) was dirty and had never been cleaned.  The motivation for this seems to be that she wanted to check in early, was told we had a $15 dollar fee because we had to reschedule our housekeeper, and I think then she basically took a white glove to the house looking for problems acting like we had lied about our housekeeper.  She also at one point actually saw our housekeeper, who is Hispanic, and apparently made a racist remark overheard by another guest.

Most of what she said was also a lie.  We have never had a single guest say the house was dusty, our wood banisters are also clean, and the bathroom is cleaned with industrial chemicals for each guest and is always sparkling.  The woman herself also appeared to be someone who is living in AirBNBs (which is fine) possibly roaming the area looking for work.  In all she struck me as a very entitled "may I speak to your supervisor" type of person.  The fact that she acted friendly, then timed the review so that with only 2 hours I possibly wouldn't be able to leave one of my own, then trashed the house in her review, speaks volumes.

I didn't leave any feedback to her review and didn't contact her about her many issues.  But I did want to warn other hosts in the area.

**[Personal information hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Sarah977]

@Anthony608  Too bad about the 3*s, but at least her one liner review is positive. And it certainly doesn't require a response. 

[Emilia42]

@Anthony608 

The moderators will likely remove sections of your post. I am confused - you did review this guest and your review of her is very positive. If she had given you a 5-star review but still commented in the private feedback would you still have written this post?

[Anthony608]

@Emilia42- My main concern was she was intentionally putting on an act in the house.  Had she brought up these alleged issues while she was with us, they would have been immediately addressed.  Even a casual comment about things being dusty and I would have called our housekeeper in or cleaned it myself. 

I don't know if she had given a five star review, her racist remark against our housekeeper I think I would have posted this regardless.  PS, about moderators, haven't ever had a post edited or deleted before.  I generally stick to no pushing, spitting, or hair pulling when making posts.

[Colleen253]

@Anthony608 "....then trashed the house in her review..." Her public review is actually positive, so it's a good thing you didn't respond to that. The 3 stars is unfortunate. 

[Christine615]

I don’t understand what her waiting til the last minute has to do with you leaving a review. You can’t see hers until you leave one and vice versa…or until 14 days has passed.

no response necessary.

[Anthony608]

@Christine615- My theory is that she perhaps thought I was going to leave her a bad review and maybe thought if she left hers within 2 hours of the deadline, I would not see it and post one in return.  I don't understand why she did that either.  I might be reading too much into it, it just seemed strange.

[Sarah977]

@Anthony608  I have a different take on this. You seem to acknowledge that it could have been dusty. She may not have mentioned it during her stay because she didn't want to create bad vibes while she was in your home. It didn't affect her stay that much, but was more aesthetically displeasing to her aside from maybe what she considered to be a "filthy" bathroom. 

The fact that she said nothing about that in the review, but only private feedback, I see as considerate. She just wanted you to know that you might want to step the cleaning up a notch. That's how I see it. 

The possibly racist comment reported to you by another guest is a separate issue, and as it came to you as hearsay, I wouldn't take all that seriously. Yes, perhaps she is prejudiced, and if she had said that directly to you, or your housekeeper, you could have mentioned it in the review.

[Anthony608]

@Sarah977Valid points as always.  Since this incident happened, I spoke to our housekeeper about a more aggressive dusting policy, including underneath and behind furniture.  Apart from this guest here, in the past I have had a few people pull furniture away from walls and look underneath furniture for issues.  We actually vacuum underneath all beds and cabinets now for exactly that reason.

[Sarah977]

@Anthony608  Well, I vacuum underneath the beds and furniture not because a guest might check there, but because that is what I consider to be a part of thorough cleaning. So I would venture a guess that your cleaning standards are different from mine and this guest's. Which isn't to say she might not be the white glove, OCD type, running her finger over the top of the door to see if it's dusty.

It seems to me that had she wanted to get even for being charged an early check-in fee, she would have made her criticisms public, rather than in private feedback.

And there are plenty of guests who aren't displeased with anything in particular, or mad at the host, who leave 3 or 4* ratings. 

[Anthony608]

@Sarah977- We clean now underneath everything as a matter of course.  Actually, it was a post from the very beginning of my hosting, which you commented upon, which led me to these standards of vacuuming beneath and behind everything.  So, thank you!

[Anonymous]

@Anthony608   Ironically, the only "retaliatory" behavior I see here is yours.

It looks to me like you're upset about getting a 3 star rating, and retaliating by using this very public forum to accuse her of being a racist, with no evidence other than something allegedly overheard by someone else. 

Even if the guest truly is as horrible of a person as you believe her to be (which would make your review of her a lie), she did you the courtesy of keeping her criticisms of your home private. What you're trying to do to her here amounts to defamation, completely out of proportion to the crime of feeling your house was dusty.

[Anthony608]

@Anonymous- Actually, since this happened, the rating was upgraded to 4 stars under the AirBNB outlier policy.  I was very surprised they did that, but I did call them about her comments about our bathroom in the private feedback which were clearly untrue, as well as calling me a liar and saying I didn't really have a housekeeper.

The racist comments I have absolutely no doubt she said.  The guest who reported them is a repeat stayer who has been with me on and off for over a year.  He knows our housekeeper personally and was disturbed at what he heard.

My main goal here was alerting other hosts in the area to be careful hosting this individual.  She clearly had put on a  false front staying with me and I am also convinced this was completely caused by her getting angry that we charge an early check-in fee.

[Colleen253]

@Anthony608 “My main goal here was alerting other hosts in the area to be careful hosting this individual.” 

The place to do that was the review, but your review recommends the guest, and the mods will only remove the link to this persons profile, so the whole exercise is pointless. I’d agree you should ask for this post to be deleted. Especially as it’s not in host circle. 

By the way, what is the outlier policy of which you speak? I feel I’ve missed something. Link to more? Never heard of a rating being changed after a review is posted.

[Anthony608]

@Colleen253- I know hardly anything about moderators on this community site.  Are they connected to the actual AirBNB corporation?  About a year or so ago there was a thread where someone was talking about how their listings were suspended because of something they wrote here.  I never found out of that were true or not.  If there is an actual danger of getting in trouble for things people write here, I would indeed rethink my posts.

Postscript- I had heard stories about AirBNB changing 1 star reviews if a person was constantly getting 5 stars.  When I called about this, since I had dozens of "sparkling clean" compliments, as well as proof I had a housekeeper and was adhering to enhanced cleaning, the customer service rep said they would review the review.  A week later, it was at 4 stars instead of 3, didnt get any messages or further info.  Maybe they called her I don't know, and she agreed to change it.