Scared to charge guests for extra services because they might leave a bad review.

[Danish15]

Airbnb has been such a great platform to do business on. Most of my guests have been amazing. However, sometimes I get guests that throw events and have too many people over. (I have the house rules on my listing as well as a physical copy on the wall of the living room) I get scared to charge for extra guests or extra cleaning services because I believe that might be the result of a low rated review. I have a camera on my front door which is how I know how many people come and go.

Suggestions?

[Helen3]

Why are you letting people party at your place and bring in extra guests contrary to your house rules particularly during Covid @Danish15 

when you see people breaking your house rules contact them and inform them if additional guests/partying doesn’t stop immediately they will all need to leave and their booking will be cancelled 

they are the ones who should be scared of a negative review which I am sure you left these guests to warn future hosts.

of course you should be claiming for additional cleaning/guests but better still stop the partying before it starts by being proactive in how you manage your STR business.

if someone leaves a retaliatory review you can respond or if it breaks review rules ask for it to be removed @Danish15 

[Danish15]

I’m not letting them throw events, as soon as i see there is an event going on i tell them to make everyone leave. I just wished there was a more structured way of handling this type of situation without worrying about a retaliation review.

[Kathryn444]

@Helen3  i am new to airbnb and this community. I had an extremely disrespectful guest a couple of months ago. He left my apartment with every light on (against my houserule), the TV on and the air-conditioning running with the balcony door open. It was also clear that he had been smoking on the balcony against the houserules. He engaged in a very vitriolic conversation with me in airbnb messaging, admitting that he had done all of these things, but asserting his right to do so as he had paid (half my pre-COVID fee). I reported him to airbnb asking them to review the conversation.  After all of this I never received any response from airbnb but got a new message from the guest, covered in crying/laughing emojis,  saying that he had been successful in getting my review taken down. Is this normal from airbnb? Do they always ignore hosts and blindly support rude, entitled guests? I'm really concerned about this encounter because it was very distressing and I felt completely abandoned by airbnb. Any info you can provide would be most appreciated.

[Anonymous]

@Danish15  What's the point of having a security camera if you're afraid to take action when you see your rules being violated? Why bother having rules at all, if you're afraid to enforce them?

Getting a retaliatory review is not nice, but you know what's worse? Getting your house trashed because you couldn't stand up to people who are abusing your home and hospitality. If you don't have the stomach for confrontation, consider employing a co-host who is prepared to demonstrate that you're not a doormat and put a stop to these superspreader events before things get to the point that extra fees would be a topic.

[Danish15]

It’s not that i don’t take action & don’t enforce them. I do, i tell them to make extra guests leave as well as if there are too many cars on the property. I’m just afraid to go beyond verbal warnings just because i don’t know how they would respond after checking out.

[Grace851]

I just had this kind thing happy. Their ticket only 4 person but they acturlly 5 person!! They sent me bad words and prebely very bad review. But i am not back down. 

[Linda108]

I see that you are still new to this Air BNB platform, @Danish15 , and it seems you  did have a bad guest who did not respect your property early on and received a bad review.  It will take some time to overcome the low rating, but given the other very positive reviews I would imagine you will be fine.  As you become more experienced, you will be able to trust your vetting of a guest and you will feel more comfortable confronting disrespectful, rule breaking behavior.

Over the years I have participated in the forum (5 years) I see how being concerned about bad reviews and ratings can cause a host to be overly cautious and often result in expensive lessons in bad guests.  If you are in this for the long haul, continue good hosting and it will work out.

I did review your listing and wonder if you might look at the preview of the listing to ensure it is correctly described.  Here are a couple of issues I noted:  You allow 6 guests but show sleeping beds for 4.  Need to add sofa bed to the number of beds.  Under amenities, it shows you do not have a private entrance and that you do not provide shampoo.  Is that intentional?  

Good luck in this business.

[Danish15]

Thank you for the review, I’ve adjusted a few things! And thank you as well for your knowledgeable information. 🙏🏽 

[Renata451]

Linda,

Im a baby in Airbnb and just looking to the response on this poor host questions I was like OMG why are they said those things! She just asking for advice not to be point fingers. 

Your response was respectful, you analyze her question provide feedback and even went above to check her profile and give tips!  Thank you so much for doing that.

Renata