Should I accept a guest with bad reviews?

[Mike1034]

Dear Hosts, 

I am seeking your inputs about accepting requests from guests with bad reviews. I have following questions and your input and suggestions are appreciated

(1) If you accept a guest with bad reviews, how many of them (or percentage) of bad reviews you would consider acceptable?

(2) What kind of bad reviews would you consider not acceptable at all? e.g. messy and unclean, not replying your messages, not observing major house rule such no party, no smoking, not observing minor house rules such as keeping quiet, leaving retaliation reviews to host etc.

(3) Could you share your experience with accepting guests with bad reviews if you have any?

My personal experience with accepting guests with bad reviews seems to be bad. Two guests I accepted with bad reviews still behave the same. One had minor issue while the other had major issue.

Thanks.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mike1034 

we have an instant booking and I  read guest's review only if he /she has 4 stars or lower. I don't read reviews my guests leave for other hosts

I rejected just one guest in my 3 years of hosting (same day booking, 1-night stay) because it was written he left the mess and used condoms by the bed. I contacted the host (she is from my town) and she said this was the only guest in her many years of hosting who didn't get her recommendation and got a negative review from her.

The guest had few reviews and just this one was bad, others were good.

Airbnb canceled this booking for me and I wasn't penalized.

[Mike1034]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 Two guests with bad reviews were locals as well. My friend is a super host. She had a couple of bad guests were locals as well. One had no review but hold a party in my friends house, which she had it entirely rented. The guest trashed the house, smoked in the house and consumed more than 20 bottles of liquor.

As a result, we all pay very careful attaention to local guests when they book.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mike1034uh, yes, locals are often a problem.

The guest I canceled was not local, he just comes to Zagreb repeatedly, probably for business. The host who left a bad review was the local host.

[Mike1034]

@Ann72 Two guests in my case with star ratings less than 4. One has one bad one bad review while the other had two bad reviews. The one had two bad reviews was really a trouble maker. The other one only had issue with keeping bathroom and kitchen clean after each use. The rooms I have are private rooms with shared bathroom and kitchen. Therefore, it is essential for the guest to keep clean after each use. Hopefully the guest you accepted will behave fine because you sent message before checkin. 

[Inna22]

I have IB so I have no choice.  Overwhelming majority of my bookers have no reviews. Very few have reviews and out of those even fewer have a negative. I have found that guests behaved exactly as described, just like one of the posters here already noted. They clearly did not learn from past experience and in all cases the review was a really good indicator that of the behavior.  One of my favorite sayings is “past behavior is the best predictor of the future one”.  Overwhelming majority of negatives was for a mess left behind and that’s what they did after they stayed with me. I charge a hefty cleaning fee so I just book the cleaners for longer time window.  

In fact, just on Friday guest checked out and he had a negative review for leaving a mess. His response to that negative was that he paid the cleaning fee so he was not going to move a finger. When he left my house, his dog has jumped on every single piece of furniture and clearly slept in every bed there is in the house even though the guest was just him and his girlfriend. A set of sheets had to be thrown out as stains did not come out. Air filters had to be changed.  This guy either lives in filth or has no consideration for others. Or both. Just like his review and his response stated. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Inna22 

He sounds like a "User" and you already wrote the review 🙂

"He paid the cleaning fee so he was not going to move a finger.

His dog has jumped on every single piece of furniture and clearly slept in every bed,

A set of sheets had to be thrown out as stains did not come out.

& Air filters had to be changed."

Which part of "staying in somebody's house" do they just not get?

The merits of having a 'cleaning fee' gets called into question.. If there was no cleaning fee and cleaning was included - do you think he would have cleaned up? Or, do you think he might have found another listing with a cleaning fee so he "didn't have to move a finger"? 

[Inna22]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0   do you think he might have found another listing with a cleaning fee so he "didn't have to move a finger" 

I love it!

[Mike1034]

@Inna22 From my past experience, it proves that your favorite sayings "past behavior is the best predictor of the future one" is true.

Next time if I see a guest having reviews like that and rating less than 4 stars, I will definitely deny the request. I believe that you still get a booking request for a guest with lower ratings even if you have a IB. But I don't know what criteria is used for Airbnb for that.

[Helen3]

Actually you do have a choice. @Inna22 

I use IB and asked Airbnb to cancel two bookings because of poor reviews.  They cancelled them no problem.

However in another two cases where there were negative reviews and positive reviews, I contacted the guests, asked them about the situation and after discussion I was comfortable for them to stay.

They replied promptly explained the situation and assured me that they would work within my house rules. And they did 🙂

Both sets turned out to be great guests and got a five star review from me.

I think my point is that it is worth contacting a guest if they have mixed reviews. Sometimes it is a personality clash or a host who has been unreasonable.

Sometimes it's a trashy guest who shouldn't be on the platform.

In the case of your guest if he had told me he had paid the cleaning fee so didn't need to lift a finger in regards to a previous stay, I definitely would have been on the phone to Airbnb to get them to cancel. I am so sorry to hear what a pig he was when staying at yours.

[Ann72]

Follow-up:  the guest left the place in good order.  My cleaner's only observation was that she could tell he and the "friend" he mentioned in his original booking message stayed in more than most people.  I've left him a good review and am curious to see if he leaves a review at all...

[Mike1034]

@Ann72 Great to know that your decision came with a good result. Guests with minor issues do learn from their past experience. As a host, we will learn and make good decision toward those guests with bad reviews with the time goes by.

[Frances52]

I have to say from my own experience, I will never host a guest who has 3 stars and under or bad reviews again. We have been hosting since 2017 and most of the time, it's been fine.

However, twice I decided to give guests the benefit of a doubt and twice I was disappointed.

The first guest had a low rating and one review which said 'unmentionable.' They left the place in a mess, moved furniture, juice stains on couch and floor, make up on white towels, half eaten food left on counter... you get the drift. However, to be fair, when I reviewed him saying that he had left the place in quite a state, he wrote back offering to pay extra for cleaning and apologised. 

Another guest had a 2.5 star rating and only one review which said there was a hiccup with communication and that the he had left a closet door out of its railing. Seeing that it wasn't a damning review from the host, I hosted this guest and his friend. They left the place in a worse state than it had been since we started letting it out about 10 months ago. They also checked out an hour later without asking. When I gave him a bad review, he berated me through messaging saying I was unfair and petty. This led to correspondence back and forth, with him challenging me as to why I said they weren't conscientious or tidy guests, and me having to give him a blow by blow explanation -- excrement in toilet bowl, coffee grind spillage in , on lid and on sides of indoor white bin, not observing check in or check out time, etc. Unpleasant for both parties, to say the least. 

So, never again. Twice bitten, twice shy is my new motto.

It's not worth it to me -- not only when bad guests clearly disrespect another's space, but also the potential of post-stay aggravation.

[Janine386]

I got a bad review for booking for a friend even though I explained to the host from the get go I wasn’t the one staying there and even though he gave her the place unkept and she was outside for almost 3 hrs waiting for a key I still gave him a good review

[Janine386]

@Frances52  Would you host me with a bad review that I got because I booked for a friend  am just trying to see something because I explained to the host I wasn’t the one staying and he even made it clear in his review that I booked for someone else 

[Mita127]

Booking for a friend is a third party booking and is against Airbnb’s terms and conditions. The person who made the booking MUST be present during the stay.