Upset about a recent guest

[Penny501]

Hi, 

Thank you for reaching out !

My name is Penny .

I have been hosting my newly renovated 3 bedroom apartment for over a year on airbnb at a very attractive price . 

I am quite upset at a recent guest.

They  had read the description and seen the photos of our listing BEFORE VISITING

1) that the 7th guest will stay on a sofa bed in the living room

2) that the second bathroom had a shower over the toilet 

Even so she gave us a 3 star review 

saying there is no privacy for the 7th person staying in the living room

and the second bathroom is a shower over the toilet .

I dont understand these unrealistic expectations

Why didnt she book an appartment with 4-5 bedrooms and 2-3 bathrooms 

for double the amount she was paying me ?

We now have a lower score on airbnb .

Unfortunately I had already given her a five star review .

How do you deal with this ?

[Penny501]

Also that the staircase was difficult to take the suitcases upstairs 

The staircase is also clearly photographed and is an

internationaly award winning design

If she is carrying a 30 kilo suitcase

she should stay in an appartment without stairs .

I think airbnb should allow hosts to delete 1 review maybe every 6 months 

to offset paranoid guest ratings 

[Rebecca]

Hi @Penny501 👋

I hope you don't mind, I moved your post to its own separate thread to get more eyes on it from our experienced hosts.  😍

[Helen3]

Hi @Penny501 

I Hope you don't mind if I give you some advice.

i don't think you should be trying to market your listing for up to ten people when you only have two bathrooms (one of which is quite basic) and only have dining space for up to six. Where do you expect the extra guests to eat when you have seven to ten guests?  

you haven't labelled your photos so it's not clear where the extra two - four people sleep if you already have six sleeping in the bedroôms. You need to make this clear in your description and photo titles.

I would also note the steep staircase in your description.

in your situation I would only market the listing for six guests particularly when you referring to it as a luxury listing. 

[Jennifer1897]

@Penny501  I have to agree with @Helen3. I think your allotted number of guests is too high for the space size you offer. I would suggest 6 people or possible 7 at most, with a clear description of the sofa bed and its location. I would also be very clear in your descriptions. You can do this in both the captions on your photos and in your in your listing description. Offer appropriate information about the steepness of the stairs and the layout/functioning of the second restroom.

That being said, keep in mind a lot of people that book don't read everything or look at everything. That means that every once and a while you are going to get a guest that is "surprised" by certain aspects of the accommodations even though they had the opportunity to fully review the property before booking. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do in this case.  You can petition to have the review removed; however, given that it doesn't violate any rules I am not sure how willing Airbnb would be to remove it. I have gotten lucky in the past though and had a review removed from a guest that didn't realize he was renting a room vs and entire home and complained about privacy. 

[Penny501]

Thank you for the useful information.  

  The apartment is very well priced for 10 people .                                                            10 people would pay more to stay in a hostel

The idea is for us to provide value for money.

The specific guest had booked 6 months in advance

and BEFORE arriving had 

requested a partition  for the 7th person in the living room 

for more privacy .

We  provided a screen  which she broke and didn't even apologize.

She cooly just asked if we have another one 

So people just PRETEND not to understand the listing after carefully calculating how cheap it is .

Even so I will adjust the listing accordingly .