What would you do?

[Linda793]

Guest (with zero reviews) checks in circa 8pm (on a 'chilly' San Francisco evening) to her single room. Mentions she has been cold all day and how can she turn on the heat. I explain its central heating for the whole house and comes on when temp drops below a certain temp. I offer her an extra blanket if she needs - she doesn't take me up on it. (I know the bed has very cozy, warm bedding).

I manually turn on the heat a bit later for a short amount of time, thinking of the guest and hoping she is warm. She goes to sleep, I assume. 

Next morning she leaves at 7:30am and shortly thereafter sends me a message saying 'even though the bedroom and bathroom are extremely clean; the room was too humid and the sheets smelled "really bad" and she could not sleep despite being extremely tired.'  She has checked out after one night! (2 night res).

She immediately left me a review when the review opened up and I AM SURE IT IS NEGATIVE !

I am a Superhost - I have had over 300 guests, NO ONE has never given feedback on bad smelling sheets. I smelled them myself - they smell to me between 'nothing -> pleasant' - i use a scent free detergent and 'shea blossom' Scentables.   S

2. The room has a window, which is easily opened and would have allowed airflow and given it was a cool night in SF, it would have cooled it quickly  - the room was probably was TOO WARM for her .  good lord.

Gosh - what do you do with a guest like this in terms of a review - high maintenance guests.   They are lose-lose guests.  You can't please them no matter what. We have all had them.  They give us unfair bad reviews. Airbnb can't do anything.

[Sudsrung0]

@Linda793 

As we say we cant please everyone just make sure you reply to her with the facts, in my experience other guest see right through it, in our case other guest did comment to me, infact one lady said "What was up with that Crazy woman" 

I remember one guest who was checking out saying to me there was a smell in one drawer in the bedroom yet the kitchen was like a bomb had hit it, 

[Linda793]

Thank you!

[Gillian166]

@Linda793  Def leave a neutral review, polite but not complimentary, and mark her down. did you check what type of reviews she usually leaves?  Not much can be done about a guest who complains about the weather!

[Linda793]

Yeah she only has left one other review. Complained about a couple of things in that one too. Picky guest.  

Thank you for the input - appreciated! 

I should take it with a grain of salt. 

[Gillian166]

@Linda793  oh, if she has complained in another review then you absolutely need to ding her in the stars. A BIG ding, because of the reasons outlined in this thread 
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Hosts-vs-Guests-Review-Metrics/m-p/1700453#M31971

Basically guests only get rated in increments of 0 and .5 so a guest who is 4.9 is still 5*. And a guest who is 4.6 is still 5*...... !

Of course still be polite and professional in the review, so she looks unhinged. She won't see what scores you gave her. 

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Linda793 

"As Superhosts we try our best to give our guests a stay they will look back on with fond memories. From this guests comments to me prior to her early departure it appears we failed to meet our high standard in this instance. I value all  my guests feedback and I wish xxxxxx all the best for the future, but would decline the opportunity to host her again"!

That's all you need to say Linda, you haven't accused her of anything other than being difficult so you won't have to backtrack if she leaves you a neutral to reasonable reviews. You have warned other hosts to beware of her, and by clicking 'NO' to the 'would you host this guest again' field you will prevent her from booking again without submitting a reservation request.

Use this one as a learning curve Linda.

Cheers........Rob

[Huma0]

---

@Robin4 wrote:

You have warned other hosts to beware of her, and by clicking 'NO' to the 'would you host this guest again' field you will prevent her from booking again without submitting a reservation request.

---

@Robin4 I would also give this guest a thumbs down, but am not sure if the above is true. Other hosts can't see if someone has left the host a 'no, would not host again'. If a host doesn't use IB or hasn't checked the box requiring IB guests to be recommended by other hosts, they will never know. And, even then, I have found that guests sometimes send a request booking even when they could IB. Some just prefer it.

Also, I have been unable to determine what 'recommended by hosts' actually means. Some, like you, have said it means that the guest only has 'would host again' from previous hosts, which seems logical, and what I used to assume. However, others have said it has nothing to do with that and that only stops the guest from IBing with that particular host again. Some say it's actually based on the star ratings, but no one seems to know what Airbnb judges to be an acceptable rating for a guest. Some have suggested it's anything 3* and above. Who knows? Airbnb's wording on this is deliberately vague.

Even more worryingly, one host posted that he had asked CS about this and had been told it had nothing to do with the ratings/would host again button at all, but was based on the algorithm picking up key words in the review! I sincerely hope that CS agent was talking out of their backsides.

Anyway, if you have some insider info on this or can direct us to an Airbnb article that fully explains it, do please share!

On the other hand, ALL hosts can now see the star ratings the guest has received, so I think it's important to mark them down on these where it's warranted. 

[Renee291]

I once had a similar situation as the OP. I wrote an honest but neutral leaning review and stated that perhaps the guest would be better suited for a hotel stay.  I called CS about the "would you host again" thumbs and was told a thumbs down doesn't keep them from booking with you again. I asked if they could block the guest from booking with me and they said they could/did. The guest ayahuasca left me a good review (odd since they sent several negative comments including being bothered by the recycle bin - they don't recycle for fear of not complying with "draconian requirements" so the bin was disturbing to him). My review made a point without me looking like a bully or irrational.

[Linda793]

Thank you!

Most hosts use instant book so 'would be better staying in a hotel' is useless really unless I leave low enough stars along with the review that it results in her having 4 stars and hosts coming after me have their settings to only 5 stars.  

Right?

The words in our reviews are pretty useless. It's the star rating that has some effect.

[Gillian166]

@Linda793  well, a lot of hosts write wonderful reviews and then mark them down. I'd suggest both are important.



I've got a woman staying this week, she has 4 reviews and they are all glowing. There's no hint in any of the reviews as to what she did.

And another one next week

Again, 3 reviews and they are all glowing and nice, and they all say "would welcome back anytime".   How did she even get 3.5 stars? we can't leave 1/2 stars, so how is that even calculated? she's been marked down by 2 hosts? 

[Linda793]

Yes! Interesting.

[Kelly149]

@Linda793 hate to break it to you, but abb CS once told me (who knows what is actually true or not...) that "recommended by other hosts" didn't go away until a guest had CONSISTENT 1* Reviews. The full story is that none of us really know what that recommendation really means

[Huma0]

@Kelly149 

That was exactly my point above.

Airbnb have kept the wording around this deliberately vague and no one seems to know exactly what 'recommended by hosts' actually means, although lots of people are making assumptions about it, i.e. it means the guest got a 'would host again' from all previous hosts or 5* in every category, every time.

I could find nothing on Airbnb's help pages nor articles that said that, nor clarified in any way what 'guests with good reviews' or 'recommended by other hosts' means. Of course, it's deliberately vague because probably the truth would make a lot of us run a mile from using  instant booking!

[Kelly149]

@Huma0 EXACTLY