Would you host a guest with a few bad reviews?

[Miki5]

Today, I received a booking request from a guest who has a few bad reviews, the latest this past September.  The hosts' review mentions smoking and showing up with a large dog the was not permitted. However, many of the other reviews are quite glowing. Still, about once a year,  a bad review pops up. This seems to be something that's developed in the last two years, because the earlier reviews are all excellent. The booking is only for two nights. Would you accept it? 

[Deb216]

@Miki5, Listen to your gut.

You may be surprised to discover how much damage one guest can cause in only two nights.

If you enjoy not sleeping well then realizing you ignored all the red flags and warnings to discover this guest caused so much damage that you had no choice but to shut down your listing in order to get your space back into acceptable condition, without income and possibly without recooping your losses. I would say no.

[Susan990]

No!.

[Pat271]

@Miki5  I would say no, and I would also explain to the guest why I am saying no. Keep it factual and without judgement.

Then go from there. I don’t think guests realize how damaging bad reviews are to their own booking ability.

A guest I had once with 1 out of 3 lukewarm reviews comes to mind. When I asked him about the less-than-stellar review, he was dumbfounded and had no idea what he had done. Then he contacted the host and begged him to remove the review. I also contacted the host and the complaint seemed very vague to me. Then the guest came back to me and promised me he would be a model guest.

I decided to give it a whirl, and he ended up being one of my best guests. No way was he going to be anything less than a model guest after all that!

I make a lot of decisions not based on black and white rules about what I will and will not do, but rather based on the attitude, apparent intentions, and general vibe of the guest. It’s not always foolproof, but the more I deal with people in this business the more confident I become to trust my gut instinct.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Miki5 

I'd decline. Smoking and dogs are against my house rules, and as@Deb216 mentioned, I treasure a good night's sleep. Rule breakers make me anxious. 

[Fred13]

Perhaps not worth the chance considering your bookings are very strong already.

[Mark116]

@Miki5  No.  You can't really even trust all the positive 5 star reviews, so when a host  has gone out of the way to warn about poor behavior, and as you say, in more than one review, believe them.

In a couple of cases we've accepted guests with a bad review.  In one case it was a group of young women who had stayed on a boat and the boat  host  gave them a terrible review, in another a family had gotten a negative review for failing to follow rules and asking for extras.  In the 1st case, we read reviews of the boat listing and found a lot of guests had problems, so we took the chance and the young women were fabulous.  In the 2nd case, we would have said no, but we hadn't seen the negative review before accepting, so we were very, very clear about expectations with the group and all turned out well.

That is to say that sometimes a  negative review can be overcome, but what you describe is a guest who lacks any respect for the host or property, by smoking and bringing a dog, and this has happened multiple times.  Definitely a  no.

[Carolyn--J0]

I have tried a few with an "Ify" or long breaks, or no past.  ALL have been problems. One was totally disrespect fully to me & the fact that it IS my property.   Brought a 3 guest with a travel trailer, I had said NO to(and showed up at 1 am!).    Luckily I don't NEED the money,  I just have a property totally set up for dogs, down to Agility Equipment, for REAL dog people.  BUT, there are rules to protect their & MY dogs, chickens, landscaping, etc.  So, I had the guts to nail them in MY review, to protect the next person they try it on.   Read the reviews & decide if you want to take the chance(property ,& get a nasty review from them).