Sorry to hear about your experience. Sounds stressful. And not the guests you want.
I notice you are a very new host of this property (acknowledge you have other properties ?) Not to discount your bad experience but I have some thoughts so that this doesn't happen again.
Everyone's perceptions of properties can vastly differ, and after 9 years of hosting, I still get surprised. Not everyone's perceptions are the same as you the host.
I read your cottage listing - what a delightful place! Lovely part of the world - been there before.
I can see how it appeals to many who are familiar with this type of property and what they are seeking. But as you get more guests, you are going to get some who just don't understand it.
What lept out at me, is that your description is very light on. This is your space to take advantage of educating guests on expectations. eg the gardens. Same may literally take the white picket fence as the border of the property. Are the garden photos private to the cottage? Or public accessible? That wasn't clear to me.
Yes I would expect all window coverings, but if gardens are on offer, it's not clear how much and how. Can I have a picnic outside privately etc?
As for cleaning, I sympathesize. I run a farm property, and yep spiderwebs are the bane of my life. I constantly get rated down on cleanliness because a spider has appeared in the last 24 hours and spun a web somewhere (Australian native borns get this, but sometimes international tourists don't). So it's up to us to put that in the description under 'things you need to know' eg We have strict cleaniliness requirements, and we do spray and pest control regularly but if you do see something like a stray spider web, apologies in advance, it's a rural property'.
My country farm property has 15 points in 'Things you need to know'. I am constantly refining this to manage expectations.
As for reviews, this is a lesson for all hosts and one I learnt the hardway as well. Airbnb are very reluctant to remove any guest review, it would have to be horrendous to be removed. What you described isn't horrendous, but probably classifies as they would call it, a 'different opinion'. So you have an opportunity to do a public response to their review. Use this to your advantage. Address not the guest, but future guests like this ('Dear Future Guests, we love having guests who understand what this wondeful romantic property has to offer. Unfortunately it's not suitable for everyone but we do promise you a fabulous 5 star experience with homey gorgeous cottage, gardens to wander etc etc "
I'm sorry that this isn' what you want to hear, but we've all been there. We use experiences like this to sharpen our listings, be clear on what we offer, use all the space in the listing description that you have to get guests to self qualify in that your listing is right for them.
Btw you didn't say what the rating was on the guest, and what was their prior hosting experiences were like. I don't take anyone new UNLESS they've communicated well with me and clear on expectations. Mine is not the type of property to experiment on in all honesty.
Also as an experienced host, I now avoid staying with listings that are light on detail, because that tells me the host probably isn't listening to their customers on what's important. Sure I could ask lots of questions, but I don't have time, they've probably been asked before, but haven't thought it was important to put in their listing.
Just my 2 cents, hope you take in the spirit intended and learn from the mistakes of the rest of us!
All the best, I'm sure your next bookings will be fine!
Kind regs MK
