Has the world changed, or have I changed?

[Ben205]

That's how Morrissey put it. My questions is, are your Airbnb guests getting worse?

I ask because, in the first 4 years as an Airbnb host, I probably only had 1 guest that I wouldn't host again. But I've had 3 in the past 6 months that I've clicked 'No' for when writing their review.

Maybe I'm just getting a bit jaded with hosting? But I also think there are changes that have made hosting on ABB less enjoyable and more stressful, and the system doesn't work in our favour.

All thoughts much appreciated.

[Fe16]

Something really positive about this thread is that it’s great to know that others are experiencing the same thing. 

[Tony-And-Una0]

We hung on to.our superhost. I think our performance  from end of last year carried us through .

Our reviews  over last six months  were definitely  belie the threshold. 

Some of the points guests are commenting  on are now really ridiculous.   They are imagining  they owned our places and what they would do with them.

Not realising  after eight years of experience,  we know it's a waste of money having luxury  this, that and the other when our guests are booking  for a weekend  in the pubs and clubs. We don't charge luxury prices anyway. 

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Tony-And-Una0 

Yep, I lost Superhost status too, after having it consistently for 5.5 years. I started hosting in 2016 and got, and kept, the status ever since. I would very occasionally have a 4* review, but it was really rare. I had one 3* review, from the couple from hell, but that was years ago. My rating had not dipped below 5.0* for 2.5 years.

But, in the past few months, I've received 2 x 3* reviews and 1 x 4* ones. Bear in mind I host long term guests, the first half of the year assessed was slow due to COVID and not all guests left reviews, so that's actually a significant portion of lower ratings. This is not normal. I've never experienced it before.

So, yes, @Ben205 something has definitely changed. I am now also very wary of 'digital nomads'. I am finding out that they are, in general, not the best guests. They expect some sort of magical hybrid of home, hotel with concierge and office building and will always find something lacking. You spend way more time and energy on these guests because they hardly leave the house, use way more utilities, cook more, make more mess and don't clean up after themselves because they are busy working and see that as your job. Then they leave lower ratings. I'm really over them.

[Ben205]

@Huma0It's interesting you mention guests not leaving reviews. That's another change I've noticed, far fewer reviews coming in.

I have a policy that I only review guests if they leave a review first. My reasoning is, if they like the place they'll probably leave a review and if they don't like the place, I don't want to encourage them to comment!

On that basis, fewer reviews might well mean guests are not so happy. That wouldn't surprise me, so maybe I'm just lucky they don't want to tell the world about it!

[Mark116]

@Ben205  No I don't think so, we get a huge number of guests who message us what a great time they had, what great hosts we are and then never leave a review.  Like you, I stopped chasing reviews and now only leave a review for guests who review, and even then still get burned by guests who said all of the above, and still leave 4 stars.

[Huma0]

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@Ben205 wrote:

I have a policy that I only review guests if they leave a review first. My reasoning is, if they like the place they'll probably leave a review and if they don't like the place, I don't want to encourage them to comment!

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I've also had a pretty similar policy for a long time now and it seems to have served me well. However, I don't necessarily think that is the case since COVID. What I had earlier in the assessment year was a small number of guests who shortened their stay, not because they said they were unhappy with anything (they seemed pretty happy while they were here) but because suddenly people's circumstances were changing more often than before.

There was one guest who was supposed to stay a few weeks but left after less than a week because she was worried about COVID cases rising in London and hadn't realised how busy the city would be. Ironically, when she returned to Oxford, she got COVID. Anyway, she did not leave a review.

Another one booked for a month because he was waiting for a long term rental to become available. He left early and initially gave me some excuse about a friend needing him to house sit because her father suddenly died. I guess he expected me to treat that as an extenuating circumstance and refund him, but he foolishly let slip in another conversation that his rental apartment had become available earlier than expected. He didn't leave here to go to his friend's but directly to his new apartment, so it was all BS. He really pestered me for a refund. He didn't leave a review.

Yet one more guest left very early because she got invited to spend the holidays with some cousins and decided she'd rather do that. This one did leave me a (very nice) review, but then I messaged her to double check that she hadn't left because she didn't like the listing. Had I not had done that, who knows if she would have left a review at all.

There was one other guest who didn't review but everything seemed to go swimmingly with his stay so I guess he just didn't get round to it. Other than him, I would say that the guests who didn't review were probably worried that I would say something negative about them because they cut their stays short, or, because they cut their stays short, they didn't see the point in reviewing.

I don't know, but this whole sudden change of plans thing was really rare pre-COVID, so I do think that has had an effect on the percentage of guests reviewing my listings.

[Ben205]

@Fe16 @Tony-And-Una0 It does help to know others are seeing a change in ABB guests, and that change is (sadly) reflected in reviews.

We had somebody book our place for the Jubilee weekend, right in the town centre, next door to a couple of pubs, across the road from 3 take-aways and 2 restaurants, and they complained it was noisy!

They seemed surprised that everybody else, like them, was also out for the holiday.

I gave them some money back, but now wish I hadn't. They took one of my dog bowls!

[Fe16]

Wow. Do we need to be much more clear on our descriptions to manage their expectations better? I don’t want to have a growly description but maybe it’s better to be upfront and if they are put off booking then probably didn’t want them as guests anyway. 

For me it’s knives. They take the kitchen knives on picnics and when we ask about it they say “oh happy to pay”, and we say just courier them back (because they’re part of a set and I’m sick of replacing them) but then they don’t. 

[Adriana1153]

I am currently hosting a guest for 1 month, nothing wrong with that so far, yet I noticed that there was a constant need of “hand holding”.

I realized that he doesn’t have a phone number I can reach him to, so whenever he has an issue (like how to turn the music on), then I have to visit the place.

Furthermore I had to make Uber rides reservations, which he never paid for, also I had to make travel arrangements for his wife. Needles to say how many hours I had to kill for these nonsenses.

Furthermore, if my listing clearly says “Smarthouse”, then why the heck do you book it without even having a functional phone?

Of course, I read the reviews, obviously everthying was peachy! I trully believe that some hosts give some standard reviews, without really pointing out the pain points. I understand that everyone wants to avoid any negative scores, but lets be honest, these kind of needy people just suck the life out of us!

[Huma0]

@Adriana1153 

That's ridiculous. At some point, a host has to draw the line. There is only so much hand holding you can do before you realise that the money just isn't worth it. 

Yes, I've also had a few needy guests of late. It's not like I never encountered them before, but they seem more common now.

I feel like I provide quite a lot to guests, both in terms of amenities and service, for what they pay, but now they want things like a 'pretty basket' to keep their toiletries in because their toiletries bag 'doesn't fit the aesthetic'. Or they want coconut sugar for their yoghurt. Or some other such nonsense. 

Look, if a guest needs something that is not listed in the amenities, but I happen to have it and can easily provide it, no problem, but I feel like some of these people just ask for more and more silly little things just because they think that an Airbnb host's job is to cater to their every whim. It's almost like they lie in bed wondering, "What can I ask her for tomorrow? Mmm... I'm sure I can think of something else."