Praying these people don't leave a review

Honestly, I don’t want the cousin to move in. I love her and all, but I don’t want to trade in $1500-2000 in monthly rents for $300. Family…

And yeah, I know it can happen. If I get a review right away I’ll check if my star ratings have changed as at least over the past few reviews I can see my star averages even though I can’t see the new review. And then I’ll review her honestly and if the review is bad and addresses things that we clearly handled immediately I’ll contact Air and see if I can get it removed. Because that’s the main frustration. That people comment negatively on things that you addressed immediately. It’s about the same as them mentioning something in reviews that is easily fixable and would never have been a problem if they’d just told you, like “there weren’t enough blankets”, or other nonsense that is easy to fix.

At this point, it has the potential to be ok if they’re decent people. They could mention that there was an issue at first but when they told us about it we quickly handled it and we’re great hosts. Lol. That’s what I would do anyway…

Air won’t remove reviews. I wish they did… but even after you have gone out of your way to remedy something and they refer to a case, their reviews are allowed to stand.

But let’s wait to see what she does. Maybe she won’t review. Fingers crossed!

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Well, I got a video of them smoking again in the garage (even though it’s not raining!), so at least I have back-up if it comes down to them asking for refunds or anything.

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They must have thought the garage smoking was allowed!

It’s all so ironic. Here they are engaging in the most vile smelling habit that makes your breath smell horrible as well as your clothing and hair, yet they’re bothered by a musty smell in the room. So odd.

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Another reason not to have carpet! Carpet can stink and pets can wet on it.I have laminate and I always mop when a guest leaves. I can see every single thing on laminate every single strand of hair dirt everything and I make sure that floor is completely clean. You can never really clean carpet.Carpets absorb odors. They are very unsanitary . Also flea eggs can hide in the carpet .you can buy a rabbit air purifier on Amazon they are very pricey but I bought three of them. they’re great for pulling out bad odors quickly. I used to use them when I was rehabbing a property and I wanted to get rid of the paint smell quickly so a tenant could move in.

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We had refund seeking guests who claimed the house smelled like cat, first complainet in 50+ guests. I went over there, nothing, except all my expensive candles places on my patio by the guest. I still bought a fancy hepa/UV air purifier and run it a fair amount of time, and 24/7 leading up to guest check in.

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Febreeze – that stuff is magic. We have at least 1 in every room and refresh them often. They’re expensive, but worth it.

I am someone who a) doesn’t like the smell of febreeze and b) doesn’t want to inhale the chemicals constantly. I’d prefer the window to be opened or baking soda sprinkled.

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Yep, it’s on the list as the next update we do!

Well, she left with this message: “Thank u everything turned out fine after all”
and I responded with: “I’m thankful you told us right away and we were able to do our best to address it.”

We’ll see what the next few days hold. I’ve recorded my current stats so that I know how they change when she reviews me (if that perk of seeing the changed stats even though you can’t see the review still is around), so I know how to review her. I’ll be honest either way, but I’ll keep specifics to private feedback if all goes well.

Same here. I got them an air freshener as that’s what they wanted, but I will be sticking to baking soda and leaving the air fresheners closed and available for guests who may want them (but then air out the place between guests). I’d personally rather smell humidity (which is what the smell was, my husband confirmed it) than chemicals.

Glad this turned out well thus far!

I hate the smell of febreeze and any chemical “air freshener”. As a realtor, when I walk into a house that has plug in “fresheners” in every room, I wonder what they are trying to mask. It literally reeks of a cover up.

I don’t allow pets and I also have a very strict no smoking policy. My mom died of lung cancer so I am very much against smoking and I state in my rules that smokers should consider staying elsewhere.

Ozium is great for neutralizing odors.

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I find that sometimes there is a lingering scent which may not be bad as in perfume or after shave, but may not be likeable to the next guest. So I use a Lampe Berger to refresh the smell of the place after each guest when I do the cleaning.

It’s just a great product; a bit expensive to buy and the oil is not cheap but it really does the trick and it is not chemical which I don’t use. There are loads of scents to choose from like citrus or sea breeze. I only started using this when I started to host and now I have bought one for my home because I really like how it refreshes the whole place.

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Oddly enough, Febreze isn’t the usual masking air “freshener”. It’s actually a fairly complex chemical wonder, a macrocyclic that tends to trap smaller molecules within its large ring, thus effectively eliminating the smell from the trapped molecules. It’s not perfect, but it really does suppress odors more than it masks them.

The wikipedia page for Febreze has some interesting info for the chemically inclined. I was surprised to find that the key macrocycle compound is derived from corncobs rather than being some sort of synthetic or petroleum derivative.

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pretty much anything made to smell like pansies is made from a chemically derived scent. (And corn doesn’t smell like pansies). These are known irritants for most but especially those with respiratory diseases. If I want a nice smell I burn some pure essential oils. I am also a fan of the HEPA filter which removes smells, dust, pollen etc from the air.

I remember reading something about avoiding something in these products but I can’t remember what it was as I don’t buy them anyway.

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Hi, I am newish to Airbnb and just had my first negative guest experience. They checked out a couple days ago but damaged a coffee table.

They may choose to retaliate by leaving a negative review, but if I don’t post a review their review of me will never be visisble, isn’t that correct?

My understanding of the reviews is that they are only visible if both host & guest leave one.

Which is unfortunate because it makes it difficult for me as a host to leave a review of this guest warning other hosts. Not that this guest was bad, just a bad experience - they didn’t tell me up front of the damage, rather I had to find it myself.

I would have let them off easier (less $$) if they had just told me what had happened.

I never leave a review for a guest unless they leave one for me first, UNLESS they’re bad. Then I wait until the last day and leave them a true review, hoping that they either can’t at that point or at least don’t get around to it until they can’t or they don’t care at that point.

I’ve also started to with bad guests, even if they review me right away, to wait until that last day. Reviews show up in order of stay, not order of reviewing. So if I can hold off on letting that bad review show until hopefully a great guest or two come and stay and review and come up in front of the bad one, win!

And like K9 said, any reviews made will show up on day 14 regardless if both reviewed. It would be too convenient to know a bad review was coming and not review the other person and just have it “disappear”. They just want it blind reviews so there’s no retaliation, but they have to have some point of when it will show up so that people can know what they’re getting.

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If I have a guest I am not sure about who leaves a review, I will just leave one. If they don’t write one, I am always very tempted to wait until the last second to write one. I don’t want to trigger it either.

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Tom!!! This is a bad guest, a very bad guest!

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Yeah! I bought a plug-in on Amazon for the cat litter boxes and it WORKS! 5 cats and NO smell in that room. Sometimes a particularly recent smell leaks out but it disapates quickly. It uses UV light. Let me find the name…Germ Guardian gg1000. They make bigger ones too. The house didn’t smell like litterbox before but near the area, you could smell like a fermented litter smell, now no smell anywhere.