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Ok… more than likely not going to do it but I am frustrated. Hosted a couple that lives an hour away from me and is an airbnb host. They were seeing friends in my city after a long drive and decided to make an evening in my town instead of driving home then coming back again.
Very friendly couple… gave them recommendations for restaurants, gave them their choice between two rooms as both were open, chatted, etc… After they went to bed I spruced up the kitchen were they left used tea bags on the counter- checked the living room and there were sunflower seeds on the couch and floor and they knocked a blanket on the floor. Go upstairs to the shared bath and they left a towel on the floor. I get everything picked up and go to bed.
Next day I leave them a nice note and depart from work.
Then review time. They zinged me. They claimed my listing was inaccurate and contacted airbnb. First claim was my shared bathroom which is clear on the listing, second was the staircase which is narrow due to the historic nature of the house, and third they complained about the mattress and said it sagged. All of this was listed under “accuracy”.
I am tempted to find their listing and send a friend to stay and ask them to review them and find everything ludicrous that is wrong. Will I actually do it? No. But it’s tempting and I can’t believe another host, and a new one at that, was so critical.
I feel your pain. I recently got low star ratings for accuracy. I emailed the guest and asked what he found to be inaccurate in our listing as I would like to correct any inaccuracies. His response is below. Clearly, Airbnb needs to help guests to understand that the accuracy category is not a catch all for anything they don’t like. Our bathroom has an antique clawfoot bathtub which shows in the photos on the listing, so being surprised that it’s “dated” is ludicrous.
Hi Ellen
What I wrote was. The room and bathroom was a little outdated compared to what I expected.
Don’t take it personally, but I just compare with a hotel room
“In spite of being AirBnb Hosts, So & So left messes behind in the kitchen, shared bath and living room for us to clean up behind them. Not exemplary guests.”
Ugggggg, how dare they!!! Calling your vintage tub dated. See, these new ratings metrics prompt nit picks, I hate them so! Also I think that guests think the review should not be taken personally, when it is VERY personal!!!
Sorry Ellen, you don’t deserve to be nicked on accuracy.
Grrr! How frustrating!
I had a couple of super hosts stay who were lovely to my face but stabbed me in the back big time in the review. Apparently they had a sheet fetish and they didn’t stop going on and on about how mine were ‘unacceptable’ (not true, and actually a guy that stayed the previous week even asked us where we got them as he wanted some for home). They didn’t try and get a refund but those three stars have haunted us ever since.
I was very tempted to book a night at their place but decided it wouldn’t be worth it. I checked to see if they had ‘flexible’ cancellation so I could book and then inconvenience them at the last minute, but no. For the best really as these things never work out the way we hope!
Karma will get them
Maybe we should all suggest to ABB that fellow hosts not be allowed to book within an hour’s drive of other hosts. Seems like iit’s an easy opportunity to do harm to the competition.
My only fellow-host guest also left the worse review to date. Well, the review was fine, the stars were not. I think he just copied and pasted the bad bits from his own reviews [which are not stellar] because he was just a nasty man. Only 3 [not overall, thank goodness] I have received.
Arne sounds like a tool with no style. Who wouldn’t want a claw foot bath. I’m guessing he doesn’t watch ‘Antiques Roadshow’ with all that dated, worthless crap.
Why not? They sound bloody painful and deliberately nasty. Check their other reviews, are they doing this to other local hosts? If so report them to Air.
@Laurie_Ann, did they try to get a refund? If so, how did that end up?
I’m sorry that you’ve experienced this. I would be feeling betrayed and bewildered at this moment if I were you.
I hope you take the opportunity to turn a couple of those items into positives in your response:
"I’m sorry you didn’t notice that we offer a shared bathroom, which our listing clearly states. That is the reason we are able to offer our unique, historic home at such a low rate. However, I hope you enjoyed the choice of room we offered you.
With you being Air hosts from XXX we were a little surprised to find that, as guests, your care of our home was lacking."
I was griping to my husband that if someone doesn’t like “dated” they probably shouldn’t stay in a house where the listing says it was built in 1926 and the photos show a claw foot bathtub. Oh, well. I didn’t review him right away because I could tell he wasn’t happy so I wanted other reviews to stack up before his was published. As it turns out, his was written in Danish so it’s at the bottom.
The sting of his review was abated by the wonderful guests who were here when it was published. They were two brothers from Dallas; here to promote one of the brother’s hip hop music. They were so incredibly appreciative. They told me that they almost had to cancel their trip due to hotel prices so Airbnb made the trip possible for them. They loved us, our house, our dogs, the breakfasts we serve, everything. They told me that they really didn’t want to leave and gave me great, big good-bye hugs. It’s guests like them who make Airbnb more than worthwhile. One of them adores dogs, but he’s allergic. He didn’t know about low dander dogs or allergy shots. He’s elated that I told him about both so now he can get a dog.
So sorry that you got stung by another host @Laurie_Ann. Unfortunately, many of us have had the same experience and it stings more than regular guests. My theory is that such hosts think of their own places when they stay somewhere else and feel superior and therefore justified in being mean. Or maybe they feel inferior and therefore justified in being mean… Either way, it’s crappy and they are small mean-minded people. There are actually some examples on here of host posters who proudly declared how they slammed another host in a review. But when you look at the evidence - their one nasty (superhost) review stands out in a sea of good reviews. It’s a cliche but it really does say more about them than anything else.
Maybe they put so much effort in remodeling their place that when they saw your place and your rates they got jealous. It is a childish reasoning, though.
However, from their point of view this was not the kind of thing where you complain with the host as soon as you notice it and the host will have it fixed. I wouldn’t replace my bathtub because one of guests think it is not modern enough.
And no wonder hosts are wary of hosting other hosts! We are traveling to a wedding in a few weeks and just booked an AirBnB because all that is in the area are overpriced motels and we’d have to get 2 rooms with the kids and all. I was so worried that they’d be hesitant to host us since we’re hosts. Why can’t people get that of course it’s not going to be like a hotel, and people use different styles of bedding, and have older homes and everything else. Stupidity. My only bad reviews are from people who clearly didn’t read the listing or look at the pictures and complained about things that would have easily been avoided (like wooden stairs!) if they’d not booked with me, lol.
@Sarah_Warren I hope that your AirBNB is wonderful and that the wedding is full of joy. My AirBNB is Florida is now using me as a mentor! How funny is that? But why? because I was nice in my review, and sent her personal feedback to “help” her take that listing to the next level. No reason to be nasty in public for a basically good stay after all.
Yeah, because we’re broke and it’s only 3 hours away we’re only staying one night so we may not even meet our hosts. But I would love to get together with a fellow host and just share stories in person.
Nice! I’ve had that experience…once! The others were sniffy like I trumped right under their nose () or super nice but not engaged. Whatever, I suppose. I did so enjoy that one set of hosts, we shared some hilarious stories.
How funny is that? But why? because I was nice in my review, and sent her personal feedback to “help” her take that listing to the next level. No reason to be nasty in public for a basically good stay after all.
