I did not give this guest a bad review. I wanted to but felt that I would be petty in doing so.
She arrived much later than stated but I knew this would happen when she mentioned where she was eating dinner. Dishes and glassware were left on wooden tables and left marks. They were fine and did dry out. She had asked for late checkout! I said no, as I had a back to back booking. She did not leave at checkout time but a half hour later started the leaving process. She called this minutes. She did not respect the rule nor did she respect my wishes that she could not leave late. She gave herself permission to do as she pleased. I rated her a little lower in following rules as well as leaving the place clean. I reviewed saying she left the apt in reasonable shape. I did not mention the late checkout. I did however in a private message tell her that leaving used glassware on wooden tables was disrespectful of the owner’s property, I also told her that leaving late despite not having permission to do so was unkind as to put me through the extra stress of not having the time required to make sure everything was as it should be for the next guest. This happened two months ago, Yesterday I rec’d her response filled with anger and resentment for telling her how she should improve her “guest appeal” Do I respond? or leave it be?
She wants a response . Best to ignore her. It will infuriate her.
Absolutely not. And if someone checks out late in the future please let us know in the review.
I would just leave it. It was two months ago after all; you’ve moved on and so should she. As Jane says, you’ll annoy her by not responding. Joy!
You might want to consider blocking her from contacting you again though.
I bet you wish you’d given the review both barrels now!
Next time make sure you give an honest, factual review, think of other hosts! Its not petty. Reply if you like telling her what she is, only if that will give you satisfaction, then block her.
Leave it! Next time write the review for your fellow hosts, not the guest! It’s not petty if it’s factual and unemotional.
You should have said something like:
“Cannot recommend Guest as she arrived much later than stated, left the place a mess, and did not leave on time, when asked, even though we had back-to-back bookings.”
I regretted not being totally honest. I did not give her a glowing review. I had “that” feeling that she would leave late and made sure to tell her in a message that the checkout time had to be adhered to. I didn’t know that this would be as important to other hosts as it is to me. I have those hours between checkout and the next guest check-in coordinated. I thought I was being too picky. I had had to leave a bad review before and it was not a pleasant experience. The back and forth banter on Airbnb still makes me cringe. This year I have had to leave another bad review and did so …at the last minute. It is terrible to have to do this in order to protect ourselves. Next one next week. These guests got good reviews from other hosts! That is what I find so confounding and made me think that I was being too picky.
Other hosts might also be worrying they might be picky, so we get caught in a spiral of politeness, which doesn’t always help.
You don’t have to answer people if they message you after you give them a negative review. Just ignore them or report and block and they’ll go away.
I can explain one way that happens. Newbie hosts reviewing newbie guests and trying to cut them a little slack Because they are new to the system. GUILTY! I did it on a couple of my early guests. Not anymore. Hosts educate themselves much more quickly than guests do and generally speaking I think most of us are pretty fair in our reviews. Because all reviews are blind we can end up giving a pretty nice review to someone that was a picky princess (or prince) and slaps us on everything, even something completely out of line. For example: I had a young woman that on the surface seemed pretty nice, a bit inexperienced in life, a 20 something from a somewhat small town. She left dishes in the sink, and I cleaned up bobby pins from her doing bridesmaids hair for a week, (they were in some odd places) It was not really bad but not really good. She claimed they had to leave early early in the morning because of a family issue. In my mind they should have done the dishes after their evening meal instead of leaving them for the morning, but whatever, I cut her some slack. I gave her a good review. SLAP! she hit me hard on things that made no sense at all 3 stars on Accuracy - reasons amenities and house size HUH? I have every amenity I have listed and it is a 3 bedroom house with a nice kitchen, dining room and living room, one bathroom. She and her boyfriend got it for $80 a night. She hit me with 2 stars for value. Etc. It goes on from there with a 3 star overall and her comment “Great breakfast places nearby” I bent over backwards for this brat and she repaid kindness with bitchy rude. I learned my lesson fast, Accurate, honest, non emotional reviews from then on for “difficult” guests. Fortunately, they are few for me at this time. It is a lesson we all learn.
I think she might be having issues booking elsewhere when hosts read between the lines.
Please stop worrying, really please. We’ve all been there, until we develop rhino hides and gain the experience that helps us make decisions.