This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
I received this review “The house and surroundings were as advertised. We didn’t bring a dongle and couldn’t sign into our Netflix account on a rainy day. We paid $615/night. I’m not sure if that was because of the number of people or the fact that it was last minute.”
So 1) my “house instructions” suggests bringing a dongle for the TV (firestick, chromecast, etc.) but that the TV has a netflix App if they forget. They subsequently contacted me that they didn’t bring a dongle on purpose and that they couldn’t sign into their netflix account because they had password problems. Forget that it’s super trivial to reset your netflix password, I offered to have a neighbor drop off an HDMI cable so they could connect the TV to their laptop, but they said they were “making do”, so I dropped it. I would have offered them my own Netflix password if they hadn’t said it wasn’t still an issue.
2nd, the weekday (mon-fri) price was $450/night, the Labor Day weekend price was $615/night, and they booked all three days, so they must have just not seen that there were different weekday/weekend prices. Annoyed at this less than stellar, pouty review. Was thinking of the following reply, but wondering if I should just ignore. Also wondering if referring to guest in 3rd person the right tone.
“Am glad guest enjoyed their stay and appreciated the house and environs. Likely they did not notice – when booking – that the weekday rate was less than the weekend rate, which was the case for Labor Day weekend, and though I did offer to help them with Netflix access, they declined further assistance. Am always happy to help guests solve any ‘I forgot to bring…’ issues.”
Not sure. Unless I’m missing something, there’s no way to see individual ratings for a particular review, and I haven’t been keeping track of of cumulative scores after each rental (which I’ll do now, so I can reverse engineer new ratings).
Thanks @jaquo. That seems like good advice. Appreciate it. Maybe I’ll just email him privately and let him know the price discrepancy wasn’t the result of some surplus-guest up-charge (which he suggested in his private feedback) but just an oversight on his part when reviewing the rental rates, so he’s more careful in the future and another host doesn’t get a similar public ding.
I think it’s a great idea to contact him privately. It’s our industry’s standard practice in the hospitality field. After all, airline prices are never EVER the same throughout the year. Hotel prices fluctuate with demand and special holidays.
My rentals start at $150 but can be as high as $450 per night during peak periods and special events. That’s just the nature of our business.
I agree contact him privately. But I’m wondering if you’ve considered just signing into a few apps for guests to save them from having to bring a device. It’s really easy and costs next to nothing in the big picture. Just a thought.
That’s what I did. Netflix signed into my account on the TV (I paid for the 4-user subscription and never used more than 3), and guests could sign me out and use their own or just use mine. However, doing this means I had to check the device on every turnover to ensure the guest was signed out and I was signed in.
What I would have loved to say is: “Why didn’t you bring the ‘dongle’ on purpose? Was it a futile attempt to take time to instead read or engage in bright conversation for the sake of enlightenment rather than watching the silly ‘Boob Tube’?”
What I would say however is (if anything at all): “Oh a pity you didn’t let us know, we have a few ways to connect in just such a case”
Disclaimer: I don’t even know what a ‘dongle’ is and my wife immediately thought it referred to something else, let’s you know how hip we are not about the ‘modern’ world.
The way you could have dealt with this is by putting your own password into the Airbnb message system for them, then resetting it after the guests had left.
Thanks @jaquo. That’s not actually a desired solution, as I don’t want guests using my netflix account unless they are in extremis (have forgotten their device and can’t log in on their own). I really don’t want their viewing habits logged to the account I share with my family and causing “recommended viewing” to be altered based on whatever they watch. Every other guest has managed to toss their firestick in their luggage -or- log into netflix without my help, so I’m hoping this is a one-off, though I will make changes to my instruction booklet to more strongly encourage BYOD.
If you access your account on a desktop, go to Insights > Quality > Read More (under guests review). And then on the left-hand side of the screen you’ll see Review Details, where you will see the Public Review and all the Feedback, including the stars for each category.
If you access your account from the app, go to Insights > Quality (click on the Overview area) > (scroll down) Read More (under guests review) and you will see everything there.
I have Roku TVs for my guests and set up
an Airbnb profile for each streaming service. Guests have been very respectful of the setup and seem to have no issues with this.
I’m also if the camp that no response is necessary. It just makes their review stand out and more often than not, makes the host appear argumentative.
The reason I asked about the overall rating is that if it is not a five-star, you might be able to get it removed for being irrelevant or for disclosing the price they paid.
The fact that they didn’t bring their dongle and couldn’t sign into their account isn’t your fault. It’s a bit like complaining “I didn’t bring a bathing suit and the owner doesn’t wear the same size I do so I couldn’t go swimming”.
