Leave a factual review – “A and B were pleasant guests, but did leave the room and particularly the bedding very unclean.”
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@JudyA Air’s reviews are “double blind” – which means that neither of you can see the other’s review until both reviews are written -OR- after 14 days, if only one of you left a review. After the 14 days, the review period expires and if you or the guest did not leave a review, too bad, and you cannot leave a review. However, either the host or guest can leave a rebuttal to the review given, which shows up under the review.
KenH - really liked your wording.
Yes, I will reconsider this for a couple of days.
Many thanks - all the feedback really helped!
J
Please leave an honest review. Keep in mind if they leave you one it will be visible after 14 days whether you review or not. We can improve the Airbnb experience for everyone if people would leave honest reviews.
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Judy this has happened to me, lucky for me the guests let me know and offered to pay for new sheets. I understand a accident but she should have let you know. Wash in cold water with detergent and biz to get blood stains out.
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You can leave a review after the period of double.blind. I just did it with the guests who dmaged furniture. I didn’t what to review until the issue was resolved. As the final word didn’t come til after the 14 days, I hadn’t written a review. I was able to see their review before I posted mine.
This is interesting. I’ve never seen a case of this except before they changed the review protocol.
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Well said as usual, @KenH. Short and to the point. Think about it, @JudyA; wouldn’t you prefer to have an idea of what kind of folks they are if they want to rent your place? Honest reviews are the only way we’ll all survive.
But as @jaquo said - this just does happen. I try to think of a big wheel that gets spun - sometimes it comes up ‘wonderful!’ sometimes “they brought gifts!” sometimes “meh - looking forward to check-out” and sometimes “omg what that WHAT?!”. You do just get out the bleach and roll with it. Some people are not going to get it. Truth.
Cost of Doing Business.
CDB, CDB, CDB, CDB. Repeat as needed. Just make sure you’re charging enough to make it worth it.
But as well, leave an honest, unemotional, factual review! Ken said it perfectly.
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I don’t want to start another post so I’ll tag onto this one – guests who left today: They asked for a $75/night discount AFTER they booked. I would have turned them down completely if they had asked prior to booking. I offered a full discount if they wanted to cancel, but they did not. I told them that (a) September is already discounted down from my summer rates and (b) September is still busy because of the University and the football games. The day before their arrival, she sent a message that there were no home games scheduled for their weekend. She also asked for an early check-in because their flight was arriving at 1:05. I said fine because it was not a back-to-back day. It takes at least 50 minutes to drive from the airport to my place – add to that departing the plane, getting through the airport, taking the shuttle to the car rental, and renting the car – at least another 45 minutes. I was timing my cleaning on them arriving at 2:30, just in case their plane was early. I got a text at 12:55 saying they were five minutes away! Some kind of test? Oh, and the person who booked was an illegal host in NYC (and she restarted her account so I could not see that beforehand). I told her that I wasn’t expecting her until 2:30, based on the information she gave me and to hit the grocery store on the way, or something. I finished at 2:15 and then waited for a half an our until they arrived (no big deal – I did some yardwork). I asked if their plane arrived extremely early (reiterated that she stated the landing time as 1:05, and she simply said yes.
Nice enough people but they spilled some sort of oil all over the bathroom, staining my marble vanity top (I know, bad choice of material for an Airbnb – which I had done quartz), peed all over both toilets, and I found a spatula and whisk in the dishwasher, but no pan. Sure enough, they put the food-encrusted pan back in the cupboard. They also clearly wore shoes on the carpet (against house rules), and neglected to take out the garbage (again, not a big deal). They also asked for a late check-out but I got a reservation for my open nights on Saturday so I was not able to accommodate that request as today became a back-to-back day.
I know they are going to leave me a bad review because I didn’t give them a discount and was unable to let them stay late. Help on the review? I would not host them, again, because of the discount request and telling me that they were showing up way earlier than they should have.
Sandy, wait until you get the review to do anything. If they do retaliate for those things, you may have grounds to get it removed.
Yes, thank you. I will also wait the 14 +/- days …
I hope the timing works for you because it sure didn’t for me. I waited to post my (first ever) negative review on the 14th day, 15 min. before the supposed midnight deadline and it never showed up.
So boo on that!
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Just to be sure, call the Air rep and get the exact, exact expiration time in the guest time zone. That’s what you need to do the sneak attack. Note that their deadline might be before yours. So the sneak attack may or may not work depending on time zones.
The blood thing; for those of us who are unlucky in this area it can come out of nowhere and be horribly messy. You wake up and oh no, what happened?!? Too late by then of course.
Of course the guest should have told you but was probably embarrassed. I have dealt with some major blood incidents; a soak in cold water and then a cold wash always gets it out.
I know it’s unpleasant, in your shoes I would be irritated but I probably wouldn’t assume it was on purpose. And rather than say ‘they left the sheets unclean’ (which too me sounds like it could be any number of body fluids) I’d probably cut the guest a bit of slack and say: there were some guest related cleanliness issues that I would have liked the guest to notify me of before checkout.
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Thanks Konacocunutz,
Your wording is also very good…
I have decided that I will write an honest, review. I am just cooling my heels a bit so my emotions do not get the best of me.
Thanks!
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Hi Sandy. I’m not sure why she felt justified to ask for a $75/night refund? What was her reasoning?
In my description, I state that my nightly rates run $200-$350/night depending on the season and that the university’s graduation week is more. Her rate was $275/night, which is discounted off the summer rates. She said that she should only be charged $200/night because September is “off-season” (she booked in early August). I replied that, no, September is already discounted a bit, and September and October are still a busy months here in Boulder because of the University’s football games and the great weather. September was over 2/3’s booked (summer is almost 100% booked). Like I said, had she asked for a discount up front, I would have denied her inquiry all together. So far, she has not left me a review …
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Sandy,
I think the issue is you gave her a reason that you weren’t offering a discount. And the reason wasn’t valid while SHE was in the unit. I think, it makes more sense to skip the reason, and just say no. I don’t offer a discount. You kind of gave her a loophole to try again. And anyone who asks once, is going to ask again if they think they see sunlight.
We don’t actually owe these strangers a reason for anything. Hard to remember sometimes.
Just tonight I broke one of my own rules. NEVER suggest just ONE place for dinner. And I did. And then I spent the early evening anxious that my suggestion would in some way not meet expectations. DUMB DUMB DUMB. Except that they loved the simple family fish spot that I sent them to and thanked me profusely.
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You’re absolutely right because she pointed out that during the weekend they stayed, the CU Buffs were playing an away game! Hopefully, next time I won’t elaborate …
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I am of the camp that says: if you have non-bed-mess issues then yes, leave a negative review. So if they left makeup on towels, mud on the floor, etc, say so.
But I would not mention the bed unless it was chocolate, or orange juice etc. The reason is that pretty much every person in the world has had a bed-staining accent or ten in their lives and it’s unpleasant to think about either our own, or other people’s bed-staining accidents. Now we do not care about this guest’s feelings - after all they are not coming back to you and it won’t change anything - but reviews are for OTHER people not for the guest & host from this stay. You do not want others seeing this and thinking you pry into people’s sex lives, and you don’t want to look petty.
We live and learn… one of the lessons is that people on holidays do things in the bed that we’d rather not think about, but what they do in the bed (sleeping well, plus other things) are actually the main things that will make for a happy guest. Bed sheet messes are something that we just have to deal with. Arm yourself with bleach and stick to white sheets. 
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