I am writing today with an Airbnb success story! I had guests this past week who were trouble right out of the gate. They booked to arrive Sunday; then it was Monday; then Tuesday. But their change to Tuesday fell outside my cancellation policy, so instead of contacting me through the app, they phoned me. Because I chose to finish my dinner before listening to the voicemail, they called again. Then they finally went through the app. Through the app I approved their change and thanked them for using the app because I couldn’t understand the garbled message they left. My guests were very good guests in that they were respectful of us and the property; they left The Studio very orderly. In my review of them I knocked off a star for communications, however. Because they had no prior reviews, I considered that this might be their first Airbnb experience and was generous in only giving them 4 out of 5 stars; they should have gotten 0.0 stars. My nearly-perfect rating went down after their stay. Their review said, “Beautiful place, very quiet, surrounded by woods. Make sure you have a competent driver and navigator driving there as it is very remote. Roads are good quality but a lot of winding back and forth from one state highway to another.” Crazy people. We live on a mountain and advertise that; in the 20-minute drive once they get off the interstate, there are exactly 4 different roads they need to be on before our driveway. In their private review feedback to me: “Requested by text bedding for the sofa bed but wasn’t left for us either day. Would be helpful to have more road signs getting to and from the property. Otherwise a beautiful, comfortable place.” BUT THEY DIDN’T request extra linens, not through the Airbnb app nor directly to my phone. Further, I live above The Studio and was here for the entirety of their stay; they could have knocked on the door and asked for linens. Some time after their arrival, my partner discovered my guests going through their phones trying to figure out how to let themselves into The Studio. It was clear to me that they read none of the standard messages I send to all my guests via the Airbnb app: day before arrival I remind them of their reservation and give them the code for the self-check in keypad; day of arrival I remind them of my listing description that we are .9 mile along a gravel lane and let them know that we are all the way at the end, that GPS often doesn’t work, and that they should follow the SIGNS to our property. My listing also says that I am flexible with the check-in and check-out times I’ve set if done in advance. Again, they didn’t read my listing when they gave themselves a late checkout without giving me the courtesy of approving it. Sooooo, I called Airbnb. I didn’t think I would get anywhere, but I knew I had to try. Long story short, they pulled his review! He demoted me in all areas except for cleanliness, and it was clear from our communication through the app that I did my job with clear check-in instruction and directions and that he did not request linens! Yay!
Whew! This retired Writing teacher was exhausted before I could finish.
Some paragraphing would have helped me read to the end, as I was quite interested in the subject matter 
Ditto. Word salad on my phone
Soup on mine 
20202020
JF
I tried, could not get through it.
RR
Nice to hear about competent AIrbnb support now and then. I try to capture a handful of critical parts of my guest instructions and repeat them in my confirmation message. Being a wordy person myself, I edit my listing repeatedly to emphasize the most important information. Your post highlights the point that many make in various threads about the importance of documentation.
Nice resolution to the story. Per others, spaces b/t paragraphs would help readability.
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Would you mind detailing the conversation with Air and how/why they agreed to pull the review - was it due to Relevant? Inquiring minds are interested!
Yikes! So sorry about my tedious post. I’m new to hosting AND forums, but I’ve heard by those in the know that my run-on paragraph tops the don’t-do list.
The first Airbnb rep I spoke to took down my info and escalated the matter to a manager. The manager asked a few questions after they read the first rep’s notes, said that there were procedures to follow and that when they were all completed, they would get back to me with a determination. I wasn’t expecting much, but within an hour they phoned and contacted me through the app.
Basically, my guest outlined his complaints against me (no signs to my property; my not responding to his text for extra linens; check-in was difficult); and when Airbnb went through and read our string of correspondence on the app, they could see that (1) there was no request for linens; (2) I gave clear check-in instructions; and (3) I instructed my guest to follow the SIGNS to my property because GPS could be spotty.
Airbnb said that based on the only information they had to go on – our exchanges via the app – that I didn’t deserve this bad review and clearly had done my job. I didn’t know what they were going to do about it, but they said they would remove the review. They noted that because I promptly called them once I saw the review, they were quickly able to deal with it.
Thanks again, forum, for this and past helpful guidance to neophytes like me!
So glad to hear about the positive resolution - and such a pleasure to read !
Sorry, I’m another one who can’t read long paragraph-free stuff. I guess that the human attention span is getting shorter and shorter every day.
But I do want to say that every day for me is an Airbnb success story. Every day I have guests in our apartments who are mainly lovely and their stays are trouble-free. (Yes I’ve had a few weirdos but I’ve been doing this for years so they are well spread out).
But because we have loads of hits to this site and a lot of those people are new or potential hosts, I just want to say that the majority of hosts have a lovely trouble-free experience with guests almost all the time.
So the title of this post didn’t really need the exclamation mark that made it seem that it was unusual to have an Airbnb success.
It’s just that those of us that comment frequently here tend to be a little cynical. 