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I just got to our Wine Country house and was a little upset with what I found. A bunch of broken wine glasses, a broken part to one of my decorative jars, literally EVERY condiment gone, and the broken glass from the top of the decorative jar all over.
I know there isn’t much value to making a claim, wine glasses were cheap, and the decorative jar was as well, and how do I quantify condiments.
My question is, do I just blast the guests in the review? If it was any ‘one’ of the above things, I would let it go as the cost of doing business, but all of the things just rubbed me the wrong way.
Sounds like they were pretty careless and possibly trashed your place a little. I would be upset too, especially at first. I would try to calm down first and then write an objective (i.e., not emotional) review.
I had this happen to me with guests who were first time users of AirBnB. They were a little weird at first, cool and standoffish when I met them. But then they seemed OK until it was checkout time when they were completely non-responsive. When we went in there all the white towels were brown – maybe spray on tan?? It was gross and really hard to clean, plus with the bad feelings being stressed out about when they were leaving (no response) was a bit upsetting.
So after cooling down for a day, we ended up writing a review along the lines of “X and Y were fine guests in general. They were quiet and took care of the apartment. However, several of the towels had large brown stains that were difficult to remove, and communication was sporadic and non-responsive at the end.”
Maybe your review could go along similar lines and end with “a few glasses were broken and the shards were left on the floor” or whatever. Accidents will happen but they should have at least cleaned it up and let you know so that (1) No one gets cut by accident, and (2) you can replace them for the next guest. But is there any possibility that they broke from the wind (seems unlikely but just thought I’d ask).
I should also mention that my brown stain guests left me a very nice review. So I felt a little bit bad, but they were just so weird and I felt so uncomfortable with them that I wouldn’t have felt right about not saying anything. I tried to strike a balance.
Anyway @azreala, that is my long-winded way of saying that I have learned to try to think about whether any permanent damage was done, and whether the level of inconsideration rises to the level worth mentioning.
If it’s something that can be easily cleaned, I don’t worry about it. In your case I think the issues are that someone could have gotten hurt by the broken glass and they should have told you about it. You can also mention that in the private comments. But I agree that kind of behavior reveals a certain level of thoughtlessness that is likely to bother other hosts too.
Also if at the end of your review you check “no” for would you recommend to other hosts, then they will not be able to automatically instant book if the hosts require recommended guests.
I agree that had any of these things happen independently of the others I would have let them slide. We have had broken glasses before and others take the condiments (which is just rude, but whatever). The decorative jar breaking and leaving the glass everywhere was odd to me, at least message me and say, we are sorry here’s what happened. I forgot to mention there was pink plastic in our hot tub as well, overall they were just not very considerate guests.
As a host I would be annoyed if they came ‘recommended’ and treated my house with little respect.
It was disrespectful of them to break your property and not at least offer to replace it. Yes you may have said “oh, those glasses were cheap, don’t even think about it” but that should have been your prerogative.
You could file a resolution request and not a claim.
I’d be very annoyed but (and I’m sorry to be mercenary) it would depend how much money I had made from the guests. If it was a $2000 booking and the cost of replacement glasses and the cleaning was negligible, then I’d sigh heavily and get on with the cleaning.
If it was a $125 booking and the damage/cleaning would cost me more that $75 I’d be very pissed off!
As for leaving a review, it’s always good to let future hosts know about careless guests. But my own way (not everyone would agree) would be to leave no review at all. To me, the fact that a host doesn’t leave a review for a guest speaks volumes. Plus, composing and writing a review would be a waste of my time and energy - both of which I need
You are not overreacting. You can indeed make a claim on the broken items. That is what your guest deposit is for. I would also leave a review but wait until the last minute to leave their review. They know you won’t be happy because you’ll have to confront them via Resolution. Don’t let it go. Let other hosts know what shoddy guests they were. And it’s worse than just the broken glass… it’s a kind of broken trust.
But @jaquo, no future host would know that you did not leave a review. I totally understand about the energy drain. I feel it too at times. But once you figure out a routine and a tone, it becomes more or less automatic and doesn’t require much more energy.
Out of 70 guests so far I have only left 3 “bad” reviews, and they are not totally bad, I just try to be objective about the parts that were problematic so that other guests can judge for themselves. It mainly comes down to broken communication or thoughtless damage (thankfully we have not had squatters yet!).
I think it’s because so far, I’ve never had guests who I wouldn’t host again. (Crossing fingers and everything else!) So I’ve left positive reviews.
Possibly it’s also a matter of host expectations and mine aren’t as high as some hosts. For example, I’ve seen hosts who have left reviews for guests saying ‘it would have been better if they had taken the trash out’ (which takes me just a couple of minutes) or ‘they checked out fifteen minutes late’ (no big deal for me) or ‘there was mascara on a pillow case’ (takes a minute to bung it in a bucket to soak) and although some hosts hate that, those things don’t bother me.
But you can be sure that if I had real nightmare guests, I’d write a stunningly bad review!
Another aspect for me, is that I’d genuinely like all our guests to be repeat guests. I’d rather have them again but next time say ‘please remember to take the trash out’ or ‘I’ll need you to check out promptly at 11’ or ‘I’ve put makeup removal wipes in the bathroom’. That’s because they were lovely in other respects and better the devil you know.
I keep notes about guests so that if they do come again, then I know what the problems were if any. Also notes such as ‘John likes to play golf’ so I can be sure that there are details about local golf courses in the apartment. Or even ‘used all the supplied coffee’ so I know to supply more if they come again!
For example, my very first guests brought an unexpected baby! We are not kid-friendly. They were a lovely couple, it was Christmastime and they were paying very good money so I let it go. So in the review, I wrote that it was great to meet them ‘and their cute baby’ to hopefully warn other hosts that they travelled with a child. If they want to come back, I’d let them know that our HOA has recently mandated against children on the property. (A fabrication but still…)
So far, we have only had one returning guest but I’m hopeful for more. And I don’t want to piss off potential returning guests (better the devil etc) by saying in the review that they didn’t take the trash out
Before we started on Airbnb we rented the apartment for several years to both STR and long term guests. We have quite a few guests who book the same days or weeks every year (through Air these days, we don’t take reservations offsite) and I know that they are going to be good guests and stress-free. I’m hoping now to build on that more and more
That is my bar too. I only give “poor” reviews to folks whom I would not like to return. One couple scratched our new cork floor with their luggage – it’s only a few feet to the door!
We’ve had babies too even though were not kid friendly. Thankfully they asked first and we figured it would be OK as long as the baby was not yet moblie. We gave them nice reviews because they were great guests.
I don’t sweat the small stuff either. Here’s hoping your luck keeps up! We just had our first return guest. It was really nice! Very sweet couple.
Those are some good tips, @jaquo! I would never expect return guests since most of my guests are from Europe or Asia and doing the ‘NY-DC-Miami’ or similar route. But it wouldn’t hurt to make a few notes, just in case.
It is not blasting them to state what happened…future hosts should know.
Glasses get broken but broken glass should be picked up. Just wait the two weeks after which they cannot respond.
I ended up leaving a review that said I was disappointed to find some broken glasses and other items.
Not worth opening a claim, but I had wished they would have 1) told me 2) made some effort to clean up the shattered glass
@jaquo makes some very valid points. We have been hosting for awhile, and I do think I have high expectations for our guests, I would actually say I have low expectations! However, this situation really irked me and I think it was more of the ‘trust’ factor. Yes, we make $$ from guests staying in our homes, but this is still my home. The fact these people broke multiple wine glasses and took all of our half open condiments, almost felt like they were stealing. Who empties a fridge full of condiments?! Just bizarre.
I did add a cute sign in the kitchen saying ’ Condiment Karma take what you need, replace what you use. - Budda’ Just to detour any future guests that was my half used Mayo.
Always TRUST your gut!!! I should have blasted this group of renters. They admitted in the review they had a ‘large party’ at my house, and then went on to complain about my murphy bed and my hot tub not being ‘hot’ enough. Even though I did not leave a ‘good’ review, I should have left a more harshly worded review. I did click the ‘not recommend’ button so they can no longer IB from hosts that require ‘recommendations’ .
Some wise soul posting here, probably @felixcat, suggested not to go overboard making signs and rules when a guest does something unusual because it’s likely not to happen again. For instance, when I first started hosting some six years ago, some guests from Poland lit briquettes in my gas BBQ and ruined it. I had it all over my rules to not use briquettes… then I just thought hey. That was such an isolated case. What are the chances that someone will do that again?
You have to post rules sparingly!
I doubt anyone in the future will grab your mustard and olive oil. It sounds a bit petty to put up a sign reminding them. The kooks from Alberta stole my shampoo and I was put off by it… but it’s not worth making a rule or a sign over.
I would typically agree with you but this is the 4th or 5th time someone has completely wiped out our condiments. I really dont get why, but our cleaners say this is a common issue in the area with STRs.
What on earth!?? That is nuts. They steal anything that’s not nailed down? If you are a tourist visiting a place why would you want to grab the mayo on the way out? Crazee guests never cease to amaze!
Can you maybe not leave condiments? I don’t. If they want this stuff, let them go to Trader Joes and Whole Foods for it!
