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Just got this review from a guest who argued that she ‘saw’ somewhere that I had a ‘flexible’ checkout (not true and never was lol) and needed to rant that there is a ‘hotel standard’ checkout time of 11am. She also felt it was an ‘imposition’ that airbnb asked her to agree to the house rules before booking!!
FYI, she found a hidden key to my private areas, went thu everywhere (I have ‘silent alarms’ on 2 doors and a window, and she went thru all of them) and spent all morning taking photos inside and out.
QUESTION: Is there anything in this review that I can bring to airbnb and say ‘this violates’ so tat it can be removed? Sorry, she is quite a longwinded complainer:
“Thumbs down! Pristine clean at the expense of your sense of comfort. The host, Robert made this an unpleasant stay for me with his discourteous attitude, conflicting listing information (which hes has now fixed) and convoluted check in procedures. It’s such a shame because the home is nicely kept and in a great location. But I think hes makes the guests feel unwelcome and that why bet that is why he has a lot of vacancies. (In face he states verbatim “we prefer guests who are out and about during the day”- I find that a bit uninviting. When booking the room, the check-in and check-out time was clearly listed as “flexible” so I was hoping to leave around noon. However only after booking did it become apparent that the checkout time not flexible, it’s also early at 10 am. (Even hotels have an 11am as the industry standard). I find this discrepancy to be very misleading. I had booked within 48 hours and cancellation is strict. When I mentioned my concerns to Robert, he did not receive them gracefully instead he became defensive telling me that I should have checked the “house rules” and that people looking to leave later than 10 am book another night. All of which is ridiculous and sketchy. Mind you its not directly written under the “House Rules” tab on the app, you have to select a “read more” link and still scroll through a densely compacted paragraph of more rules until the very last line to find the strict 3pm checkin-10 am checkout policy . Which Robert undermines partly anyway because he does in fact allow late check in. Airbnb hosts organize their listings differently, but important information like the check-in and out times is fix formatted at the top of the listing page of the app. To knowingly negate what was clearly presented as “Flexible” elsewhere (and under “House Rules” in the last sentence ) is completely unfair and disingenuous in my mind. Second Issue: I personally found the entry directions to be difficult to find, overly compact, and confusing. First off the host did not send the access information to me until just as I was arriving which is relatively late in my opinion. The message he sends goes consists of a dense outline of the room and bathroom accommodations and house rules and regulations before getting to the very necessary information about how to gain entry to the house. So, I found myself standing outside the main entrance having to scroll through rules regarding the shoes, food, noise, etc before getting to essential information. Also some of the directions read like a scavenger hunt for example he writes that my parking spot number is my rooms number, which is listed on my itinerary-This is not exactly direct or clear nor exactly accurate. Any way I scroll to the last section titled “WHAT ARE THE HOUSE RULES” (Which is not where you’d typically find the door code)And its not until I get to the last paragraph that I find the password I need to text in order to activate the code. But I couldn’t find the code- I had accidentally scrolled passed it so when I asked Robert over the phone I for entry code rather than tell me directly he defers me to the paragraph its written on. To have to parse through all the rules and run through a bunch a steps to gain entry is extremely tedious and taxing. In my experience hosts try to make necessary entry information, direct, concise and accessible for their guests. They want to arrival to go as a smoothly as possible. It seems Robert wants to ensure you’ve read rules before gaining entry which I find to be an imposition. (And Ironic because you can book easily enough) I am a lone traveler staying for one night my intentions are to do nothing more that sleep shower and surf the internet. Ultimately, I can be held liable for any rule violation regardless of whether I’ve read them and that is fair. Its shouldn’t be his prerogative to make sure I’m familiar with all the rules and certainly not at the expense of gaining smooth entry. Robert is extremely rule oriented and I find it ironic because he makes great exception for himself. I hope Robert learns from this and becomes a better host. I am open to giving him a second chance. Hes a certainly forced me to be more wary”
I’d move on. It’s not worth your time, imo, and I agree she sounds off and people will write off her one crazy review against all your other stellar reviews and scroll on.
I don’t see anything that’s against TOS, though. I think both you and CS can see that her itinerary (which I believe captures rules and check-in out settings at the time of reservation) shows she’s misinformed, but they rarely remove a review for that reason. “You know that’s, like, her experience, man…”
It’s worth trying out, though. You could luck out and get a softie case manager. But most likely they’ll say to correct the misinformation in a response
I’d ignore the review, as she does a fine job making herself look like a nutter, but I would change the locks.
If you’re confident in your silent alarm documentation, or the rifling through your private area, you could ask her to pay for the re-keying through the resolution center, then when she goes off and refuses and calls you a bunch of names, ask Airbnb for compensation.
Ultimately, I can be held liable for any rule violation regardless of whether I’ve read them and that is fair.
Kind of contradictory to what she wrote above and below. Maybe she meant to write “unfair” ?
OK, right! / not
This kind of attitude is why I don’t do one-nighters anymore:
Like you Rolf I require guests to read the House Manual and as well, to send me a magic phrase, and one-night guests don’t care to cooperate with this.
Don’t worry. People ignore these kind of reviews, they do not like long reads from keyboard warriors.
Just making a fool of herself, spending a hour writing a review in wich she admits that she did not read properly.
The sheer length of the review is in your favour.
I can’t be arsed reading it and I’m pretty sure 99% of any future guests can’t be arsed reading it either. So, unless you have a bunch of other crap reviews, I wouldn’t worry.
I know that’s not much solace but… onwards and upwards.
Have you gone to case her house to see what it looks like? I had a booking which I canceled for a woman whose town on Airbnb was listed as Newton, MA but whose Airbnb profile had only bookings in my area. She stayed in my area for about 4 months and in multiple Airbnbs. She had about 30% bad/strange reviews so probably exhausted the supply of hosts willing to host her in my town and she moved on to CA. I’ll never know what the deal was.
There is nothing against TOS against this review IMHO. Long winded individuals tend to be high maintenance and she is stating her opinion. Honestly, I wouldn’t give her a 2nd thought and maybe not even give a review. If I where to give one…it would be very simple. " Thank you for your feedback, however we do require all guests to review the House Manual/Rules for information regarding our home and while it may seem mundane it is one of our requirements. We wish you the best on your future adventures."
Golly, I can’t be arsed to read it all and I’m on the Host Forum - I really doubt that any future guest will bother to. This is a review own goal - every single person reading it (other than difficult, highly-strung people like the guest) will instantly realise she’s the one with the problem and ignore the review. Anyone reading the whole review who is worried by it would be an equally difficult guest and it is therefore A GOOD THING that they are deterred from booking your place. Result!
A simple reply (DO NOT dignify her response by going into details) will suffice.
Long winded? That’s an understatement. Future guests will take one look at it, know she’s crazy and skip over it view your positive reviews written by sane guests.
House rules, (clearly stated and posted) are our only protection so as hosts, we write them for ourselves (aware guests don’t read them) so we can fall back on them when we do open a claim with Airbnb to settle disputes with our least favorite guests.
Checkout time is a boundary I’ve had tested by many guests so I post my checkout time in my listing, in the 2 confirmations I send my guests prior to their arrival, in a lovely frame in the suite and again on the wall with my house rules. By the time the guests arrives in the room, I’ve reiterated 5 times that checkout time is not flexible, that day light savings and hang overs do apply, and if they don’t abide, a $50 fee will apply. My check out time is 11am. So if 10:45 rolls around and they are not yet carrying their luggage out to their car, I send a nice text thanking them, reminding them of check out time and suggesting a few nice local restaurants for breakfast. Since doing that, I haven’t had 1 problem with late check outs.
Best of luck and happy hosting and don’t let the haters grind you down. Focus on the good review and why you love hosting.
After reading this, and the part about taking pictures of everything (how do you know about the inside photos, btw?) I got the willies. I’d say she is either gearing up to be your (and other area hosts’) competition, or is up to something even more sinister. What kind of reviews did she leave for the other area hosts?
