Critique my review of nightmare guest

I had a super annoying guest which stayed for 2 nights only but messaged me and complained more than some guests who stayed 3 months. Unbelievably this guy has all 5 star reviews, but I want to fix that rating now.

Is this review ok ?

Richard and his husband are high maintenance guests with unrealistic expectations for any Airbnb host or home and were bringing up issues that we have never heard of before or experienced ourselves at the villa. This was only a 2 night stay and instead of enjoying their vacation in beautiful Ubud, they spent most of their time messaging me, nit-picking and finding fault with the smallest quirks and making exaggerated claims about my property. My housekeeper and I did our best to accommodate their requests, but they had nothing but rude and quite frankly some maliciously fabricated things to say about my home during their stay, and contacted us at all hours to complain. The whole experience has been very stressful from the beginning. I cannot recommend to other hosts and I would not welcome back to my home

4 Likes

Maybe shorten it up a bit, & touch on whether or not they followed house rules, left the unit in good shape etc. How about something like: Guests were overly critical of our home, and we found it hard to please them. They left the space in _____ shape. Communication was excessive, at all hours. I can not recommend them to other hosts, nor would I host them again.
You wouldn’t want it to be removed, but certainly need to warn other hosts. I’d wait till the last minute to review, & be ready with a response to their review, which will more than likely be ugly.

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I don’t think there is any basis to get it removed, I didn’t get in the details as then it would be really long. He wrote his review in 5 minutes after the review request email. So its gone be bad, but will go in detail what needs to in the response. Will not wait last minute but last day probably.

Good point! As he’s already reviewed you, why not send yours now, then you can see his, respond to it, & hopefully have it removed bc he said something not allowed. Then you can put it behind you & move on to the next great guest.

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no, better wait, still could get 3 more good reviews in 2 weeks so his is not on top.
this home has 50 five star reviews nothing lower and this is going to be a firs 1 probably.

For example one of his complaints was about a concert, there was a concert on Saturday that started exactly at 5pm and finished at 10 pm, distance is 1 mile from my home, not to loud, if you close the window can’t hear anything, this is his message at 5.22 pm

Who is the rock band that plays all day?

They can be heard in the entire area. Ruined the entire feeling of the place to be honest.

They practice for hours

A shame really, was not as peaceful here as I expected

We had to keep the doors and windows closed the entire 2 days

There was no concert day before, nothing, no sound, no practice, and on Saturday 20 minutes after it started he says he is suffering for 2 days, and bombarding me with messages how the vibe was ruined, and I have to warn future guests about the noise (this is 2nd time in my life I hear any noise from that area 1 mile away)

This review is too long. If you respond to his review just remember it’s going to draw attention to it. I appreciate you trying to warn other hosts but the response to his bad review is probably not in your best interest.

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It al depends what he wrote there, maybe I won’t respond, maybe I will, some things can’t be left without response.

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Remember it will appear in an order depending on what country he lists as his home country. If he is an Aussie and most your guests are from Australia, yes it will appear on top for them. I’m assuming you get a lot of foreign guests and so worrying about if it’s “on top” isn’t as important for you.

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I know it will, its american guest, and most my guests are american.

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@balivilla I had a slightly negative review last year with all my good ones, and Airbnb did not put it at the top. They buried it near the bottom of all the other reviews.

Not saying you can count of that, but was my experience.

@balivilla The shorter review offered is much better…more concise and less defensive. I also didn’t care for the tone that came with the part of what they SHOULD have done (enjoy the town vs …).

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There is a cute persian cat roaming around the rice fields nearby, they played with it, took it inside and also locked it inside the house and left it in the living room, and then complained next day that something came inside the villa and made a huge nasty pop on the stairs

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You have had some good advice. If I read your proposed review of the guest, I would think twice about renting from you.

Yes, they should get a bad review, but you need to not look like a crackpot in the process

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ok, noted, that’s why I asked for critique

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Guests were high maintenance, and we found it hard to please them. For example, complained about the ruined vibe because a concert 1 mile away stating that they had to keep the windows and door shut for 2 days because of noise, but in reality the concert just started 20 minutes before their message to me. They also left the space in bad shape as they took in a stray cat and locked in the living room and there was unfortunately cat fecal matter on the stairs. Communication was excessive, at all hours. I can not recommend them to other hosts, nor would I host them again.

is this better, I don’t want to sound insane but there should be some detail maybe then so the future hosts know?

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I would definitely not mention that they are a gay couple. If you say “exaggerated claims, and “rude and quite frankly some maliciously fabricated claims,” I think that’s enough for Airbnb to take it down. Shorten it by half or more.

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he mentions it in his profile their relationship status, so its not a secret they are married, but I already changed the review, critique the new version please?

I like the detail. A lot of reviews are so edited down that they aren’t useful. For instance, reviews that only say a guest is “high maintenance” means nothing to me if there isn’t an example. Some hosts may think that requesting extra towels is high maintenance but I don’t. Some hosts wouldn’t think that numerous messages isn’t high maintenance but I do.

What you have there I’m sure isn’t perfect but it gets the message across loud and clear and doesn’t make you sound insane. I know that for responses to reviews it really matters that it’s brief and tight but it’s not so important for the actual review. Reviews need these details, that’s the whole point of them (to me).

But if you wanted to go really short: “Guests took in a stray cat during their 2-day stay. WTF.” :rofl:

However, I would wait until the last day to post it. It doesn’t matter where the review is in your listing, buried or not, your rating will likely be affected and there’s no point in having that happen any sooner than necessary.

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He didn’t say that. He said, “Richard and his husband.” I doubt Richard cares or he wouldn’t have mentioned his husband so not sure why anyone else would.

My personal rule for mentioning other guests on the reservation and/or relationships is that I only mention a relationship if it was mentioned to me. And I only mention other names if they were either 1. mentioned to me or 2. were added onto the reservation.

I prefer to mention the names of the guest and the guest’s guest (and the name of the dog(s) as well) so that everyone on the reservation is held accountable to some extent.

Is the husband on the reservation or were you told his name?

I’d change “guests” to be more specific, especially if the husband is on the reservation because that means the review will also go on the husband’s profile. So that when the husband, let’s call him Todd, lol, books something, the host will know that both Richard and Todd were the ones that got the bad review.

1 Like