Critique my review of nightmare guest

21

I could go in more detail:
-complained about the ac not cold enough, he needs a portable fan delivered, although there is ceiling fan and the room is cold like a fridge when the ac is at full power, but we bring right away.
-shower pressure not strong enough, then my housekeeper comes check and its normal, then he says sorry it works fine now, but then next day again pressure to low he say, and on Saturday at 7 pm I find someone to buy and install a new water pump in less than 1 hour
-asks for 2 scoters from my staff, they deliver them from the rental, and then he says he can’t drive, he is to scared

22

they are both on there reservation but Richard in his profile description about him self mentions the name of the husband to who he is married

23

I don’t think it should be as brief as some others might but you also don’t want to go into endless detail either, just a couple of examples like you’ve given in the second version. If you go too long then it will start sounding like it was you and not them.

Also, I wouldn’t spend an inordinate amount of time on it either. As long as you get the message across and don’t say anything that will get it removed then be done with it. You won’t be paid any extra to toil over the review :wink:

The second version works but just add in their names, instead of just “guests”.

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24

I don’t think you should indicate that this was a gay couple. Not important to the issue.

When I see a review that says"

“In my opinion, this guest would be better suited for a hotel.”

That tells me all I need to know about the guest. Ding him on the actually communication, etc. Make sure you check off that you would not host them again.

25

they have 11 perfect 5 star reviews, my better suited for a hotel will not make anyone not wana host them

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26

I don’t see anything wrong with your original draft. It makes it clear how and why these were terrible PITA guests. I might leave out the wording “maliciously fabricated”, as that could be grounds for removal.
But I also might add the cat incident, as it makes it clear how absurd their complaints were.

These sound like the type of Americans who expect their travel in foreign lands to conform to their pre-conceived notions, rather than adapting to and respecting a new culture.

Although I live in a generally quiet countryside area of Mexico on the outskirts of a tourist town, there are loud concerts, weddings, etc. occasionally that can be heard loud and clear at my place and can go on until 5am. That’s the culture here- all I can do is provide guests with earplugs.

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27

That doesn’t tell me anything. It especially doesn’t tell me that they kept a stray cat in the unit.

“Better suited for a hotel” always makes me think that the host was either unavailable, unhospitable and/or stingy with supplies. It never makes me think that anything was wrong with the guest.

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28

exactly, and with their 11 perfect 5 star reviews and my better suited for a hotel I would look like an idiot

29

I hate “better suited to a hotel” and wish hosts would stop using that. It tells me nothing at all other than the host found them objectionable. And since I don’t personally know the host, I have no idea why or if I would find the same thing to be objectionable. I would like to make my own decision about accepting a guest based on facts, not some other host’s opinion.

And exactly what sort of behavior do you think would be acceptable at a hotel that isn’t at a str?

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30

I‘ve been seeing a lot of reviews removed for the “better suited for a hotel” lately.

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31

For me, that’s all I need to know that these are not guests that I want but if Airbnb is going to start removing these reviews, I will in the future be more specific.

I think you need to be very careful about what you say so that the guest can not have the review removed.

I have a problem guest right now that I now need to rethink how I’m going to review him. I’ll post once he checks out tomorrow and get everyone’s feedback.

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32

How do you know they are guests you wouldn’t want, just because another host had issues with them? What if the host is overly fussy and expects guests to leave the place sparkling clean? What if it was a homeshare situation where the guests simply weren’t respectful of the other residents, or were unsociable, but wouldn’t be a problem in an entire place listing?

You didn’t answer my question as to what behavior would be acceptable in a hotel that isn’t in an str. The only thing I can think of is expecting 24 hr. reception.
A hotel doesn’t put up with disruptive behavior, they will charge a guest for damages, they don’t allow guests to sneak in pets or extra guests, they don’t offer refunds for complaints, and leaving a filthy mess for the maids, while the hotel guest won’t be charged for extra cleaning or reviewed, is still unacceptable and rude.

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33

“We cannot recommend these guests. They left the space in bad shape. They took in a stray cat, locked it in the living room. and there was unfortunately cat fecal matter on the stairs left in the space. We would not host them again.”

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34

“I cannot recommend Richard and [husband’s name]. They complained continuously about ridiculous things. For instance, they brought a stray cat into the villa and locked it in overnight, then complained that the cat defecated in the villa.”

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35

@Rolf’s review is perfect. When reviewing, hosts should avoid writing about how they feel or how the guest made them feel. For example, saying that hosting a particular guest was ‘stressful’ is only relevant to that particular host - other hosts might not have found excessive communication and ‘nitpicking’ stressful.

There’s nothing in the review originally posted that would make me worry about the guests - there’s no way from the review to tell how the host’s standards might differ from my own.

Also, the ‘in my home’ implies that this was a home share (but evidently not) and as my rentals are separate places, the review seems to be not relevant to me and to other hosts whose rentals are separate.

Every so often, all hosts get a picky guest (balanced out by the hundreds of lovely guests) and ‘not welcome back to my home’ is helpful to hosts but not the ‘not recommended’ part.

Other hosts may disagree with me, but determining what guests should be doing during their stay is none of my concern and shouldn’t be mentioned in the review.

Agreed. It also seems to me that these are lazy hosts who don’t see that writing reviews for the sake of their peers is an essential part of the job. “Oh, I’ll just write ‘better suited to a hotel’”. Cop out.

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36

Yes, and in most cases those hosts have given low star ratings and consider that sufficient. But I have no more idea of why those ratings were given than why they are “better suited to a hotel”. Not to mention that all hosts see is the star rating average. So if a guest has, for instance, several reviews, and a 3 star cleanliness rating, we have no way of knowing if all the hosts marked them down on cleanliness, or whether they had a 5 star rating until some host with unreasonable expectations gave them 1star, unless there is context in the written review.

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37

You may have missed the second version. All of the stuff you mentioned had been removed.

It’s too brief. It doesn’t mention the excessive communication “at all hours” which is the most relevant part to me, as a host. I’d also specifically like to know that they complained about a brief music concert over a mile away because that tells me that my place wouldn’t work for them.

No one is served by a vague review that mentions nothing but an unusual situation with a stray cat.

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38

Considering that airbnb asks you to give a rating to a guest’s ‘communication’, I am pretty sure that, to airbnb, there is no down side to ‘too much’ communication…

39

?

You know that airbnb doesn’t read its own policies, but you think they’re combing through reviews and contemplating what amount of communication (and timing of it) that hosts should or shouldn’t care for?

I am absolutely sure that airbnb says, “reviews are subjective” (and that they have little to no opinion about them).

Reviews are not for Airbnb, they’re for hosts.

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40

This was part of my point (which admittedly, I might have not explained too well) anything non-specific in a review is that particular host’s viewpoint and might not be mine, or that of many other hosts.

That’s why it’s better to mention anything that is a serious breach rather than how the guest made the host feel or something which isn’t quantifiable such as ‘nit-picking’ or ‘at all hours’ and so on.

The only thing that would bother me about these guests would be that cat thing which was something that @Rolf commented on in the review. Other issues in reviews are seen differently by different hosts.

In-home hosts have different standards, and rightly so, from those who have separate places, Even the location matters - a rental in a large city isn’t the same as a cabin in the woods. For instance, noisy guests are not welcome here but would be fine for a rental in a remote location.

We’re all different.