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It’s a shame that you couldn’t convince Air that the guest was out to sabotage you. He lied trying to tell guests you were retaliating! While it was great that they removed that part, it’s really sad that reps. refuse to use their brain and connect the dots. IF he blatantly lied about that - of course he lied about the rest!
Do you have any current bookings for this place in the pipeline? - and then this review will be buried? I know a really bad review can stop a buinsess dead in it’s tracks. Potential travelers cannot always tell the difference between a looney tune guest, and whether they are telling the truth - even if ALL the other reviews are good.
Yesterday, our next booking was a month away, in November.
However, after dropping our nightly rate down to $38/£31 a night, we suddenly got a booking for tomorrow night, which is wonderful. However, they didn’t include their infant son as a guest, and so now I’m in the awful predicament of either letting it go, losing the additional guest fee for their booking, and hosting happy guests (and maybe getting a good review, but feeling a bit badly about the situation…), or asking them to amend their booking, and possibly making them feel as though I’m being greedy for charging them for an 11 month old. Alternatively, I could also ask them to cancel.
I did end up responding to this review, because there were things that needed to be clarified (i.e. number of guest rooms, etc.)
Honestly, the review bothers me less now. It’s Airbnb’s response to the situation that is most frustrating. I actually had the CX agent explain to me that my guest’s suggestion that our home is not near any cafés is subjective, because while I sent her a Google Maps link showing that, as stated in our listing, there are several eateries within a 10 to 15 minute walk away, my guest might not consider this to be close. They might consider a 5 minute walk away to be close, or across the road. Thus they couldn’t remove this detail, because it was not untrue. Honestly, the point of my guest writing that was to make it sound like the details in my listing weren’t accurate, not because of our differences in opinion about what “close” constitutes. Airbnb not being able to make simple connections is horribly frustrating to deal with.
Considering it is an ‘infant’ and you want to scroll away that bad review ASAP and show new stays, perhaps is best to let it go. Small ‘price to pay’ for something important.
Yes, that’s what I was thinking too. However, accounting for air-conditioning/heating, cooking, and as they’ve been travelling around in a van for 2 weeks, most likely, quite a bit of laundry, I may end up operating at a loss. And a good review isn’t guaranteed, either, if I do let it go.
Do you use the message field that comes with instant book? Not sure how much room there is but you can put a message that guest will see right before they submit. You may consider noting there that all infants/children need to be shown in the guest count…unless you are already doing that. Not sure if people would still ignore. I would guess that message field gets much more attention than house rules.
If you do decide to waive the infant fee, and if everything goes well…be sure to ask for a 5 star review. Ask for it. Don’t be shy. When they leave and you are waving goodbye say “We’d really appreciate a 5 star review if we met your expectations.”
That pisses me off! I would call back and explain how your other place is getting tons of bookings and now this place is not. I would plead again and insist that someone more competent be able to make the connection. Repeat again that the host blatantly lied about you being able to read his review. Of course he lied about everything else! The rep. talking about “subjectiveness” is complete bullshit.
I find it difficult to have sympathy for your situation if you are considering charging for an 11 month old infant. You say you need bookings and positive reviews, but in the next breath you turn on money grubbing mode. I just hosted a couple and their 11 month old infant and will advise you that a person weighing less than 30 lbs will not consume extra air conditioning or heating. If you choose to offer laundry facilities, then you need to understand people will use them. I can’t imagine that they could have more than 2-3 loads to wash as a van can’t hold much. There is a washer/dryer in my unit, but I’ve unplugged them, and power is shut off to the circuit. You may not be aware, there is very little cooking for an 11 month child, warm up baby food or milk.
If I hadn’t seen and heard the child, I wouldn’t have known he had been in the unit, just did the cleanup and it was spotless.
There are costs of doing business. To be successful you need to pay these forward. If this family comes and leaves a positive review you are more likely to get more bookings. If you decide to ask for the extra cash, $10 or so, they are more likely to leave no review. Most rental accommodations don’t charge for infants so that’s why they didn’t register the infant, but they didn’t hide the fact that they had a child. In their place If asked to pay for the infant, I’d pay but I’d consider I’d mark it as a negative. I think it’s wrong of parents to sneak in older children when it’s clear there is a charge. Just read a blog post of a family travelling who were routinely hiding an 8 year old when paying for accommodations. Sleazy.
You can’t buy reviews but you can create a situation that promotes them. If I were you I’d go out of my way for these folks and bake some cookies or buy some fruit and set it out in a nice basket.
I’m sorry you had such nasty guests and such horrible customer service from Airbnb. One thing we’ve learned is to put the distance (three blocks, one mile, five kilometers, etc.) instead of putting the amount of time it takes to get someplace.
We use the message field that comes with Instant Book to ask guests to tell us what time they will arrive. Guests don’t read that any better than they read any other part of the listing.
If you end up not charging for the 11 month old, I recommend asking the guests not to mention that in the review. This reminds them that they’ve gotten something special and ensures that other guests don’t ask for the same based on the review.
I wonder with some reviews whether it’s a case of the Emperor’s new clothes. P people don’t want to be first to point out a problem and go with the flow or don’t review. [quote=“cabinhost, post:13, topic:8591”]
But…I don’t think you need to be concerned with the other glowing reviews. Because you don’t know how many hosts maybe decided NOT to leave these guests reviews at all…so only the good ones remain. You know how it is - guests get think they are a bunch of know it alls once they get a couple of great reviews
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Unfortunately, I’m really not in a position where I can afford to host at a loss, even for the possibility of a good review.
At $38.00 a night, these guests have already gotten a tremendously good deal, and when hosting guests travelling with infants or children, there tends to be an impact greater than one might like to think. At least, that has been my experience. Amenities are still used, and generally the clean up tends to be bigger. I remember hosting a family travelling with a child who threw their used diapers directly into our outdoor rubbish bin. It was really quite unpleasant to have to tip it over, empty out the contents, and then have to clean out any…residual mess inside it. I certainly appreciate the opinion that it charging for an 11 month old is “money grubbing”, however we do make it perfectly clear in our listing that we consider infants and children to be guests, and that they should be accounted for on a guest’s reservation. This, of course, veers of into an entirely different discussion of whether hosts should charge for infants or children.
As it is, we don’t offer laundry facilities. However, our listing, though a “private room”, is organised like a studio with an external bathroom. So, essentially, having access to a kitchen sink, and staying in a private space, guests are at their discretion to do as they wish.
I believe that, once a case is assigned to an CX agent, it cannot be reassigned. Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. The agent I’m dealing with has already consulted others in her office. Conveniently, they all agree with her assessment of the situation. She emphatically stated in an email that she could not do anything beyond what she has suggested, otherwise she would get fired, so I expect this is as far as it will go. The only revision I am able to get is the number of guest spaces listed changed from 3 to 2, because this is the only “untrue” information in the review.
You state you have no bookings. So, rather than creating a positive experience to a customer, you are creating a negative atmosphere before they cross the threshold. If $10 or whatever is the difference in losing money on Air, maybe you should reconsider listing.
I don’t see how excess laundry and kitchen sink access connect?
The empty room costs you the same as when it’s full. You mention electricity/heating costs, which you are overstating, as to bring a house to a certain temperature is the same empty as full. If you are living there, then the issue is mute, unless you turn off the heat/AC when folks leave.
I provide plastic bags for feminine sanitary products and diapers. They are cheap at the dollar store.
People don’t read the overlong listings most hosts post, this is a common complaint on this board and it was mentioned in the blog post referred to in another thread today.
Yes, I have no bookings this month for this space, however I don’t feel particularly good about hosting guests who disregard my listing details, either.
In the past, we frequently had guests hand washing laundry, sometimes for hours, in our bathroom. That is where our ‘no hand washing laundry’ rule came from. When I wrote the post you initially replied to, I was writing as I thought the situation through. I didn’t anticipate this exchange. However, as I said, my listing is a private space, and so, in-spite of these rules, if guests wanted to hand wash two weeks worth of laundry, I’m not in a position where I can request otherwise.
The space empty doesn’t cost me the same as when it’s occupied, because if there are no guests in it, nothing is being used.
We also provide guests with rubbish bags to use, however it would seem that not every guest is as considerate as those you have been hosting.
I would love to have the option of whether to list on Airbnb or not. Unfortunately, I don’t. I think this is just one instance where we will have to agree to hold different opinions.
I’d send the change request with the fee. When people book for one and there are two of them I just send the change request and say something like “you forget to change the number of guests. Just accept this change and we are all set.” You should never, ever feel guilty about enforcing your own policies. You already lowered your rate. I don’t see how anyone could think you are being greedy (but obviously they do). Infants are people and yes, the parents are probably going to be using more resources not to mention the child could spit up or drool on your things, they could be crying during the night, disrupting the household.
I agree. Infants/toddlers/children are often not a great fit for the Airbnb model. If only for the reason that many places are not baby proofed. An 11-month old is walking and will grab anything. Don’t let the guests bully you. Send in an alteration for the extra person charge and in the future write your description stasting that you don’t accept children of any age. So there is no doubt when a guest books. Also put it in your house rules so if you are on IB they will see it upon booking.
I took some time to speak with my manager today about your case. After much discussion about our approach and guidelines, we both agreed that there was no clear violation of the review guidelines. However, there is, you could say, a technicality in X’s review which would require more than one edit in content which defeats the purpose of our strict policy. We have therefore agreed that X’s review will be removed in its entirety effective today. I have removed both review responses also, so only your review for X remains.
A very surprising result!
As always, thank you to everyone who has read my posts and replied to them. Your reassurance and understanding has been a greatly appreciated. I certainly would have been much more stressed throughout this whose situation if I couldn’t vent here.
As for the issue of my new guests, I have sent them an amendment. I also sent them a message about it, but left some space for them to defer. From their response, I should be able to discern whether it might be wise to ask them to cancel, or host them and try to make up for any disappointment in another way.
