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I am guilty of feeling this way too, and I realized it basically comes down to me not the guests. Whenever I find myself calling guests lazy or disgusting pigs or whatever, in my head not out loud hopefully, I realize that I am taking things personally again. I try to shake it off and clean it up and put on my business hat. most of the time it is not meant personally, guests can be pigs who do not read.
RR
I agree- get the place ready ASAP.
Also clean/dust all surprising places such as power points, the bottom of the tooth brush holder etc - places I would NEVER look, but I do now!!!
Also - check for hair, particularly in the shower drain( luckily, I found that).
I agree With that, unless I offer the late/ early checkout/ checkin myself.
Funny you should say this. After a bad experience, I specifically reiterate the rule on my description that I donât take 3rd party bookings. My guests are almost always super-good although commonly only book my cottage for a weekend. Last week I agreed on a 2-week, 3rd party booking, figuring it was off season and wouldnât get booked otherwise. They are workmen who clearly donât care. I did my usual mid-stay clean and linen change and found it smelling of cigarettes and butt ends in a bin. They had left every light, and even the TV, on when they went to work, a 12 hour shift. And Iâve just had to sort through their rubbish as theyâve done no recycling and the bin is full. Thereâs a labelled cigarette disposal pot outside and recycling details over the bins, and itâs all under House Rules, and the blurb I send when they book, and in the house manual on Airbnb. (Although, come to think of it, I havenât put âPlease switch off lights and the TV when you go out â!).
Serve me right for being greedy and accepting a booking breaking my own 3rd party rule.
But Iâm going to have fun writing the review. Just hope I can get rid of the smell before the next guests.
Cut the corner! Thank you for the best tip.
One thing I learned quickly is that the person who writes to ask 1000 questions including a request for a price reduction is often the one who doesnât follow through with a booking. When I get an enquiry like this, I now answer briefly and factually and donât try to do back flips to get them to book.
Always check the pots and pans in the cabinet after a stay. It would seem I have a much higher standard of âcleanâ for cookware than do most of my guests.
Not the first lesson, but yes, every single guest that has asked for a discount has never even responded after I very politely said no. Itâs very likely these guests sending out the same discount requests to a dozen or more hosts just to see if one will take the offer.
Iâm a New Airbnb r I had my second booking ask for a discount I said no they booked anyway and they were great guests left the place just like it was when they got there. And they were also there for work only. Iâm certainly not saying that happens all the time but neither does your circumstances happen all the time
Extenuating circumstances
That is so funny. I almost never have that problem after 1500 guests. I have the opposite problem. They tell me they will be there early or right when check-in begins and so I adjust my day and wait and wait and wait. Of course sometimes I just send check in instructions but if they are new to Airbnb or there is a language barrier or are bringing a dog, I like to be there.
If they ask me for a discount, I donât accept the reservation.
I just had someone ask me the size of the bed. The very first sentence of the description states that it is queen-size. If I answer a question that is contained in the description I always preface it by saying âas noted in the descriptionâŚâ If I keep getting questions, I refer them to the information contained on the site.
Funny, âdonât take third party bookingsâ was not only my first lesson but also happened with my very first guests. Their realtor booked on their behalf while they were staging and holding open houses of their home just a few blocks away. I had no idea it wasnât ok to take third party bookings.
As I showed them around they were all smiles and I said âI hope everything is to your likingâ. Suddenly the woman turned around and said: âwe didnât realize this was a basementâ. It wasnât her words so much as the horrified expression on her face that shocked be. I asked her if sheâd seen pictures or read my listing but she hadnât and it was just plain awkward. There were no more smiles and no coming back from that. The idea of staying in a basement seems degrading to some people no matter how nicely renovated and decorated it is.
They stayed for one very painful week. There was no short supply of exaggerated complaints about things that were beyond our control. I couldnât grow the ceiling height or accommodate floor to ceiling windows. We had a power outage and she was afraid she would die from the cold in her sleep!!
When they left I was so relieved, until a few days later when, lo and behold, they booked again for another week! This time they had booked directly and I was on instant book so⌠I took a deep breath and braced myself. I guess they had come to terms with things (read: did some price checking) and we actually had an easy and uneventful week. I felt triumphant but I never let that happen again. Lesson learned.
How were the reviews?
So you wouldnt take them even if they booked you in slow season for whole 2 weeks? Workers are always booked as 3rd party because ususalybits the manager or secretary who books saccommodation. .
They are my favorite crowd. They are never home and ussualy book for longer stay which means more income.
I agree most of workers who stayed are not very clean, they do break rules, some of them And they need intense cleaning . I charge them for cleaning and I go there after cleaning crew already cleaned major things. So I dont really experience the dirtiness and messiness myself. I dont. Change sheets for them, they are not accustomed to it, you dont have to.
No reviews actually. The realtor I think really couldnât be bothered to lose her time. She looked at air as a cheap accommodation booking site and made the first booking for her computer illiterate clients. I told them about no 3rd party bookings during their first stay (when I learned myself). I guess they had such a great time - lol - that they got their son to help them create an account and make the 2nd booking. They probably didnât even know about reviews, much less know how to leave one. Another reason for no third party bookings!
A lot of hosts on the forum talk about things they do to encourage reviews. Some of us talk briefly about reviews with guests before they check out. (I typically say (provided itâs true): âWe have thoroughly enjoyed your stay and hope you have, also. Weâll give you a 5-star review later today, when Airbnb sends us a reminder. We hope youâll do that for us, too.â)
And others send a message at checkout or shortly after. I do that if I havenât seen the guest checkout. It says roughly the same thing about reviews.
Thatâs a really good idea. I never really felt comfortable asking for 5 stars and I would want to see how they left things after they checked out before promising to give 5 stars. I did not meet most of my guests so I think it is probably a lot different for others. Do you feel it helped you get better reviews?
After some years i accumulated quite a few good reviews. Thing is, I really didnât want reviews from these first two bookings I was talking about. Iâm pretty sure it could have been quite devastating to my rating and profile, given I didnât have any reviews at all at that time and she seemed pretty put-off.
I think anything that increases the level of comfortable connection between us and our guests, anything that makes them feel more welcome, those are all good things and probably help influence a good review.