I don’t think Air wants other hosts contacting other hosts at all, which If why you have to go through all that. They don’t want you to potentially decline and to lose them money!
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True, they probably don’t. The question is whether they would kick you off the site for it, if someone complained.
I’ve tried this too… And hosts have had to decline my inquiry to answer. They may have been annoyed because it isn’t clear to some whether “declining” an inquiry counts against them.
I can see what you are attempting, KJ, but I must agree that asking them to contact you directly throws another bunch of steps into the process of vetting a guest. Best to just state the facts of why xx was a problem guest. Do it at the last minute if you are worried about prompting a bad review in response.
Yes, that’s another good point. We don’t really know what the Great and Powerful Airbnb considers Improper Behavior. 
i totally agree with you, I also have thought for the guest who were ‘‘great’’ that they would leave me a 5 star review, especially when they are so nice in person and I always ask them on check out if there were any problems, if everything was great and stuff like that. And the very ones that were ‘‘overjoyed’’ in person, say something like ‘you should buy a coffee machine’ or something like that in the review and downgrade me for stuff that I don+t even advertise I have. I feel like you can never win at this.
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A belated addendum to the above comments about Airbnb Hosts contacting other Airbnb hosts via the Airbnb platform. This is what Airbnb says in their terms of service (under User Conduct):
In connection with your use of the Site, Application, Services and Collective Content, you may not and you agree that you will not:
[…]
contact a Host for any purpose other than asking a question related to a booking, such Host’s Accommodations or Listings;
So contacting a host directly to ask him questions about a guest is a violation of the Terms of Service. This isn’t very surprising, but I thought I would quote it anyway.
If you’re making a profit, you’re winning
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What about guests with whom you only messaged before their stay? Self check-in, no mid-stay messages, no “we checked out” message (though requested).
In particular, the guests I’m thinking of were 6 adults who added a toddler & infant (typically, a 6-guest maximum but I allowed the children). I haven’t been over there yet (fingers crossed), but let’s assume the apartment has been left in reasonable condition for a 2-night stay.
I used to be lazy and just give people 5 stars when I started since I didn’t care what they did after they left, and I’m sure many guests have reviewed me the same way. The problem is, when you do that you pass along bad guests and you pass along bad hosts. Everyone in theory is supposed to be as honest as possible as our reviews are the ONLY thing that regulates everything, except guests aren’t safety inspectors and hosts aren’t psychologists. All I know is from now on if a guest gets drunk I’m going to report it, if they try to proposition me I will report it, if they try to bribe me I will report it. It used to they could say “O, sorry, I didn’t see the house rules” but at least with the new instant book they have to agree to have read them. That’s the only rental contract there is and its pretty weak.
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I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but in my many years of hosting, I’ve only left 3 times a negative rating. I didn’t say anything bad, just simply left a review saying “Thank You”, which is something I usually never do, as l generally leave beautifully written longer reviews for almost all my guests. I noticed that my bookings went down for a bit afterwards. Could be just a coincidence, but I don’t know.
Thing is, I now simply don’t leave any reviews for guests who are crap.
I mean, one of my last guests (Chinese) stole my international power adapter, left trash everywhere… He didn’t leave any review, neither did I.
Other two girls before him broke wine glasses and broke the glass table lamp… I don’t ask for deposit, so I’m just sucking it up.
I honestly think Airbnb keeps track on our reviews, and hosts get sort of penalized if they leave negative ratings… By rating your guests low or even, saying that you do not recommend them to other hosts, you are essentially lowering the possibility for that guests to book in certain places. That’s a loss for them.
I could be wrong, but most probably I’m not.
That’s an interesting theory. I wouldn’t be surprised it you’re right. It might not be high up in the algorithm but could very well be there somewhere. I have read some terrible reviews from hosts that, in my opinion, were arrogant and totally uncalled for, as if they thought they were doing the guests a huge favour by allowing them to pay to stay. Guests responded that they would never use Airbnb again. So yes - a loss of business for everyone, not just Air. They won’t book with me or with you or any other host.
He could have accidentally taken the adaptor with him? That’s happened to me a couple of times. They only cost £1 here so not a big deal for me. Was it an expensive one? If so, did you ask him to return it? Leaving trash behind is irritating but unless it is really disgusting, I just think meh, a bit of a messy one this time.
I don’t think so. I think you’re penalized if you get negative ratings but not if you give them.
I subscribe to a service that emails me a report every morning that tells me where I am in the search rankings. I’ve been doing Airbnb 3.7 years and I have over 300 reviews. I gave my first two thumbs down ratings ever in Dec. My search rankings were not hurt and my bookings didn’t suffer. I’ve only had one unbooked night that was available since then. Of course, there are other variables like I have IB, SH and I allow same day, last minute bookings
I really wish hosts would give bad reviews. I don’t have a ton of faith in the review system but I think that’s our only chance of running the losers, both hosts and guests, out of the system.
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No, I think you are probably imagining that.
You should leave honest reviews for guests so the rest of us can avoid them, but I also understand your reluctance not to.
You can always leave a review at the last second so they are not prompted to smack you back.
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I know I am pointing out the obvious, but It’s a disservice to other hosts to omit reviews for terrible guests. Hosts will mistake a lack of reviews for less-experienced guests and cut them a break when they don’t deserve one. I’ve had some nightmare guests (like the gals from Japan blowdrying their hair at 1 a.m.), and I reported exactly what made them bad guests. Of course there is the smug satisfaction I get from reducing guests’ future chances of booking, but most importantly, I like potential hosts to know what they’re signing up for when they get a request.
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I have left a review for every guest that has stayed with us. I don’t see a reason not to.
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Actually, there have been several hosts reporting that after leaving ( well deserved) negative feedback to their hosts their listings suddenly had considerable bookings drop. Few people claimed that their listing even went down on the search box.
I’m sure there have been. However, just because a host says something doesn’t mean it’s true. (that includes me). I was just sharing my experience based on a service that I subscribe to. So I know if my ranking goes down. I recently raised my prices one dollar a night. One dollar! (so $40 a night for one person during the week) My rankings have gone down but I still got two reservations come in this week. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I’m ranked very high for one night stays that are coming up soon, like this week. But if someone is searching for 2 people for 2 or 3 nights three weeks from now I’m well down on the second page. So guess what? I get lots of last minute bookings for one night and that’s what I’m going to continue to get.
I’ve had close to 400 guests and I’ve just given my 2 first thumbs down in the last 4 months. I just logged my first cancellation ever this week. I’ve blocked two people from booking with me again. It may hurt me in search and I may lose some booking but for the last three months I’ve been booked 90% of the time and I am not going to put up with any crap. I can’t get enough per night to do so.
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surely leaving a bad review for a guest should not affect your booking in the least - only the guest sees the review, after all. Perhaps what was meant was that after a host REPLIED to a bad review FROM a guest the booking dropped?
Did you mean to write “negative feedback for their guests”, or similar?
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Jon808 is propagating factoids. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of that and it’s just wild speculation!
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