This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
On two occasions, I have left absolute stinkers - guests who I would never want to see again. Noisy, left the place a tip etc.
I was happy to tell Airbnb in no uncertain terms about their behaviour and that I would never host them again, would not recommend them and would suggest that they be banned from Airbnb altogether. Even the more mediocre guests get an honest review. If they are not super-perfect then other hosts have the right to know - what bothers me might not bother other hosts and vice versa but itâs nice to have the option and to know what weâre dealing with.
I see no reduction in bookings at all when I leave honest reviews.
Sorry for late reply. I only check this website once in a while. What I meant is that there have been several hosts reporting that after giving negative rating to their guests they noticed their ranking dropping on the search engine.
It seems like that hosts are always expected to get 5 starts and leave 5 stars. Thatâs the voice going aroundâŚ
I have suspected this to be the case - whenever Iâve had to leave a poor review I have experienced a drop in bookings. BUT obviously itâs impossible to know if this really is a âpunishmentâ or just a coincidental thing. I think probably the latter. But honestly with Airbnb, who knows?
Has any hosts ever contact you directly. I just had a guest that was not the worse guest, but they were not respectful of my place as my home. They should have stayed in a hotel. I would not host them again. How do I review them.
Good to know but I think when I contact a previous host of a potential guest that I am actually inquiring about a hostâs accommodationsâŚas it relates to a potentially mutual guest. If they hosted the guest as a live in host their review about the guest may or may not be applicable and sometimes the only way to know is to ask.
I have inquired with 3 prior hosts now in 3.5 years and the 2 times the host responded I was so glad because then one I turned down (never had to hit the decline button, just told him I would not accept him), one I at least was happy I had the knowledge of ahead of time and worked out ok, the third one never did respond after MULTIPLE attemptsâŚhe also has a very low response rate and it didnât get any better after failing to respond to meâŚ
I donât know that it was ever free. The developer used to post here often and he gave me a one year free subscription once I became a moderator to âthank me for my helpfulness, etc.â I then extended a second year which I paid for. After that I was retired, home a lot, lots of time to manage the single listing on my own. So no, I donât still use it but I would still recommend it to a host with multiple listings or who has time constraints I donât have.
FYI, if I understand correctly Pierre quit posting here because other developers took information from his posts and used it to create competing services. Ah the wild west days of relatively early airbnb servicesâŚ
I signed up for SmartBnB about a year ago and I love it, even with just one listing. I signed up for a free trial to use the market report @KKC discussed. I stayed for the automated messaging and delayed review feature (you can set it to post reviews the moment before the review window closes).
I canât imagine automated messaging being of any use since every guest has their own message or questions when they contact me, but the set it and forget it review feature might be worth the hassle it will save (not to mention letting bad guests off Scott free because it doesnât take in time or letting them know an hour ahead of the deadline that I have left a reviewâŚhow much is that per year or how ever you pay it?
One of the neat things is that the program âreadsâ the guest message and alerts you. Like if someone said they had a dog the program would tell me I had an inquiry about someone staying with their pet. Also it can be set to send out an auto reply like âYouâll hear from me shortly but in the meantime make sure you read all my house rules to make sure itâs a good fit for you.â So it keeps your repsonse time metric up and can also alert a guest to any special rules or conditions youâre going to be enforcing.
I think they have a free trial period available. You should check it out.
In your shoes, I would wait until the last minute then blast them with a short and factual review. Pre-written and ready to go - so all you need to do is paste and submit.
IMO, it is a mistake to let this go - you arenât doing yourself or other hosts a favor. They were pretty inconsiderate across several fronts.
At the very least, you need to submit some kind of review and choose the âwould not host againâ option - they wonât be able to book you and for many hosts they wonât be able to IB.
If you donât give them a review then future hosts wonât have any idea what they are like.
I know you are still getting used to how this forum presents info but you did reply to a 4.5+ year old post as if your reply was a timely one. Unlike other forums, threads donât automatically expire or close here. So keeping an eye on when something was posted is helpful.
$18 per month. I like the automated messages because it sends check-in instructions and check-out instructions at a scheduled time. You can also have it send reminders to the guest to solicit a review.
It can even send specific instructions to guests with an infant, extra guests, etc. I use it to send safety instructions to parties with kids and the sofa bed instructions to parties of 3-4.
Now I sound like I work for SmartBnB. Iâm just a happy customer.
