What you are saying is that if you write “Would not host again”, with no further explanation, that other hosts would be foolish to ever accept that guest, even though your criteria for a bad guest may be different than mine.
That is unfair to guests and other hosts alike.
I remember a post I read from a distressed guest who had gotten a bad review. The host wrote that she was high maintenance, called him 10 times a day. The guest said she had called him exactly 3 times during the week, all for stuff it seemed perfectly reasonable for her to contact him about.
For instance, this booking was in Mexico, where the tap water is not safe to drink. There had been a couple of large jugs of drinking water provided, but they were sitting on the floor- those jugs are 5 gallons and she couldn’t lift it onto the counter by herself nor could she figure out how to get the lid off. As I live in Mexico myself, I am quite familiar with those jugs- they are super heavy and yes, the lids are difficult to remove. The other things she contacted him about were things she was unfamiliar with how to work in a foreign country and the host had left no instructions in the unit as tohow anything worked.
It seemed like this was a host who just wanted to collect rent and didn’t want to be “bothered” by guests at all. And the guest sounded like a reasonable person who was quite concerned about the bad review (her first Airbnb review) affecting her ability to be accepted in the future.
Had this host simply written “Would not host again”, according to you, this should be a valid reason for all hosts to decline bookings from this guest. Whereas I would accept her if I knew what the host found objectionable, as I saw the host’s unhelpful attitude as the issue, not the guest’s behavior.
Also, when specifics are mentioned in a review, it gives other hosts the opportunity to question a guest who wants to book about that.
“I see that you only have one review so far that mentions that you left quite a mess behind, which concerns me. Care to explain what happened there?”
“Yes, it was my first Airbnb booking, the host didn’t leave any instructions as to what guests should do before checking out, and I just didn’t realize what was expected. I’ve done some reading on Airbnb forums since then, regarding what a cleaning fee actually covers, and am aware now that I should wash my dirty dishes and tidy up before checking out. I promise I won’t assume that hosts are responsible for cleaning my personal messes again and that I will be a lot more respectful in the future if you give me a chance.”
