Hi thanks for responding but this post is old. I installed the yale keyless smartlock since then. Airbnb paid for the installation so I only paid £99 for the device.
I’m interested how this might not be the case. I have been ok with hosting guests that have gotten thumbs down but they were not able to IB and so I was able to have a discussion first.
I have posted many times about the woman who booked my place with an overall 4 average and only about 60% of hosts recommended her at the time. I don’t require recommendations so she was able to book me. But she went on to stay many more places in my town, in AZ and in CA getting many bad reviews along the way and not being recommended by hosts (by the way I think this recommend number is gone now). So my conclusion was that thumbs downs were not preventing her from booking.
I agree that a thumbs down probably doesn’t have the effect that most hosts hope it does.
But on the other hand, a thumbs down is objective. What one picky host sees as being a terrible guest, another host might see as being fine. Or a bit of a challenge but okay. Or a bloody nuisance but what-the-hell-I-need-the-money. 
Who knows in this day and age? Giving someone a thumbs down might be seen as 'preconceived opinion that is not based on reason ’ which is a definition of prejudice, after all. Scary but possible.
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Oh ok. Sorry. I am assuming that those people she booked with probably also did not require no thumbs down for her to IB. Am I missing something here?
Do you mean subjective?
What is “thumbs down” anyway? The only thing I see when I review are:
star rating for communications (1-5)
star rating for cleanliness (1-5)
star rating for observance of house rules (1-5)
would you host this guest again (yes/no)
I’m kind of assuming thumbs up/down is the same as would you host guest again yes/no.
I don’t know. I was just speculating. It was really unbelievable how many people kept hosting her. If I can find her profile I’ll PM it to you.
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I seem to recall reading about one here that had tons of bad reviews (and a few good). A weird thing I remember about it was some white powder thing she left all over the places she stayed. It was supposedly medical or something…
I had one request that had just had a bad review from a local competitor about smoking in the house and washing the dog in the tub leaving sand and wet dog hair all over. Well, I am pet friendly but not to leaving a mess and I ABHOR cigarette smoke around my properties so I grilled her a bit (politely) on a few things before agreeing to accept her and her coworkers and her dog. Turns out she showed up without the dog but other than smelling of smoke on arrival were absolutely wonderful guests that left ZERO smoke smell ANYWHERE in the house. I didn’t even smell it on the pillow cases. I thanked her and wrote a wonderful review including all about those things.
No, I mean that I might give someone a thumbs down (I wouldn’t want to host these people and hope that they burn in hell - last bit’s a joke … well… ) but you might think they were perfectly okay. Some hosts might give guests a thumbs down because they just didn’t get on, or just weren’t a good fit. Some might see not taking the garbage out as the work of the devil and others couldn’t care less about them leaving the garbage.
Google’s definition of subjective is…
based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions
… which is a lot more concise and sensible than me.
Another example - there are a lot of hosts who abhor smoking on the entire property. Quite rightly too. But as an ex-smoker (a long-time smoker at that) I don’t think that smokers are the spawn of Satan, I sympathise with their addiction and therefore allow them to smoke (outside, of course, but on the property). That would be a thumbs down from many hosts. Rightly, if it’s in the house rules but I’d host those guests.
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