Guest requesting money back what is my best option?

There is no reason to issue a refund. Even if they hadn’t reviewed you yet, they would still leave you a bad review. Any reasonable guest will be able to tell these guests are NUTS, and the review will soon be off your page.

Do you mean you don’t normally leave reviews?

EDIT: I finished reading the thread and it seems you do not. It is OK to leave a 1-sentence review for an unremarkable guest. Most of my reviews boil down to, “GUEST (party of #) stayed with me for # of nights. They were good communicators, respected house rules, and left the space clean. I would host again.” If they were an adequate guest but we didn’t share a personal connection, what more needs to be said?

Future hosts won’t have this context. Leave the spirituality out of the review.

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@Atlnative you finally got it right! WHY would anyone write a novel when it takes a good, tight paragraph? @jakeym91 use her version, and keep it for an example. Your feelings or beliefs are not what’s important in reviewing a guest; the facts that tell other hosts why they shouldn’t rent to them are.

Oh, and never mention demands for payment from either party in a review, because it may result in its removal.

I have just added this to my list of review examples, I think provided by your dear self here sometime ago!

Take them head on!
Ask for extra money, claim for garbage disposal and Desinfektion.

Give them a 1 star review and exegerate the problems and mention AirBnBs involvement.
If they can lie, you can do the same.

Big chance the claims will cancel each other out.
Also if your review is bad enough, and guest complain both reviews are likely to be taken down too.

I’ve noticed lately that fewer guests are keeping me updated or even replying to my check in message. But many who do just say “thanks” and don’t update me. I was annoyed but then last week I was traveling and realized later I didn’t update my host on my arrival time. At no point did I ever give her an estimated arrival time. We just rolled up and checked in shortly after 3 pm (check in time) I did message the host after we got in and told her we were checked in and that the place was beautiful.

As a guest if I book a self check in place I expect it to be like a hotel where I don’t have to give a check in time I suppose. I mean, it was a hectic day but at no point did it even occur to me to message the host and give them an arrival time. But if she had asked I would have answered. So hosts who need this information should ask, then if it’s ignored deduct communication stars.

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As others have asked, is this a typo? Should it read:

Aldina is one of the very few guests we feel compelled to leave a negative review for?

ALSO, get a 2- or 3-bag maximum of luggage in your house rules immediately. Prevents wear and tear on your house and folks “moving in.” My House Manual specifies and this and provides a link to a nearby storage place with a first free month for people with overflow.

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This is not an Airbnb example but…
I wish I’d thought of this when I had roommates! Before I rented on AirBnB, I rented bedrooms on a month-to-month basis, and one of my first roommates told us she just wanted to stay for a month, but she showed up with the contents of her 1-bedroom apartment and the storage unit she’d just emptied. And she had a list of things she wanted us to renovate on her behalf.

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@Atlnative gave the OP a perfect rewrite. Long reviews make the reviewer sound crazy - ESPECIALLY on the host side. Less so on the guest side because they paid the money.

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I think i go with this one:

Aldina and her friend were the worst guests we’ve hosted in over 300 stays. They repeatedly broke house rules, disregarded quiet hours, cut a visiting son’s hair in our living room, left the house in terrible condition. They left us with numerous boxes and garbage requiring extra cleaning and disinfection. When they asked to use our washer/dryer, they found some laundry in them and took them out. After that, they asked us to pay them for doing laundry.

While their initial communication was very friendly, their behavior did not match the language used. Each interaction reinforced that Aldina and her husband don’t belong in the home sharing community. We would strongly recommend against hosting them. They have earned the title “guests from hell”.

I would lose the second para @jakeym91

If you want add into the first para. ‘Although their initial communication was good, this deteriorated throughout their stay’.

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Also bear in mind the AirBNB review ‘system’ removes all text formatting so putting stuff in different paragraphs will nor work. When the review is published it will look like a single block of text/paragraph.

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So i posted my review of them. Below is their review of me. Should i write an response to it?

“not what i expected, noise, no cell reception, light shining in my room all night and i had to do their laundry even after i told them”

We usually advise against it but the Insider who is a case manager says you should. Who really knows? If someone lied about me like that I’d have to reply. The first clause explains the lies…it wasn’t what she expected so she left and made up lies.

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Important to know, but Airbnb does NOT allow information about the money transaction between the parties to be mentioned in the review. Airbnb considers this to be private information - and they will remove the review if the guest requests it… the whole thing - then no one will see it.

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I don’t think so… one random bad review isn’t going to affect your rating much, and after you have been reviewed a few more times, their comments won’t even show on the 1st page. Your review of them is all that is necessary. IMO.

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I would not. Like many of those who post here, I am generally against leaving public replies. These guests are clearly nuts based on their review.

How many stars did they leave?

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I was surprised but they actually left 3 stars

Ok, so 2 say i should not respond but the insider who is a case manger says i should?

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I always recommend host’s to respond to every review regardless of star rating and if it is good or bad in the host’s opinion. It shows potential guests that there are two sides to every story and personality conflicts occur because this is a community of people coming together to offer or use someone’s available space, not a hotel setting.

Not true. Reviews are not listed on the order of the guest’s stay but rather based on a potential guest’s native language, location, search criteria, etc. Just like search rankings for properties, reviews are also shifted around differently for each guest visiting your listing’s ad.

When someone browses your listing, reviews are ordered based on several factors that are relevant or helpful for guests, including things like:

  • How recent the review is
  • The language of the review
  • The country where the reviewer lives
  • The length of the review

For example, if a French traveler browses your listing, recent reviews written in French or by French guests will be shown first. This helps guests read reviews that are relevant to them so they can decide if your listing is a good fit.

However, even though a newer review might not show at the top of your listing page, all the reviews are still available for potential guests.