No, I don’t. Not for this site or any site that I care about and use for free. It would be in poor taste.
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I have adblock active for this site with the new google ads that cover up the text blocks. I didn’t because I want to see everything that’s going on here. But these are some very irritating ad placements. And in my case I don’t feel bad at all taking advantage of the free site given my contribution to it. All that said, I really don’t know why the forum owners keep it up.
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I didn’t mention it here because it was in another thread, but I was concerned about posting something that could be used against me.
Someone suggested the review just state that they didn’t follow our policies, which I thought was a good plan. It allows me to warn other hosts while protecting myself. If someone is concerned about particulars, they can message me.
In what way? You can certainly state what objectionable behaviors a guest had in a review- that they left the place a mess, that they snuck in extra guests, or caused damages, that they didn’t answer any of your messages, demanded an early check-in, or ignored check-out time or check-out instructions. Those are exactly the kind of things that need to be made clear in a review.
There are just some things you have to be careful about how you word. As long as you just stick to the facts, leaving emotion, speculation about the guest’s motives, etc., personal comments, or specific mention of things like urine or blood stains (just say bedding or towels were found in unacceptable condition or destroyed) etc. out of it, it certainly isn’t held against you in any way by Airbnb.
“Didn’t follow our policies” is too vague to really be helpful to other hosts relying on honest reviews to vet guests. Other hosts have no idea what your policies are, which ones the guests violated, and whether we’d consider another host’s policies reasonable. As far as I would know by that phrase, it could mean the guests didn’t strip the beds and start a load of wash, which I would never expect, nor want guests to do.
Where you have to be more careful is if you leave a response to a review, in that your responses appear on your review page, not the guest’s, and will be read by future prospective guests.
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lol, i thought i was being generous even suggesting Canada was “warm” in late summer! 
either way, even rainy shitty zones have humidity/mould issues, so a closed dishwasher is not ideal anywhere.
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Actually lots of Canada is super hot in the summer. That’s when the igloos all Canadians live in melt. Such a drag having to rebuild them every fall.
Don’t a bunch of handsome mounties on thoroughbreds ride up and rebuild them for you? All the while smiling and complimenting you?
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Why? I don’t look at any of those ads anyway, nor am I going to buy any of it. I know sites get paid something if ads are visible to a user whether the user clicks on the ad or not, and I don’t mind ads that are off to the side, and don’t use adblock on my favorite free sites whose ads are placed like that, but when they are overlaid on the content, it’s super annoying.
I think the important thing for reviews of this type of guest is to remember that the review is for the benefit of other hosts, not the guest. There’s an option in the review process to “let your guests know how they can improve” that won’t be public. In the public review let us all know that this guest should not be welcomed into our listings, and let someone else teach your guests the basics of being a responsible person. And by all means, don’t give it another thought. Some people just aren’t a good fit for the airbnb model…they don’t understand the difference between a home and a hotel.
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Neighbours peruse the listings and comments made can be used to try to shut down rental homes.
Exactly right! This is one guy that should be staying in hotels that have on site staff and cleaners that come in every day.
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That could be true, if you are aware that you have hostile neighbors, but they would first of all have to have an Airbnb account, then they would have to know to click on the profile photo of reviews left by your guests, to navigate to the guest’s profile page to see your review of said guest (I’m not even sure an Airbnb account, if you aren’t a host, even enables one to do that). And in this case, your guest didn’t even leave you a review, so no one would have the ability to locate the profile of the guest and read the review you left for them.
And while saying in a review that guests threw a party or parked such that they blocked neighbor’s driveways could give hostile neighbors fodder for going to local authorities claiming your rental causes a disturbance, writing that the guests left the place dirty or failed to lock the doors isn’t anything that they could use to complain about your rental. Local authorities would say “And how does the guests leaving unwashed dishes affect you? Don’t waste our time.”
Yes, there is a group of rental home owners that are aware that this is happening in our area. They actively look. Very frustrating.
Very true. But I couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t review. I’m glad they didn’t. 
I really considered giving just a few but not all of the ways they didn’t follow policies, based on the above. Here was my thought process:
-I wouldn’t have mentioned the main things.
-Perhaps the ones I did mention wouldn’t apply to other hosts and they may accept a booking only to also find that important policies weren’t followed.
-I didn’t want to look picky - i.e. I normally would accommodate a late exit if arranged, if possible.
-I have asked hosts for specifics, and I would gladly do the same if asked by another host.
If the only irritating thing a guest did was check-out late or ask for that, it could indeed look picky and unaccommodating. However when there are a whole litany of guest violations, including something like that helps to get the message across that these are guests no one would want and why.
In the future, seeing as how you have hostile neighbors looking for ways to shut you down, just don’t specifically mention anything that would indicate that guests caused a neighborhood disturbance. You could detail things like uncleanliness, disrespect for check-out instructions, ignoring stated check-out time, etc., and follow that with “and violated and ignored many other house policies and rules”. That would give other hosts some context to the bad guest’s stay, while not giving neighbors fodder for claiming your rental is a local disturbance.
I just had a booking from a guest with not-so-great reviews. I called airbnb and found out that they can cancel for me if I am not comfortable and it is done through instant booking. And when they do it my rating won’t be affected. This is limited to three occurrences per year. I decided to tell the guest about my concerns. If she does not answer me and make me feel more comfortable, I will ask airbnb to cancel her booking. Again, if I cancel myself, my ratings will be affected. Good to know!
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One of my favorite Canadian groups, The Arrogant Worms, explains how big Canada is: Canada's Really Big - YouTube
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Came across a great quote a while back. Sadly, can’t remember who said it.
It’s a wise man who wants to know what he doesn’t want to know.
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I personally love the ladles of snark.
It’s the delicious acerbity gravy on the mashed potatoes of guidance.
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It did the same to me. It took a few moments for the depth of the saying to sink in.
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