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I’ve been perusing the community airbnb forum and following links where hosts have complained about guests. I’ve been astounded at some of the nasty and personal things that some hosts put in their reviews.
I got so intrigued that I dug deeper. Most of the most critical hosts put off guests forever. As in. their nasty review was the last one that guest had. Some guests even replied to their review saying that they would never use Airbnb again.
So… I’m wondering. We have to be good fellow hosts and warn each other about really bad horrible guests. But why shame someone publicly about stained sheets or say communication “could have been better” ?
I’m thinking those kind of reviews only serve to lose a potential future guest/customer for all the rest of us. I’m beginning to see why Airbnb is cutting off it’s roots. Most people are just selfish egotistical ***** and hosts are sometimes the worst!
I’m so glad that you posted this! I wrote a blog post some time ago about how so many hosts seem to think that there’s a new breed of ‘super-guest’. There isn’t.
People are human. I’m pretty sure that I’ve stayed in self-catering accommodation in the past and left a couple of dirty coffee cups in the sink - for so many Airbnb hosts today that would be such a bad thing.
If I was a potential guest - someone thinking about using Airbnb for the first time - and read some of the behaviours that some hosts complain about (here and in reviews) I’d head for the nearest hotel or hostel booking site.
I don’t think guests owe us a living. I think you have to like people and have some tolerance (as they do for me). And 95 percent of my guests are aok.
Unless there has been deliberate negligence I err on the side of the positive.
Exactly. So… airbnb must have been thinking this for ages. But they haven’t gone so far as to remove the ability for hosts to review guests. It’s only a matter of time, though. No other platform gives the opportunity for hosts to review guests.
Respectfully, that is entirely the point. Guests agree to rules and most of the time if there is a misunderstanding, its able to be worked out between the host and guest. If a guest or host won’t follow the rules or is completely disrespectful however, the only recourse anybody has is the review. If guests and hosts understand how the system works, they understand that’s probably the last time they’ll ever be able to stay at a decent Airbnb as a guest or attract decent guests as a host. I’ve written one review like that and I’m pretty sure those people will never be able to book again. Guests like that don’t belong in the community, they belong in a barn.
Most recently I had a guest try to swindle me out of something like $13 on a refund. Completely petty but the guest very obviously and blatantly lied. She got the money but now she’s not going to have an easy time booking. I was very critical and attacked her character in my review for good cause. On Airbnb you’re only as good as your reputation and she threw hers away for a few dollars.
Now stained sheets, I’ve never left something about that in a review and I’ve had some stains. Communication? Really it comes down to the opinion of the guest and host. You can’t paint the whole picture in a review and sometimes the experience was overall negative for a reason you can’t really even articulate so it comes out in unexpected ways. A review like that might not stop somebody from getting decent bookings though.
If I’m not pleased with a guest’ s stay, I don’t leave a detailed long review pointing out all faults. I simply state “guest is best suited for hotel stay” and give them thumbs down and low star rating . I personally feel that is enough. However, if they destroyed the place, that would be a different review.
I look at the math. In roughly 95 % of the cases, the guest is making an effort to do right, stick by the rules, and be pleasant. If they are a 5 percenter, I stick to bullet point facts. It has happened that I had a personality clash with one, but that’s as much my issue as theirs. Stick to the facts.
This comment makes me uncomfortable. I absolutely believe we should review on bad / damaging behaviors however recognizing that we are all human which means we all have our ways. I don’t know any of my guests well enough to evaluate their character.
Seriously though [quote=“Annet3176, post:13, topic:30045”]
This comment makes me uncomfortable
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I’m very uncomfortable with it too. It’s not nice when someone lies to you and insults your intelligence with a dim witted trick. Unfortunately if you lie, that makes you a liar. There aren’t a whole lot of nice ways to call someone a liar. I just said she was dishonest and tried to defraud me out of a larger refund than she was entitled to. This wasn’t a human mistake. It was very intentional and thought out and the guest even acknowledged this is what she was trying to do and apologized. Judging her is reasonable here. That’s the point of the reviews, for other hosts to judge whether or not they should accept a booking from this guest. If she didn’t want to be judged negatively, she shouldn’t have tried to pull a quick one.
I really wish hosts wouldn’t use the meaningless phrase ‘better suited to a hotel’ . It doesn’t help your fellow hosts understand what the issues were with the guest.
What exactly is a host saying ? that the guest behaved terribly/badly but they are quite happy for some minimum wage member of staff in a hotel to put up with their behaviour?
Yes, I’ve never understood that. I’ve posted here before about leaving a mess or whatever for the housekeepers to deal with. Not only are they often paid the local minimum wage but they also aren’t emotionally investing in what they do. (I imagine we’ve all seen the You Tube videos of some of their cleaning methods).
I’d just like hosts to explain in their review why they think the people are more suited to a hotel. Because our rentals are separate from my own home, the guests are independent just as they would be if they were in a hotel so I usually don’t get it.
“better suited to a hotel” with no other details could just as easily mean something about the host like “I can’t be bothered with the guest’s needs at 3 am, xx should stay at a hotel.” Or “This guest wants a clean towel each day, they should stay at a hotel.” Those guests might be fine with some hosts, not others so details would be nice.
That would be great. Because I use IB for both rentals, I sometimes have guests who have a slightly iffy review from other hosts. If I know what the problem is, I can deal with it before or when the guest arrives. It’s easy for me to say ‘I saw your review from xxx and it says that you [insert whatever here]’.
If the issue is something I can easily deal with, or don’t mind doing, then I’m fine with that.
I haven’t used “Better suited to a hotel” But I did use “Better suited to a campground or hostel” I did expand:
“XXXX was part of a larger group, as it turned out, upwards of 14 people. XXXX booked the house for 6 but the rest of her friends were in and out all day and night until 11pm. This group is better suited for a campground or youth hostel. They broke a few of my house rules, eg: smoking in the doorways of the front and back doors, extra people using the facilities that were not on the reservation. They also unlocked the locked piano and several people slept in front of the house in vans and a camper. They downloaded copyrighted material via subtorrent which is highly illegal. The house was left fairly clean, considering the number of people involved. This group does not seem to understand the spirit of Airbnb, I cannot recommend them.”
I think that would make it clear whether or not another host wanted to host them. They did more than this, but I figured this was what other hosts would want to know about.
In my case, it’s a whole house rental. So when I say they’re best suited for a hotel stay, it’s because they won’t have access to a kitchen and laundry room. Also, if they’re drunk and loud they have security officers to kick them out.
