Help! Cancel a guest because she posts terrible reviews?

21

I don’t understand “you really don’t know if they are a red flag or not”.

Hosts who do not use IB at all never have this attitude. The whole thing about requiring Requests is that the host has the control over vetting guests instead of relying on whatever boxes you can check for IB.

I definitely know if a guest is waving red flags. I look at their reviews, if they have any, read reviews they have left for past hosts, see if they have done a profile write-up, communicate with them. A guest’s initial message which accompanies the request tells me a lot. If it’s personable, addresses me by name, compliments my listing and/or reviews, offers some information about themselves and why they are travelling here, that’s pretty much a green flag.

If their initial message is more along the lines of “Arriving around 2” then I will prompt them with some questions and info and wait to see how they reply.

If their first message is “So is it really just for 1 person?” that’s a red flag.

I find it somewhat bamboozling that hosts think they somehow have more control over getting good guests if they use IB. Not saying there’s anything wrong with using IB if it works for you, but it is certainly no more assurance of getting good guests than requiring Requests.

22

@patti The “NO” only applies to you if they are a former guest of yours OR IF you have the extra IB setting for “recommended by other hosts”.
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Any guest can Request a Stay with an IB host regardless. They do not have to use IB. Your guest in question wrote they did not see the IB option. So, IF you are using the “recommended by other hosts option” then someone gave them a NO in the past. So, to me extra vetting is needed, but they could still be an ok guest. Too early to tell.

23

Usually, when I get a RTB, they are asking for a significant discount.

Actual message: “I am on a very tight budget. Would you consider reducing your nightly rate?”

24

One thing I like about IB is that I get 3 easy cancelations a year. No drama, no gnashing of teeth, no buying a background check app and looking for people with names like that of my guest. You can’t do that until you have the name on the account and I don’t even have that with some guests after they book.

Whatever “vetting” I do is done after they reserve not before. I do after I click “not comfortable” and that’s it. If I need more than 3 supposedly I can get those if I call in. I never used the 3 a year so am unsure about calling.

Also, I filter for “IB only” hosts. So for every guest like the ones you get who only use hosts who “approve” guests, some of us try not to use hosts who have that arrogance. Please don’t take that personally, I’d gladly stay with you. But when a stranger posts here about their “gut” and their magic intuitive powers, I just see someone with a a lot of biases.

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25

I do as well and may change it if I cannot find an IB place I like. I do not want to have conversations with hosts about why I am going somewhere it seems intrusive to me as a guest. I do not book shared places though, I do get the hosts need to feel good about someone sharing their space.

RR

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26

I stayed in two Airbnb places last week, both IB. Now I have to change my Nashville plans for next month. I booked with one request to book host and was not happy with him. Now looking for another place in Nashville and the only RTB place I’m considering is shared space. All the whole house places with RTB are a no for me. Plenty of options in Nashville.

27

I can totally understand the attraction of 3 no-hassle cancellations a year if hosts get IB bookings which they find unacceptable. But hosts who require requests generally can get guests to withdraw a request that isn’t a good fit. And if they can’t, they can decline.

So as long as they understand they can take up to the allotted 24 hours to make a decision, if necessary, and actually use the vetting tools available, there is rarely a need to cancel after you accept a booking. The 3 cancellations a year is necessary for IB hosts because they don’t have an opportunity to communicate with guests before a booking is confirmed, read their reviews, etc.

It’s exactly like ordering a piece of clothing online versus buying it in a store. If you order it online, unless you are familiar with the brand and sizing, you may very well need to return it because it doesn’t fit right, it has some flaw, or the color in reality doesn’t look like it did online.

If you buy it in a store, you can try it on, look it over to make sure it’s well made, and the seams aren’t ripping out or the buttons loose. So if you are satisfied and buy it, it would be rare for there to be a reason to return it.

Why on earth do you think hosts who want the option to communicate with guests are arrogant? It doesn’t mean we think we can spot every red flag and we could never get a bad guest sneak through our customary vetting procedures. It just means we prefer to communicate with a prospective guest before their booking can be confirmed.

Nor do I understand why it must indicate unconcious biases. If a guest requests to book and we see they have positive reviews, but they sent a rude or entitled message that leads us to decline, how is that any different from a host using IB, requiring that the guest has positive reviews, and then cancelling because the guest sent a rude,or entitled message that sent up red flags?

How does being able to cancel penalty free because a host finds an IB sends up red flags for them after they actually read the reviews and ratings and the message the guest sends indicate less bias?
If a host cancels an IB booking because the guest is 18 years old and they don’t trust teenagers to not throw parties, how is it less biased to cancel their IB booking than to decline their request to book?

Now if a guest has found that the hosts they have tried to book with who require requests take half a day to get back to them, or the host asks a ton of nosy questions that should have no bearing on whether the guest will be respectful, or the host comes across like a micro-managing fusspot, sending a long list of rules, I can see why a guest would prefer to IB.

But as I see it, IB is no different from request to book aside from it being a bit faster for both the host and guest. The only real difference is in the process- that IB hosts can cancel an inappropriate booking they feel uncomfortable with, whereas a request host can decline it or get the guest to withdraw it.

That has never been the case for me. The majority of my guests have sent initial messages that are polite and informative and had good reviews- so
within an hour or less, I have messaged back thanking them for the request, answering any questions they had, and hitting Accept. If their message falls short of info or indicates they haven’t read the listing info, it might take one more message exchange to get things straight, but that also happens quickly.

28

It’s not the “communication”, it’s the arrogance of thinking you know enough about a stranger to decline their business. In home hosts, sure. Entire place hosts, no.

We’ve discussed this before. You and I are just on a different page on that.

I’ve only been turned down once (out of 15 bookings) and that was a NYC apt in 2014 that probably wasn’t even legal. I understand why she was picky. Another time a RTB host took 23 hours to accept then had poor communication when I had a question later. Another RTB took several hours to approve. Why in the world would I choose RTB when IB is available. I’ll only used RTB when I have to.

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29

But IB hosts do exactly the same thing when they cancel a booking due to feeling “uncomfortable”. I can’t see the difference between doing that because a host gets some message from a guest after the booking confirmation which sends up red flags, and declining because the guest may have sent that message when requesting to book.

I’m not trying to be obstinate, I just see them as exactly the same thing, except one is a cancellation and one is a decline. They both have the same potential for bias.

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30

That is not my experience. There have been a couple of RTB that I suspected were not able to IB, for somewhat obvious reasons (bad review, shitty attitude…), that were the same reasons I declined their RTBs.

But I also have had quite a lot of old-school Airbnbers that RTB more or less out of habit (it is used to all be requests) or preference (some of have said that they like to get a feel for the host first or to verify availability or to ‘just be polite’). I also get quite a few because I require dogs to be pre-approved (though I ask for them to inquire, a lot RTB because they don’t understand the difference.

***The other reason you might get a RTB instead of a IB may be because of you if you have recently cancelled an IB booking (I don’t know if you have or not). It has happened to me and has been discussed here. They are not upfront about it but it seems to be a fairly common experience, a sort of shadow-ban. I’ve been through it twice after cancelling an IB booking. Although my listing showed as IB to me, it would not come up in a search for IB or show IB on a incognito search. All of my guests were requesting. One time it was for 3 weeks and one it was for almost 7 weeks.

It is not a red flag in and of itself to me.

31

Have only canceled 1 IB, in 6 years of hosting.
Her red flags were the multiple questions about how clean the house was.
I responded with asking what her concerns were and she could see my ratings in that category……

I just felt that if she found a cobweb in a subtropical location, my ratings would suffer.

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32

To me, there is really no difference. Though, I have been more hassled and interrogated more from IB hosts than I have from RTB hosts. And declining to many requests is just as prohibitive as only having 3 free cancellations. The approach cannot be all that different.

33

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IB is a nice option for Guests to search with, but is often not as helpful outside the USA.
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In Europe, IB excludes many great choices. We want a great location, good shower and a washing machine. If we required IB, half the choices are gone including some of the best. If we required superhost, our choices are more limited to no benefit.
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34

It’s funny, I understand why some people might see IB as a perk, but there’s a part of me that sees an IB host and thinks, “well that host is lazy and has low standards” :laughing:

Technically that is true. I use IB because I hate dealing with Requests and my bar for guests is fairly low. However, I travel alone a lot and sometimes I really like a private room (not sure why, I’m not very social) and I would rather stay with a host who rents a room in their own space that is RTB, particularly if there is more than one room being rented. (I have higher standards when I am the guest :laughing:

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35

I’ve certainly read a lot of posts by hosts who say they love IB because it cuts down on the time they need to spend on prospective bookings. Some even say they detest having to answer inquiries or requests. So it’s obviously a time saver for hosts. You could call that lazy, or simply efficient.

I don’t necessarily find it odd that someone would choose home-share private room when travelling, even if they aren’t particularly sociable. For someone travelling alone to an area new to them, it can give a sense of security- you might not be chatty with your host, but you might feel you could ask them “insider” questions about the area, where it is safe to walk alone at night, etc. And while many people love the genericness and anonymity of a hotel, some travelers prefer a homey atmosphere with a bit of everyday life going on around them.

And I know some of my guests have booked my private room because of the location. There aren’t many places where I live which are walking distance to town and the beach, (it’s 20 minutes, so they are all people who like to walk) yet in the quiet countryside surrounded by nature.

One guest, who told me at the outset that she wasn’t interested in being sociable, so not to take personal offense (she wasn’t at all unfriendly, she was a good communicator and sweet- she just worked at a retreat center surrounded by people all the time, needed a break and was doing some “what shall I do with my life” introspection), booked here for just that reason- she wanted to be somewhere quiet and peaceful, couldn’t afford some isolated private villa, and had read the reviews saying that the host was friendly, but not imposing, taking her cue from the guests as to how much interaction they wanted. And as a woman travelling alone, it made her feel safer to be staying with a local.

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36

I had that happen once after I cancelled an IB and I had CS cancel a booking that magically came up during a time I had blocked off, the airbnb gremlins unblocked it. Although was told no penalty, I was put in the penalty box.

Once I realized what was going on I turned off IB for two days and when I turned it back on it was on… That was in 2019 I think.

RR

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37

Yes that sounds right! It was around the time of my 2nd penalty box and you suggested that and it worked!

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38

Back to the original question for a second… after much thought and digesting the comments posted here, thank you all very much, we are going to proceed with the booking. Thought process:
Its $1000 booking and we are trying to make up for some big Covid cancellations recently.
The properties she left the bad reviews for were not really similar to ours, she is spending twice as much on ours for a reason and yes I know her expectations may be even higher.
All communications so far have been very normal, nice, polite.
We have 91 reviews with 5 star average so even if I get a one star I think we would drop to 4.95 if my calculations are correct. And maybe Airbnb would delete an obvious false review.
I will make double sure that everything is perfect and make her feel welcomed and special (as I try to do always)
I will ask her about her previous stay (gee it must have been awful!!, one star wow, the host will really pay a price for that! Tell me about it) Maybe I can educate her. Maybe I’m crazy.
I may also be a bit cheeky and drop casually during check in- “oh perfect timing, the cleaner is just finishing up her checklist and photos… would you believe our insurance company requires it.”
I also remembered a saying " don’t borrow problems from the future".
Wish me luck. It will all be over on 2 Oct. and I’ll post back with what happened .
Cheers

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39

Here is my 3/5 stars review: “I thought when I reserved the house, that I explained that there were to be two people staying. I really don’t understand why there weren’t two washcloths provided. I was also very disappointed that there was no ice or glasses provided. If that is okay with Airbnb, maybe I need to stay in a hotel instead or the properties they provide.”

This man jeopardized my Super host status because of this? I called Airbnb and there was nothing they could do. I asked why Airbnb cannot protect us hosts from these picky people. Just because you have a bad day and expect to serve you as if we are a hotel? I just stayed at 2 hotels @ $200+ a night and we had less than an pleasant stay. I complained to my husband and moved on. Like the hotel cares if we rate them. This is our private residence. We are risking alot already. It makes me want to stop hosting. Protect your hosts, Airbnb. That’s you’re business. Make it ours, too.

40

We would not host her but hope all the best for you taking the chance with her. Fingers crossed for you, Truly!

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