Help! What now?!

41

There is a huge difference between being fair and people taking advantage of you.

In-home host here, so I understand that any kind of uncomfortable situation can feel like hostile confrontation.

You’ve disclosed everything. You tried to discourage a WFH situation and she said she would go to the office. She doesn’t have earplugs or waking up at 0800.

Too bad, so sad for her. Tell her and Air that if she goes and gets another place you will ONLY refund her the unused days IF you can fill your calendar with another guest.

Period. Hotels have those policies. And don’t bother making accommodations for construction.

Same here.

Great way to put it.

I actually had the guest from heck this past year who didn’t listen to a thing I wrote over the 3 weeks since she booked (too long for here). She was pissy and rude and entitled and we did not get along. I kept telling her she could leave and I’d refund IF I could re-book.

She stayed, I gave her 1 stars across the board and blasted her on the platform. She’s been kicked off, btw.

As magnet guy was planning to run a business illegally…

really 1 star for him, too.

Have Air cancel this one. Too much maintenance. You’re doing too much. Find someone else who’ll understand “This is a city. Construction starts next door at 0800 and goes intermittently to 1700.”

I’ve done it and gone with the IDGAF attitude in return for their being pissy. I put on my super polite, quite chilly, formal attitude and treat them with cool courtesy and keep saying “No, that won’t work here,” and count my money and the days until they leave.

I’m not in this biz to make friends, although it’s a great perk. I am in this business to supply hospitality in a shared home environment in such a way that guests, my cat, and I can co-exist nicely.

Ooooh, I’ve had two of those! :wink:

Really? So she knows how to run an in-home ABB Business? Wow. How lucky for you. (sarcasm). You have done everything to inform her and make her comfortable. Keep the money and ONLY refund AFTER you rebook the room for unused nights.

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42

If someone comes after you’ve warned them, they have no business complaining. Is there a quieter spot in the house that you could offer to let them work? If this is going to be a long construction project there a few options. You could discount your price and make it clear that is to account for the disruption. Investing in some heavy sound deadening features like drapes might help. For am wake-ups you could offer earplugs. Encourage anyone with headphones to bring them to wear while they work.

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43

Excellent response and puts the ball in their court! And they were warned prior to staying.

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44

@Mike_Kedanis well, as I mentioned, it’s not original to me, I stumbled upon the language on this forum (I’m pretty sure). A lot of good answers, here, if one keeps a thick skin and uses the search bar often.

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45

An update and a question

The lady remained angry throughout her stay about not getting that refund. The drama over, she was a perfectly easy guest as we didn’t cross paths much and she was clean. quiet etc. But wow did she ever scowl at me when our paths did cross, and pretty much hissed at me when I asked her if she wanted a fan! Anyway point is, she never did call Airbnb and she never got over it so I guess she genuinely thinks I was wrong not to a refund her. Now she has left and I am expecting a pissy review. Is it wrong to not review her, in the hope that she perhaps won’t leave me a review either in that case? Otherwise it is inevitably going to mean that I will need to contact Airbnb to try and get it removed. And Airbnb have told me before that while they can remove the wording, they cannot remove the star rating! Is that true?

46

Yes, it is wrong not to review her. Reviews are for hosts, and an honest review is imperative.

You will get a few warning messages from Airbnb over the next two weeks to review this guest. You could wait until the absolute very end of the period to submit your review, in the hopes that the guest, who is receiving the same messages, gets the message that you have reviewed her too late for her to submit her review. But I’m afraid that not reviewing her just puts all other hosts at risk.

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47

Good idea I’ll do that. Yes makes sense. This is what I thought ie that I need to write an honest review for other hosts. Last time I needed to write something negative the guy went beserk, told me if I didn’t have anything positive to say I just shouldn’t review. It made me second guess myself and wonder if that is some kind of unwritten rule so I’m glad to hear another host’s view. Thanks

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48

There are several people on this forum that are really good at word-smithing reviews that get the point across, don’t make the host sound whiny, and avoid words that would triger Airbnb to remove it.

I suggest you post your draft here and let them make suggestions! In general, the advice I have seen here is: be brief, factual, and put the most important items first.

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49

Brilliant that sounds like quite an art and I’m eager to learn!

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50

The idea that one should only write reviews if they have something nice to say is bizarre. There is zero point in reviews at all if they are all just nicey nicey- they need to be honest. there is usually something positive you can find to say about most guests, so just because you have something not positive to mention doesn’t mean it’s a “negative” review. In the case of this guest, it sounds like there are lots of things about her that are positive as a guest, and in an entire place rental, where she didn’t have a chance to glare at the host on a daily basis, she might be a perfectly acceptable guest.

Can you imagine if book and movie reviews only had wonderful things to say about every book and movie and they were all rated as excellent?

The old adage “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, is good advice when it comes to not telling Aunt Mildred that her new haircut is really unflattering, but it isn’t applicable to reviews.

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51

ALWAYS leave a review. Be honest, don’t anticipate hers, talk about her as a guest and if she was a 5* guest aside from the scowling, so be it.

Leave your review at the last minute. You’ll still be able to reply to anything she says. Make it factual. Oh, and if in the meantime, she says “refund or I’ll leave a bad review,” contact Air.

That’s because he was a jerk and deserved whatever you wrote. And he’s a bully.

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52

A guest who goes berserk over an honest review isn’t just a jerk, it’s incredibly immature. It’s understandable to be upset if someone lies about you, but asserting that someone has no right to express their honest experience of dealing with you or the mess you left behind shows the maturity level of a 13 year old.

53

Do you mean don’t mention the scowling? She gave me a hard time about not refunding her so I think other hosts would want to know that? First back talk and what she presented as a threat ‘if not I’m going to call Airbnb’. Then when I told her she should definitely call Airbnb if she’s not happy, she didn’t so that the onus remained on me and she spent the week scowling at me. So an unreasonable guest, and therefore not 5 star IMO

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54

That’s reviewing on emotion, not the facts of her following house rules, cleanliness, communication. Air will pull your review if you say “guest scowled at me and was unhappy because I wouldn’t refund her…” You’ll sound like your complaining to teacher about someone who gave you a hard time on the schoolyard.

You could say "Guest followed house rules and kept the place clean at my shared home listing. Was unhappy about pre-disclosed construction on the home next door in the City. Guest stayed despite being offered the opportunity to contact Air and find alternate accommodations. " Then rate her honestly. If you say “Guest scowled at me when we passed in the hallways,” Air will delete your review and keep hers.

If at any time she WROTE to you saying she was unhappy that she didn’t get a free stay “Guest requested refund for intermittent construction noise during the day and was unpleasant about it for the remainder of the stay (wordsmiths!),” then you can probably say that.

I’d just write the generic review, stars accordingly (we’re putting heads in beds, not making friends), and if she leaves a scathing review, reply gently “Guest wanted a full refund despite staying. Construction on the home next door is only from 8-4 and guest was out of the house during most of that time. I don’t understand why someone would expect a free stay for minor city construction noise.”

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55

Thank you so much. This is a very interesting way of looking at it. I agree and like the idea of sticking to the generic parts of the review. I also love the idea of holding back somewhat and then just explaining in my response.
I would knock off a star or two because in my view pissy communication is not five star communication. Do you disagree with this, I’d be interested to know. Shall I just not factor that in, and just base communication on response times abs weather she let me know arrival time etc etc? No lost stars for attitude?!

56

I think it it was extremely clear communication… After all, you understood completely what the guest was saying…

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57

I have to disagree with not making mention of her scowling, although I wouldn’t state it in those terms. As a fellow home share host, a guest who is informed of a situation which might be a problem for her, but chooses to keep the reservation, only to then change her mind, expect a refund, and then when it isn’t agreed to, give the host whose home she is sharing constant bad vibes, is not a guest I would want in my homeshare.

So incorporating your excellent wording for a suggested review, I would add:

"Was unhappy about pre-disclosed construction on the home next door in the City. Guest stayed despite being offered the opportunity to contact Air and find alternate accommodations and made her displeasure with the host for not being refunded quite evident throughout her stay.

As I mentioned upthread, this guest may be fine for an entire place listing, but if she thinks it’s okay to continually scowl at the host whose home she is sharing, that isn’t any more acceptable in a home share situation than if she left piles of dirty dishes in a shared kitchen.

It’s also quite immature and self-indulgent behavior to hold the host responsible for her own poor choice in declining to cancel and receive a refund when it was offered.

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58

But no one said communication was based purely on clarity?

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59

I’d be careful about attributing her scowling to her displeasure with not getting a refund. Although it’s likely that’s the reason, she might be a generally unpleasant person and scowl all the time.

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60

I don’t think I so because she was the opposite when she arrived and through messages. It was more surly