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I’m at a loss as to how to word a review for a recent guest. Her profile says she lives in China, but her phone number is in Mexico. She instant booked for 1 night about 2 weeks out and her message to me was simply - “going to riverbend hot springs”. I had no other communication from her until the evening she checked in and that was to ask what time check out is. She has one other review from a place in Costa Rica which stated she was clean and friendly. The review she left for them was in Spanish and was complementary. I don’t think English is her first language, which is fine, but leads me to think she didn’t actually read anything I sent to her, including the house rules. I rely on my cleaning folks to let me know how things were left and so far everyone has left our place in excellent condition so writing the reviews has been a piece of cake. Here’s what my cleaner said about this guest: “used one bed, both bathrooms slobbishly and left a dirty dish in the sink.” None of this is cause for alarm or punishment in my opinion. It took my cleaners a little longer to deal with the bathrooms, but nothing was damaged, and I honestly don’t think she knew she was supposed to do her dishes, or perhaps she just forgot it was in there. The lack of communication is really my biggest concern and something I would want other hosts, who rely on good communication, to know about.
Remember that your review is for other hosts to evaluate the guest. You need to come up with something better than one dirty dish and slobbishly used bathroom for it to be meaningful. My opinion is that it’s not even worth talking about. Seriously, what’s the difference in bathroom cleaning time between a neat guest and a “slobbish” one? If your cleaners always do a thorough job cleaning on the bathrooms, the difference is almost nothing.
I don’t see where lack of communication was actually a problem, either. Can you explain that?
I agree that those two things aren’t worth mentioning, but what do you say about someone you’ve not met that didn’t really communicate (maybe due to a language barrier) and wasn’t as clean as the rest of our guests?
Should I just say something like “guest was fine, would host again”.? I would host her again, btw.
Do you want her back? I would leave a general positive review if yes. Leave no review if no. Nothing she did would warrant energy of a poor review IMO.
I’d say the same. Leaving a dirty dish??? The bathroom isn’t really an issue unless there was evidence of real grossness (which I’m sure would have been mentioned in the OP) as bathrooms need a thorough cleaning at each turnover anyway regardless of what state they are left in. ‘Slobbishly’ isn’t really very descriptive.
I’m not sure what the problem is with communication. It doesn’t sound like anything particularly unusual unless I’ve misunderstood something.
You don’t have to leave a review, but I think to leave star ratings you can’t leave that box empty before clicking on next. I could be wrong but I vaguely remember writing “thank you for your stay” simply to get to the star ratings. Maybe you can give her 4 stars for cleanliness and 3 for communication. In the review you can say something like “wish communication had been better.”
Nothing to say unless there was a need to communicate that somehow wasn’t satisfied. Guests really don’t need to tell you much unless you ask them questions that will help things go smoothly. Besides the initial booking message which rarely tells me anything, I only ask for the following communications from guests:
Do you want the optional bed made up?
What is your approximate time of arrival? (for host check-in)
Send a message when you check-in. (for self check-in).
Send a message when you check-out.
Thank you all! I’m still figuring this whole system out. I’ve had 7 sets of guests so far. 5 of them were 5 star guests in every way, one booked for one, but mentioned “we” In Her initial booking message, when I asked how many “we” was I got no response. I didn’t really think about it again until the day before she was due to check in, so I sent another message through Airbnb, and sent a text. After a while when there was still no response, I called her. I think she had completely forgotten that she booked. She sounded totally surprised, then canceled about an hour later.
I’m starting to think that even though the majority of my guests have been good communicators, that they are the exception. This is something I’m going to have to work on getting used to.
Thanks again for all of your insight.
Most of my guests don’t contact me at all after booking until I get in touch with them on the morning of check in. (Or in the case of guests coming from overseas, the previous day).
A Brian says, if there’s nothing that they need to tell you, there’s no need for communication. Occasionally I get a guest who lets me know flight numbers and ETA well in advance which is nice but not at all necessary. Some guests are in touch during their stay but with others, I never hear a thing. Neither is right or wrong - just different ways.
I understand your confusion. If the truly 5 star guest gets five stars and a nice review then what about the person who did less? I’d deduct a star on cleanliness and one or two on communication. I’d probably not say anything in the review about cleanliness. I sometimes will say things like “this guest didn’t communicate at all about their stay: before, during or after. This wasn’t a problem for me but hosts for whom this is important should clarify things with the guest if they book with you.” I just clearly say, not a problem for me, but maybe for you.
I’ve seen reviews that flat out say the star ratings they gave in the written part of the review.
This just seems like a guest who is more transaction than relationship oriented.
I don’t think there’s anything in here to comment on in the review. She’s seeing this as an anonymous transaction:
She IB’d - the system asks reason for trip: ‘going to riverbend hot springs’. She asked for one piece of info and otherwise was self-sufficient but not chatty.
It doesn’t sound like she left you hanging as a non-responsive guest. What you might be feeling is the lack of “relaxation” that comes when a communicative guest messages “Just got in! Love the place!”. That’s certainly nice to hear, but you’ll get used to some people being a question mark.
I think this is the new style Airbnb guest - more amazon purchase than “home sharing”.
It’s definitely more me feeling uncomfortable with someone who doesn’t communicate than her doing anything wrong.
I did ask my cleaning people to specify what they meant by slobbish and I guess they managed to leave both toilets with a nice schmear. She felt it wasn’t intentional, but definitely left her grossed out.
I left a fairly neutral review, but stated she would be welcomed back.
Why would you want to deduct stars on communication? Guest said all that was necessary for the transaction. She found the place without issues worth mentioning, checked in and out …do you need her whole life story?
It is a different story if they start bombarding you with messages because they cannot follow your instructions and have not looked the address or ask a zillion questions during their stay …but none of this happened here. Lighten up people … it is a self check in place.
