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Ok Hive Mind, you are, Again, being asked to help with wording. I am a bit torn on this guest. She was nice enough, left the place clean BUT (yeah you knew that was coming) broke a few of my House Rules. The biggest one being, she left the house unlocked every time she went out, even when she left to go home. (Stand alone listing, decent neighborhood) She also left the heat on when she left. Fortunately my Ring doorbell showed they had left and had not locked the door so my husband went over to check things and lock up. A couple of other semi nit picky house rules were broken as well, adding up to a huge Seriously??? I would actually allow her to come back, she has a child living in the area so she may want to. I would just have to meet her at the house and physically go over a few things with her so I could be sure she didnât repeat her mistakes from her first visit. This is what I have for her public review
"XXXX is a very sweet person. She left our home very tidy. She did, however, leave the house unlocked each time she went out, including on departure. The heat was also left on when they departed. I feel with some experience though, XXXX could be an ideal guest. I would welcome her back. "
I have seen enough hosts critiquing reviews say that leaving a place unlocked is a pretty big deal and they would want to know. And to me, leaving the heat on is a huge deal as well. The nitpicky stuff I left for the private message because well, itâs a bit nitpicky but how I want things done in my listing.
Exactly why I have my smart lock set to automatically lock after 30 seconds.
I might not even mention it in the public review, but let her know in the private comments that you really wish the house had been kept secured when she wasnât in it. Not everyone might feel thatâs a security risk, depending on where they live and where your house is located.
Although if your house rules say anything about locking up, then I might mention it in the public review. Same with the heat. I never have guests turn it down when they leave (and I donât ask them to because I will always be there within the hour to start cleaning), which is why I installed a smart thermostat.
eta: after reading your next response that you confronted her about the issue and she STILL kept leaving it unlocked, I might mention it in the review.
@Helsi, I did message her and tell her that she left the house unlocked, I check all footage usually in the afternoon and caught that she had not locked the door. On the occasions that happens, I keep an eye on motion alerts to make sure no one goes it until the guest returns, if I cannot get over to lock the door. She apologized for leaving it unlocked. They went out once and then left the next morning. It was a 2 night stay. I was a bit nonplussed that after responding to the message and apologizing, she failed to lock the door again. She seemed a bit absent minded. Maybe change the word âidealâ to âgoodâ
Our lock cannot be set to autolock. We may look into one in the future but this is the first time a guest has failed to lock up after being reminded. Actually my own brother was the only other guest that failed to lock the door when he went out LOL and he has a PhD. Boy did I give him crap about that. He never failed again after the first time
Adding: Locking up was not a House Rule (it is now), I, apparently mistakenly, believed that was just common sense (yeah yeah I know, common sense isnât common with ABB guests) It is, however, in the House Manual (online and in the physical Guidebook in the Dining Room), in the check in/check out instructions and on a picture by the front door inside the house, that the door does NOT automatically lock and it shows HOW to manually lock our door, AND I state that in the arrival day message with the door code. This person, of course, assured me that she and her other adult(s) read the House Rules, etc.
She may have been âsweetâ and she may have been âtidyâ, but this is NOT A GOOD GUEST. She would need a serious âcome to jesusâ meeting with me about doors and security and responsibility and liability before I would consider her a potential âideal guestâ:
"Not sure Iâd recommend Guest. She was tidy, true. But she repeatedly left the listing unlocked, even after being reminded to lock up when she left. Also left the heat on at check-out.
Iâm in the âleave out âsweetââ camp. Unless someone is over the top wonderful, like I think hosts should rent to them just to meet them then I leave their personality out of it. Besides, thatâs entirely subjective. Leaves door unlocked despite reminders to do so is objective. And the future host reading it can decide if they are ideal or not. Personality should not be one of the review criteria. If nothing else itâs grossly unfair to those who were not gifted with good ones. LOL
I knew I could count on some straight from the hip advice from @KenH. I think I can work with a version of this. With the advice I have gotten so far, I was considering something along the lines of:
âXXXX left our home very tidy. However she seems most suited for a listing where the host meets the guests and goes over the ins and outs of the listing. She left our home unlocked even after being reminded by message to lock up and left the heat on at check out. I would welcome her back again if I met with her at Check In, something I normally only do if requested by the guest.â
Pretty sure Ken will think this is too nice , but I think it might be a good middle ground while giving hosts good information.
The heat thing wouldnât bother me because Iâm in the rental to check things before the departing guests are even at the end of the street but nevertheless, it does show thoughtlessness so I agree with mentioning it.
But the fact that she deliberately ignored you when you told her to lock the door when she went out is totally disrespectful. Iâd call her a pretty bad guest. I can see why youâd host her again but please give other hosts the opportunity to decide. Youâre very kind to call it absent-mindedness
Iâd call it a disrespectful security breach. I bet she locks her doors at home when she goes out.
As far as leaving the door unlocked, we have a keypad door lock, (bought on Amazon) we give the guest the combination and change it after they leave. The nice part about these locks (unless you get locked out) is that if the guest closes the door it automatically locks. If they get locked out they can call me and I will give them the four-digit info so they can get back in. When we first got the lock I did get locked out several times. It comes with a key (for owner only) and now I keep that on my key-ring. It actually has a permanent (unchangeable) combination for the owner and you never give that out to anyone.
@RiverRock, I am leaving the small stuff to the private comments. I am only mentioning the failure to lock the door after being reminded and leaving the heat on upon departure, because those can pretty big for many hosts. As it turns out, after delving into the actual cleaning, a couple more House Rules were ignored. If this guest had not made a point of assuring me that she had indeed read the rules, I wouldnât be as annoyed. I havenât written my review yet. I may not want her back after all. Still thinking about it.
Iâd just leave it the private comments. I guess it depends where you live, Iâm more concerned that my neighbourâs Siamese cat would find her way inâŚthen there would be trouble!
But seriously, perhaps she does have memory issues.
My very first Guest ever left the door unlocked. This was to my personal home in a shared listing. I put it in his review that after this incident I think he learned his lesson and would not do it again in the future. This was based on my commo with him once it happened. It was before my smart locks and I am in a good neighborhood but it is just not a good idea. I had thought it was common sense too but have since added it to my House Rules for this and entire house listings. I have added a $50 fee for failing to do so as well. Only had to deal with it 3 timesâŚ1st Airbnb paid me the $50 because I could prove by the smart lock and by my WiFi that Guest was at the listing more than 6 hours after checkout (he was unable to lock it by the smart lock at that time), 2nd the person just left it unlocked and I got nothing because they claimed they couldnât lock it because it was after their checkout timeâŚI also got nothing from Airbnb because they said I prevented her from being able to lock it after her reservation was over, they also wouldnât give me double the next night fee for her checking out late with out permission either, 3rd time the guest locked the physical lock even though they left like an hour and a half late. They informed me immediately, I was still in bed at the time (it was at my shared listing) and she was a great guest otherwise so I made zero issue of it and still have her a glowing review. So i guess really it was only 2.
XXXX left the house tidy. She did however leave the house unlocked each time she left, even after being reminded to lock the door, including on departure. She also left the heat on at departure. XXXX would be best suited for a listing where the host would meet her and go over all the ins and outs of their home. XXXX is a good communicator.
She never did leave me a review. As near as I can tell, she doesnât leave anyone a review.
