Wow, you were burned. It is because Airbnb guests can come from any culture that you can’t possibly detail everything about your listing that anyone in any culture in the world might not be used to. By this logic, I would have to explain in my listing that I permit the wearing of shoes in my house, that I don’t have an electric kettle or duvets and that I use a top sheet, that the pilot lights on our range are always on (which many English guests have thought was weird), that in the U.S. wood is a common home building material, etc. I wonder how the customer service representative would feel about a guest canceling on her because they expected stairwells and hallways to be internal like they are most other places. Also, since when are “clutter” or scuff marks an excuse to cancel a reservation?
This is just shitty. I’m so sorry this happened to you. What BS. The stories we have been hearing and experiencing recently about Airbnb customer service makes me incredibly nervous. The way they can so callously and irrationally affect host’s lives with no recourse. What they described in that email is complete nonsense and could be used against any of us for any crazy reason. The plants in my photo weren’t alive because it is winter. There are scuffs on the wall from all the guests suitcases since I first took photos. The stairs to a NYC apartment building are shared access… ?! Total bullshit nonsense. I had a really frustrating situation with customer support recently and I know how helpless it feels when they are completely unreasonable and there’s nothing you can do and you realize how little control you have. Sigh. I’m sorry. Hugs from New Mexico. I hope you were able to rebook some of the dates since your calendar was blocked. And your place is super cute! I stayed at an Airbnb just down the way a few months ago. Some super cool stuff in that neighborhood.
Shitty indeed and completely in line with the crap that’s been coming out of Airbnb lately. From the guest that took my property and then was able to decide what they thought was an appropriate amount to reimburse me with (umbrella cost £10 guest decided £3 was appropriate. Air sided with the guest), to crappy reviews that complain about things clearly disclosed in the listing (ah but it’s their experience say Airbnb) to this frankly incredible situation where your listing has an internal stairwell and some cute IKEA shelving not pictured and this is seen as a reason to cancel a stay. In that case I am in trouble as my property looks nothing like it did 2 years ago when I started hosting. It’s much nicer but I guess that won’t stop an idiot who decides they want to get out of the booking. And by the way I’ve had that spiel from them about ‘you’re a great host and that’s why we didn’t take this decision lightly’. Total crap is what it is; that’s clearly something they’re trained to say to placate hosts.
Shame on Airbnb. In all this massive growth and they have lost their grip on common sense.
By the way, the rep who grew up in Arizona with the outdoor stairs? Stupid example. No picture and I can imagine some people will complain they thought that the flat was on the ground floor; add a picture and apparently you can complain it’s not your own personal staircase !!! Truly infuriating , I feel for you.
And I do believe this type of nit picky behaviour is new. Two years ago I was a superhost which I held for 4 quarters. Now I have a listing with 4.5 stars across all catergories except cleanliness and communication. Weirdly the only thing consistently changing is the guests, who increasingly expect good value accommodation to also be perfect and to comply with their own personal expectations of what housing should be. Nope. A flat in central London is never going to match a flat in LA. So for guests to expect things to be the same as they are used to at home in a foreign country is ridiculous !
It looks like they are just making up stuff now.
anything depicted in the listing should be private to the guest unless otherwise outlined,
Seriously? And “outlined” where?
Or “You should know that we are passionate about hosting”.
It sounds like you need to update your photos. As I should do, perhaps. I haven’t updated mine since I started hosting last April 2016 (though the first guests only arrived in May). But the photos mostly date from Feb 2016, I think. And the place has had a bunch of work done since then. Maybe the guests will complain about not seeing all the peeling paint from the walls that’s in the photo, and Airbnb will give them a full refund.
I suggest you have a little chat with departing guests (time permitting) about what star ratings actually mean. I’ve been doing that, and it does seem to have an effect, though mostly they give the impression of not really paying attention. Though, to the extent that they pay attention, they mostly seem sympathetic. Though one guest (who was an Airbnb host) did leave a line in a review which could be interpreted as sarcasm.
I rarely see my departing guests as I’ve already left for work when they leave, and talking about it at check in seems premature.
And I’m not sure I need to update the photos to show that I now use white sheets or that the bedside table is now actually a bedside table (it was a chair). I don’t believe these are material facts to the extent that you can say ‘not as expected’.
Not as expected is twin beds when a double is pictured, or brand new items in a picture and dynsfucntional disarray when you arrive.
Hi @Zandra,
I have to disagree with you here. This is likely the last time you’ll see your guests, at least in this lifetime (do you get many return guests?), so that’s the last chance you get to explain stuff to them. Do you just have them leave the keys on a table or something?
There are a couple of alternatives.
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Meet guests for a sort of 5 min “hail and farewell” session. If my guests are leaving early, I meet them the evening before. I take their keys then, and ask them to fill in a feedback/suggestions form. Most of the time they do it. That’s when I give them a little lecture about the meaning of the star ratings.
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Additionally, or alternatively, you could work some comments about the star ratings into your guest guide. There’s a thread on that somewhere - I think @Sarah_Warren did it. Does anyone have a link handy?
I was sort of kidding about the photos. But it’s certainly a good idea to have the actual apartment looking as close to the photos as possible.
And I have to disagree with you @faheem. Lecturing guests about how to review is just not cool. I had one host in Istanbul do this, and it was so creepy that I actually removed a star.
Yeah I mean I wouldn’t lecture guests - I would perhaps say something when they’re leave e.g. I hope you’ve enjoyed staying with us and we would appreciate a great review.
Well, I have to disagree with you then too. I think it’s fine. Arguably even necessary, seeing as the understanding that many guests have of the rating system is wrong. Call it a form of education. Not that they are interested, for the most part.
To be clear, you can’t control what people write. And I’m sure if they have had actual problems, they would take off stars for it. My target audience is people who haven’t had any problems.
That strikes me as an overreaction.
Faheem to repeat; I often only see my guests at check IN. And it absolutely is too early to start talking about a review that they will write in a few days.
They lock the door and put the key in the letterbox.
Oh, dammit. I misread, again. I thought you were writing “checkout”. I must be more underslept than I realised. I’ve been making mistakes like this all day.
Agreed, you don’t want to talk about star ratings at check-in. Like I said, I talk about it at checkout.
I suspect even if I was to be there at checkout I still wouldn’t talk to them about it. It’s an incredibly awkward conversation that doesn’t sit right with me. But I could concede to a message along the lines of : if you’re planning on leaving less than 5 stars please let me know what issues you experienced so I can address them for the next guest.
Yes, I find it awkward too. I usually avoid eye contact when doing so. But I still do it. I’ve done it a bunch of times, so now I’m kind of used to it.
The way I have hit on doing it is like this. If I feel a rapport with them upon check out I ask for it then. But normally what I do is check the apartment and if they have left it clean and were good guests I write them…'wow, thanks for leaving the apartment in such good shape and for being such great guests. I will leave you five stars and hope you can do the same. I am only a couple five star reviews away from making Superhost!" Even though that is not true, LOL…Something like that. And it has been working!!
That would have unintended, negative consequences if the guest was American. In the U.S. we believe that if people don’t make eye contact during conversation, they are hiding something and/or being dishonest.
I totally understand the guest, he wanted to have a private stairwell to do his daily exercise of running up and down the stair between 4AM en 7AM. 
I AM JOKING ! What the %i@# !!! Is AirBnB going totally crazy? What did this guest actually miss by not having the stairwell to himself? This is just insane.
I hope that’s not the case. I think I just come across as feeling uncomfortable, which, if so, is dead on. And for some reason I seem to be getting less American travellers recently. Though I was getting a lot earlier.
And I’ve never really been good at eye contact. I guess I’m one of those socially awkward people. But it’s probably too late to change. Sigh.
I am only being more proactive now about asking as I had that BAD review and I want it to scroll down as quickly as possible. Now that it has, I will probably be less fussed about asking.
Plus, I was getting four stars constantly and wanted to up that. The best way to do it is ask for five stars if you are confident the guests are happy. I would never ask if I were unsure or had doubts.