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Don’t assume that a guest with glowing reviews will meet your expectations.. There are many threads here from hosts being ‘shocked’ that the 5 star guest they accepted had 3 star actions.
Some hosts believe that “never giving a bad review” is a moral high ground, but in reality, it’s just passing a problem guest to the next host. This can result in broken house rules, messiness, or making a host so uncomfortable that they vent on forums instead of addressing the issue directly.
Thinking that a private message will reform a guest is another misconception. A polite PM won’t magically change a guest’s behavior.
Finally, expecting unanimous support from forum members is unrealistic. The hosts here are honest and direct—they won’t coddle those seeking validation instead of taking responsibility. Honest public reviews are crucial for maintaining standards and protecting the hosting community.
You cannot - they don’t know they are not good hosts. Hopefully they will learn from this forum, or others (like Reddit etc) and change their behavior.
I remember when I 1st came on here I was so bashed that I nearly did not come back. But I persevered and learned a lot, made some online friends and utilized much found actual useful information.
I generally give 5 stars to guests who’ve left the place in a tidy state, as that in the end is all that matters. On the rare occasion, I’ve wanted to, but dont say more in the review about the guests’ manner.
Me, too. But then I realized that I was not required to respond to everything someone said to me or about me. After I learned that, I was able to get down to the business of getting and giving advice - and sometimes just tell a story I think others might find amusing.
I think one of the issues that challenges hosts when it comes to giving honest reviews is that the language and phrasing often looks " wrong" or comes out as reading petty.
There have been quite a few contributors on this forum who have expressed doubt about their proposed reviews and asked for help and opinion and I’ve always been impressed by the excellent skill some respondents have in this area and I’ve learnt from them. Sticking to facts in an objective way seems to be the main way for a critical review to read well and I think also that in this context, and life in general, it’s important to be kind - and if you can’t be kind then have a sense of humour.
We’re all taken aback by the OP from the “please help me write a review… oh wait, you’re all awful people” post. And the level of rudeness… Perhaps their guest will write a review… I’d like to see that!
Well this is a tricky thing to navigate for certain. I certainly have written a few bad reviews but it has to be egregious for me to write a truly “bad” review.
When I first walk in after a guest leaves I am sometimes cussing and questioning who raised these people and WTF were they thinking… And then I get cleaning. If the cleaning time falls into my normal range, if nothing is broken or stolen they are getting a decent review.
If a host reviews less than 4 then the system prompts/forces you to check boxes as to what the issue was. Then they let the guest know what they can do better… Well that guest is not coming back after being schooled by AirBnb because I prompted them to. It is not in my best interest to educate guests and (sorry) warn hosts over minor yet annoying stuff that guests do.
Does your listing have any reviews from your guests? Or do your guests also see no value to themselves in leaving you a review and therefore not do so?
Do you read reviews of guests that other hosts have left to decide whether to accept a booking or not? Would you accept a guest with a 3* rating and written reviews that said they were objectionable guests?
FYI you might want to be aware that some guests who would like to build up good reviews cross-reference reviews and won’t book with a host who is a serial non-reviewer. And say they would never book again with a host who couldn’t be bothered to spend a couple of minutes leaving them a review.
I’m kind of speechless here!
Oops…