How do you review a subpar Superhost when you're a Superhost?

I’m glad to hear that is what you ended up doing (five stars for 100% satisfaction of the required needs as advertised). Hosts, in general, add value and charge what they charge for what works for them, their guests, and the type of listing they want to offer. If I had a small home that wished to charge a maximal rate, I would assume lots of ammentities and stocking up on any possible little thing a guest might need would be a way to add value. Or, if I had a large home that requires a lot of maintenance (gardener, pool man, additional insurance, tree trimmers, etc) but I still want to offer it for a price that is competitive, I would streamline my ammentities. If I were to offer the ammentities of the smaller home and apply it to the larger home, I would need to charge more. Value is a perception. Just because one is a Superhost doesn’t mean one knows anything about what it takes, financially or resource wise, to run a SuperHost home in a completely different city or country. Likewise, luxury is a perception because what is expensive to you may not be to someone else. Therefore, expectations must be self-regulated from time to time.

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I think you could have given her 4 stars overall? If advertised amenities were not working and affected your stay, then I would not give 5 stars. Half eaten food in the fridge…was this a whole house or a room? Was this just a slip up by the cleaner forgetting to remove everything from the fridge? If so I probably wouldn’t mark down for that, I would just mention privately as if they use a professional cleaner maybe they’re unaware things are getting missed. If there were crumbs on the counter and things obviously hadn’t been cleaned at all then I would.

It was a whole house and the host proudly told us to help ourselves to anything left over in the fridge and freezer. I was down their for an early Thanksgiving and while I wasn’t cooking in the space I had a lot of groceries. Yuk.

Oh yuck!!! I thought you meant like a to go container a guest left the day before or something. We always remove everything that isn’t sealed except I do have large squeeze ketchup and mustard containers that are in date. Anything else either gets tossed or eaten by us or our cleaners. If it’s sealed I might leave it (like ice cream bars or something) but even then I don’t know how the previous guest handled…were they sitting on the counter for an hour and the refrozen, etc.?) I can’t take a chance on someone getting sick or being grossed out.

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You guys really throw everything away? I have kept things in the fridge like salad dressings, a jar of pickles, etc. Never crossed my mind that people would be grossed out by that. I figured they would appreciate having something that they didn’t have to buy. I would never keep something that a guest’s fingers would have directly touched though.

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I agree with Arlene, I throw everything out. The only thing I’ll keep in the fridge is half and half if it isn’t expired. (I provided powdered cream because I got tired of throwing out spoiled fresh half and half)

Also, the items when I moved them to the door shelves filled the entire 4 shelves. It was really off-putting.

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We also bend over backwards to keep our “Superhost” status. But in a situation like that, I wouldn’t leave a review. I don’t know how she could be a Superhost, but she must be doing something that people like.

@jkamm I don’t throw everything away, we or our cleaners use a lot of it. But a jar of pickles…how do you know a guest didn’t use their fingers to get the pickles out? And again, I worry about how a guest may have handled things. We get quite a few road trippers, and I have no idea if they kept things properly refrigerated before the items landed in my refrigerator, or even while they were staying here for that matter. There are some items my 17 3/4 yo dog gets to eat, LOL, like leftover sandwiches, etc. (in moderation of course).

Very good and objective advices for everybody.

How could you tell it was five years old?

I think condiments like ketchup are OK, but everything else goes. Luckily I have chickens and goats, so very little goes to waste.

@Mikaln843

Just rate the stay honestly. That sounded like a 3 or 4 star stay to me.

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Don’t forget price.

I see a lot of (Super)Hosts that have a $200/night listing and book a $35/night listing and expect it to be just like theirs.

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Starch should never be used on a Pillowcase. Starch does not belong on a person’s face. I strongly recommend that you refrain from Starching any bedding.

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I don’t think you should base your review on how she would loose her superhost status.
You can just say what you wrote here.

And let readers decide. If I saw in a review : high stairs to climb, green pool, host serves 5 years old coffee ( was it a figure of speech?),
I would book anyway as stairs don’t scare me, I welcome them as a form of exersize, pool in November unless it’s Miami doesn’t attract me and coffee I can drink even 5 years old.
The one thing I would clarify is private bathroom if I was looking for just that.
Ussualy I don’t care if I share it with someone if it kept clean .
Hope price wise at least it was good for you

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What a wonderful comment. You have perfectly cut to the chase, well done.

I’ve bent over backward for guests and received little in exchange (other than their money). Airbnb is just part of my diversified income stream so my tolerance for nitpicking is low. People are not reading listings in entirety and then giving 4 stars because they didn’t read past sentence 2 and only scrolled through the first 4 photos (which Airbnb prompts you to have 14!) I’m getting to my wits end with people holding my listings to some absurd standard that they “thought” it was going to be like despite my detailed description.

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I do the fresh flowers and a few well timed jokes. Sometimes a nice dinner. Not the breakfasts by the pool. But I am wondering if I include starching and ironing a pillowcase will allow me to relax a bit. I didnt even know you could buy starch for ironing anymore! I wouldn’t even know what to do with it!

Uhmm…

Ok 20202020

RR

I disagree.

Mostly because as Brittany_Anderson said later in this post

99% of my bad reviews (I’ve been hosting for just over 2.5 years now) are from people that didn’t read fully, or at all. In many cases they even indicate that they didn’t know such and such (the biggest being that I have pet fees) and one even went so far as to say that I have so many rules to read (although she obviously didn’t read them or just chose to break them anyways). Like Brittany it is just a part of my income and I don’t tolerate problem Guests anymore…I review them accurately. I also don’t care about their bad reviews as much as I used to. Most of the time they are so bad it indicates problems with them as Guests and if you were to actually read all the reviews you would see All the complaints about pet fees and when you see them in the listing you would see that obviously those Guests didn’t read.