well the link IS on my profile. 
I’ve had a few of the Picky Princesses who can’t/don’t/won’t read a listing, then rock up and complain about this, that and the other because they haven’t. I now send every booking, including IBs, an initial message along the lines of-
“Forgive me for perhaps sounding pedantic, but there are a few things I need to be sure you are aware of, based on experience and to be sure that we will meet you expectations. Please be aware that we live here too; Chance Cottage is our lovely home where we offer a small amount of B&B, so we are not an entire property to rent. There may be other guests staying whilst you are here but there is plenty of space for everyone when we are full. We have two friendly cats so may not be suitable for anyone with an allergy. Although they are excluded from bedrooms, they are free to roam their home. If we are not what you were expecting or hoping for, I fully understand your need to cancel”.
I’ve done this for about five months now, after the 4 geneticists from London expressed surprise that we live here, whilst fussing the (expected)cats. You’d think there would be at least one brain cell between them… And were total Picky Princesses! No mismatches since! You could use dpfromva’s splendid spiel in a similar way perhaps.
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If you are keeping the musty smell then mention it in your listing description to tune expectations and keep away anyone who is allergic. You could get a very nasty cancellation if someone is sensitive to damp.
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I’m not planning on keeping the musty smell. I am working on getting rid of that and I have several plans in mind. That isn’t the only issue that’s come up that’s just the most recent one. It’s actually only come up twice. I am just trying to figure out how to deal with this demographic that is appearing, they are generally females between the ages of 20 and 26 or so. They have a vague list ( I say vague because they really don’t give me specifics in the review process just one star off here And there in categories like cleanliness, accuracy, location and value ) of things they didn’t like after they leave, however while they are staying they keep telling me that everything is wonderful, it’s such a great place to stay, they just love it! Then turn around and slap me in the review process. I have had 4 of this type of guest out of 34 stays, since we started hosting in May of this year. Granted most of their complaints are generally pretty ridiculous after I message them to politely ask how I can improve for future guests, and so far don’t have a common denominator generally speaking. (odor came up twice as a cleaning issue) I just want to learn how to communicate with these guests in a productive manner. I don’t know if there’s a solution, it may turn out the best solution is to avoid them in the first place. In a sense convince them that they just really don’t want to stay at an Airbnb they need to go stay at a hotel. Basically, I’m just wondering if anybody has any tricks or advice on how to spot them in the first place. Sidenote, I have already changed the description in the listing while I am trying to get this under control just to give people a heads up.
I get 4 stars sometimes (alongside ridiculous dings for my cat who I have constantly reworded my listing for) and it’s very annoying when you’re a superhost. I think it’s just an hotel thing, where people think 5 stars is the Ritz or scores can’t be perfect. I have been interested in the threads on here about educating the guests about the star system.
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I have experienced similar issues with this demographic. Although mainly female, some males too.
I had three women stay who worked for Airbnb in London, with someone systematically breaking a house rule, until I sat them down for a little chat… One was from Montreal, the other two were French, and the cultural differences were stark. The two French girls were immediately and profoundly apologetic, whilst the Canadian girl simply whined that
she didn’t see why she shouldn’t do/use xxxx, blamed her colleagues etc etc. They were as taken aback as I was. Guess who made the booking and broke house rules.
I felt like charging Airbnb for their training session on how to behave as guests, particularly when you are openly representative of the company employing you.
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Oh, man, thank you for this, @dpfromva. I BOUGHT our house because of the smell. I love it. Although it is - as many things in life - all a matter of degree. When it gets too damp, as it did this summer, I run a dehumidifier in the cottage in addition to the basement. Personally, I feel AC makes my place smell MORE musty, but my guests run it constantly, which makes me bonkers.
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Two I had were separate English mother/daughters travelling around Oz. The mums were real Hyacinth Bucket’s and gave me 3 stars. My guess is the daughter’s had decided to stay in Australia and the mother’s not happy and flown out to see what the fuss was about. They were probably complaining about the Australian weather, food and how our B&Bs weren’t up to their standards (“not a skerrick of potpourri or Royal Doulton to be seen”) before they boarded the plane at Heathrow. Not saying English people in general are like that but there are the occasional Hyacinth’s lurking out there.
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The ONLY way you will fix this problem is to get rid of the smell! Seriously. And to echo what others have said, you need to get accurate humidity readings in every room. Believe me, I know. I live in RainCountry (Southeast Alaska) where our local precip is 100 inches per year.
Once you get rid of the smell, the Picky Patties will find something else to downgrade their ratings.
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Indeed there are! I’ve had a few, not just with daughters in tow, but I can guarantee that daughters/husbands/fathers are creased up with embarrassment at their cringe worthy behaviours. Hey ho.
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I have learned, that this new generation is so immersed in "scent beads, laundry additives, diffusers ", etc; that they do not know anymore what clean smells like. Everything has to smell like unicorns and rainbows and star showers. Clean to me is an absence of smell. Not flower smell. But, I have to explain it every now and then to guests.
So your property may not even smell “musty”. It doesn’t smell like flowers, so therefore they don’t think it smells “clean”.
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Didn’t mean to revive this, but these issues are common no matter what the geographic location or climate. If there is a musty or moldy smell, you have mold somewhere, period. There is no such thing as a musty smell without mold growth. This is the case for this woman’s rental. It could just be in her carpets (carpets can harbor mold), or it could be in the walls. If you have leaks that are not taken care of right away, you’re going to have mold and smells. If you close your home or rental up for days or weeks with no circulation and exchange of air, it will grow mold over the long term. Any time indoor humidity is over 50%, you run the risk of running into issues w/ mold growing. AC, air exchangers, and dehumidifiers can help avoid these issues. Cities and geographic regions in the US that have high dew points/high humidity are more likely to have issues with indoor mold - so if a guest is affected by mold, it’s best they not travel to the South in the middle of the summer or rent a vacation home that is closed up part of the year (no matter where the location).