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I just got a booking request from someone with a 1.5 rating overall w/ 1 for cleanliness and following house rules and 2 for commo and the write up below. I tried to contact the host, Joey, but Joey only has one review as a guest and no longer hosts so I don’t have a “contact host” button. Any work around you know of to contact the person?
Here was her reservation request email, which sounds good on its own. Her profile is verified and she joined in June 2015 and that she lives in Florida. I am guessing she may be military.
You do not need to contact the prior host, you know this person is not a good fit. You need people to follow rules, they have demonstrated they do not according to the review.
I want to know what the host did as far as a refund and what the cleanliness issue was. Did she actually stay or leave when she got here because of the hairs? Since this person has no reviews as a host I wonder what they hosted. What were their house rules? From the review I don’t know if Diana actually stayed or actually did anything more that I wouldn’t like at my place. Since the host has no listing I can’t see what the listing was (private room, private bath, while house? I also have no idea how much was paid or what communication transpired that lead to the original booking arrival time and then very late arrival without commo. What commo took place afterwards? What kind of a host is this? Seemingly no experience…
Well the host claims it was three hairs because the animals got on the bed.
It seems like she doesn’t have a fixed arrival time now. So working with what you have to work with, are you prepared for her to do the same thing alleged in the review and show up at 2 am or 11:30 am the next morning with no communication? Maybe that’s no issue at your place, it’s not at mine. I don’t care when you check in, I got your money.
I understand but want to give the benefit of the doubt about maybe the host not being appropriate, or even truthful. I did have that with one previous guest who had a bad review and it turned out it was from someone who no longer hosts because they were so bad and hadn’t been ready to begin with and the guest had only booked because it had been a friend of a friend. In both cases there is no initial review of host from the guest. In the previous case the guest did respond to the bad review and did give me a sufficient explanation and ended up being ok (not perfect but it worked out ok and I made a good bit of money). I have read several posts on this forum where hosts are sometimes the problem.
This may or may not be the case again but I do through the ball back in the requesting guest’s court to convince me to accept (I have never had to actually hit the decline button on a request to book).
This was my response to her request:
Diana,
I would love to host you here at the farm but am concerned that neither of us will be happy based on your horrible review. Can you help me be comfortable with having you at the farm where I have animals and animal hair, as well as that you have read the listing and House Rules and will follow them and continue to be a good communicator with me and not leave a mess behind you when you leave? If so, and that does play out I can also possibly help you with looking for places to rent. I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully an enjoyable stay with me and my barn friends!
I think that’s a fair response. And of course you will have it in writing on the platform that she has no problem with a few stray barn hairs, so if you decide to overlook the review and host her anyway and she pulls shenanigans, you only need to remind her that the record is permanent.
I might have subbed “previous” for “horrible.” I’m inclined to think it may have been a passive aggressive host and tired guest - not a great combination.
Personally I would disregard that review, what stood out for me is that the host allowed their animals access to the bedroom & to sleep on the bed which was set up ready for a new guest & then seeks to blame the guest. Why not close the bedroom door? That alone makes me question anything else in the review, and the host.
“The guest is late! Guess that means the pets get their bed back!”
Most hosts I’ve run into are pretty vigilant about keeping pets out of the guest room altogether. I wouldn’t put much stock in a single review from someone who sounds iffy on standards.
Also my thoughts, however I still have not heard back from the requester and it has been more than 12 hours since my response. The 24 hours is up in less than 11 hours now…Doesn’t give me a great feeling about this person…
Understandable. I did give several options for it to be great though with her response, which she has yet to provide. If she is so uncomfortable with my intro response, she has plenty of time to withdraw her request at not cost to her.
However, she will not find a Motel 6 (or any m/hotel for that matter) nearby let alone at my price point. Her lack of response so far is quite surprising to me at this point. The other similar case I had the guest responded right away and successfully defended her actions that earned her the bad review she got. I accepted her and she had a great stay (I saw it only as good though because she did not follow one of my House Rules that in the end did not have a bad outcome, luckily).
However, there are 2 issues. One is the pet hair in the bed and that is on the host. The 2nd issue is the lack of communication and (extremely) late arrival from the guest and that is still on the guest. And that may be the issue for @Militaryhorsegal
I think it’s wholly likely that both the host and the guest were not performing at 5-stars in this situation.
@Militaryhorsegal To me, using this phrase, kind of sounded like you were calling it out but in a dramatic way that would make light of it if it wasn’t true. As a guest, if I had that review and it wasn’t my fault at all or true at all, it wouldn’t come across to me as a negative thing. I would be grateful you asked me about it instead of just declining me. Though, I would have also called it out first. “I’d like to explain the horrible review I have…”
If it’s not her fault that the review is horrible, it shouldn’t bother her.
If a guest doesn’t respond when a host asks about a previous bad review or goes postal when you ask politely, then move on. Next! btw, I agree with other hosts here … using the word horrible would be a flag to me as a guest. I wouldn’t ghost you, but I wouldn’t book, either. I’d feel pre-judged.
I had an inquiry from a guest who had 2 reviews - one review said the guest was awful and the other review was just so-so. Since it was an older couple and his profile stated he likes to oil paint in his spare time, I asked him about the terrible review and if he was aware that my home isn’t suitable as an oil painting studio. I said something along the lines of “I see you received a bad review from XXXX and didn’t leave her one. May I ask what happened so I can make sure that your stay here is successful?” He went off on me about how he wouldn’t post his replies on the internet for all the world to see, and continued to rant in a looooong message on the platform. I replied that clearly my home wouldn’t be a fit and would he please cancel his request to book. He went off on me again. I called Air. Problem solved.
And that is why I wonder why she hadn’t withdrawn her request to book OR responded to out my mind (and hers) at ease. If I accept then she will have about 4 days to cancel and then she will not get her money back front airbnb service fees.
btw, I agree with other hosts here … using the word horrible would be a flag to me as a guest. I wouldn’t ghost you, but I wouldn’t book, either. I’d feel pre-judged.