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Not sure if this question has already been covered on here, apologies if it has.
Can you please give me a few pointers on how to give a negative review on a guest? I’ve been a host for about 5 months now and in the past when the experience was not so positive I just haven’t written any review. The tides have changed now and I’d like to start doing so. The problem is I can be a bit blunt, but then on the other hand we are probably never going to meet these particular guests again.
What are everyone’s thoughts on leaving negative reviews on guests? and how do they actually work - once you click how clean they are etc and would you recommend them, where does this information go? Are guests rated in the same way hosts are??
Current guest - leaves the bathroom in a mess, leaves crumbs everywhere in the kitchen and stays in the room all the time. In fact, I haven’t met them, my other half ‘checked them in’. There staying for over a week. I’m in the UK.
I had a topic on what to do about a guest who was clearly a very bad experience. I did not know how to tell the truth about their stay, and not leave a bad review of them. Then, I don’t want my good guests seeing me writing bad reviews about other guests. So I simply did not write any review. I am selfish I guess, my great reputation with guests is more important than giving those selfish out of touch people who made my life hell for a weekend.
I honestly do not know how to write a bad review, and not smear my own good name doing it.
If you write it, others can see you wrote it.
What Air BnB needs very badly is a Hosts Review to Other Hosts. I should be able to tell hosts what these bad guests did, and only other Hosts. When we seek to answer a booking request, we should be able to search their Host reviews and see what hosts had to say. The present Public Reviews lead to just what I do, no review, of a review that damns with faint praise. Can I really say what nasty selfish messy destructive jerks that group of guests were on a Public Review?
Right now, we all have your problem. So you are not alone!
Other hosts can’t see our star ratings which sucks as we could really communicate valuable info this way. I think the review has to be somewhat coded – subtly worded so hosts will pick up on it but not so overtly critical that potential guests will be turned off. (Esp when the review is situated between highly complimentary and effusive reviews, I don’t think guests will notice at all). Maybe start with something vaguely positive:
“We didn’t get a chance to interact much but Crumb Guy seemed like a nice enough fellow. He (they?) spent a good deal of time in the room and it was very evident that he enjoyed using the kitchen. He checked in on time which I appreciated.”
As a potential host reading this kind of review, I would see that 1. the guy doesn’t leave the house much 2. he uses the kitchen in a vaguely ungracious manner 3. that you clearly didn’t say anything about him being clean or tidy. I always read the absence of a comment on cleanliness to mean that they didn’t leave the place in good shape. If checking in on time was thing you appreciated about a guest, I’d interpret that this isn’t ideal. For hosts who don’t care about these issues (neatness or time spent inside), they’d be happy to accept him in the future.
I’m still new at this myself, but when I had to write a bad review for a host (no a/c, terrible customer service) I tried to write it the way I would want someone to write it about me. Therefore, I took time to talk about what was positive while also telling the truth “Though we had to cut our trip short because there was no air conditioning”.
How about “I’m not sure that, given this guest’s personal habits, sharing is the best choice for him”. Can you say something nice? Was he quiet? Did he clean when he left? Was he friendly? Leave a gift? Some people may not care about the bathroom being a mess.
Or “While we didn’t enjoy the mess guest left beind both in the bathroom and in the kitchen, we enjoyed ??” or "…we wish him the best in his travels (if you can’t find anything nice).
The guest in question, where there was no air and she refused to allow us the cancel the remainder of our reservation, just said “It is unlikely I’d rent to this family again”. PLEASE don’t leave such a review. It ignored the fact that we did everything else right. On the other hand, I responded “While this situation didn’t work out for either of use we wish you the best with your rental”. See? I was as nice as can be, but put the truth out there - I wasn’t none to happy neither!
In order to reduce any potential poor reviews of my Guest Room, I have rewritten in total my detailed description, and pulled no punches. “Sorry, I can no longer take children under 8”. “No WiFi, but in a pinch you have access to a desk top with high speed connection”. “No Air Conditioning, We live in a cool climate alongside a cold lake, air is very rarely needed, 2 fans are in the room in case weather is warm” “Neighborhood is typical small town America, some nice houses, some bad.” “The house faces mostly green space, but one very unsightly building is across the street”. Those are the total negatives about my house, so they read it, they know it, any complaints about those things I can openly call unfair if they make them.
Be really honest, lose a few guests in order to keep those that do come totally in the know!
It sounds like they’re still staying with you. If that’s the case, it might be a good idea to introduce yourself and just see if he/she is enjoying the stay so far. You can also use that opportunity to see if there are any questions or issues (maybe there weren’t napkins out, so that’s why there were crumbs, or the person is new to Airbnb and doesn’t want to disturb you by being in common areas). You might be able to resolve these issues both for right now and for any future hosts with a simple conversation.
If the guest has already left, it’s good to not leave a review that’s 100% negative, especially since this doesn’t sound like a guest that is really awful. Perhaps you can frame it as the guest was not like other guests who have stayed with you, with a note to other hosts that if they like guests who keep to themselves this person is a good fit. Something like: “My partner and I love to entertain our guests and get to know them, though this guest preferred to stay in the room most of the time. We noticed this guest was able to enjoy the breakfast items and snacks we laid out, though we would have appreciated if he had cleaned up after himself a little more.”
Keep in mind when leaving reviews about minor things that you can come off sounding petty. Unless a guest is doing damage to property or being unreasonable, a messy bathroom and some crumbs in the kitchen should probably be expected. You’re noticing because you’re sharing the space, but this person is paying you. Hotels have to clean up far worse!
In fairness to other hosts, I write the truth but tactfully and sandwich negative comments with good ones. That way next guest knows if you leave a sink of dirty dishes, it will be mentioned and they will not even think about doing that!! I give most everybody great reviews but if they do something really outrageous, I gonna give next host a heads up. Not worried about loosing guests, more worried about getting bad guests. This was not one dirty cup, but every plate, dish, glass, pan in the house. And these the folk I let check in 7 hours early.
Note that there is a negligible chance that potential guests will see what you write about other guests. The only way they could is if they read the reviews your guests have left on your property and then go to those guests’ profiles and find what your wrote about each guest one by one. Most folks who are in the midst of searching for something to book would not bother with all of that.
Bottom line: I would not stress too much about guests’ judging you based on your reviewing habits. If they do THAT much checking up on you, they’re probably more mentally unstable that you typically want your guests to be anyway.
What mess they left in a bathroom?
I wouldn’t leave bad review on someone who left crumbs on a table. Every single guest I had left crumbs on a table if they ate on a kitchen. When I stayed in people 's houses I was very carefull of not leaving my hair in a drain, as I have a lot of them. And toothpaste in a sink.
I don’t think it would be a good idea to mention the fact that a guest stayed in his room all day. As unfortunate as it is for a host, a guest can hang out in a house as much as they want, especially if they are in their room all the time .
Your comment is not very nice I have to say and a bit rude.
I meant my topic to be a general topic on how to write a negative review as well. So your comment has not been very helpful, I take it you never leave a negative review on your guests.
Actually I did leave a “bad” review twice. But it was a substantial reasons for that. One guest accused me of dirty sheets after he found 2 dead termites on a floor. Never said anything even when asked if everything is ok, but just left.
Another was trying to bring her dog informing me the last minute though my listing clearly states no dogs, and then was telling me that she booked my room for the reason I allow dogs. And there were other issues with her also.
What you are describing would be very minor for most people.
See,I was a guest many many times before I started hosting. I am sure I left crumbs at one point when was in a rush in a morning, I also tried to stay out of my host way while at home in my room. Actually for most hosts it’s a good thing when guests don’t hang out in a living room all the time.
Can’t say anything about bathroom, since you didnt clarify.
In my opinion guests deserve bad reviews if they broke house rules such as smoking, cooking when not allowed, and so on.
If they did not damage anything, were not rude and didnt leave incredible mess Ina house then I would not leave a bad review or even mention few crumbs on table and staying in their room all the time.
When you haven’t met people it makes it really difficult, its like they move through your home like a ghost, leaving evidence they were there. If you’d met them and had a laugh, most likely the bit of mess, would be forgiven. Its the having a weird non interactive person there that is the difficult situation. I sympathize. I don’t think we need to frame these things in terms of positive/negative. Just be honest. and I’d leave a polite note to the person asking they keep the kitchen and bathroom tidier, and offering any advice on local area. Its easier than a confrontation with someone you;ve not met, although I would normally say notes are a bit passive aggressive, in this instance it seems the easier route. If they then continue to be messy, yeah say so in the review. I actually find this doesn’t put me off a hosting a guest. I’ve hosted to people whose reviews said they were messy or left spicy cooking smells etc, this doesn’t bother me. The non interaction would bother me more. An honest description of your experience is best information for future hosts. Let us know how the week pans out! Good luck!
I give everyone good reviews and five stars. In 3 years only wrote two bad reviews. They left every dish in the house dirty and kept leaving the house unlocked. Locking up is for safety and we nicely requested, demonstrated and explained.It is the city, you don’t leave the doors open when you go out!!I let them check in 6 hours early.Felt I owed it to other hosts to tell the truth. We spent over 2 hours doing dishes after they left.I just felt they were rude and after I let them in early.
there is not a easy way
but not leaveing a review when a guest was bad its a bad move
you need to think me or someone else will rent my room to that guest and i’ll suffer the same as you!
So… that’s why i always write bad or good
now im moving into the colours
green yellow red
to that people that dont interact much with you theres nothing you could, like they were nice? how could you know? they ddint even wasted some time talking
so a green its what i write. yellow if the room is dirty and red well no more to say
I know this is an older topic but it’s interesting, for sure.
Crossing my fingers (and everything else), I have not experienced ‘bad’ guests. Although our rental is a separate apartment so I’m looking from a different perspective.
Bathroom in a mess? As long as there’s no puke or crap, then I expect it to be in somewhat of a mess. People are on vacation - cleaning the bathroom is not on their agenda. For the same reason, I expect there to be crumbs in the kitchen, a few unwashed dishes and that the microwave and stove will need cleaning.
I truly don’t expect people who are on vacation to spend their valuable time cleaning. If they do, then it’s wonderful.
Guests hanging around all day isn’t an issue for me (because it’s a separate apartment) but my immediate thought is that they’re paying for the room so can spend as much time in it as they want.
Well I disagree. Leave my studio as you found it. Clean up after yourself. Do the dishes, clean the stove. Take your trash with you. If you leave all of that for me to do I will be pissed.
I find that it takes me about three hours to do a turnover clean if the place was left in great condition and about another half hour if there are dishes to do and the bathroom is a mess. I know it’s just me, but the extra half an hour doesn’t make a lot of difference.
I used to think that way as a new host. But slowly I began to realize that time is money. I have something to sell. It’s work. I get paid by the hour for my cleaning fee, and each thing I have to do to clean takes time off my bottom line because time is money.
Also, it’s rude. It’s demonstrating that guests don’t respect you or your apartment when they leave a mess like that. Plus it’s not a hotel. It’s your home. I tell guests how I expect them to leave the flat upon check out. It’s not too much ask. Don’t be a slob. Clean up after yourself. Your mother doesn’t live here.
I tell them too Kona, in our guidebook. But I’m truly not going to give guests a bad review because of a few crumbs or a mucky bathroom. (I have to clean the bathroom anyway, mucky or not).
I might mutter under my breath quite a bit but a bathtub (for example) has to be cleaned whether if it’s left in good condition or or if there’s half the beach in there. It only takes a few seconds more to clean a mucky bathtub. (Speaking of which, I fell into the flippin thing today when cleaning it - that wasn’t fun!)
I agree though, time is money. I am longing to cut down my cleaning time!
