How to write this negative review?

I am new enough that I have not written many bad reviews, I host from afar and my caretaker said:
“the guests that left this morning were slobs- used every sheet and every blanket in the house, left food all over the kitchen & dining area, and they left the front door open when they left so the place is full of flies”

This was a group of 7 people from abroad (China) who were very nice in all communication. All were 25-30 except one was older, the mom of several of the girls.

I would write exactly what you have written (but maybe find a synonym for “slobs”).

Well first , if you don’t want guests to use something don’t leave it in open access. How could they know they can not take it.
If you charge cleaning fee how do they know they have to leave kitchen clean . Is it in the house rules? Also people are on vocation and may be didn’t have time in the morning to clean.
It’s annoys me too when people leave place messy but it happenes. If they are first time air guest don’t leave negative public review , write them personal response about things they did wrong.
I would say in the review : guest didn’t not follow hose rules 100%. I will think next time before accepting their request and make sure they anderstend my house rules.
I personally think it’s not nice to make public all nitty gritty details what was left dirty by guest unless may be it was some kind of monster-guest :))

Point taken. I am specific in my check-out house rules that they need to wipe up all spills, put all used dishes in the sink or dishwasher (I don’t care if they run the dishwasher because I know I’ll need to add the coffee-maker plate, the MW plate, soap dishes,and other items they wouldn’t normally think to run through the dishwasher). However, I store all of my extra sheets and towels in built-in drawers under one of the beds. My place is small (as is my real home) so that’s the only place to put them. I leave plenty of towels in the bathroom and no one has ever used any of the extra sheets or towels stored in the drawers (two years). That’s plain inconsiderate.

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The host may have extra bed linens accessible in case there is an accident urine stains/period stains, etc… It’s not like the host is living in the same house and can just hand the guest an extra set of sheets. Also, there are probably extra blankets throughout the house - possibly stored in different closets or diffferent bedrooms. The fact that guests pulled out every single blanket and sheet available was just ridiculous. And, it would be silly to state something in the house rules about this…as most guests would not behave like that. The guest isn’t going to read them anyway, and it just makes the house rules even longer than they need to be.

Hopefully the OP comes back to clarify if she has a departure checklist. Being on vacation is not an excuse to run out of time. Then guest need to go to a hotel and eat their meals out…if they can’t be bothered with cleaning up. My departure list says the dishwasher needs to be started. It states to leave the trash in the kitchen and housekeeping will take care of it, etc. I do not specify “you need to put all dirty dishes in the dishwasher” or “do not leave all your dirty dishes laying around for me to hand wash.” Or “clean up big spills in the refrigerator and oven right after they happen.”

Hosts seem to have this issue where guests don’t want to be micromanaged or told anything, or complain that list of rules is too long. Even other hosts enouraging hosts to eliminate petty sounding rules. Yet the minute that a guest behaves like a complete pig, it is the host’s fault for not including another house rule. Even though the guest agrees to rules when booking, it is the host’s fault for assuming the guest read them. And the host is again blamed and told they should have gone over all this in person.

Now guests arrive…we have guests who say they don’t want a tour, and they can just read if they have a question. Well unless they have a question, then they aren’t going to read. Other hosts now tell other hosts they should not annoy their guests with a tour if they don’t want one. Let’s tiptoe around the guest. Sigh…

Giving polite private feedback (just because it is a first time guest) is useless when a guest doesn’t understand the concept of “this is a person’s private home and should be treated with respect” - the only way they are going to change the behavior is if they think another host will not rent to them.

I do understand where you are coming from about just saying they didn’t follow house rules one hundred percent, and nudging other hosts to be sure to confirm with guest they understand house rules. I think in certain circumstances that is perfectly fine. For example - If the guest left the door wide open because they thought they latched someting…but otherwise house was left in great shape. That’s something I would only mention in private.

However, it’s likely most whole home hosts don’t have any house rules addressing the fact that every linen/towel/blanket is not expected to be used. And it is usually understood that a kitchen is for guest use, and you clean up the items you use.

I provide an assortment of bath sheets, regular size towels, beach towels, kid towels, hand towels, etc. I have an assortment of light blankets, winter duvets, throw blankets, pillows, pillow cases. I keep them all in a closet and guests can decide what is appropriate for them, etc. I would be appalled if I rented to a couple for a few days and they used every single towel/blanket in sight just because it was there.

OP - did they happen to use every extra sheet and blanket because there were more people? Did they change the sheets on the bed? If you would never rent to them again, then I agree with Sandy - and just copy and paste the initial post but remove the part that says “that left this morning were slobs” - also only you can be the judge of the reason the door was left wide open. This seems to be happening a lot lately with other posters too. Not sure why guests can manage to close the front door during the stay, but when they leave it is left wide open.

If I were to review them it would be something like this:

“These guests had great and polite communication with me. That said, they were not good guests for a vacation rental. They left food out after departure and left the door open when they left. This is not only a security issue, but it attracted flies with all the food they left out. They are better suited to a hotel.”

And then in private feedback address using every linen in the house and the door/food. Something like: While I provide extra blankets and linens, I do not appreciate the state you left my house. Using everything I provide was disrespectful and you did not even attempt to straighten up or secure my house. This is not a hotel. You are expected to dispose of food properly and close the doors to not attract insects.

We do have a departure checklist, also my caretakers are also VRBO hosts of their own place and they do greet each group and show them around and answer any questions. Of course, I don’t know if they read the list or the rules, but really the way they left it was unmannerly.
My question for y’all is, do you want to read about that in the review so you can talk to them or do I mainly private feedback it?
I don’t know how much difference it will make, one sister did all the talking and then due to a “known issue” at ABB (I called), the other sister ended up making the reservation. So, obviously anyone can create new accounts or use someone else’s account if I give them a negative review.
In over 60 groups this year, this is only the 2nd person to get thumbs down from my caretaker.
And by the way, speaking of thumbs down, we click thumbs up or down, but I don’t see that anywhere on guests I am considering. Where do the thumbs up/down show up?

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From a host perspective I would prefer to read the reasons why you don’t recommend them. But of course it is entirely your decision with what makes you comfortable. My place would be fruit fly city if a guest completely ignored my instructions regarding drink and food disposal. It puts me in a nasty predicament with next guests checking in 5 hours later.

The thumbs down is used as a filter for those who instant book. I don’t the exact details…maybe someone else can chiime in?? But I think if guest has a thumbs down, or a percentage of thumbs down then they possibly can’t instant book a property that requires guests to be recommended?? Not sure if one thumbs down will do it, or if it needs to a majority.

To answer the above questions, we have the beds set up and have the clean sheets for the changeover on the closet upper shelves.
We also have extra pillows and blankets. In this case, though they were told it was X king best, X, queen beds, it appears no one shared a bed, some people took the extra pillows and sheets and made floor beds. Weird. And nothing was even folded after, just messes on the floor.
This is especially problematic when we have back to back maximum sized groups that make the laundry a challenge, and in this case there was no way to make the beds and just fold the clean laundry, both the sheets to put on the beds and the sheets to be clean for the next turnover all had to be washed.

Do many guests request no tour or instructions?