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Just got completely trashed in a review, because my check out was 10am and they were mad that I knocked on their door at 11.30 after they didn’t respond to message and phone was turned off.
I can’t even disprove their lies. They contacted me at 2pm Monday and asked if they could book. I told them that we weren’t expecting anyone that day and that the unit wouldn’t be ready until 5 or 6 earliest. She said that that’s fine and begged me to please let them drop their stuff at 3pm, since they had been trying to book through airbnb all day and couldn’t find a place to stay. (turns out they’re between apartments).
They seemed to enjoy the other artists here, but they were both working at night, so they weren’t around in the evenings.
She wrote that there was noise all night and neighbors kept banging on her door all night (checked with neighbor, who told me that they didn’t come back until 5am, when their dog’s barking woke her up). I know they left for work around 4pm, as they said good bye, as we were lighting up the grill. Bartenders. So, they weren’t even around all night - either of 2 nights.
And even if they had been here, yesterday was the 4th of July and there were parties everywhere. Sort of like complaining about noise on New Years Eve. I can’t control people in the neighborhood setting off firecrackers - but they weren’t even here to hear them.
I wrote that the neighborhood is transitional and really not for walking around. They had no car and walked around when they left and came in the middle of the night.
Lies that I can’t dispute, because I can’t prove that they weren’t here in the night. Telling people that she doesn’t recommend anyone stay here.
And I gave her a 5 star review, when they clearly missed the check-out by 2 hours.
Hi @Michaela_Graham
Right now, this is a disaster to you, next week it will be an annoyance and next month you will be able to laugh about it. Well maybe 3 months.I thought it was the end of the world when I got a 1 star review, you know what, I’m busier now than ever before. As we say in the UK, chin up, put on a brave face and carry on regardless.
You can reply to their review, but think carefully and make it short and to the point. Knock em dead kid.
Not clear by your post. Did the guest have a dog or your neighbour?
Did the neighbour bang on their door at all?
Hard I know but don’t take it to heart. Call Airbnb and explain what happened. If you have previous good reviews they should take your comments into account and perhaps edit the part about the neighbour.
You can of course respond to their review.
If you like post their review and what you would like to respond and we can help advise on your response. Don’t do it straight away when you are upset though.
I spoke to the neighbor on the other side of the duplex and she did not knock or bang on their door. They left around 4pm for their bartending jobs and I was there and they supposedly didn’t come home until 5am, when their dogs loudly woke up the other airbnb guests next door. Both parties also had several conversations with each other and the complainers loved the place until then. I asked that other airbnb guest to write what they know on my message thread, so that I could forward it to airbnb and they’d see that this was also a valid airbnb guest.
The complainers had even told my handyman that they liked our artist compound so much that they would ask me, if I could give them a break, if they were booking longer. They didn’t bring it up to me.
I talked to airbnb and they initiated something. I then explained it in writing and sent them a link with the message from the neighboring airbnb guest. They can also see on my message thread that I explained that we wouldn’t be ready until 5 or 6, because we had to clean first and whether that would still work for them - and they agreed to it. She also wrote in a message to me how beautiful the place is.
To K9…I’m starting off and needed a good review. She gave an awesome review to the previous place and promised me at the beginning that they would rave about my place. I needed a good review to start off and now that’s all anyone will see. I don’t have other, older reviews to balance it out.
Right O! If I may add another famous one, “when you’re going through hell, keep going.”
I think you learned a valuable lesson. Never give five stars when it was not deserved. You may want to respond to the untruths with simple facts.
The check in time was xx but the guest insisted on coming in at xx. The,check out time is 10 and the guest became annoyed when we knocked on their door at 11:30.
This is what bratty, entitled guests do. I wish you had reviewed them honestly because I would certainly not want to host these clods.
You may try to call Air and say they posted untruths. There’s a tiny tiny slim chance that they might remove it. If they don’t you will still get bookings because most guests can see right through people like this.
Normally I would say don’t respond but here, you need to counteract the lies. Just do it without emotion. You are talking to future guests, not these people. I always use the third person when responding.
We’ve all been there. People do book after bad reviews. I booked my little guest Inn in Kyoto and it had ALL bad reviews! I was delighted to write their first five star one!
Keep in mind that the really important thing is how you respond to their bad review. Don’t give a hoot what those guests think. Many guests only read the reviews and not the listing, so use this review as a way to educate your future guests and set their expectations correctly.
Go ahead and post on this forum your reply to their review (and post their review). We’ll help you edit your response before you submit it.
As someone who has received a truly awful review (one star across the board) and for reasons disclosed in the listing, I will say that you can move on from this and that you will continue to get bookings. You may need to slightly lower your price for literally just a few bookings if you don’t already have some in the wings. If you do, excellent! Focus on getting good reviews from your next set of guests.
You can definitely come back from this so don’t worry too much.
I did immediately respond, when I was upset, but I did write a factual response and don’t regret what I wrote. The only thing I regret not mentioning in the rebuttal are things that I didn’t know at the time (that their dogs woke up the airbnb guests next door at 5am when greeting their owners) etc.
As to writing a bad review on them - the thing is that it wasn’t such a big deal to me that they didn’t check out at 10am, since I still had until 3pm to get things ready. So, I just emailed and tried calling. I hung back until 11.30am and then I just felt that I told them and moved on. On one hand it could have easily been a misunderstanding (I wanted 10am and they misread and thought 11am), but looking back at it now, they were obviously still sleeping at 11.30 am (when they supposedly thought they had to check out at 11) and had no intention of leaving at that time. I thought by knocking on the door and informing them that they were overstaying that it was over with. No harm, no foul. It’s the scathing review that really shocked me. So, completely unreasonable and full of lies. Not based on facts.
I do feel sorry that you had a rotten first experience and I agree with what others have written here about not letting it put you off hosting in future.
Just to emphasise the necessity of writing a good response to horrible reviews: I was looking yesterday at local restaurant reviews on Trip Advisor and there was one that a couple of friends have recommended. It’s very high in the ratings but like most, has a few “poor/terrible” reviews, which of course were the ones I looked at first! Some of them seemed reasonable, some nitpicking and some downright unpleasant. The owner had answered ALL of them (and none of the good reviews!) in such a completely sarcastic, “how dare you criticise my establishment” way that I cringed in embarassment for him … and it will be some time before we try his restaurant … Contrast this with another similar restaurant where the manager answered the bad reviews graciously, thanked the clients for the learning experience and said she would welcome them again if they chose to come and dine. I have a feeling the first restaurant may be slipping down a few places in the listings soon …
Find out which shift they are working at the bar. Get a huge group do go down there and order tons of drinks and food. Wear a disguise so they don’t know it’s you. Then everyone pay the tab and stiff them on a tip. Have a bold friend go up to the manager and complain about the worst service your group has ever received.
I can only reiterate what others have said. I equally am sorry your first experience was not the best. I am fairly new to the forums and wished I had known about them when I had my first horrible experience.
We gave a good review to a bad guest and refunded part of their trip. Wow how much I have learned since then. I am glad a bad one came early. We worried that one review would ruin us but it did not.
Since then we have made superhost and it is 35 trips behind me. Do not let one bad experience so early on ruin it.
Michaela, this statement is troubling…you must learn to take charge to be successful at this business. It doesn’t matter if you still had until 3. The guest did not respect your check out time, and you didn’t get firm with them! This is a major no no… to disrespect checkout. Many of us have other reservations following, creating a back to back situation… you seem to be defending or making excuses for his guest. Don’t. If people can figure out what time their flights leave and arrive, they can figure out check out time.
In the future… if they are not out by your check out time, give them 15 minutes and knock on the door!
We had one host here who just opens the door and starts cleaning, vacuuming and dusting and getting linens while the people are still in the room!!! The mental image of that always cracks me up.
I didn’t think you would follow through with my suggestion…but I have to say that these two guests really have some balls to be locals and do this to you. I still can’t comprehend why they would make up such lies and write a scathing review just for you needing them to check out so you could clean.
I would be looking over my shoulder if I did something like that to someone. But apparently these two don’t have a conscience.
So, I see that I didn’t get a payout for the stay of the complainers. Would that be because I initiated something about their nasty reply or would that be because they may have applied to get their money back? I haven’t heard anything else from airbnb.
Doesn’t airbnb give out any kind of notification if they decide to not pay me?
