Glad to have been of service!
2 Likes
One last question…
Is there a deadline to when the guest can respond to the review? Or can they respond at any time?
Thanks!
I think that ship has sailed. 14 days to leave a review means 14 days…
RR
What I mean is… I know that the guest is allowed to respond to a review left for them.
Does the window for the response close at the same time that the review window closes?
They cannot leave a review after the 14 days is up, that’s why we wait until last minute. I have never heard of a guest or host being able to respond after the 14 days either. Maybe someone else can chime in.
RR
1 Like
I believe they can leave a response to a review up to two weeks after the reviews were posted.
After some Googling, I determined from Airbnb’s website that the guest has 30 days to respond to a review.
So what, the review is on their profile not yours.
RR
1 Like
Wow, I hope you threw the poor towel out! 
If anything, I’d be very specific about ‘filthy mess’ and zap the phrase as that’s pretty subjective and leaves you open to arguments.
Instead I’d describe the specific issues that made you come to that conclusion, aka ‘beach towels with feces all over it’. The more specific and factual the description, the less debatable. People will draw their own conclusions without your characterization, which can make you look bad when the attention should be on what they did.
Looking at any of their other reviews, was there a clue they’d be this bad?
3 Likes
The review period is now over.
They had no prior reviews. When they requested to book, I made her verify that she read the house rules, and I even sent a specific TLDR version with the very rules that she ended up breaking.
As far as poop on the towels, I’m not positive that’s what it was, because I didn’t want to smell it, but it was either poop or chocolate in the exact same shape and smear pattern as it would be as if you wiped your behind with a towel.
As far as the filthy mess, I guess you could be right, but I think it’s just personal preference. Some people may want to read a paragraph of boring sentences about dirt and snot etc. But I figured filthy mess and disgusting brown stains on towels was sufficient. But truthfully, as a host, the thing that would prevent me from allowing them to book was the smoking and the sneaking extra guests in and violating quiet hours etc.
Anyway, I asked for advice and I took it. I used verbatim what one of the above posters suggested.
Now the guests have 30 days to respond, but it doesn’t matter too much to me since it won’t show up on my profile page anyway. But I am curious to see what they say.
I do find it weird that they are allowed to respond at all. Obviously anyone can say whatever they want. It’s really easy to come up with some story that paints them in a better light and then they have the last word. Examples: “It must have been the previous guest, we never did that” “Our host was a psycho and badgered us about everything all week” “My boyfriend got a bloody nose and the towel was right there and we explained this to the host but he didn’t believe us”
I could come up with a million excuses, all that any reasonable reader would read and think “hmmmm, they don’t sound so bad”
1 Like
Same with their review of you though. If they give you a bad review with lies you can contradict them.
Steady on Allison, our let is a barn and we certainly wouldn’t won’t them to stay😂
3 Likes
Hello Ladies & Gentlemen,
Am I missing something here? Why is the timing for sending out a negative review so important? Is it to make sure that the guest can’t post his/her review?
Yes.
202020202022002
RR
To be clear, it’s not so that the guest “can’t post” as they get the same 14 days we do. But when you post a review the guest gets a message that says the host reviewed and prompting the guest to review again. They have already been prompted once. So the thinking is that if the guest was simply going to not review or maybe hopes it will just be a mutual non-review, waiting until the last minute keeps them from reviewing. Interestingly, it’s all speculation as to effectiveness but it’s worth attempting.
4 Likes
Like you I use to argue this point but it’s not correct. I ran a short trial and it is from when you receive the review message.
Many of us will attest that the last minute review is not only very successful but highly satisfying! Just set your calendar so you get a 10 minute reminder exactly 14 days from when you received the email to review the guest. Write your review and wait until the clock ticks down to 30 seconds then hit go! I know it sounds punitive but gee it feels good!
In my case it always come down to petty guests who have complained about everything. My latest: my husband was in the spa at 12 noon and the automatic watering system came on and the plant above the bath dripped water.
The other reason for delaying is, as it will have been 14 days since they stayed hopefully their review will be well down the page as new, positive reviews will have come in by then. If the guest has already written their review then I don’t bother with timing it to the second, just the day, as it’s going to come out anyway.
However, now that there is an option to choose to see reviews by either seeing “most relevant” or “most recent” I am not sure how relevant burying the poor review is. I presume it is “more” buried. It’s probably worth going incognito so we know what guests see. However, I think we all know what the answer will be.
2 Likes