Arbek, thanks for your post, I was about to write something similar. We rent our vacation home out in order to cover the operating expenses involved with keeping the place. It’s a business decision on our part to open our home to paying guests with the expectation that not all guests will be as observant of our house rules as others. While not trying to stick up for the guest who breaks house rules, there has to be some flexibility on the part of the host to understand that not all rules violations should warrant a public calling out of the guest. I guess if I were allowing a friend to stay in my home for free then I would hope that they would show an extra level of care for the property but the way I look at it, once I start taking money from guests I think that there has to be some expectation that your guests will not have the same bond with you that may have otherwise caused them to make more of an effort to follow the house rules.
Thanks for the kind words Arbek, appreciate the compliments! His retaliation (on his own profile page, no where to be found on mine) is what lowered his Airbnb “coffin” into the grave. I originally thought that perhaps I shouldn’t review at all, as I didn’t like dealing with the negative feelings that arose because of it. Going forward, the review will be something along the lines of “Guest was nice enough, however didn’t adhere to house rules and check-out time.” Thumbs down and done. I don’t feel the need to “teach” newbies how to act, as I make expectations ridiculously clear before accepting the reservation.
I hear you dwormer, in fact the majority break a house rule here and there. And I still leave glowing reviews…we are all human, right? In this case, with so many violations along with his late check-out, he deserved to a thumbs down.
I totally understand your guilt, yet it’s so important for us as air bnb owners, to know what we’re in for if we should get this guest another time, and perhaps he’ll think twice the next time he rents, knowing how you saw things. Don’t feel guilty. I’ve often had a few guests who left things in the fridge, no big deal. Or may not have emptied the trash, again no big deal. But the other things you mentioned certainly did not deserve a 3,4, or 5 star review and he needed to know this.
Oh that is good to know! I didn’t realize they couldn’t comment after the time period elapsed I usually don’t leave reviews for the people I don’t care for but didn’t know how many times you can skip that without losing super host status.
‘skipping’ reviews for people you don’t care for is a great disservice to all of us hosts. Not telling other hosts your experiences simply sets us all up for bad experiences.
Remember, reviews of guests are for hosts, not other guests.
You need 50% of your guests to leave reviews. They get an additional prompt to review after you leave your review and I think that sometimes makes them curious to see what you said. My guests review me at a rate of 80%. I review them at a rate of about 95%. And I woldn’t be surprised if review rate (not just raw number) was a small part of the search algorithim too.
If there is something hosts need to know than I’d review them. I’ve never really had anything bad happen till recently when someone smoked in my unit. I didn’t smell it till they were gone and I’d already reviewed them.
I mean how many times can a host not review guests. I’m surprised there is a number of reviews hosts need to have. How are we to control that? Most my guests review me. I’ve been on airbnb for 4 years now. I’m sure it’s less than 10% who don’t leave a review (guests).
You said something contrary tho, that you did not review guests you were unhappy about…