Judge Judy and the chargeback guest

I did this to my mother when I was 15~16 and she bought tickets for all of the girls (mom, my 2 sisters and myself) to go to Belgium (and visit other parts of Europe as well).

A picture speaks 1000 words. I was a pouty mess. I had just gotten a boyfriend back home who was soon leaving for college and I was stuck with my mom and sisters in a place where I didn’t understand anyone. For 6 weeks!

I look back at it as a great experience. But my poor mother. She had to deal with a sullen young brat.

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I read a post from a host who had an absolutely stunning property in the Phillipines. New, modern house, on a hillside, large glass walls overlooking miles of pristine beach, infinity pool, the works. He said he regularly got marked down on location because guests were fussed that it was a 10 minute drive to the nearest grocery store.

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They should only take guests from LA where everything is a minimum 10 minute drive.

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Awe thanks for that sharing post I can relate!

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Oh my oh my, I’ve fell in love with judge Judy and just starting my Airbnb journey so thrilled to be enrolled in this forum. I have read thru the better part of the posts and forum in entirety honestly relate too, agree with and have learned so much by just reading initial post and the responses from so many learned individuals.
Thanx for having us!
Quinn & Phia (mom & daughter team)

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I let people know that it is a 30 - 40 minute drive to grocery store and restaurants, that our small town rolls up the sidewalks at dark. Most read that in the listing, and remember. We still end up feeding spaghetti to a few guests who decide they want to go out to eat at 9 pm. We just roll with it, keep pasta and sauces in the pantry, and make it fun. Guests thus get a living on top of as mountain experience, and they get to b e happy family members. :grinning: It is all good.

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I’m on a lake up in northern Wisconsin and I had guests (from the south) stay with us in early spring and they gave me a bad review because the lake was frozen over and that I should have told them this. They wanted a partial refund because the property was advertised as being on a lake and the lake was not usable - the lake didn’t open up for another month!

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Sure it was! Just not for what they had planned! :laughing::rofl:

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I had an awful review because they found my town boring…. And it was my fault?
They lived at different ends of the state and wanted to meet somewhere in the middle…….

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How refreshing! Usually first posters have read nothing here, so we really appreciate that you have taken the time!

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Sounds like ice fishing or hockey to me!

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I think that part of the reason that guests expect us to tell them that the lake is frozen or, in our case, only being able to swim inside the swimming enclosures over summer because of potentially fatal stings from box jellyfish or irukanjis from the beach, is that they perceive that Airbnb hosts are held to a higher standard.

One of my favourite weird guest communications was the guest who texted me from the beach. She was complaining that the ocean wasn’t blue enough.

:crazy_face:

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There’s that list of complaints the Thomas Cook travel agency got that you can Google, which is pretty funny.

One of the complaints was that the beach was too sandy.

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I’ll look for that list. Another of my favourites was the woman who was staying in our larger apartment - which is right next door to mine.

She had been waiting for me to get up and show my face because she immediately grabbed me and told me in her garbled English that she’s been waiting for me because they hadn’t been able to turn the light off on the microwave - the one that shines down on the hob.

I switched it off for her and thought ‘well she probably didn’t understand that it said ‘light’ because that’s a word that isn’t pronounced as it looks and she speaks only Spanish’.

Then I realised it didn’t say anything on the switch - there was a symbol of a lightbulb…

:rofl:

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Same experience with my daughter. Lesson: 15-yr-olds don’t deserve expensive vacations. They’ll just ruin it for everyone else.

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OMG - Didn’t know this list existed… found a site that still had one of Thomas Cooks lists. Loved #12. “It took us 9 hours to fly home from Jamaica to England . It
took the Americans only 3 hours to get home. This seems unfair.” LOL Someone needs to relocate Jamaica so that the travel distance it is more fair!

Sadly, it seems that the agency went out of business a few years back (pre-pandemic). Found a list online elsewhere.

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Yes, it’s still online, although the company itself is not. Worth copying and saving to console oneself with when getting ridiculous guest complaints.

I liked the one where the guest blamed the agency for getting pregnant by her husband because their room only had a double bed, instead of 2 singles.

And my favorite was the woman who said they shouldn’t allow topless sunbathing because her husband was constantly distracted when all he wanted to do was relax. :rofl:

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I had a review like that. The guest booked my AirBnB because it was across the street from his daughter’s house…and he was coming to visit her. He then complained and rated me down on location because it was “boring” and there was “nothing to do”.

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As a host near a US National Park. I really enjoy these 1-star Yelp reviews of National Parks.

Amber Share actually made some into posters.

She has a calendar called “Subpar Parks”

Here’s Amber Share’s postcard for our completely awesome local Joshua Tree National Park:

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