Yes! This is what drives the review I’m afraid. It’s all a matter of “How Low Can You Go?”
Hi Jan
There have been some other threads addressing this with some great advice and observations. Have a look at Major Guest Fatigue, Educating Guests on Reviewing system etc.
Hope things improve for you.
1 Like
I reckon we could have a whole forum on the bastardisation (oops bastardization) of the English language.
@J_Wang That’s so true. Airbnb is making hosts compete so hard (by aggressive marketing to bring in new a stream of new hosts and by rewarding a lot of new hosts with SH status after only 10 stays) that it’s soon impossible to make a reasonable profit from a financial point of view.
1 Like
And I see a lot of hosts getting rid of some of the “extras” if Air moves to the new rate increase/easier cancellation. A dollar here, a dollar there…it all takes away from the bottom line - esp. if it doesn’t result in any better reviews, and guests just take their goodies for granted.
1 Like
My ratings are pretty good now. Before I had plenty of reviews and a 5 star rating I offered way more services. I was family friendly and pet friendly. Now I have unhecked both of those options. I don’t feel that I need to do that anymore in order to get customers.
And thank God for that because what I have discovered is that people who want to bring their dogs don’t pick up the poop or sometimes they don’t take care of a dog properly. And sometimes the people that bring children don’t watch them. And I don’t want the people who are moving to this area to think that my listing is a good solution for them. That was the type of traveler that I was getting and that particular type of traveler is a pain in the butt. They get way too comfortable.
If the number of reservations that I get goes down too much then I probably will recheck pet friendly and then simply state my expectations at check-in. But I definitely would prefer not to do that.
I don’t really know if the guests have become more demanding or not but I did notice on this particular stay that the guest used the hot tub for hours and hours. Most other guests didn’t give a crap about it. But you know how it is . If you’re going to offer a service then you have to deal with the punches .
And she was also careless with the amount of gas that it took to heat the tub and whatnot. While in the hot tub she asked me to turn on the pool filler because she felt like the water level was low and that because of this the jets weren’t going as fast. Of course, I know that has nothing to do with it, but why piss her off? So this was the only demanding guest I’ve had. Aside from the Marin County guest.
Eh, maybe I’m getting crotchety. Hopefully I spelled that right.
1 Like
I would explain to her that filter has nothing to do with speed of jets. She comes up with absurd idea and you go along with it. Imagine that she goes to hotel front desk and tells them to do something to the pool…
I dont allow pets and kids. I have a guest now who i accepted with a 9 year old, but only because she came with coworker and he rented another room. So, i at once had both rooms rented for 7 weeks, which was great during the slowest month of the year. And the child is great, very well behaved girl. But after them i will go back to my no kids policy.
I agree that AIr guests did become very picky and demanding. And the whole idea of Air is changing. When i started travel with Air 6 years ago it was very low key option for travelers like me who wanted to see the world but on a certain budget. Northern Europian countries were hard to afford, and Air was a solution. I was so grateful that i can pay 3 times less for a room with Air, and have my tea at night, that pretty much i did not pay attention to other little things. And more importantly i knew it someones house, and kept my expectations very low.
The only thing that mattered to me was accuracy in describing location.
Now, the standards are more like for a hotel. You want hotel, go to hotel and pay their prices. Most of my guests were very good, but there were few who after their stay gave me a list of things that i need to have for them, including furniture. Yeah, right, i forgot to ask you how to furnish my house.
2 Likes
Okay so I do now believe that the guests are indeed becoming more Persnickety and spoiled and entitled.
I just had one guess tell me that she did not feel like her stay here was like a hotel LOL. And I’m thinking to myself well honey it’s not a hotel it’s a shared house with a family and I explained this to you when you arrived. And on top of that it’s cheaper than a hotel and you get free services that at a hotel you would have to pay for. I didn’t say this but also in my area it’s not uncommon for a hotel the cost $100 per night. Anyway I was just really surprised by this statement. My expectations for a hotel stay versus a Homestay are entirely different other than just wanting the place to be clean and quiet at night at cetera. So glad that this one is now gone.