Good question! I don’t allow pets so that would be a problem!
This is her exact wording:
“We have never left a poor review of a home, and wanted to contact you about it. Maybe this is a fluke?“
Unfortunately, she was too busy to take my call and responded to my reply after she checked out.
She has requested a refund for cleaning as that’s the only thing that I can’t prove!
@muddy @Debthecat @Altitudeadjustment @KenH @NordlingHouse @Joan
Hi all. Would love your thoughts on the review below:
Cannot recommend this high maintenance guest who seemed to not understand about listed and non-listed amenities, said exterior wildlife cameras made her “uncomfortable”, and complained about other meaningless things. Prior to stay guest complained about having to pay the “full cleaning fee” since she had to bring linens. 24 hours after check-n guest sent message that the house was unclean. Guest threatened to leave a bad review, but never responded to messages and was “too busy to talk in person” when I called directly. Guest responded after check-out out three days later to request cleaning fee reimbursement. Guest did not follow house rules and checked-out 40 minutes late.
2 Likes
Edited
Cannot recommend this high maintenance guest.
Confused listed and non-listed amenities, said exterior wildlife cameras made her “uncomfortable”. Prior to stay guest complained about having to pay the “full cleaning fee”. 24 hours after check-n guest sent message that the house was unclean. Guest threatened to leave a bad review. Guest never responded to messages and was “too busy to talk in person”. Guest did not follow house rules and checked-out lateer than listed check out time
6 Likes
I’ve never read any posts from hosts indicating that dealing with these sorts of guests in that way has ever warded off a bad review, quite the opposite, yet for some reason, hosts persist in thinking it will.
Agreed, but I did successfully convince a guest like this not to leave a review. I had a guest right around the time states started “re-opening” that I theorize was not yet ready to travel in the pandemic but thought she was. Similar to the OP’s situation, the guest claimed cleanliness issues (I have 125 5-star reviews with zero cleanliness issues cited). I offered to re-clean and ultimately gave full refund. I asked her not to review me. She whined that it was “unfair” not to review me. I pointed out (a) the consistently great reviews (b) the fact that I offered to re-clean and (c) that I refunded her. Didn’t hear further from her and sweated out those 14 days, but ultimately, she didn’t review. It can’t hurt to ask.
2 Likes
Well, if I had 125 5* reviews, there’s no way I’d offer to reclean a place I knew was spotless, nor would I refund. She could leave whatever off-the-wall review she wanted and my response to the review would make it clear that her review was untrue.
Fear of bad reviews just isn’t part of my hosting mentality.
7 Likes
Agree with others - if she put in the Air Msg system something to the effect of review extortion it is a clear violation and Air should pull the review.
In such a case, I believe but am not 100% sure that your review is also pulled. Someone here should know for sure what the deal is.
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I do understand that perspective, Muddy, and I am learning not be be such a pushover (and so concerned about bad reviews).
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I wasn’t trying to be hard on you, Kat- we all aim to please and no one wants bad reviews. I can see newer hosts who only have a couple reviews under their belt being terrified of a bad review, if it’s one out of only three reviews, I just think that if we so easily hand out refunds because a guest has unreasonable complaints, it encourages this type of guest behavior.
Airbnb’s unfair rating and review system is a behavior modification device to keep hosts stressed out and kowtowing to guest demands.
1 Like
I used @Rolf‘s version and hit send! Her review didn’t mention any of her complaints and she marked me as quick responses and amazing amenities. She gave me four stars overall, three for cleanliness, four for accuracy because her cellphone didn’t have service! Although l gave her a refund for cleaning, I feel darn good about my review! And because of you guys I hit send before the 14 days and now I don’t have to fret over this for another 10 days!
Thanks to @Rolf @muddy @Debthecat @Jefferson @Altitudeadjustment @Kat_Hansen for your insights!
2 Likes
In my case, I had a guest’s review that was blocked by Airbnb ( see My worst racist guest - #4 by JJD ) but my review stayed on their profile.
A side note, I recently looked at that guest’s profile and she’s stayed at another ABB since. She left them a really strange negative review about the place being haunted! lol.
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Yikes! That may be good and bad for business! Lol
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I thought the same thing! She’s really bad at writing bad reviews! Those hosts are probably booked until next year with ghost chasers, lol.
2 Likes
Unfortunately, if the guest wants that review pulled then it is likely Airbnb will take it down.
To keep reviews relevant, we recommend avoiding the following:
- Commentary about a person’s social, political or religious views
- Profanity, name calling, and assumptions about a person’s character or personality
- Content that refers to circumstances entirely outside of another’s control
- Content about services not related to Airbnb (ex. an airline, rideshare, restaurant, etc)
- Commentary about past Airbnb reservations, hosts, or guests, or about the Airbnb product where it does not relate to the listing, host or guest you are rating
When we receive a report of a review that violates this policy, we may remove the review from our platform. Repeated violations may lead to suspension or permanent deactivation of responsible account(s).
JF
A way to reword that so it can’t get pulled is “We experienced this guest to be quite high maintenance.”
You haven’t said the guest IS anything. You’ve only stated your own feelings.
3 Likes
Yes, lol. “It is of our subjective opinion that the guest was an a-hole. We feel like he was a pain in the butt”…
4 Likes
Well said, Sir!
@Rosebud. Did you click the No for “would you host again?” at the end of the review? If so, she will be excluded from IB for hosts that have a certain checkbox enabled.
Good on you for the honest review!
1 Like
Yes, I did and she’s mad. She wrote a long long response as a reply to my review. It makes her seem unhinged. I didn’t even know that a guest could write a response to a review! It shows up on the guests page like a response just like a response on the host’s page shows up under reviews!
Awwww … too bad for her 
She didn’t do herself any favors in writing such a response as it’s on her page.
1 Like
Now no one will accept her as a guest… sadly … all she needs to do is start a new account to be a virginal guest again.