yes I got info once.
She said my pot rack over the range had dust and grease on it.
She said that her husband thought she was being too picky, but she was a school teacher and a hard grader.
I cleaned the pot rack and keep an eye on it now in case it accumulates again.
I also put out feedback sheets in the house so that they can tell me every little teeny tiny piece of critisicm improvement areas or minutia.
Someone said my cat jumped up on the kitchen worktop and that’s not hygienic. Do you think?! Maybe that’s why my kitchen isn’t even listed on Airbnb, and why anyone who has a problem with cats is asked NOT to book in my house rules.
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I believe I found the blog Afford Anything on this forum where the host did a four part series on her Airbnb
experiment ( https://affordanything.com/airbnb-experiment-impulsively-started-vacation-rental-business/). She addresses your complaint on her blog (she described the exact same frustration) but I can’t find her post on it.
Anyway, she realized that our guests need a safe place to share their suggestions and complaints so, she added several blank pages to the back of her welcome book that she leaves in her Airbnb. Her welcome book has all of the info guests need. She invited them to share their complaints in the back of that book and, lo and behold, noticed that guests complained far less on their reviews!
The challenge with being an Airbnb host is that it is personal. We aren’t running hotel chains…most of us are inviting strangers into our domains (my airbnb is a little house out back but it’s still near by!).Our guests, however, come in with a more business-like attitude. They may have a great visit and enjoy a lot of things about our place but they paid for it and they’ve been asked to evaluate it. Guess what? They’ll evaluate us!
Unless they are a fellow airbnb host, they aren’t going to realize how important their words are.
The Afford Anything blog solution seems to be the way to go; give the guests a listening “ear” (or piece of paper), ask for their feedback and let them get it off their chests before they write their review.
I’m going to try it!
Jill (who has almost 100 reviews-woot!)
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I can understand you soo good! As I wrote already a couple times, I can not understand, why the range for the review is 1 to 5 stars. Everything less than 5 is catastrophically bad. Under 4.7 you will get a warning from the big brother! So, definitely 5 is perfect, what the hell is then a tiny little bit less than perfect? Since there is no way to give 4.995 it will be 4! Definitely a wrong system!
What it does is making the reviews untrusty, its either Thumb up or Thumb down. This System has to be fixed somehow.
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I just got my first three-star for cleanliness (on review #76). Ouch! The guests didn’t leave any negative feedback except privately they wrote “noise” in the private feedback under “accuracy.” I am tempted to ask them what they didn’t find clean, but should best move on and be thankful I got 4-stars overall and the public feedback was all positive. The irony is my mom was visiting that day and spot-checked my AirBnB and tidied up a few things I’d missed. She used to clean houses professionally and is the cleanest person I know!
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I would love to get 4**** for cleanliness. Guests usually give me 2** or 3*** for cleanliness, mostly if they are women. I have started being extra diligent if I know it is a woman who made the booking, but in reality, I would prefer to have a setting on Airbnb “this room is for men only”.
Men don’t care about cleanliness. I am a man, too.
I wish I still had my mum to do that! She started her work life as a house-parlourmaid (yes, just like in Downton Abbey) and well remembered the days when the Housekeeper would wear white cotton gloves and test the maids’work for dust above door frames and picture rails. Any infraction was taken off their already meagre one afternoon a week “free” time - a bit worse that just getting 4**** from Air! Although her own house was never particularly clean (probably in revenge, and she was a heavy smoker) she knew all the tricks of the trade, like clean8ing round the base of bathroom taps with an old toothbrush, which helped me when I started running a B&B!
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I would be curious as well what they found dirty. It would helpful to you as well. If it’s the tiles, could you put some sort of carpeting over it that wouldn’t make it look so dirty? There are kinds of inexpensive low mat rugs, like something that looks like sisal that could spruce it up if that’s the problem. If it’s the pine needles, then it’s just silly that they would count that against you.
Yikes, if you’re getting a 2 or 3 for cleanliness, get a cleaning person to help. No one likes a dirty place, even sometimes, men!
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Speaking of cleaning, I saw this review today on another listing in my city:
Blockquote The apartment felt overly clean and almost like I was in a hospital.
Yikes! There is such a thing as too clean?
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No criticism to you …but I would write and ask which area of the home failed to meet cleanliness standards so you can attend to it asap.
Once they tell you…you will never let it happen again ( Like my pot rack ).
Somewhere / somehow …they found something not totally clean. Oh yes, I suddenly remembered…my critical pot rack guest also thought the exterior wrap around porch needed attention. I too a good hard look…and I agree with her.
It is a good business practice to ask the guests what they didn’t find up to their standards, but the thought of doing so fills me with dread, so I’m just going to move on for my own well-being. I struggle not to get fixated on reviews and let the negative ones wound me. I brainstormed a few ideas of what it could be: clogged drains, old aluminium windows, just the fact that it’s a basement, the messy chickens in the backyard.
I always check the drains aren’t clogged when I clean, but the drains were clogged when the guests checked out so they may have clogged them and said anything. I’d like to get the windows replaced but they have to be brought up to code so it’s going to be an expensive project.
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That is absolutely and certainly YOUR choice.
I have feedback forms which I leave in my house(s).
I ask for any and every minutia piece of feedback possible…
I prefer to know if a faucet is loose, a drain is clogged, a drawer is stuck…etc etc
Women are especially grating about detailing every single teeny tiny failing…which I am grateful about.
We attend to everything mentioned in between turns, and therefore have been able to nip nearly every maintenance and housekeeping item in the bud.
Do we get calls for help while they are here? …yes but generally it would be an internet crash, or an a/c or refrig question…which we jump to handle.
The feedback sheets have worked out terrifically for us. Obviously, you don’t want to know, and that is a-ok too, as that is how you wish to run your place.
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I dare to challenge you on that statement. I’ve been doing Airbnb for more than five years, hosting hundreds of guests - perhaps approaching 1,000 now (in addition to guests booking on Wimdu, Homestay and TripAdvisor), and not a single man ever complained about the cleanliness of my place. This is purely a “woman issue”.
Having said that, I guess you are right, I might have to start looking for a woman to help me clean my flat.
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Though I agree in general, my recent 3-star cleanliness review was left by two men.
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Just when you think you’ve heard it all. There is some pretty nasty swampland in Florida they could rent for cheap. (No offense to FL)
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Yes, I would ask, knowing full well they don’t have a legit answer. I had the same situation, but the woman never answered. Just have to shake it off!
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An epoxy tub refinish kit might be a good investment. It can turn out great. The user pictures show great results :google : home depot BATHWORKS-20-oz-DIY-Bathtub-and-Tile-Refinishing-Kit-Almond-BWK
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I can relate in a similar way. A young woman who just graduated from college stayed here & decided to grade like her college professors, saying no one gets a 100%. So, I got a 4 in cleanliness and in location. Btw, I found that when guests stay for one day and it rains, I get a mark down on location. But that’s another topic!
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Eberhard, aren’t you getting a ton of these friendly reminders from Airbnb to step up your game on cleanliness or they’ll suspend your account?
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