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Ok what gives?? Guests had FIVE 5-Star reviews but they certainly were at the bottom of our best guests list.
This past weekend we had 2-groups. We really thought the ones with no reviews were going to be worse than the ones with FIVE, 5-star reviews!
The FIVE, 5-star review group violated the maximum number of guests, didn’t follow hot tub rules (beer caps, lotions), and on top of that they were pigs!
We just up’ed the minimum age from 25 to 30 because of this.
We had Airbnb contact the guests directly to ask the extra guests to leave as we are strict with our maximum guest rule.
We have not left a negative review for any of our guests to date – but thinking this might be the first! I am also thinking Airbnb should be involved in the review process and somehow leave them the review – they intervened and knew the guest broke the rules!!
We’re not trusting reviews any longer! We’ll see where the 30 year old minimum gets us!
PLEASE 1 star all the way across in all categories. And you’ll see…will barley make a dent in their 5 star average (janky Air math special for guests) so what you write is important!
“Will never host this guest again. Messy and broke multiple house rules. Had to evict*
You should wait until a few minutes before the review deadline (14 days after the notice from Air to leave a review). Search this forum for more on that topic. Unless they review you first; then let her rip!
Curious…what was the age of the “No review” guests? Don’t want to overreact and cost yourself good bookings/guests. Maybe a sign posted at the hot tub or in your welcome message reiterating expulsion for overcrowding/rule breaking & that you verify headcount?
@aelilya thanks for the tips on waiting the 14 days… and the 1 star across the board. Yeah — I am gathering ABB wouldn’t support the hosts on the negative reviews but one has to have something to hope for…lol
The other group were the same age range… both groups had 3 couples and both groups were average age of 25. Seems to be no rhyme or reason.
Maybe the group that booked were traveling with different friends this trip or previous trips were just the one couple. That’s a very easy explanation for how a couple with 5 5 star reviews leaves a place a mess and not following rules. It’s the other two couples, not them.
@CAL214 I don’t know if you are accustomed to just looking at the star ratings or you actually read the written reviews, but it’s often enlightening to cross-reference written reviews.
If you read a guest’s reviews and then click on the profile of the host who left the review, you can then see the host’s listing. Property managed listings often just leave generic “Great guests!” reviews and 5*s for all their guests. You can check whether that is the case by then clicking on some of the guests’ profiles who left reviews for the host. Often every review that host leaves says “Great guests!”.
It’s also of some interest to see what sort of places a guest has booked before to gain some insight into whether they would be a good fit for you. If they’ve only stayed in entire places with self-check-in, and you have a more personalized experience, meeting and greeting guests and/or living in the same property as your rental, they may not be suited to that, they might be the types who prefer not to have to interact with the host and act as if you are imposing on them.
Or if they’ve only booked home-shares before, where a guest can’t really get away with bad behavior, they may indeed have been a 5* guest, but left to their own devices, at an entire house listing they’ve booked for a group, their behavior may be different.
It’s also informative to check to see what sort of reviews a guest has left for their past hosts. Do they seem fair and balanced and mostly positive, or did they have a litany of complaints about every place they’ve stayed?
Ok o I lied and have a bit to add. SORRY AS HECK for the scumbag guests! How horrible!
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You might modify your process and vet more? IMO, 25 - 30 can be great. More vetting overall can help for any age.
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After each booking, ask for “For all Guests please provide full name, age, and current address (as required by insurance)”. If you suspect a red flag, you may also ask for IDs for all guests, “as required by insurance”.
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The “needed by 3rd party” is a strong tool for you.
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In over 2 years, only one guest refused some info between booking and check-in. Ironically, he would not upload his ID to Airbnb through the app. He provided a ton of personal info to us directly. So, he ended up at a Holiday Inn and spent more money and we got a much better booking. Win for us!!
@KKC good point – but still they should be responsible for their guests actions. The “Extra” guests arrived on the 2nd day (they said it was last minute)…they also said they didn’t read all the rules.
@Jefferson Yes we do all of that.
We require all names (first and last).
We check all of their profiles on social media (at least whatever we can find).
They need to show their government ID etc.
We are sure they are good kids and mean no harm but they just seem immature or haven’t yet learned to be respectful – maybe still live with their parents… who knows!
Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.
Airbnb hosts may:
Provide factually accurate information about their listing’s features (or lack of them) that could make the listing unsafe or unsuitable for guests of a certain age or families with children or infants.
Note in their listings applicable community restrictions (e.g., senior housing), regulations, or laws that prohibit guests under a particular age or families with children or infants.
Be careful about interpreting this in some way that allows you to discriminate by age because Airbnb is known to take discrimination very seriously. They have gone full incommunicado on hosts for violations. I.e. host can’t even login to their own account and Airbnb refuses to talk to the host, and the only recourse is arbitration, which takes several months.
@Brian_R170
Thanks for the details. FWII - I had previously asked “Airbnb Support” and just checked my message history to verify what they said. They directed me to add the age to my house rules and turn off instant booking so that I could verify their ages via ID’s.
In reverse order: Air won’t get involved unless it’s not factual and even then it’s a crap shoot. YES leave them a TRUE review and explain calmly and professionally what happened and click the Would Not Host Again button.
THIS. I always have 3 communications with guests about HR and expectations. It’s saved me a LOT of trouble over the years.
They knew and they wanted to game the system anyway. F-k 'em.
WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Slippery slope. I’m a shared home listing host so I figure I’m the law… ;-_
Make sure you time it correctly. You want to post about 10 minutes before the review process is up so that they can’t put a review (unless they already did then it will show after you write your review) or 14 days. But they won’t be able to respond below your review and if they didn’t review, the won’t be able to.
Our sad reality/experience has become that (like a volatile stock), past performance is not an indicator of future behavior.
There’s just NO DARN WAY to tell.
If you really want to guarantee a good guest, you have to put in the time/energy to vet/iterate each and every guest like users above have pointed out. If you want to turn and burn and stay 100% occupied, you’re signing up for possible risk. No matter how good the guest may have appeared to have been in the past.
absolutely! Seems to be the norm… We even had guests say that “…well we are renting the whole house so we figured we can bring as many guests as we want…”. They also say they rent on ABB ALL THE TIME AND HAVE NEVER HAD ANYONE ELSE HAVE AN ISSUE WITH THIS… AND WE SHOULDN’T BE HOSTS IF IT’S A PROBLEM … ** beating my head against the wall **
