Rant/new host warning and advice

90% of my guests are awesome – which is why I keep doing this. It is lucrative, for sure. My daughter and I cleaned after guests today – same scenario – mom, dad, and son. My place was spotless. So, TallinSeattle, just figure into your mental/replacement/cleaning budget that some guests will cost you. Because of konacoconutz way back when, I leave only honest reviews for the sake of other hosts. I can afford to do that because I live in a place where we have a lot of visitors and not nearly enough accommodations. Just figure that about 10% will be less-than-ideal guests. BTW, I probably should have checked with all of you before leaving the review – it is scathing. Probably should have left out some of the details. Let me know if you want me to post it.

Really?? Gee thanks!! :heart:️:tulip:

Would love to read a scathing review. Bring it on.

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Here ya go! Just so you know, I did spell “butts” correctly, and I did indent, but this is how the review showed up. I wrote more, but it was truncated.

Do not rent to this family! Never have I been angry after guests have left, but I am so angry with this group, who showed a blatant disregard for the safety of my townhome community, the open space which abuts my property, and my ability to continue to be an Airbnb host. I found 9 cigarette buts (plus cigarette package wrappers) in the dry leaves off of my deck and in my neighbor’s patio. I have photos of all the cigarette buts and the cigarette ashes on the dry leaves. Smoking cigarettes is against my house rules; moreover, I have put in my house rules to be especially aware of the dry surroundings of the open space and to be especially careful of anything incendiary. They could have started a fire that could have affected the 26 units in my townhome complex, the neighboring homes, and caused a fire in the open space that directly abuts the property, including killing wildlife. I have had a few, “What the hell?” moments after guests have left, but no one has ever been so careless. Fortunately, my neighbors were not home to find cigarette buts in their patio, or they could have lodged a complaint with the HOA, who could shut me down for such an infraction. Additionally, they clearly had beverages on the second floor (I found two empty beer bottles and an empty fifth of vodka in the bathroom waste basket), which is against my house rules. Looks like they spilled one of the drinks on the carpet, as they trashed one of the kitchen towels to clean it up – and they didn’t do a very good job. I will have to have the carpet cleaned tomorrow. They also clearly wore their shoes on the carpet – also against the house rules. And, all the “little” things – I had to make three runs to the dumpsters (two for recyclables – mostly alcohol bottles), and even put trash in the recyclable bin (gross!). My house rules ask that they dispose of their garbage before they leave. They broke a glass, which I found in the garbage – but they didn’t tell me. I am missing a coaster (why?). And the south bedroom sheets plus one of the towels had pee stains – so gross! I usually have a good sense when I will have unpleasant surprises after meeting a guest (or not meeting them – if they seem to be avoiding meeting me), so I was so surprised to find my place such a mess, as Deb seemed to be such a nice person. We talked about our experiences renting Airbnbs in Europe. I hate leaving bad reviews, but there is no excuse for the utter disregard for the cigarette issue. I spent today putting up security cameras around my place as one of their sons is a student at the University of Colorado, here in Boulder. I do not trust that he will try some retribution regarding this review…

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Hi @sandy2,

Yes, I’d check with the Brains Trust before submitting a review.

Having said that, this review looks relatively reasonable to me, as rant style reviews go. Though of course it is much longer than necessary, and as noted earlier by various people ( and also imo) it’s more effective if you maintain a detached tone. Also, I would have left off the last two sentences, for example. They make you sound paranoid. I.e.

Just to be clear, I’m not disagreeing with your sentiments, of the security camera measures (though I’m surprised you don’t have them already). I would just avoid saying such things in public, it doesn’t come off too well.

If you still have time, and it’s possible (e.g. they haven’t posted their review yet) I’d strongly recommend a severe re-editing.

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I’ve been reading a lot of reviews this past week and I’ve decided they don’t make much difference. Plenty of people leave scathing, nasty, snarky reviews and they still have guests and/or they still are guests.

In general I agree that it makes hosts sound difficult when they get emotional in their reviews. However, this is not about make up on towels, wearing shoes in the house, etc. This is about potentially causing a huge fire. In this particular case I believe that it’s reasonable to use strong language.

Yes, but the point is lost in the long winded sentences.
Guests broke rule re smoking. Potential for fire as butts dropped in dry leaves. Would not rent to this group,

As a host or guest reading “scathing” review, I’d conclude the guests were not ones I’d let book, but I’d be hesitant to book there.

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Well, it’s hard to say what effect it has on bookings. But I just think hosts should try to be courteous and professional, even in the case of extreme provocation. E.g. @sandy2’s guests, who do sound pretty awful.

I’m not questioning the severity of the infraction. But there are different ways of communicating this. Something more like what @Louise said gets the point across and is probably more effective, as well as being shorter. Though I would give more detail than Louise’s version, personally. I think it’s good to give details about what exactly guests did wrong.

Sandy2, shame on them. you have every right to be upset. I left reviews like this when feeling distraught and emotional. There’s nothing wrong with it.

However,the very last line is ill advised. It could get the whole thing removed based on making assumptions about whether someone will or won’t commit criminal behavior. If you can, call Air and ask that the last line be removed as you changed your mind about saying that.

Thank you all for your feedback; I’m leaving it as is. My other very bad reviews are simple – so and so is high maintenance and is better suited for a hotel – that type of thing. As far as I’m concerned, these people needed to read what I wrote. What they did is criminal. Had they started a forest fire, they would have been arrested. And, it will be buried before the month is out.

I agree they deserve it… I’m just thinking if they protested the review, the last lines would be enough to get the whole thing removed. Speaking from experience here…

True, but I mostly wrote it for them to read. They have already deleted their profile, so, unfortunately, no hosts will know what happened. But maybe, just maybe, they will be better guests going forward. What I think happened it that they let the son have the south bedroom (which is bigger) so that he could smoke on the upper deck, which he did – and just flicked the butts into the trees. Judging from the amount of alcohol bottles we had to take to the dumpster, including two beer bottles and an empty bottle of vodka, he also got very drunk, peed on the bathroom floor, used one of the towels to wipe (instead of the toilet paper), and peed in the bed. He also knocked some of his beer onto the carpet – about half a bottle, in my estimation. Their “kid” was 24 years old. I hope like hell that this embarrassed the parents enough that they will address their son’s piggish behavior. When I greeted them, he was on his cell phone the entire time. One of my neighbors is an Uber driver and the son was one of his fares – and was drunk. This kid may have a serious problem …

The fact that I state, “No cigarettes or other tobacco products inside or out, including vaping”, meant nothing to them and the total disregard for the dry surroundings made me very angry. I think any reasonable future guest would agree – and I only want reasonable guests. I have had a number of rich families visiting their student child during this fall – glad I had all the weekends at $300/night. Again, most have been fine, but I can always tell when the others have someone at home (like a housekeeper) to clean up after them. I think out of state tuition for CU is up around $40,000/year. If they have a kid doing 4 years at CU from out of state, they usually have money. These people had a Mercedes rental SUV! Yes, I’m being judgmental, but I’m starting to see a trend. It’s a lot different than when I started Airbnb 3 years ago.

Ok, I’m done ranting.

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KenH I assume you are trying to help ,but I think your advice is misguided. I am calm. What could I have done differently? Hmmm differently… so someone that ignores the house rules online and in print at the home and the text conversations… I guess I should just show up at the home in the middle of the night and walk in? I think a lot of your thoughts are not realistic. The extra guest showed up at 1:30 am according to the security cameras that I already have… is this something you would have seen? They seemed like very nice and polite they also booked instantly so I have less control. I did not communicate with them outside of the platform. I did not pay anyone under the table, cash does not denote any wrong doing, but thanks for the assumptions.

Thanks for sharing your disaster of a guest and the same frustrations!

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I have spent hours looking on their site. I do not see it clearly stated exactly what is required to be reimbursed. Do you see it anywhere? Did you find where it written that if you do the repairs yourself you will not be paid? Is it stated that an invoice needs to have certain things to be reimbursable. I still don’t understand why my invoice was not ok? If so please share I would be very thankful to be a be able to read it. Air bnb is a business they make money off hosts. Maybe they should try to treat us like customers.

First and only other bad guest was my second guest and I accept responsibility for being a new host, but was still unhappy because again I had proof of their damage, but it didn’t matter. This time my house rules were very strict and very clear and I took many photos of the damage. I did learn, but thanks. I appreciate you being positive that if my “ducks were in a row” I would be compensated. When you don’t know what kind of row you need its a little difficult.

I had very clear and very strict house rules about smoking, extra people, no parties, late check out, security cameras. Please tell me how to prevent a guest from breaking the rules that are listed 3 different ways?

That is a great too, sadly for me being in San Francisco area there are many many guest with no or 1 review. All but 2 have been great, so the odds are still great for me, but still really can ruin your week with a bad one.

We all need a good rant :slight_smile:

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Look there are no guarantees about anything. As I said, I collected through the res center on the mosquito coil smoke damage only because the guests agreed. The other time I used the res center, I uploaded exactly what they asked for and I got it. I look at like I am going to small claims court. The more documentation you offer the better. You have to follow their process if you hope to collect anything or have them rule in your favor.

But as I said, there are no guarantees about anything when it comes to Airbnb. If you do have this happen again call them to ask them to walk you through it.

haha I’m hoping they can walk me through it now so there isn’t a next time!

I agree the more documentation the better, but there is also a common sense limit due to the nature of the business.

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