This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Our fourth guest just left and I have just posted a review. I know there’s nothing I can do about it now, but I’m feeling slightly regretful (especially as he left us a lovely review!), and for the future would love to know if it sounds too harsh. This is it:
“x was pleasant, courteous and generally quiet. We apreciated that he took out his rubbish, left the room tidy and washed a pillowcase which he had apparently soiled. But it was a very serious breach of our house rules for him to smoke in the bedroom, leaving us with a nasty problem to sort out before our next guests arrived. For that reason we would not host him in future.”
We were livid that he smoked in his room, though he stopped when challenged. There were a number of other niggly things, like leaving his windows wide open when the house was empty, having to borrow clothes because he wasn’t prepared for the weather and asking us to look after his luggage, but I just chalked them up to his being a bit useless.
Nothing to regret - everything to be satisfied with. Smoking is a HUGE breach - wouldn’t you, as a host, want to know this guest did this? Absolutely you would. THANK YOU for leaving an honest review and protecting your fellow hosts!
It’s true I would. Smoking’s an absolute no no for me, and to know that a guest is prepared to breach a house rule is important. Thanks for the reassurance!
Nothing too harsh about it. Guests tend to be sloppy how they adhere to the House Rules as we all know, but some rules are indeed important, like smoking, which everyone in this day and age should be aware of.
That’s a totally fair review. Smoking can make a room smell terrible for a long time and requires a lot of extra cleanup. Leaving the windows open is also a huge problem if you are paying for heating / cooling or if the rooms are on the ground level and create a security hazard.
I don’t think you were harsh enough in your review. It’s absolutely imperative that any future host knows what he did and how he disrespected you and your property.
Smoking inside my house negates any previous good you may have done. I have zero tolerance for these type of people. Several times now I have removed guests during their stay for smoking. They end up paying for the stay, plus a $300 cleaning fee for smoking.
Also - I have added a “no smoking” image to my printed house guide, which has the house rules on the first page. My thinking is that while they might not read the words, if there’s one image on the page, their eye will be drawn to it.
Being totally nosy, I just looked up one line of text from your review, to see if I could find the guests profile. I didn’t, but I did find something equally entertaining, a review from “Dennis” and the reply from the host.
I wasn’t going to click on the link, and then I saw this and HAD to see. Hilarious!
It’s amazing how the two sides of the story can be so completely different and it makes you wonder which one is closer. Since all the other reviews are glorious it does seem a little odd that one person had such a horrendous experience.
In a related note, I did stay at a hotel once that was genuinely filthy and found some used underwear below the bed when I pulled back the bedskirt to spray all the cockroaches. Those were two of the less disgusting things that happened.
That was fun. Dennis probably saw black people in the neighborhood, tighty whities on the stairs and just freaked out. I notice the host has verified photos now.
