Greetings All:
I have been an Air/VRBO host for over 10 Years for 2 properties and was a remote host for one. I recently stayed at a “bungalow” as a guest - actually it turned out to be a 2 unit house - an inaccurate listing. We diligently followed checkout instructions- took out the ALL the trash, put the sheets in the washer and started it, put dishes in dishwasher and ran it and all decor was in original order. I receive a “review” stating “Thanks for staying” and the under comments stated: left messy kitchen and didn’t follow check out instructions. I was infuriated. I wrote to the remote host and asked her to check with her cleaner since I had followed instructions and was curious as to the problem. She checked and said cleaner admitted all check out items were accomplished but kitchen was messy. Again I asked for clarification since we did not cook and even went out for coffee since we are very fussy about coffee. She answered that she didn’t say what the issue was but she has had the cleaner for almost two years. I wrote back again saying the comments were inaccurate by your own admission and that without verification for “messy” kitchen such as a picture, which I always required from my cleaner when there was an issue, she should retract the comments. I also wrote to Airbnb help but probably won’t hear anything. So we paid $150.00 cleaning and I now understand why guests are leaving Airbnbs because of excessive demands and fees by hosts. I know this is a host forum but I mention this since I can understand why staying somewhere that the owner doesn’t lie and malign you and your stay is getting much more attractive.
Thanks for reading this and I welcome any comments
Cheers
It almost sounds like the cleaner or the host may have confused the units and it was guests in the other unit that left a messy kitchen and didn’t follow check-out instructions.
By “under comments” you mean what hosts can check off under the cleanliness rating, or she wrote that in the review itself? If it was in the public review, I’d leave a response saying, "I am very confused by these comments, as we followed the check-out instructions to the letter, and never even used the kitchen at all. Perhaps the host confused us with the guests in the other unit in this house (and additionally, we had no idea this was a 2 unit house, as it was falsely advertised as a ‘bungalow’). "
And the host’s response to you contacting her about this is really unprofessional, IMO. Rather than saying the cleaner has been working for her for 2 years (Who cares? That’s irrelevant), she should have said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Perhaps the cleaner confused how the 2 units were left. I’ll check into that and retract my review if there is any doubt.”
I really don’t like this business where remote hosts leave reviews based upon 2nd hand reports, even from their cleaners who they may trust. In the absence of time and date stamped photos as evidence, how can they be so sure? And it doesn’t sound like there were any photos in your case.
Thanks @muddy but as it turns out, the other unit which is a basement apartment in the same house is occupied by long term renters. So I checked the “review” and it states simply “thanks for staying” and then in the email I received with the review it stated the “ hosts comments” - messy kitchen and didn’t follow check out procedures. I have cut and pasted how the public review appears:
Angie MillerMarch 2023
Thanks for staying!
(My comment of the review below)
Disappointed that the description of this home & its location were inaccurate
So I guess the “host comments” aren’t public which I am grateful for but needed to correct the record since her comments were so inaccurate.
Thanks for your comment.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. It sounds like there was a disconnect in communication somewhere along the line - more likely than not, between the housekeeping & management and perhaps assumptions were made by whoever reviewed you based upon vague info. I’m sorry you had to deal with this, it sounds incredibly frustrating when there are dishonest or confusing practices going on with hosts.
This is why I never recommend remote hosts, unfortunately 
Are you saying that the things we check off, or write “something else” are actually shared with the guest? Guests don’t get to see what star ratings we leave for them, do they?
Or was that feedback to you done privately through the “leave a personal note” section of the review?
@Andy89 As I recall it says that the comments we can check off are for the purpose of letting the guest know what they did well or could improve.
And why would you not want guests to see that or the star ratings you leave them? I hope you aren’t leaving nice or non-commital written reviews but marking guests down on star ratings,
I think we do see our individual ratings as guests, I’m sure I saw all my stars for each category when I recently stayed at an Airbnb
Good information, thank you. I had read that they were going to start showing the guests their own star ratings at the end of last year but I haven’t stayed as a guest since then so wasn’t sure if they had made the change. (in the past, guests did not see the star ratings they received).
I wonder if you can clarify. Do you mean that you paid an additional $150 for the so-called messy kitchen situation or that you had already paid a $150 cleaning fee as part of the cost of your total stay?
If the latter, I have wished for many years that Airbnb website would refer to this as a preparation fee.
As you’re a host, you know how annoying it is when you read of (or even experience) guests who leave their rentals in a mess because ‘we’ve paid a cleaning fee so it’s not our job to clean up after ourselves’.
Again, I’m not quite sure what you mean here about ‘guests leaving Airbnbs’ although I definitely agree that many hosts seem to go overboard with excessive rules and add-on fees. I always imagine these hosts won’t be in the business for long though.
For everyone who leaves, another one joins, or so it seems. Airbnb keeps growing, doesn’t it? According to the shareholder letter bookings and revenue increased 20+% in the 4th Quarter of 2022 if I recall correctly.
I’m always happy when I hear of a disgruntled guest bitching and threatening to leave the platform. Please leave!! Please!
There are so many guests who are respectful of my airbnb and would never assume that their rude behavior was ameliorated by paying a ‘cleaning fee’. The angry guest’s misunderstanding of how airbnb works is based on assumptions that are simply untrue. So glad that they leave -
Guests are disgruntled and leave the platform for many different reasons- it seems odd to assume that they are all entitled rude people who simply balk at cleaning up after themselves because they paid a cleaning fee, etc.
There are plenty of crappy and scammer hosts and listings out there and plenty of guests have legitimate beefs. And CS is just as hit or miss with addressing guests’ issues as they are when addressing host issues.
Guests have arrived to places they couldn’t get into- either they were sent the wrong door code, or the host was supposed to meet them, wasn’t there and wasn’t answering calls or messages. When the guest calls Airbnb, they are told they will get a call-back to try to resolve it, and never get a call-back, leaving them to go find a hotel. 1¹That’s just one example.
As one of my very good guests said in a private message after his stay, “This was the one of the best Airbnb stays I’ve had. You wouldn’t believe the crap people list and actually charge money for.”
Then there are platform issues which turn guests off- trying to upload their verifications, only to be met with tech glitches, guests supremely annoyed with the split stay feature cluttering up their searches, with no way to turn it off.
Or like the guest post I read from a woman who was 24 years old, had used Airbnb a lot with great reviews, was a responsible person who travels on business, who was trying to book some single nights, and found herself the victim of the “party algorithm”. Sure, she could book a private room home share, but that wasn’t what she wanted, she wanted an apartment to herself.
Guests who look elsewhere to book are not by any means all the type of guests you wouldn’t want.
So to clarify I paid one fee of $150.00 as required when I booked. Also to set the record straight, the issue is that we were totally respectful of this host’s home. We left the house and the kitchen in perfect condition- all surfaces wiped down, floor swept, all the appliances and décor exactly as when we arrived. The point is I followed ALL instructions and was publicly reprimanded for NOT following directions based on second hand non verified information. I do understand about guests leaving places a mess because they “paid a cleaning fee.” Actually that has not happened to me as a host of hundreds of guests. I do feel that hosts expect too much from guests (I know a lot of hosts do not agree with this). My attitude has always been to make it as easy as possible for my guests, they are on vacation at my home. So the comment about guests complaining about fees and excessive host demands, that has been documented in a number of news articles. From my own hosting experience almost all my guests are booking through VRBO. It used to be 60% Airbnb, 40 % VRBO but I was booked all last summer and into the fall (2022) and only 1 guest fro Airbnb. Not sure why but that is a shift.
Different fee structure?
Unfortunately Airbnb has had some pretty bad press over the last year….
You were not publicly reprimanded.
The public review from your host said in its entirety, “Thanks for staying!”.
But it’s public in that it is visible to future hosts, is it not?
Actually I checked and it’s listed in my reviews- so @muddy you are correct which is my issue that it reflects on my behavior as a guest.
Thanks for pointing that out @muddy.
Actually VRBO charges hosts more so generally my rate is higher but I have much higher booking rate with VRBO.
Latest update: April 18, 2023 - as mentioned I contacted Airbnb Support and low and behold they responded and suggested I ask the host to remove the comments that appear below the review on my profile. I again contacted the host and asked her to remove the comments and she said she tried but couldn’t figure out how to do it. I told her how and I just received a notice from Airbnb removed the review comments - WOW - success and responsible host! Bravo!!
So sounds like the host acknowledged that her cleaner must have made an error. Glad you had success.
This got me thinking that a dishonest cleaner could claim to a remote host, in the absence of time and date stamped photos, that the guests left a big mess in order to claim that the cleaning took an extra hour or more for which they demand more payment.