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We just had a guest check out and complain about things clearly listed about our place. It’s not really bad just annoying. Although he did give heaps of private feedback especially about the price. He booked for 1 person but actually was for a family of 5. I explained the extra charges, which are also clearly listed, and sent an amendment through which he approved.
Our place is off grid and runs on solar power only. I explain all of this in my listing and say the power points don’t work and if you need a hair dryer this place is not for you. He wrote: " or you can’t live without aircon or washing machine think twice."
I mention it is a working farm in rural Australia and there will be spiders and snakes. He wrote: “and some wildlife surprises. so if contact with local critters is not your thing.”
I mention that it is a tidal billabong which links to the river. He said:“If you enjoy kayaking the provided boats and access to the river will please you but be aware it’s tidal so limited to certain times of the day, and swimming is similarly dependent on tides and using kayaks to get to the swimming spots.” kayak use is free and he would have paid more than $100 to hire kayaks around the corner so the accommodation cost is cheap if you factor that in.
We provide mozzie coils and repellant but never actually need to use them, and we stayed there the night before they arrived. He said: “Being close to standing water there will be mosquitoes so come prepared.” and also complained in private feedback that they won’t use poisonous coils.
We don’t rent this place out that often as we prefer to keep it for ourselves and as a working farm we don need to be there every few days. I suppose the review will put off the type of people we don’t want anyway. The strange thing is that the review doesn’t appear on the first page, it is a few pages in. Not sure why but it’s a good thing I suppose. All our other reviews are great.
The order of the reviews is the country that your account is affiliated with, then the same language, and then the others. So, if someone from your guest’s country is looking at your place, this person’s review will be the first that they see.
This review is actually a good thing for you in some ways. This should filter out people who shouldn’t be staying there. It probably reinforces the cautions that you already have in your listing.
As a side note: I had a couple from Austin TX stay with me recently, but they registered for AirBNB when they were teaching English in China. They never changed their contact information, so their review is buried pages deep even though it is English and they live in my country.
THIS is what you need to focus on. Check your listing to make sure everything is clear - even if you’re sure it is, check it anyway. Look at the points they made in private feedback and evaluate them:
0 = that’s made abundantly clear in the listing so…
1 = meh, maybe I could make it even clearer but…honestly?
2 = yes, one other person mentioned that but surely it’s obvious?
3 = mmh, ok that might be worth thinking about in the future.
4 = interesting point, I could fix that or I could clarify in the listing
etc.
Do it in a business frame of mind, ie. not when you’re still brooding over the review. Do it quickly. Check, check, check. Decide yes/no whether it’s worth attention. And then leave it be!
And one more thing - don’t reply to the review without very careful thought. A defensive hostile sarcastic response to a guest review is VERY off-putting to future guests. Probably you know that already but it’s always worth repeating.
Guests who write reviews like this are one of my pet peeves. “mr or ms Helpful”…needs to inform the world of all ins and outs, as though they are are a Major Food Critic reporting to the masses.
I hope they took the time to say great things too, instead of focusing on the warnings. Yes it is good to weed out people who are not a good match, and it is also a lot of warnings to someone else.
I hope they gave you 5 stars.
Pains in the Neck. Must be a blast to live with.
@georgygirlofairbnb yes they also wrote some good things as well. They are the type of people who need to tell you that they are vegetarian! I have nothing against vegetarians either but we also breed meat on the farm so a strange place to choose to stay.
I just had a long conversation with a guest about good reviews. She was so sympathetic and thought a recent bad guest’s review made him look like a douche. We basically agreed to exchange five star reviews. Then She “helpfully” wrote a review alerting the readers to HOW FAR my listing is from town (hello the location is all over my listing, along with the plea to make sure that thelocation is what you are looking for and desire.) and then left four stars for location and four for value. F that.
I recently had a guest request seven days. She would have been a good paying booking. It when I checked the chrome extension for reviews she left for other hosts, they were all nitpicking about things clearly disclosed in the listing.
Decline. I wish more guests knew how we can check their reviews fro other hosts. That would learn em to nitpick and blather on about things disclosed in the listing.
Can’t you mention the fantastic sunsets, stars and views!!??? NO you have to waste space to mention what a “downside” the location is. Also, a cancellation meant she was getting to book our island at a totally sold out time of year. So I was not giving it away, yet I get four on value. Stay home if you don’t want to pay the price to stay here.
Growing to really really distrust guests. Even the nice ones will turn around and smack you.
@konacoconutz oh yeah. He actually rang upon leaving to tell me what a lovely stay they had. In the private feedback He also complained about the price. When he sent his booking request it said one person not five. I explained the pricing, which is clearly listed and sent an amendment which he approved. So it went from$150 to $210 per night. He also said we shouldn’t charge hotel prices but no hotels actually have what we have. It is not expensive for what you get in high season in Australia.
It is not up to him to tell you what to charge. That is totally your decision.
The only right he had was to either accept your set rate, or book elsewhere.
I like him less and less every time you tell me more.
He lied in the beginning with the number in the group, and he lied upon leaving.
He complained, and he nitpicked.
He failed to appreciate what you offer, and glossed over your description.
He imposed his value system on your farm.
Anything else good about your guest?
I also live in Oz and get the occasional review mentioing “bugs” though I point out we are in the country beside a dairy farm so in summer when the wind blows from that direction we get blowies and mozzies from the other side. I provide aerogard, mortein and mozzie coils. In winter after rain we get ants invading the place. I have a separate guest guide I leave in the space that they are more likely to read where I mention all this. I point out that if they live somewhere with no flies, mozzies or ants then consider themselves lucky. I just had a guest complain of the chicken yard smells in the private review but I make it abundantly clear there are chickens and ducks out the back. There was, unusually for here, a westerlie blowing for three days and they said they should be able to close the back cat flap to prevent smells which, had they asked, i would have shown them how easy it is to do.
But provided they haven’t been nasty in the review I would just leave it as is. Not bad to have a warning for future guests.
If I was trying to make light of it I might say: “One of the attractions is that this is a working farm and in Australia that means cows and what cows leave behind. We provide insect repellant and mozzie coils and don’t charge extra for the authentic Australia experience of blowies in Summer”
People are just silly sometimes . This is not up to him what you should charge. What’s up to him is book or not to book.
I answer reviews that are misrepresenting my listing.
Recently one very nice couple though gave me 5* described the room as simple. I charge quite a bit for
That room especially in high season and I don’t want future guests to think that they are paying a lot for “simple” room .
Then one guy said it was noisy. My house is exceptionally quiet. The layout is tht all rooms are far from
Each other and no one can hear even loud TV. The only noise can be produce if it’s on a kitchen or living room.
But I organized everything so guest’s have no need to be in common areas. The reason why it was a bit noisy that night is because long term guests were moving out and for couple hours there was some insignificant noise and it was in early evening.
There were couple people mentioning other guests in negative way. This remarks I even welcome. It’s good to let future guests know that there will be other guests in a house.
I don’t even know why people assume that they will be the only ones without even asking. If this is so important to be the only guest’s then ask.
So, a bunch of us would have no idea what you are talking about. I did understand flies and ants, but mozzies and westerlie and blowies are a foreign language to me.
Btw, Jam, I don’t allow coils on the property. They are super toxic and I don’t think they work worth a damn. In fact during our dengue outbreak a couple years back, I hosted an entomologist who specialized in vectors for tropical disease. She said that the coils or anything with a smell like citronella actually attracts them! She recommended the low tech traps that you fill with water. They draw the mosquitos in and kill them. I set up about five of these around the perimeter of the property and bang, no mosquitoes. If you have a problem with them, do a search for standing water around your property. You must have some standing water, and not all of it is obvious. Even small plants like bromeliads can trap and hold enough water and are like little nurseries for mosquitoes to breed.
Oh noes! Not the broms. I have a frog living in one of mine so I think she keeps the mozzies down. As far as coils I grew up in the tropics in an open house with only louvres and no windows and we relied on mozzie coils in summer. So it is probably the smell that I like. I am pretty immune to them but they go for my guests from temperate zones who haven’t built up a resistance. Nothing wrong with me . Most of them blow in across the bay when the westerley blows, where there are mangrove forests. Occasionally from small dams on nearby farms. I just swathe myself in aerogard and, as it says on the can, “ave a good weekend”. My neighbour who goes out before me and who doesn’t like the chemicals wears a mozzie/fly net on his hat when he walks his dog. It is how I can tell if I need to put on aerogard or not.
btw: blowie = blow fly - large aggressive flies which feed on cow sh*t and attack in great numbers.
@JamJerrupSunset that is all just normal for Australia. I think this bloke exaggerated about the mozzies as we were there the night before and had none. The billabong is tidal so not still. Where are you located? We are in Bellingen mid north coast of NSW.
In my experience mozzies attack some people and leave others alone (to do with the smell of sweat apparently) so it is possible they felt them more than you who are immune from long term attack. I really only use aerogard for blowies not mozzies. I live on the coast but there are mangroves nearby and they create pockets of still rainwater. According to local “knowledge” anyway. Whenever they replant them some of the locals (not me) go out in the middle of night and tear up the seedlings. A pity as we have the remnant of the southern most mangroves in the world in Westernport in Victoria where I live at Jam Jerrup. So I have gone from FNQ mangroves to Vic mangroves. No bats down here though. I call them ‘the tree in the sea’. What’s not to love? Apart (possibly) the mozzies. But people blame the teatrees (leptospurmem) for mozzies as well.
on the farm so a strange place to choose to stay.