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Me. All day, every day.
This is a good example of where it’s important to say exactly in the review what the issue is. So if a review says “didn’t reply to request for check in time and dietary preferences,” I can ignore that since it doesn’t matter at my listing. Also guests can check in at their leisure, they don’t have to tell me and they can have guests. So hopefully in the future this good guest can find a host who offers what suits her better.
True enough. I have set check in times and do every check in personally. Plus I do NOT abide people that break the most basic house rules so knowing this would be good for me as well.
I just published the following review:
(Name) is a nice, pleasant, positively spirited girl. However, we are doubtful in recommending her. She didn’t communicate about her expected arrival time although being asked several times, and therefor had us housebound and waiting for more than 7 hours. By bringing in an unauthorized visitor she also broke a very important house rule, as we consider unauthorized or unregistered visitors a real security risk. If she works on her communication and respects house rules she could be a perfect guest.
I added the last sentence, to sandwich the negative between two positives. I gave her 3 stars for communication and 3 stars for house rules.
She apparently left us 4 stars, the first 4 stars in a VERY LONG TIME 
. Next time I need to remember to just totally kill this kind of guest in my review. 
.
EDIT: I don’t know what it’s worth, but at least I followed my last second instinct to give her thumbs DOWN 
.
Not surprising she left you a 4-star review. Bad guests are just bad all around. My only “bad” guest checked out last Monday. His group broke most of the house rules and I would only just barely stop short of saying they trashed the house. In his review of my listing, he gave me 3 stars for location. Why? Because his group came to town for a golf tournament and my listing is 26 miles away. Everything nearby was either already booked or much more expensive. So, he booked my listing because it’s right on a very convenient route to the tournament and the normal driving time is still under 30 minutes. Yep.
I appreciate the non-emotional review, but I’m the age of your guest and feel too old to be called a girl. I may give thumbs down if guests have friends over (against my rules as well) if they also break other rules.
After she booked she sent one short sentence: “I’m a (nationality) girl, looking forward to getting to know (our country).” So it’s because she referred to herself as a girl 
. Maybe I should have written woman to make the review less forgiving 
.
Every time I um and ah about whether I am being too harsh in my review of a guest I am vindicated. Without fail they have left me a less that stellar review. You can usually tell it’s coming by their petty complaints.
This is yesterdays complaint: The plant watering system just came on while my husband was in the bath. The plant above the bath seems like it could be better placed but he had been in there for a while so he was happy to get out.
My response: The watering system is scheduled to come on 12 noon as our check out is 11am so it is the least invasive time for our guests to have the plants watered.
Basically she treated your home like a hotel. She probably thinks what she did is okay.
I could take lesson from you actually - you’re much more measured and even keeled in your reviews than I am. I let guests have it when they break my rules.
@GutHend possibly she has registered a non-primary email with Airbnb that is not checked regularly. That would be plain stupid, but people are stupid surprisingly often;) Did you try texting to her cell? This works for me 90% of the time.
I understand that your place may better suit her actions but the fact that she broke someone else’s rules and didn’t communicate would still be an issue I would think. It means she is likely also to break YOUR rules that you DO care about because of not reading them or just not caring. And although you don’t NEED commo before their stay the fact that they IGNORE a host’s repeated inquiries to aid in making their stay more enjoyable means she may be rude to you as well.
I still think this is a case of this particular guest not choosing the right Airbnb for her needs. That’s on her, I’m not excusing her and if Gut wouldn’t host her again he absolutely should give her a thumbs down.
And over time as Airbnb moves to the hotel model it will probably get harder and harder for host like Gut to get bookings on Airbnb. That’s not a criticism of him, just a commentary on the direction I see Airbnb going. I’m very lucky that my style of hosting fits Airbnb’s wants very well.
I’m going to keep beating the drum of which way Airbnb is going so people who read the forum know what to expect because Airbnb isn’t going to tell them the truth.
Since she has decided on including at least two outright lies in her reaction to our review, I started looking into the reviews she left other hosts. Since AirReview is still down 
(at least on Apple), I had to do it manually .
She has 5 reviews herself (including ours):
Yes, she definitely should have gone elsewhere, a place with no rules at all (we have very few) and maybe a place with airconditioning.
Thumbs up or thumbs down seems to have disappeared. Now it’s a yes or no on whether you would host them again.
It’s still on the website where I write 99% of my reviews. Not that it really matters if the thumb icon is there or not.
Different wording, different buttons. It’s fascinating the ways Airbnb differs from country to country, app to website, browser to browser and seemingly at times from host to host, all else being equal.
All hosts are equal, but some hosts are more equal than others 
Hi GutHend,
You are too generous to give her 4 stars for communication. She clearly doesn’t reserve even 3 stars.
On the website you don’t have to use the thumbs at all, in fact most of the review sections are optional. I only give a thumbs up to great guests, and no thumb at all to annoying guests.
If a guest doesn’t reply to my messages I txt them asking them to reply. House rules are sent in a separate message that they have to reply and agree to, to ensure they have read them.
