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There were a couple of legitimate remarks, but the rest were excessively nitpicky. It’s a special kind of guest who thinks everyone is entitled to their opinion. For example, they complained there was no guidebook with local restaurants. For one, we have an extensive guidebook on our listing page. Secondly, we have a paper guidebook in the suite (which they missed). Thirdly, we are available by messaging and are very responsive.
We responded with a non-defensive private message to them, hoping to ward off a negative review. That said, I think other hosts should know about these picky, picky people. What would you say?
Editing to add that we have had almost 100 guests and have a 5.0 star rating, 99% 5 stars. Not to brag, but for context.
Remember – the reviews are for your fellow hosts, not the guests so much.
Public Review: Guests were nice enough but wanted to tell us how to run our business.
Private Review: You have such interesting suggestions. We suggest that you employ them in your own Airbnb, and we would be happy to help you get set up.
Some people have a high opinion of their opinions. It’s so idiotic that they spent time on this and for what purpose? Do they want to come back again and again? Wish you’d share a photo of their list for our amusement
Wait to see if they leave you a review and if they do then leave them an appropriate one with a thumbs down. I personally would not want to host these picky annoying guests. I wonder if they’ll leave their suggestions as private feedback.
If they don’t review within the 14 day period, leave them one at the last minute.
Today everyone’s a wanna be critic.
What is it about guidebooks? 1. My good friend & Airbnb neighbor was dinged for not having a guidebook with restaurant suggestions. It was in her condo with a cover of “guest book” on the coffee table. 2. I was dinged because my guidebook went missing so I emailed a copy to the guest until I could create another. They didn’t want to open their email I guess.
To create a guide book in Airbnb or create a document takes hours and hours. Oh well, just another day.
We know no one reads our listings but now this too!
Lol @KenH! I already replied to their handwritten list through the Air messaging system.
Let’s see: we should offer ziplock baggies, scissors, a full length mirror. Then there was the issue that these youngsters couldn’t figure out the TV (yet never messaged us with questions) and we should have a printed list of channels like hotels (Do they mean local stations?). Never mind that instructions for the TV are in our online house manual and printed guest book. We should also add shelves in the bathroom even though we have a large under vanity drawer for guests’ things.
Yes, there was a legit issue with a slow sink drain which no one previously alerted us to and which we addressed immediately. Sure, other things would be nice but we offer a 6-night max stay and don’t feel like we need or want to offer a house’s worth of things.
I agree that reviews are for future hosts which is why I’ve tapped the collective wisdom of this board.
Unironically, they also said we should provide a pad and pen, presumably so they didn’t have to use their own to give hosts 3 pages of notes. Mind you, this was 3 pages of 8-1/2 x 11" paper. Only one sided, though.
I also got smacked back in the public reviews by some superhosts who gave me a side by side comparison of how my Airbnb failed against theirs and how I was a mediocre host who thought of them as a paycheck. They can take their snooty opinions back up to Canada. What on earth about living on an island with limited resources compares to living in a world class ski resort like they do?
Also, I was cracked for daring to discuss in the listing about my exact location and yet having her ding me on accuracy. “While you do clearly give the location, we still think it is deceptive.” Oh I see.
I have had about enough of mean and cruel guests such as this. So much so that I often dream of just closing down and saving my place for family and friends only.
Luckily most of my guests are lovely but the occasional bad one like this truly messes with your head and makes you question why you even allow people to do this to you.
I hope in the future when they travel her hosts will get a gander of her scathing review of me and not rent to her. I wouldn’t.
We found it interesting you are only interested in recycling the bottles with deposits.
Not true. I have to take those to a different station than the other recycles. They have reduced the rate they pay on recycles. You can have a whole carful of bottles and cans and you might get $5 back. Not even enough to pay for the gas to take them.
Also, as I state, recycling is a suggestion only, not mandatory, as it helps the planet.
She blatantly disregarded my house rules by leaving all the fans on all the time and daring me to come in the house to turn them off. She even wrote that in the review.
I stupidly gave her five stars and a thumbs up, that is how backhanded she was.
And of course they arrived announcing how easygoing they were blah blah blah.
These people have been so nice to invest quite a bit of their time to help you improve. They didn’t do it with bad intentions, it was all good intentions and they really shouldn’t be getting any bad review because of this. Ok, some of their suggestions may be hilarious, unpractical, infeasible, etc. … but some of it you already admitted to being legit. They can only leave you feedback from their viewpoint, but it’s up to you to see what you take on board.
Let’s see what they asked:
Ziplock baggies => That wouldn’t be my travel essential either or I would take my own bags along.
Scissors => Can be very practical, but depends on the kind of listing if this should be available.
Full length mirror => My hubby for sure would appreciate it! He also considers it an essential.
Instructions to figure out the TV => Depending on the kind of remote control could be handy. Some of the remote controls just have too many buttons.
List of channels => Seems like a small amount of work and indeed could make more guests happy.
Online house manual => Maybe I’m from a different era, but I probably wouldn’t go looking online.
Didn’t find printed guest book => Reconsider it’s placement? Or mention it at check in?
Shelves in the bathroom => Open shelvers are the best I believe, everything that is closed off like a drawer makes me forget things when I checkout.
To end my plea for appreciating feedback: I don’t think that people who leave hand written feedback will publicly repeat this feedback in their review. Be glad they left it for you in private. This kind of people are not nit-picky, they just have an eye for detail and they give you better insight in what guest’s needs possibly could be.
I’m inclined to agree with @GutHend here. In general feedback is a good thing. I usually find people are disinclined to leave any. I admit it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, though. And though I ask for it, I also must admit I’m usually slow to implement any of the suggestions people make.
This method has worked for Faheem and others. I don’t want to burden my guests with more to do during their stay. We all get inundated with surveys and requests for feedback, reviews and ratings wherever we go.
We are in the hospitality business. Occasionally the crowd management, sanitation, and dominatrix business too, but I digress.
As hospitable people we tend to see the best in others. While our reviews as tenured hosts are honest, we focus on the positive. After all, we are often afforded the same courtesy.
When someone writes a negative review, it is a reflection of them, not us. it serves a purpose. i had a minister for a guest who had some very creepy ideas, and may as well have been evaluating the Bellagio. A month or two later he evaluated a stay at a country home, where apparently the host’s two year old ‘was not friendly’. Better work on that.
What’s done is done. Somebody somewhere is going to bite them. For now, you did your best to be a good host.
In a perfect world and if I were a perfect person I would agree with @GutHend - it is sage, considered advice. Feedback is a blessing …sometimes.
But it’s not a perfect world, it’s Airbnb-land where we work our socks off to please our guests, give them a great experience/vacation, meet their needs and send them off refreshed and relaxed. And then they take the time to notice the lack of ziploc bags …
The guests MAY have been trying to be helpful by their remarks, but did @SuiteInSeattle ask for suggestions? I think not. I usually struggle with the meaning of “passive-agressive” but this guest’s “helpful” behaviour fits the bill for me.
I have, very occasionally as a guest, and only when asked, suggested a couple of things to a new host who wanted advice, and when we set up our new studio I asked our first few guests if there was anything we’d forgotten. They made a couple os suggestions which were helpful (still not got round to putting up the full-length mirror …) But I had asked, and if I don’t ask, then give me a bad review if you want, but don’t load me with your ideas which I had undoubtedly already considered but rejected on the grounds of cost/unavailability or they were already there! As @KenH says - go and open your own Airbnb …
… should add, please forgive the snappy tone …v. tired after having been woken up by a phone call (my ring tone is LOUD) at 2a.m. by nice young guests who had locked themselves out …
@Malagachica, you have hit the nail on the head why I found it irksome. Also that it was prefaced (presumably to boost their credibility) with “this is not the first Airbnb we have stayed in,” when reviews show ours was their . . . second.
I think I agree with this. I’m a new host, so maybe I’ll be changing my tune once people start telling me what I’m doing wrong. But I’d definitely rather they do it in private, and I figure I might get some useful ideas out of it! I actually installed a suggestion box. But I know I may be taking that sucker down as time goes on. For now, I feel like I will want the suggestions as long as they aren’t part of the public review.
