Review help please

1

I am always impressed by some of the hosts here that always come up with very succinct, factual, and to the point reviews. I am hoping you will help me with a review of a previous guest.

I am currently in the waiting for the last minute to avoid a retaliatory review phase. Working on the review so I have it ready.

Ill put my review as I have it so far first to keep it short for those that don’t want to read the entire story. Ill put the detailed explanation after.

Review: I cannot recommend these guests to other hosts and will not host them in the future. They showed a disregard for all house rules. They repeatedly violated the “no guests without prior approval rule” even after contacting them and explaining it to them. After they checked out, I discovered they had Smoked in my Non-Smoking home and tried to cover it up with scented candles and incense leaving behind an awful odor. They also left piles of trash in every room including dirty diapers, half eaten food scattered around the kitchen and living room, food crumbs in the bed, and stained sheets and blankets. The cleanup took 2.5 times longer than normal due to the sheer volume of trash and smell.

1’s across the board.

Long story: Yes, I learned a lesson on this one. The issues on day 1 should have been an indication of their disregard for rules and lack of respect for other peoples property. I should have cancelled the reservation on day 1 and asked/told them to leave. But, I have never had to do that before and I was nervous about the actual process to do it and the possible confrontation.

Check-in day, they booked for 3 adults and 1 infant. I noticed when they arrived there were what I would consider 4 guests + infant. But, the 4th person was a child, and I obviously cant tell if they were under 12 or not and I’ve been told Air doesn’t always count kids under 12. My space allows up to 5 without extra charge, so, I didn’t say anything.
2 hours after check-in, 2 additional vehicles showed up with 8-10 additional people (hard to get an accurate account with kids running around everywhere). I messaged that I noticed they had additional guests and that only registered guests were allowed on the property. They responded that they were family and that they were only visiting and wouldn’t be staying. I messaged back that guests are not allowed without prior approval. They replied that they were “new to AirBnB” and were not aware of the rules. I told them that because they were family, they could stay as long as they left before 10pm, but, any additional visitors needed to be pre-approved.
The visitors didn’t leave until Midnight.
Second Day: 2 additional car loads of visitors show up. No request to allow the additional visitors despite my messages the day before telling them it was required. Again, it looked like “family” and for the most part they were being quiet and not causing any disturbance. So, it was easier to avoid any further conflict. (yes, big mistake on my part).
Checkout: They left 15 minutes after checkout time. Not worth mentioning in the review. But, what I walked into when I went into the property made my stomach churn. I don’t think I can adequately describe how dirty and disgusting these people left the property. It literally took 1 person 2 full hours just to bag up and dispose of all the garbage they left behind. This included Dirty diapers left everywhere. Half eaten food in the kitchen and living room. Food crumbs in every bed which stained everything!!! My residential trash container is so large, if its just me and my wife, we generally only need to dump it once a month. The trash they left behind completely filled it. And, the smell from the cigarette smoke mixed with the scented candles and incense they burned to try to cover it up made me sick to my stomach.
We allow back to back bookings as it usually only takes 2 hours to turn it over (spare sets of everything so I can do wash later). We finished mopping 6 hours later, only 5 minutes before the next guest showed up. And, despite running the air cleaners, the next guests noticed the cigarette smell. Luckily they said it wasn’t an issue for them, they only mentioned it to ensure I knew it wasn’t them that were smoking in the property (luckily these guests were so nice, I offered to let them direct book if they are in town again and I will give them a sizeable discount).

Lesson learned, first sign of disrespect, I need to be on better alert. I should have cancelled the reservation day 1. If not then, definitely when the 2nd group showed up on day 2 without asking even after they were warned. I am now working on making myself completely comfortable with how the reservation cancellation process works so i will feel comfortable following it the next time this happens. (Ill probably make another post on that at some point).

Thanks for any assistance on the review wording.

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Gosh, that was a nightmare all around. You’re right the review is too long so here’s a shot. Others will undoubtedly also assist.

“Cannot recommend. Ignored house rules about extra visitors and smoking inside, plus they left the unit very dirty, requiring clean-up beyond the expected amount.”

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3

Sorry you had such literal stinkers.

One thing I would say is that considering how they left the place, in retrospect yes, it’s clear that you would have been a lot better off to cancel the booking.

But you didn’t know at first that they would prove to be so disrespectful- there are newbies who just don’t realize that they can’t invite other people over, who are not necessarily guests who will leave a disaster in their wake.

So where the first error was made was in you telling them that their family could stay until 10. In the future, do not try to be nice or accommodating when guests break your rules. Be polite but firm. “Your family needs to leave immediately. You’ll have to get together somewhere else. Having more people than my stated maximum is against the terms of my insurance and fire regulations.”

When you let people get away with things, it emboldens them to continue to push the boundaries.

While your review draft could be condensed, I don’t think it’s overly long, and it definitely paints a complete picture of how awful these folks were. I would be inclined to post it as written.

As far as your question about kids, only infants do not need to be accounted for on the booking form. Children from 2-12 do count as guests.

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It does certainly seem that if you stretch a rule a little bit once, guests see it as license to ignore more. They may also believe in getting forgiveness rather than permission.

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i would just tighten it up a bit. I don’t mention “house rules” because some people would wonder if the rules were too strict to begin with. Some hosts are more casual than others on what would lead them to turn down a guest, so I wouId incuded some specifics.

Cannot recommend. They smoked and burned candles and incense in my non-smoking home, left piles of trash in every room including dirty diapers and half eaten food, and they stained sheets and blankets. They also repeatedly brought in extra unregistered guests. The cleanup took 2.5 times longer than normal due to the sheer volume of trash and oders.

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Yes, please! When I see reviews that mention that guests didn’t follow the house rules, it’s not helpful unless it mentions specifics. A lot of hosts have rules that are either not relevant to me or are not important to me. And some have so many rules that I imagine it’s pretty easy to break one.

And if it is a house rule that is relevant to my place then I’d like to know what it was so that I can be aware of the issue and stay on top of it.

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Review: Invited 8-10 visitors, which was not approved. Rules against visitors were explained, yet they did this again the next day.They left the property in a filthy condition; dirty diapers strewn about, smoked cigarettes in violation of house rules and tried to camouflage with candles/incense, filled with trash, deep cleaning needed, would never host again.

One thing I’ve discovered. Set your maximum occupancy, whether overnight or not. Once that maximum is exceeded, bad things happen and as an aside, the guest experience is not optimal for them either because you are not set up for that size group. Even diligent hosts might have difficulty managing a large group. [There’s a reason why large groups are sometimes called a ‘mob.’] The visitors have no understanding of the rules. Things get out of control. Do not allow it, ever.

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Thanks, everyone for the feedback. I knew I would get some excellent suggestions from the group.

The hard part now is watching the countdown clock.

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I would not host GUEST again, they smoked in the unit, had extra guests without approval and left a disgusting mess.

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@jdmlt - @RiverRock has nailed the review. Short but covers everything another host would need to know to turn the guest down.

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12

Why would anyone here contact you?

As a licensed educator I’m sure you carefully read everything when you signed up as a member of this forum and know that we aren’t run my Airbnb or monitored by them in any way.

Also you’re misusing the the word “pedagogically.” Airbnb isn’t a school and hosts and guests aren’t playing teacher when they use Airbnb.

I bet everyone here has had the professor who in fact does reduce grades based on some criteria they shouldn’t. How about Dr. “I never give an A?” I certainly had one of those.

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13

Wow, since when has life been fair?

It’s such an easy issue to correct. If you don’t like using Airbnb, advertise somewhere else.

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14

This is great. The only word I might change is “disgusting,” because it’s subjective.

“and left food, diaper and other mess requiring extensive cleaning.”

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15

Airbnb doesn’t care.

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Your’s is an argument made by people who are afraid of debate, don’t understand logic, and want to escape the fray as quickly as possible. It is an indication that you are complacent and on a race to the bottom. It is a passive aggressive ultimatum that helps no one.

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Don’t come in here with your misused words and grammatical errors and start your mansplaining bull :poop:. You don’t know anyone here. You will be deleted and blocked.

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You are writing nonsense. This forum isn’t the place for debate. It also isn’t a place to attack people and you know nothing at all about me or any of the members here.

You joined an hour ago and have read this forum for 19 minutes only.

I have no idea why you’re here.

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19

Exactly! And there’s also the guy who gives a weekly quiz and assigns 4 papers but deducts a whole letter grade for poor attendance even when you have a 100-point average in his class. :grimacing:

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Oh yeah, I had one of those professors. They force you to attend because they are so effing boring and pedantic that if they didn’t there would be no one there. They are the kind that say “these are my credentials and you must respect that” even when they are full of it.

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Yep, because if I can maintain a perfect grade in your class without even showing up, that sounds a like a you problem, not a me problem. And :poop: :poop: :poop: I’m waiting tables every night to pay for this crap.

Fortunately there were others who more than made it up for it.

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