Review wording help - greasy mess

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I had some minor leg surgery yesterday, and thought today would be a good day to get caught up on my guest reviews.

Most of them are pretty straight forward, except for one…here is the back story.

Guest books (well in advance) for her and her husband to attend the Crossfit Games. Two days before their intended arrival, she says they could not get on the same flight, so her husband is coming a day later. I respond with “sure, no problem!” and proceed to give her parking/arrival instructions. She sends me another message the day of their scheduled arrival, saying “just to be clear, D won’t be arriving until tomorrow”. I respond that I must have misunderstood because I thought she would be coming on day one, and hubby would arrive a day later. she says no, their foster child could not get clearance to fly. First I’ve heard of the child, but ok…I have the flat ready, just in case…(her message just said that they could not get on the same flight, not that she wouldn’t be coming).

I then get a message from her saying her husbands flight was cancelled, that he will now be arriving on day 3, and all future correspondence will be through him via text. OK…he does a good job of letting me know when he’ll arrive, etc. Things go ok for the first two days. The day before his departure, I get an alert on my phone saying the smoke alarm has gone off. Minor panic until I can get him to respond to my texts. Turns out he was “trying to cook and couldn’t figure out how to turn the hood fan on”…sigh…my alert system shows that “smoke is clearing” so I calm down, ask if there was any damage/fire and he says no, just smoke and everything is ok.

I go in the next day to clean, and the kitchen is a mess. Grease splatter EVERYWHERE - walls, floor, even across the room on the shelves and coffee maker. It looks like he grabbed the pan with grease in it, carried it over to the sink and ran water on it. He did not attempt to clean anything but the pan, which was in the dishwasher. The sponge he used was ruined, which is fine, but he put the oil soaked sponge back in the cabinet for me to find later.

It has been 13 days, and I’m calmer now (yay!) and actually starting to feel sorry for the guy. They never asked for a refund for the first two days (I likely wouldn’t have given one anyway, since everything around was booked for the games) and upon reviewing my security footage after the smoke alarm, I see he attended the games just once, and returned to the flat in a walking cast. I’d say his trip was worse for him than me.

So, this is what I’m thinking in the public review:
C was unable to stay due to scheduling conflicts, but her husband D stayed. Communication was good and house rules were followed. A minor kitchen mishap left a bit of a mess.

And in the private feedback say something like:
The grease incident in the flat caused quite a bit of a mess, which took much longer than anticipated to clean up. You are new to Air, but in the future, please make sure to read and follow check out instructions, or communicate to the host that you won’t so we can allow for additional cleaning time. (I have in my check out instructions to clean the oven/stove/microwave if used).

Yes, its a bit of a rough draft, which is why I need your help. So, fire away!

Thanks!

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I think considering he was on limited mobility id cut him some slack as he probably did the best he could. If everything else was fine overall and there was no damage I wouldnt even mention it in review. Id keep the review neutral or not write one. Guests alwayss screw up my recycling, compost and garbage bins and I waste so much time picking through the bins even though sorting instructions are clearly provided but if everything else was good I just chalk it up to part of doing business.

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Thanks @Sonia, that’s kind of what I was thinking as well. :slight_smile: I’m just wondering if I should mention it in private feedback, and if so how. I would have been much happier if they had let me know, so I could get there a little earlier to clean. I had a same day turnover and was quite upset at first.

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Was leaving the kitchen a greasy mess following the house rules? If not, I would leave that part out.

Face it, this was not really a guest you would recommend to the rest of us.

I wouldn’t want this guest no matter what their excuses and reasons.

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Thanks for your perspective @konacoconutz This is what I’m struggling with. I don’t want to NOT leave a review, but I don’t want to put off new Air guests by being too harsh - he did have a fairly shitty trip, and was injured which may have contributed to his not being able to clean up as well as he may have otherwise… but try to let them know what is expected of them, so they are better guests in the future.

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I know. I might just say,

Unfortunately xx left our kitchen quite a mess with grease splattered everywhere. This took extra cleaning on our part. He had some mishaps during his trip so maybe this explains why he was not as attentive as he could have been. I am hoping at his next Airbnb he will adhere to house rules and leave the place in a respectful condition.

I know it’s hard to write a bad review of someone who was nice but think about it… it wasn’t nice of him to leave that mess for you.

As someone who just left a pretty bad review of some clueless guests, I felt kind of bad when I hit submit but a few weeks later I’m very glad I was honest. Their stay stressed me out almost every minute they were here.

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7

Good write-up. Fits everything the OP wants to say.

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Sandy, we seem to at our best when writing about someone else’s guests! Remember how you helped me write the final version of the fan guest review?

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Yeah, but I’m a wuss and a dunderhead when it comes to writing about my own guests.

I’ve got my pencils sharpened in case I ever break out of my shell.

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Thanks for all the helpful feedback! @konacoconutz you and @SandyToes do have the magic touch when it comes to writing reviews. :heart_eyes: This is what I ended up with:

C was unable to stay due to a scheduling conflict, but her husband D stayed. Communication was good and D was friendly. The kitchen was left a mess from a cooking mishap. I ask in my check out procedures to please clean the kitchen if you use it.

In private feedback, I said:
In the future, let hosts know if you are unable to complete checkout tasks so they can allot additional time.Cleaning the grease up took me extra cleaning time, and I had another guest checking in the same day. Thanks!

Its milktoast, I know. But I felt it let guest and future hosts know there was an issue, but maybe they’ll do better next time? Their review of my place was one line - “TJ is an excellent communicative host” in private feedback they thanked me for dealing with their travel changes. No mention of the mess, so I’m glad I mentioned it!!

Oh, and I knocked them down two stars in the cleanliness category.

Thanks again everyone for all the help!

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Well done. I’m sure hosts thank you.

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Well… you know what I will say about this. It goes without saying so I just won’t say it!!!

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