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I use AirBnb as a guest quite often when I travel and being a host myself I struggle to write negative reviews.
So I just returned from Krakow in Poland. Our host gave us instructions for self check in. We arrive at the door at the agreed time (2pm) and the key is not inside the lock box as per instructions. I call the host and she tells me she made a mistake and forgot we are coming today. She also told me the place was not cleaned yet. She came to the apartment in 20 minutes and started cleaning in front of us. We told her we would leave our bags and head out for sight seeing so she can take her time as we would be back later in the evening.
The apartment was clean and ready when we came back (6pm) and we had no issue during our stay. Iām thinking the host was having a bad day and this could be a genuine mistake. However AirBnb sends the host a reminder before check in and I also communicated with the host a few days before our arrival. How could the host forget about us??
Would you mention this in the review and drop down the stars or would you let it slide?
I would mention it, but also mention I understand that mistakes do sometimes happen.
Iām curious about the notifications you say hosts get before a guest checks in. Is this a thing? Iāve never been notified, I have to rely on keeping an eye on my calendar
makes me cringe remembering one of my hosting cockups. I had a family from South Africa in, with Canadians due afterwards. The Canadian emailed a message, I replied, he then replied to thank me and added āsee you tomorrow afternoonā. I got to the flat the next day, but the South Africans were still there, and told me they have another full dayā¦embarrassed I checked dates, and they were right, Iād just got confused by the Canadian using the word ātomorrowā, heād actually meant the day after.
But I had ātomorrowā in my head!
Luckily I hadnāt been stroppy with the South Africans, imagine if Iād let myself in expecting an empty flat and threw a hissy fit!
I still got 5 stars though
Green is the apartment, orange the Loft, yellow is family and friends. The only problem is running out of green tape and having to cannibalise the earlier months to feed September! (Green almost used up in June and July - looking on Amazon for more.)
I am very visual and useless at remembering dates so I really like to have something where I can see whatās coming up at-a-glance. Of course there can be human error if SOMEONE doesnāt transfer dates from the website bookings (I do the Air ones).
This app is customisable (you can also have red or blue tape!) and our premium version has stars for birthdays and anniversaries. I am prepared to release it to beta-testers for the very reasonable price of 95.50 euros. Note: wall essential for putting up on.
If I may butt inā¦I spent 5 days there in 2009. I loved it. I stayed in an apartment just outside the main tourist area so I canāt help with a hotel recommendation. Very walkable of course. As you probably know I went primarily to visit Auschwitz/Birkenau.
I heard that the tours there were a bit of a rip off. That you pay top dollar for a tour and they just take you there and wait for you because the actual tours are free and you just meet up with a tour in your language. But I am getting ahead of myself. I need the airfares to drop first. Right now from Kona it is $1500 round trip. I found an incredible gorgeous old hotel for $92 a night in the time frame I am thinking of. May talk to you more offline about this. ļø
An honest mistake and the host was QUICK to get over in 20 minutes to start cleaning! If all was good on the stay and host was sincerely apologetic, I would still rate 5 star overall and maybe, but probably not, deduct a star for check in. I would hope a fellow host would be especially forgiving, knowing how it would affect the hosts future bookings.
maybe mention it in a private message? Its unlikely that this is a recurring theme for this host - I think negative reviews are for warning people about problems they are likely to encounter. Do you think itās likely that this host does this all the time and guests should be warned? or was it a one off?
ļø