Don’t some guests drive you nuts.
Last review guest says i should review my check in window.
Its 6 pm to 11 pm and she arrived at 9-30 pm having been at work until 9 pm so why be difficult !
It spoilt a nice visit and i have now asked AIRBNB to block her from booking again. I can do without picky guests lol
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If it didn’t impact her check-in, it’s indeed bizarre for her to mention it in a review.
While I know that hosts have varying circumstances and reasons for their check-in times, i.e. a home-share host works, doesn’t get home until after 5, and self-check-in doesn’t work for them, 6pm seems a pretty late time to open for check-in.
But if that was simply something she was pointing out, she should have presented it to you as a suggestion through private feedback, not in the public review.
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So basically she gave you an OK written review with a suggestion about checking your check-in times and you blocked her but she was otherwise a pleasant guest and abided by your House Rules?
We all know that guests often review in the wrong boxes - leaving private commentary in the public space, for instance - and that’s no reason to blast them, especially newbies.
When I’ve been in your shoes, I’ve followed it up with a Message to the guest asking for more information. Often I get very good feedback and usually an “oh filling out the review was confusing, I thought that was private and I ran out of time.”
It may help you to find out what she exactly meant so that you can improve your listing or at least let guests understand the late check in time.
Just my 2 cents…
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I don’t get being so sensitive to suggestions, minor criticism, or a less than totally glowing review, that one would block the guest from booking again, and consider it to “spoil a nice visit”, myself, unless the guest left low stars.
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Agreed, the OP never stated how the guest reviewed them in stars. That info would be helpful.
We’ve probably all gotten the revenge stars reviews and moved on from it. I’ve only blocked 1 set of guests/parties since 2017 and they deserved it for egregious behavior.
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Thanks everyone for your comments.
Overall i got 5 stars.
The individual grades were all 5 star apart from 3 star for check in and 4 star for cleanliness.
Neither grade i understood - i had asked her what time she wanted to check in a couple of days prior to arrival and she said 9-30 pm so too comment on that seemed petty.
All the other 38 reviews have scored me 5 star for cleanliness. This grade is obviously important with coruna vires still lurking about. I did query it with her and she thought it insignificant mentioning the glowing private review she gave me.
In my view she has not helped me at all so i withdrew my review of her (which was positive - i have only given 2 poor reviews from many guests.) Maybe it is mean blocking her but it may make her think a little bit more about the damage she can do. She is certainly aware i was not impressed with what she said.
Removing your positive review simply because she left a comment you didn’t like and rated a few categories lower than 5 seems extremely childish and vindictive.
If your review of her as a guest was honest, and she was indeed a non-objectionable guest until she gave a rating and review you didn’t like, there should be no legitimate reason to have your positive review removed.
We review guests for the benefit of other hosts, not as a reward or punishment for the review or ratings a guest leaves after their stay.
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Thank you for your input Muddy. The “late check in” (mine is 6 pm to 11pm) is actually pretty standard in the UK - I work and don’t want a self check in as i want to greet guests myself (it’s my home and i live in it) . However If arranged in advance i can usually arrange earlier entry - the problem i find is guests don’t reply when i ask what time they want to check in. Currently when this happens i send a message the day before saying check in is anytime between 6 pm and 11 pm. Anyone got any better suggestions on this ? I have no desire to bombard people with numerous messages as i think they will just find it annoying.
But if i were honest very few would score 5/5 for communication for example - a host really cannot win,
Not really sure what you mean by that. If you don’t feel a guest deserves a 5 star rating for communication, why would you give them 5 stars?
As far as your check-in time goes, as I said, I understand why a host might need to have a check-in time that’s outside “the norm”. As a home-share host myself, for whom self-check-in also isn’t practical, I get that, I just happen to work from home, so my check-in time can be quite flexible.
I was just commenting that I could see where guests, in general, might find it a bit late, as most places have earlier check-in times. And many guests tend to have the attitude of expecting things that they experienced at other Airbnbs to be reasonable to expect at all listings, rather than realizing all are different and that they agreed to whatever was advertised if they chose to book it, so have no cause for complaint.
“Well, my last host provided shower gel…”, “Well, none of the other Airbnbs expected me to strip the bed”, “My last host fully refunded me when I had to cancel, why are you being so mean and greedy?” are the type of comments hosts hear quite often.
Is it really?
202020202020
JF
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I didn’t know that you can ‘withdraw’ a review. I had thought that once you wrote your review, and the guest had written their review, that that was it – no more changes, but only an opportunity to comment/respond to the reviews made.
I know that you can try to have a review from a guest removed by Airbnb if it violates its guidelines, but there’s nothing in the guest’s review that was apparently objectionable on that basis. Plus it was your own review that you removed/withdrew.
Am I missing something? How’d ya’ do it?
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I spoke to a AIRBNB agent as i wanted to block the guest from booking again - i also asked to withdraw my review of the lady who visited me - she agreed to do this and the review is no longer showing. I was surprised they did this but why help a snide guest out… maybe it was because they could see the conversation on the AIRBNB portal showing she enjoyed her stay .
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@HostAirbnbVRBO I think Airbnb will always remove a review or a review response at the request of the user who submitted it. There’s no trick to it. As far as I’m aware it’s always been like that, although not many users know that.
It’s not written in policy anywhere I am aware of and it is ripe for abuse, as anyone who left a good review for the other party could vengefully withdraw it just because they didn’t like the review they were left.
Thank you. 20200202020