I purposefully got the thinnest good quality turkish cotton towels I could find for my tiny bathroom in my tiny (680 sq) second home rowhouse. They dry you off great but don’t appear “luxurious.” I just don’t have room for fluffy towels; I have one traditional higher pile towel for those who prefer it. The thinner towels actually seem more absorbant to me.
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Since airbnb provides a way to respond to a booking with a ‘welcome’ type of message upon acceptance of a booking, I am sure that this is going to soon be a nonissue. Many of us who use smartlock automation send a response with check in info, codes, etc automatically as well. These responses are also optionally sent via date - a message the day before the start of the stay, for example, can be automated right in the messaging app.
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I get those too. And as more and more hosts adopt the automated messages I get more and more “so glad to be talking to a real person” messages too.
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This is what terrifies me about hosting hosts (although I’ve been very lucky and all of mine have been fine). Not only might they knock off points for not leaving bottles of wine, flowers, and hand-written welcome notes, but they might find the need to broadcast their dissatisfaction on widely-read social media pages, along with thinly-veiled, shameful self-promotion. Ugh.
Plus, I wonder if these types of hosts realize that they might be harming their own businesses by broadcasting their superiority in this manner. To state that there is a “sickening” number of Airbnbs that aren’t what they say they are, even with stellar 4.97 ratings, is not only not true, but will terrify guests who read social media into avoiding short-term rentals altogether. Not the trend any of us want.
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If you are talking about those Hammam towels, they’re beautiful. I had never seen them before until I had a guest who had hung hers up on the clothesline to dry. I thought it was a shawl and said how pretty I thought it was. 
She clued me in to it being a Turkish towel, said she always travels with it as it is super absorbent but dries quickly.
Those towels are pricey and if I stayed somewhere that used them, I’d consider it pretty upscale.
They’re also called peshtemals and it’s what I personally use exclusively. I don’t really care for big, fluffy towels, it feels like I’m drying off with a stuffed animal 
But in the US they are the norm so I give my guests a few big fluffy towels along with a couple of peshtemals and let them choose. Not everyone cares for them, including my husband, but the people who do are really appreciative of having them.
I get mine directly from a woman in Turkey on Etsy and they’re not particularly expensive. I sent you a link to it.
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Thin towels (waffle-weave comes to mind) are not shabby or threadbare towels. Formerly fluffy towels which are now not much better than dusting rags are shabby towels.
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I agree. I have found that people who are hosts or who have been staying with Airbnb since the early days have unreasonable expectations. I’m glad that this host/guest won’t be staying in Airbnb anymore. Not sure someone who expects a luxury experience for $600 per night would be a good guest to have.
I’d much rather host a person who has 0 reviews and just joined Airbnb. They tend to know today’s reality of high inflation, high labor costs very well.
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I’m the original poster and if you read my post and subsequent further comments, I repeatedly said that I was not expecting them to do all the things which I do. My complaint was specific to the price point and description of the properly vis-a-vis things which are “indisputably” not ok for a 5-star property: unwelcoming and arguably dangerous lack of any lighting upon arrival, threadbare towels in minimal supply, uncomfortable/cheap mattresses which were so bad that my sister (not a host) chose to sleep on the floor rather than aggravate her sciatica.
I also did not shame the property owner on social media. This is not a totally open platform. Nevertheless, I did not specify the location, nor did I post any link to the property (folks asked, but I chose not to do that for fear of embarrassing the Host).
I’ve stayed at plenty of airbnbs in several countries. Until this stay i have always given 5 stars…even when, quite frankly, the places were not really excellent — they simply delivered what was promised.
While I’ve never stayed in one which offers as many amenities as mine does. is this shameless self-promotion? I don’t see it that way since I did not post any link to my own space or indication which makes mine identifiable.
I was simply trying to point out that if there is no distinction between “fine” and “excellent and welcoming”, then what good do the star rankings? Whether in school, movie reviews, book reviews, restaurant reviews, or business, grade inflation doesn’t do anyone any good. It drives everyone down to the minimal norm.
I am thrilled when I get other Airbnb Hosts as guests. I ask them for honest feedback long before checkout and I make a point of seeking to learn how I can improve my future guests’ experience.
Thanks.
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All of my guests who are also hosts, as well as guests who have been using Airbnb for years have been great guests who had no unreasonable expectations, no demands nor complaints, and all left solid 5 star reviews.
If you read the OP’s original post here, the place was advertised as “luxurious” and “spa-like”. Do you think that guests shouldn’t expect a place to live up to its billing? Isn’t that what “accuracy” means? Spas and luxurious places don’t provide a paucity of towels, nor threadbare ones.
It isn’t a matter of Newbiehost having unreasonable expectations, nor is the price relevant. It is that the way the place was advertised was not the reality. A host shouldn’t describe their listing as “luxurious” if that is not the experience they are providing.
And undercharging isn’t an excuse for false advertising. If a host doesn’t want to provide the quality of amenities that jive with their description, they should change the expectations they set up for guests.
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I haven’t recently travelled but if I were staying at a short-term rental that delivered on what it objectively promised I’d have a hard time not giving it a ‘5.’
However, if something like a bed were uncomfortable (not just for me, but objectively so for others) I think I’d be inclined to say so either in the review or in private feedback.
Something like poor quality mattresses is exactly why a guest might legitimately leave 4* s overall even though they left 5* s in all the other categories. While it seems like the majority of discrepancies between the category ratings and the Overall are just fickleness (like “I never leave 5* s because nothing is perfect”), there can also be legit reasons for doing so.
However, if a guest does that, it would be fair to the host to let them know why, as you say, by mentioning it in the review or private feedback.
I haven’t noticed. I instant book most the time. Maybe response time only counts if you as a question prior to booking or do request to book. Technically there’s nothing to respond to, especially not right away. Like I said, as Airbnb moves away from “stay with a person” and towards “use our website to find places to stay that aren’t hotels,” it makes sense.
I tend to agree. I have a towel that I like from IKEA that is thin with a texture and back when I was doing the “stay in my house with me” thing, I had it in the guest room like I would if friend was staying with me. My linens were various bright colors and I just used what I already had. But after my first complaint about it being thin and scratchy I began my slow move to more of the hotel model.
I know. Those responses aren’t any better than nothing in my mind. I guess I’m just a bit nostalgic for the early days. There are definitely still hosts who do it that way and more and they are my favorite stays.
I did have one review mentioning how bad the master bed mattress was. A two year old Temperpedic that we left behind when we moved to another house. I, and many guests, know how comfortable that mattress is, however someone was not a temperpedic fan. Mattress comfort can be very subjective. That particular review was by someone mad about something else entirely.
I agree.
I happen not to find Temper-Pedic mattresses comfortable (sleep ‘hot’ for me); my daughter LOVES it as THE BEST. Of course, they’re well regarded.
So that’s why if I’m a guest and I were to mention the mattress in the review I’d have to know that the mattress [or fill in blank] REALLY a problem, not a mater of my preference. But not every guest will have that perspective.
I do think it’s a favor to the Host to leave private feedback that shares your preference as input, without complaint.
When I think of bad mattresses, it’s in terms of whether it’s just too old or cheap and uncomfortable for that reason, like it has low spots, you can feel springs and such.
Some people like a firm mattress, some a soft one- it would never occur to me to complain about a mattress just because it wasn’t my preference. But I know some guests do.
How can you tell if a message was automated or ‘personalized’?
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If it comes instantly, as soon as I book. No one could type that many words, or even read my message and then cut and paste a saved reply that fast kind of instantly.
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Doesn’t answer my question or comment if my booking message includes one. For example, I booked an airbnb where I asked about the availability of a second room later on if I ended up traveling with a companion. They have more than one room on offer but you’re supposed to ask about it. I asked, they didn’t answer.
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I could be wrong sometimes but even if an automated answer was scheduled to be sent an hour after a reservation instead of instantly, I think I’d be able to tell because they sound impersonal. Personalized messages say things like “I see you’re a host too” or “We were stationed in El Paso in 2006” or “We’re walking distance to that concert venue.”
Impersonal messages say “I know you will enjoy your visit to Houston. When you know it, send us a more specific arrival time in order to check you in. If you want to send me your email, I can send you the house manual. Otherwise a printed version will be in the room” even though you included your arrival time in your booking message.
I wonder when we guests will have canned messages we can send?
“Dear Rolf, I’ll be driving and I’ll arrive at the beginning of check in time and leaving at check out time the next day.”
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I wonder- did your brother convey to the host what time you were arriving? Is it possible that the host had no idea that you would be arriving after dark and therefore didn’t think to make sure there were some lights left on?
Oh there is a massive difference between a decent mattress and a cheap one, regardless of firmness level.
I consider sleep a huge part of health, and so I invest in good quality mattresses for both myself and my guest rooms and also for my Airbnb. Now, I don’t spend $10k the Airbnb mattress like I do on my own…but there’s no way I’d invest in something less than $2k if I am charging people to sleep on it. I consider it one of the more critical costs of doing business in this line of business.
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