We did not get your storm at all, or very little of it. It did not even rain on the Kona side! I bet Kauai will be affected until they get Na Pali open again. It’s a highlight of going there, to hike that trail.
I had a review deleted once but Airbnb told me the star rating had to stay. 
Everyone one gets a PITA sooner or later.
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I had an Airbnb rep tell me, when I called to question a third party IB, it was my choice whether to accept a third party booking or not. The rep actually reassured me it would be fine and I shouldn’t have any problems. So I don’t think it’s a rule.
Nope, you just got a know-nothing rep who made up what they just told you.
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It is a rule, so your rep was wrong. Guests can only make third party bookings if they have a business account with AirBnB, which involves a different account set up process.
If you go to AirBnB and search “third party bookings” you will find the rule fairly easily.
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The problem with third-party bookings is that someone CAN make them - they can push the “Book” button and use their credit card - but it is against the rules. Unfortunately, the host has to be the one to enforce the rule.
Third Party bookings do not bother me but I do tell them other Hosts may feel differently.
There is something to be said for leaving a review until the last moment, Guest is notified if you have reviewed them.
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That is true. However, whenever I have come across a third party booking (which has happened a couple of times), I just call AirBnB and they cancel the booking with no punishment to me.
Yes, I’ve done the stealth review thing myself, when guests were annoying enough. My advice is - don’t care about them so much! They’re only in it because it’s cheaper. They’re using you. Look on it as a business. They are! I approached it from the same point of view as you at first, until the calibre of guests hit rock bottom and the stupid AirBnB review process worked against me. (eg marked down for location? But they KNEW it wasn’t Bondi Beach. They didn’t want to PAY for Bondi Beach!!!). Good guests became the exception, not the norm.
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I kinda want to read both reviews now…
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I had a rep tell me the same thing, noting that as long as it was agreed in writing through Airbnb messaging showing that the parties were in agreement, that I was okay to go forward with the reservation. And since Airbnb also must put into writing what they communicated to me, I made sure to ask for that message as well. It was only for two nights and everything turned out fine, but I found that it was a little awkward with no way to have direct messaging with the guest. Here is the kicker though… the person that booked was an attorney!
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I was of the same mindset too, until I had a problem. The guest was a real pain! She didn’t know anything about the reservation. She showed up thinking she had the whole house when it was just a room. Her daughter booked it for her. The communication was horrible. She wound up giving us 3 stars. The lowest rating ever to this day and only 3 star we ever got. I got Airbnb to remove the review because the daughter did it and she was never here. But the 3 stars remained.
I have had cases where pretty obvious that the other members of the party had not been informed where they were going, what they had booked.
Do not recollect any particular issues with TP bookings,how ABB could let a rating stand is a mystery, just another example of the weird nature of the review system.
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Yah you will learn that you get on a list, of professional reviewers that different than most typical guests pay extra scruitinal concerns over places in your listing where they may think they have found some type of “weakness” which when used in a good way, helps us to address an issue. Some is guest misunderstandings about an accommodation. The worst is when you get that gut wrenching comment that you have no control over and cannot change, and live with every day and didn’t realize it would be the cornerstone of their entire experience while staying with us.
But why is it the worst? At some point, if you don’t address it, it becomes the search through your reviews to leverage some type of discount or dissatisfaction, buyers remorse, can I have some of my money back or I will give you a bad review. Which we get a lot during storms, in a scenic area. Yes, the host must comp their stay because the sun didn’t come out today on our trip. And that is their review.
But the worst, is when you are in the middle of repairs, still host them, and then they count that repair as part of that review. So we have all faced that one. But the worst for me, since I get to hang out with all you, know how I feeler’s, is, the cry for the wifi. We are expected to produce a solitary lone person on the mountain experience, and make sure the wifi is on, and that it works for them even when its not working for us. Or the person who can’t get a signal on their phone, and says that, they didn’t get a signal.
I have never built any satellites, I don’t run navigation, I don’t connect calls in outer space. I had no choice in which company they went with or their dates, but guarantee they want to inject it into that review. So sure maybe they share information about what to expect, which is great we all do that. For good reviews or bad, take them or leave them. But the worst for us, was the lady who said she had to drive to town for wifi, because the storm took out our dish, 65 mph winds, the repair person drove 6 hours to fix it, which he told us 10p. We told her he would be there at 10p because she was convinced we were hiding the wifi for her. She slept next door to the repairmen we let stay there that night because they had to drive 6 hours and 500 miles back to work the next day, that’s how rural we are, and she got up that morning with a text that said your internet is ready.
She left a review that said she didn’t get her wifi, and had to drive to town.
We did that for 20 years until wifi became available and our community has had actual internet infrastructure for less than 2 years. And we have data capped. So we don’t get any data especially when they don’t. And they act as if we are hiding the wif from them in the reviews.
I call it CryFi. I’m ready to pull it out and say no. No wifi. Go to town. Like we did for 20 years, and learn that wifi is not included in our retreat. But hey, that doesn’t help anyone. Its like wifi depression that spreads. Just get back up, and keep going.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the guest reviews show in the order they were booked (ie chronologically), thus a bad review from a guest done 14 days after the visit will appear NOT at the top of your guest reviews, but instead will be possibly buried by the reviews of people who stayed after those folks did?
Since neither party can see any review until the other party writes their review or the 14 days is up, why worry? Review guests as you see appropriate based on their behavior and get on with your life. We Hosts still have the option (don’t we?) of replying/commenting on their review, and that’s the important thing, as we can counter their complaints. Let’s give honest reviews so other Hosts know what’s coming their way.
Not exactly. The reviews are chronological for the guests’ location. For example, my potential Chinese guests will see the reviews from folks who state they live in China before any others. There appears to be a country-order, but I haven’t cared enough to analyze it. So, if your last guest from your home country writes a bad review, all other people in your home country will see that first if subsequent guests are from other countries.
If you actually want to see chronological, then you have to click on the host profile picture, and then on “XXX has 37 reviews.” In this context, you see the actual reservation date order. I doubt most guests do this.
Coincidently, when I have a great review from someone who doesn’t live in my country, I seen to getting several bookings from guests from that same country soon after the review goes live.
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Ah! Good to know. Thanks for sharing you knowledge and experience with this issue.
What are third party bookings?
The person who books is doing so on behalf of someone else, i.e., a third party.
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I had a third party booking last week. A mother booked for a daughter. The daughter had initially inquired and the mother booked under her own account later on. This raised a couple of alarm bells as neither has reviews, and the mom didn’t mentioned the daughter’s prior inquiry until after she was booked and we had exchanged a couple more texts.
Anyhoo, I told her it was against Air’s TOS, person booking must be person staying, etc… She was pissy about it, let me know she then spent 45 minutes on the phone with Air, and they told her it wasn’t against their terms of service—it was up to me. She also wanted me to know that her boss was mad at her for the wasted time on the phone.
I called Air and asked them to contact her to clear things up. They told me I was correct about the policy, but they couldn’t contact her because she already had a dedicated case agent. So, the gal and I went back and forth again until it was sorted with Air.
I was so annoyed that Air told her that it was my choice and not against their TOS. The gal stays tonight, and I don’t anticipate any issues, but Mom was not amused.
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