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@EllenN, I agree that there is no such thing as perfect management, but I don’t believe that there is no point in trying to manage expectations. As hosts, we can only do our best and I firmly believe that negative reviews can be minimized if guests are given the information they need to avoid disappointment. This is especially true for first time Airbnb users. Of course, there are many guests who don’t bother reading the listing description, so even the best described listing won’t guarantee unreasonably bad reviews. But at least a well-written listing description allows the host to respond to the bad review, and thereby neutralize its effect.
@corvidae I have now decided I am not a big fan of airbnb. Way too many issues. The concept is good but has many flaws for the hosts (as I am sure there are for the guests too). I was doing quite well on airbnb and also other platform in Australia (I am in a high tourist area in awesome location), but the market is now flooded with so many people doing it now. We are in the off peak period too, but the market is the worst ever. We have gone from something like 67 listings to around 300 listings in last couple of years. Even though my reviews are good, price is right, location is right, property is good, the bookings are not coming. As far as airbnb goes, my bookings were consistant until I got one bad review from one prima dona guest (whom I am sure was already in a bad mood before arriving to my property) and that pretty much killed it for me. I was not given the opportunity to defend myself by airbnb law and so thats that. Now I only get bookings on airbnb from the asian community because my price is low and I sleep alot of people. I think my rating is 4.7 on air and apparently that is not good enough (warnings from air that if it drops further I will be penalised??? or something to that effect ).
I guess I am saying it is possible that your area may be flooded now so worth checking in tothat. And that sometimes it only takes one review to hurt you.
@David_Boe and what when a guest lies. How do you combat that. You can’t really
I’m very sorry to hear about your difficulties. I can only imagine how frustrating and difficult it must be for you.
Still, I think that there are things that you can do, even when a guest lies.
The best thing you can do is to get out in front of it. There are a number of ways to do this First, by being careful about meeting and greeting each guest. In my case, I live and work at my home and am home for most of the time that my guests are here. It’s hard for them to do anything that I don’t know about.
Also, however, I would work hard in a difficult situation like that to be very quick to contact Airbnb’s customer service people and talk to them immediately about any concerns. Document everything by doing all communications through the app, and then get on the phone with them immediately to advocate for yourself.
If you don’t, and if the guest is the only one talking to Airbnb, you will have to play catch-up, which can be difficult.
I realize that I know nothing about your situation and all the extenuating circumstances you’ve had do deal with I hope my comments are not just stating the obvious, and maybe you’ve already done all of this. I certainly don’t mean to imply that you haven’t. I’m just trying to be helpful.
I myself have not had to deal with such difficult issues, but my own experiences with Airbnb have been positive. In all cases I was able to contact Airbnb before or essentially at the same time as the guest, so the guest didn’t have a head start on me. And I don’t think my guest was lying about anything. So that’s a real problem.
I think you may have a chance to rebuild your Airbnb business, as well. I’d be interested to hear more.
Thanks for the feedback, although I feel it would be more courteous to read the whole thing before posting a critical comment. I’m just trying to be helpful. It’s easy to be dismissive without offering a solution. But as a Superhost yourself, you must have some special skills.
What’s your secret? What do you do to achieve and maintain Superhost status? I’d love to hear anyone’s and everyone’s ideas on this. As a long-time Superhost, your comments, based on your knowledge and experience carry extra weight. I’m all ears!
@Magwitch - I apologise if you read this the wrong way. Believe me I am definately not racist. Just trying to point out that for some reason what few bookings I do get from Airbnb now are mostly asian. I am simply stating how my bookings come now.
@David_Boe - yes I actually did all your suggestions with Air and was still cut down with no option to defend myself. The guest got in first and that was pretty much the end of it. I did rebut all the supposed issues but wasn’t allow to present further video information beyond my first attempt. I was just told that the decision had been made and no further discussion would be entered into. When I tried to reopen the case because I was not happy with the process, I was told the same thing again. I don’t claim to be a 10 out of 10 property. My property is not new or super modern but it is neat, tidy, clean and exactly as it is advertised and receives mostly very positive reviews (not everyone can be pleased all the time - fact of life). I hope you never have to deal with a deliberate attempt to obtain free accommodation, but hopefully if it does, with your consistently good reviews you may have more luck than me.
If you had good reviews, one bad one would stand out as an obvious bitch fest by a nasty guest. Most people would see it that way and consider booking.
I’d suggest posting a link to your listing and get some feedback. Sometimes it’s difficult to see what is right in front of you.
The other thing is to put your prices to match your completion. When I see a markedly lower price, I wonder what’s wrong, is the location dodgy, the beds old and lumpy?
I can relate to this from my own (and others’) experience of reading reviews on Amazon or even TripAdvisor. When we see a good few good reviews, we will discount the bad ones, especially when they’re worded emotionally.
Further, if in a sea of good reviews, a prospective guest spots the bad ones more keenly and decides not to book you, they’re probably not worth having anyway!
Actually (just one data point here), I was doing rather better before I got SuperHost status. Go figure. Of course, there are plenty of other and confounding variables, so one cannot really draw any conclusions here, but I think it’s probably true that SH status has little to do with visibility. As I’ve said earlier, Instant Book and cancellation policies are probably far more important in determining visibility/rank.
I don’t ‘do’ luck. Luck favours the prepared, as the expression goes. Luck is what happens to people that sit around waiting for life to happen to them.
We’re also in Oz, also very quiet right now, and also experienced a flurry of Asian booking, although none since. Also, although we’ve only been in ABnB for 8 months, we have noticed increased competition…
So I don’t think you’re situation is unique Tania, nor that the market is somehow unfairly excluding you.
Perhaps just twist your perspective. Rather than ‘luck’, proactively physically and mentally turn the odds to your favour.
@Stuart_Ingram I don’t do luck either. I work very hard on my properties as it is my livelihood, not just a thing on the side for added income. I don’t sit around and wait for life to happen around me and i hope that was not your intention to be directed at me. I have been doing this for nearly 10 years, so think that I am quite knowledgeable in this area as I have had plenty of practice.
The luck statement was simply one that stated I hope it doesn’t happen to you what happened to me, and until it has happened to you, you will never understand the negative side to airbnb. LIke i said, i hope it doesn’t happen to you.
I did not claim that my bookings have all dropped because of one bad review, but it is a little con-incidental but definately along with a flooded market and people not wanting to spend alot also contributes, however, I do wonder why the air bookings dropped so dramatically in comparison to say the stayz platform, who I still get regular bookings, be it, down on previous years.
I agree with HomeSharersSF comments about managing expectations. After my first few months hosting I realized people don’t read the information about the rental and they look at the pics but don’t read the captions.
Before any rental is final, I send my guests a notice of the top 4 items for prior negative feedback (unit not directly on the water, limit 2 cars, no pets, cleaning expectations) and state “please let me know if these items are agreeable to you. If not we can arrange a no penalty cancellation”. They may not read the list either but at least I have their return message saying they are aware & all is acceptable.
However on the other side of the coin I just had a guest insist that I drive 4 hours to see the toothpaste splatters not cleaned off the bathroom mirrors. She also sent me a pic. I didn’t drive the 4 hours.
I have families of all races, not sure why you mention Asian bookings as if that’s a problem. My mother didn’t discriminate like her fellow real estate colleagues, that’s why she was the top salesmen every year. She said their money is just as good. My current guests are from Pakistan, appreciative, polite, generous, and their money transferred into my account with no problems.
@Louise, What in my post implied Asian booking are a problem?
I only mentioned Asian booking because I responding to Tania’s post, which mentioned Asians.
We had 3 Asian groups in the space of 2 weeks, and they were some of our most enjoyable visits. However, we have had no Asian Guests since, nor Asian booking / enquiries. Although we did have a lovely Indian family.
If you’re on a witch hunt for racist views, I suggest you’re hunting in the wrong place.
I very much suspected some smart-alec would mention that…
In the UK, people from India and people from China are both called Asian. In New Zealand, people from India, are called Indian, people from China, Malaysia, Japan etc are called Asian.
It depends where in the world you are from.
Personally, I don’t give a sh1t. They are all human. I thought the whole point was NOT to categorise people.
I’m now unsubscribing from this thread as it’s just become ridiculous.
Wasteland !!! looks great, how did you get the stars and bullet points in your description it looks really clear. I have tried spacing etc but then it all pulls together in a paragraph and looks squashed
Not sure of that. In Britain, ‘Asian’ usually only means someone with ethnic links to the Indian subcontinent - because of the British Raj. Someone with ethnic links to China is more likely to be called East Asian.
