The longer the visit, the worse the review

You sound like my OH when she’s proofing any document created by me.

Writes as he speaks…

John! You cannot use “it’s just so fucking wrong” in an academic paper that’s subject to peer review.

Me: why not?

:rofl:

JF

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“I” don’t mind “the” cursing, even in an academic “paper”.

It’s as if I “can’t” read “anything” without editing it in “my” head but I have narrowed “down” my grammar angst to “only” inappropriate “quotation” marks.

Your OH “sounds” so terribly “strict”. I am “sorry”. :rofl:

:roll_eyes:

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English teacher syndrome.

More than “strict”, often down right demeaning in respect of my poor grasp of grammar and the technicalities of good English. I have a better grasp of grammar in Spanish and Turkish than I do in English :rofl:

Ach well, my shoulders are broad, I can take it. Sometimes.

Anyway, you’re doing really well on the paragraph front, all we have to do now is to get you writing in proper English :stuck_out_tongue: I can probably get you a good deal on a ten lesson package.

JF

No way, I am not “dumb”. It’ll start with “proper” English but then you’ll begin recording my weight in stones and giving me A4 jotters all in an effort to get me to use the metric system.

But, if I don’t have to perform basic algebra with a bunch of unlike fractions, it’s not really measuring at all, is it? :rofl:

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Okay, as we have digressed to our pet peeves regarding poor writing skills, and bad grammar, here are my top ones:

Using an apostrophe before the s for pluralized words.

Using the past tense of the verb for sentences which require the past participle. This is becoming ubiquitous among Americans and Canadians.
“I had ran out to the store.”
“He told me he has wrote me an email”.

And using words like “specialist insurance”. Specialist refers to someone who is an expert in their field. It’s “special” insurance.

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@JohnF Here’s something I think you can relate to, although you may not be old.

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What I want to know, is who the feck took my pic?

I want royalties!

That said, I reckon I look not bad for twenty seven :rofl:

Jf

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PSA… I always close the door in the bathroom and vacuum behind it. Anytime someone is sitting on the toilet they have time to see cobwebs or hairs… I try to remember to take a look from that perspective…

RR

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Yeah, I clean every square centimeter. They won’t find any hairs anywhere unless they came from their own head.

My point was that I don’t get the kind of guests who waste their vacation time looking for some microscopic “issue”.

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Back to the original topic, the longer the visit the worse the review, that hasn’t been my experience at all. Of course, my Airbnb‘s are stand-alone homes not shared houses, and I aim for perfection, like JJD, although my houses are over 100 years old and not perfect either.

Some of my best reviews were written by guests who stayed months, not days or weeks. I’ve had guests that stayed as long as six months and still left a glowing review.

Here are two examples of reviews by long term guests. The top review, which mentions staying several months? They actually stayed 9 months.

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“Definitely the location and nature of my listing”, I don’t know how to do that thing where you quote someone and their name goes with it, so this is the statement I’m referring to. I think it is the nature of the listing, because my place is pretty homey, nothing fancy, yet people just fall all over themselves exclaiming how delighted they are. I always try to remember what I did that was so special. I stopped most of the beginner’s nervous special touches pretty quickly. I just do what I like and don’t do what I hate about hotels (hate scratchy blankets, absent trash cans & tissue boxes, love little free snacks, extra towels, comfy bedding). I do love what my daughter said, though: “You think of something you need, you turn around, and it’s there.” That’s nice. I’m not sure I could maintain that connection with the guest if I wasn’t there, though. There’s a sense of what might contribute to the overall atmosphere of the property that might not be communicated as easily if done remotely. I don’t know. I don’t have to answer too many on-site “service calls” really. They do contribute to guest satisfaction, that’s for sure.

You highlight the text that you are responding to, and “quote” will appear in blue. You just click on that. Then scroll down to the message box, which you will see the quote in, and then you start typing below that.

What I meant by location, as far as my listing goes, is that I am located on the outskirts of a super touristy little Mexican beach town, in the quiet countryside. It’s a 20 minute walk to town and the beach. And almost none of my guests have a car here. 2 guests out of 50 have rented a car.

So it appeals to a specific type of guest. The quiet ones who like to sit for hours reading their book, or do some artwork, or write. They definitely go to town and the beach, pretty much daily, sometimes twice a day, and they have to not mind the 20 minute walk there and back. Most say they really enjoy it- that it’s good exercise while on vacation.

So they are different from most of the tourists who come to this town, who want to be close to the bars and nightlife, have a pool, eat out all the time.

I love hosting solo travelers, and I only decided to list on Airbnb because I had a guest room that sat empty most of the time, unless friends or family came to stay, which happens seldom. I figured it would be a fun thing to do and supplement my income a bit.

A lot of hosts say they could never share their home with guests, but I’m the opposite- I would have zero interest in hosting an entire house where I didn’t live.

And like you, I’m just me with guests. I don’t try to act like whatever people might think a host should act like, I’m totally relaxed about it. Guests make it obvious whether they want and like interaction or are more private, and I just adjust myself to them.

One guest told me as soon as she arrived not to take it personally that she wasn’t going to be sociable. She worked at a retreat center and had to relate to people all day every day. Her intention while here was to do some inner work and figure out what direction she needed to move onto in life, as she needed a change. She was a lovely person and quite pleasant when we crossed paths or were both using the kitchen- it’s not like we had no conversations, but they were fairly brief and I just didn’t initiate them.

In summer peak season my guests stay 5-7 nights. Off season 3 nights to 6 months. I haven’t noticed longer stay guest being more critical.

Voila! Thank you!

“Nature of the place” and location seem to meld Into a feature that could explain something. [Oh! Your place sounds like something my sweetie and I have dreamt about. He would need to drag my introverted butt into town at least once to check it out, tho.] Our place is advertised as near the beach yet peaceful, more of a retreat than a tourist draw. There are no restaurants or bars nearby. We get families and groups that want to just relax, eat, play games and laugh out loud together. The main draw is the togetherness factor. They can be surrounded by a nature preserve, grill some grub, throw frisbees, and not spend a fortune. Some of them haven’t been all together in one place in years. I sort of think they would be O.K. if I just had a property manager to check them in and be available. During the pandemic I hosted a few small families and had no contact at all, so basically that would be the same, wouldn’t it? I’ve trained my cleaning crew to my (persnickety) standards, so I’m thinking about a trial run next year just for chuckles and giggles. Maybe for a quick visit to my kid in Richmond, only 2 hours away.

He is old asf!

Lol

RR

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Thanks for that. Not.

Pot and kettle come to mind…

JF

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Two years ago we reduced our minimum stay is seven days and our typical visitor is 20 - 30 days. We do not see the pattern you are talking about at all at our property. It sounds like if you want to avoid bad reviews you should set a maximum stay at 2 or 3 days, or clean out your closet & get new beds.

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Well, it’s both a testament to you and a nice reflection on them that they – especially Ziv – wrote such a well written and specific review. Kudos to you.

I always request a private note asking for anything that we could have done to make their stay more comfortable/enjoyable. Guests almost never have a suggestion, though I wish they would as I think you can always ‘up’ your game somehow.

They love our beds. They complain about things that are very easily fixed. I think Airbnb encourages people to suggest things we could have done better, so they look for anything they can think of. I have mostly 5 star reviews. It’s just something thing I noticed so won’t trip on it anymore.

I’m not sure how much length of stay ultimately has to do with whiners. There is, as we all know, a difference between folks who LOOK for something/anything and those who either genuinely have a thought to help or who just can’t be bothered because it isn’t important enough to them.

A few months ago, I had a woman who snarked about one thing and then another. Each item was immediately attended to and resolved (I.e. the internet went out — > quickly did a reset for her; a lightbulb — again, easily remedied). She booked for almost a week and I spent some coffee time with her one morning. It was quickly obvious that she was an unhappy person in general. When she came up with another item … she didn’t feel she had enough light in the living room (2 lamps + a large overhead light), we agreed that she should cancel the rest of her booking. Actually, I did that with no penalty. It just was not going to be worth it to continue with this sad, sad aggravation.

Then, a few weeks ago, had a woman and family staying for about a week. She gave a nice review and privately mentioned a couple of suggestions. One, I thought was actually a good idea; the other … naaaah. But, I was appreciative of her intention and the way she presented her “complaints”. (Whaaaa … quotation marks?!?!)

Like others, I could go on. Bottom line, I believe that unhappy, sullen, and/or otherwise folks who are always trying to game a system will do it regardless of length of stay. The important thing for hosts is to set out expectations as best we can so we can feel reasonably comfortable when something does come up. (We are out in the country and have a well. We have an aerator and a filtration system. Despite those, there can sometimes be a smell - either sulphur or metallic - UGH - mostly after heavy rains. I note this in our ABB listing and also on our welcome sheet. Some people still comment on it and I feel their pain but there is absolutely nothing more I can do about it so … )

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