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I have been hosting for more than 3 years now and i could write a book about some of the reviews i received from guests.
Somtimes the reviews are so weird that i think that they must mistaken our room from another room that they booked on Air.
Some of my weirdest and worst examples:
-Guest wrote to me (luckily!) in private feedback that i should not have sex when i’m hosting guests. I’m not a screaming pig or something when having sex and besides that, there is a hallway, 2 doors and a whole livingroom between them and us. Despite that the times that i could hear my guests having sex are countless but it would never come to my mind to write to one of them not to have sex! Especially from a guest to a host that actually LIVES in the house…
Guest wrote in (private) feedback that i am “agressive and paranoid” because 1 of our written houserules is “theft is reported to air bnb and the local police”. (Which i added after naively hosting for a couple of weeks without any houserules resulting in the dissapearance of several of my dresses, a golden neckless, and an expensive headphones)
Guest wrote: “They gave us another room” (then the room in he pictures) like we live in a hotel with 100 rooms. It’s hilarious because the only other room we have in our tiny city appartment is our own bedroom. Besides that the room that we rent out is EXACTLY like it is on the picture. Maybe the new duvet cover made them think of “another room”?
We provide a kingsize bed in the room (measures 1.80m which is internationally acknoledged as being “kingsize”). Guest wrote that their whole stay was ruined because they came especially for this kingsize bed (???) but there was no kingsize bed but “only two small beds” (they probably referred to the 2 seperate matrasses which are on the kingsize boxspring which is very common at least here in Europe). Tried to have this review removed but according to Air this was just their opinion and guests are allowed to give their opinion - whatever it is.
Guest gave me 1 star because they couldn’t park for free and they received a parking ticket for knowingly parking their car on a paid parking lot without paying. We live in a large international city 10 minutes from the city center, what made them think of the free parking option? Also it is nowhere written in the listing that we provide free parking. Its like thinking there is free parking on Times Square.
Guest arrived, it was during the first “colder” days (14 degrees) after a hot summer and our central heating system popped on for the first time, except the heating component in their room. I promised to solve the problem immediately by simply resetting the system within minutes. They said it was no problem and they left the house for sightseeing.
Besides our central heating we provide an extra electrical heater which can heat up the room up to tropical values which i always explain. Also there is a very thick extra duvet in the closet. All of this explained to the guest. But the guests started a which hunt after this initial “mistake”, kept sending me several demanding messages about the temperature and ruined our evening piece by running into our livingroom complaining during their 2 night stay. I even sent Air a message that i didnt felt comfortable with them anymore but all they said was that i did everything that i could, and that since they didnt start up a resolution task, there was no “official” problem. Eventually the guest left a 1 star review in which he wrote that we rent out an unheated room in the middle of the winter.
Right after this last one, there was a sudden dramatic drop in new bookings (zero to be exact). (which i totally understand). The guest next to them was kind enough to write that the room is well heated.
It’s interesting how different our perceptions around beds can be!
In the US you often see the reverse: a king size mattress (one single mattress) on top of twin size box springs (the foundation). I’m afraid on this one I’d side with your guests - twin beds next to each other leave a gap in the middle that’s disruptive to sleeping. On a true king mattress there’s no ridge or gap.
The silliest thing a guest mentioned (thankfully, in private feedback) was that I should have more throw blankets.
It was silly because there are 2 throw blankets in the lounge plus 2 Queen blankets in the closet, AND a duvet and blanket on each bed.
That’s 7 blankets +3 duvets for 4 people.
What made the comment REALLY silly was that she stayed during a heat wave with temps close to 90F, which she combated by running the AC continuously in the low 60’s.
Lady…you don’t need more throw blankets. If you’re cold, turn off the AC and open a f’ing window!!
In our country kingsize matresses out of 1 piece are rare. In the quality bedding stores here, they are only advised if you always sleep alone (in the middle of the bed).
If you usually sleep with 2 persons in the bed, 2 seperate matrasses are adviced. The idea is that when you always sleep with 2 persons right in the middle of an XL matress, eventually a large “hole” in the middle will develop where you both will “roll in”. Then the support of the matrass in gone.
Besides that, on boxsprings for 2 persons, usually every single matrass is fitted to the person who sleeps on it (for example a matress for max 80 kilo for the woman and a max 100 kilo for the man). Because every person needs a different kind of support. But off course our bed is used by many different persons so the 2 matrasses are the same. Both medium support. We have this organization that is called “Consumers Guild” in my country, and this specific boxspring including these type of matresses were reviewed by them (after researching different bedding stores and matresses) as “best buy” when i bought it.
In my opinion, kingsize stands for measure (1.80) and not for what kind of matress is on the bed.
By the way, if the bed would be such a big issue for me, i would ask in advance about it if i were a guest.
But often that’s the nasty part of the reviews; things guests are complaining of are 99% of the time not mentioned during the actual stay. If they would, issues could be solved before ditching hosts with 1 star reviews.
We just got one from a local person that’s remodeling her house. She claimed it took 4 hours to get warm enough to be comfortable. This is electric baseboard heat. It actually takes about 1/2 hour to bring the temperature up to a comfortable level. In fact, for the last 2 winters we’ve been hosting, I usually turn the heat up a little about 1/2 hour before the guest is checking in. I’ve never had anyone before or since mention anything about it being too cold. We had a rare vacancy the night before her stay and the reason I hadn’t turned the heat up for her is because she had asked for an early check in that morning and since it was vacant I allowed it. But I was at my real job and didn’t get a chance to turn the heat up. It probably was cold, but no way did it take 4 hours to get warm!!! She gave us our second only 3 star review. Luckily we still have a 4.9 average.
We had a couple stay for one night. Checked in around dinner, left the next morning.
Her review was overall positive, but she did say it was hard being disconnected as we are out in the woods. We have WiFi that we pay a lot of money for. It gets speed of 50MBs but our data is capped, so we just ask no streaming, which is stated in our listing. We have cable tv with well over 100 channels. They came down asking how to get Netflix. We explained we could not stream and they had cable on the tv in her room.
The important part seems to be that we recognize there are different definitions.
If 95% of your guests use your definition of “King” bed, then don’t worry. But if you’re getting this complaint more than once you can easily avoid more unhappy guests by clarifying in your listing: “Note: we have a standard King, as defined in “yourcountry” which is two twin mattresses of 180cm on a single foundation. It is not a single mattress, as you might be familiar with in “othercountries””
My definition of King bed is one large mattress. This definition holds true in all my travels throughout N. America.
My BF and I like to sleep right next to each other in the middle. If we showed up at your listing and it was two twins we’d be confused and feel misled. Once we understood things were different in your country, we’d chalk it up to a cultural difference and we’d know to look for a Queen size the next time we visit there. But it would be better for us if you disclosed this in your listing so we know without a surprise!
I don’t think it’s fair to say “well if it’s such a big issue, why didn’t you ask in advance?” How would we know to ask? You’re re-defining terms that we think only have one meaning!!!
What would you think if you rented a car and they gave you two mopeds duct taped together? You’d say “This isn’t a car!” and I say, well it functions for carrying two people and is normal in my country - guess you should have asked if it was so important to you!
An early guest called me a “satanist” because there was a Ouija board in the closet with the other board games. The house was a vacation rental when we bought it, and we decided to keep the games…anyway, I called Airbnb and they took the review down, and mine as well.
Makes me want to put my Ouija board in the airbnb room. This shelf used to be in my living area. It’s reconfigured now but I still have all the pieces.
“Gret place if you want a relaxing weekend away from the world or you are on the lam. This place has everything you need including breakfast and a safe contained kitchen. Could use an upgrade on the bed but perfectly fine for a weekend away.”
I had this one recently. I don’t usually worry too much about them at the time just a quick read, but noticed I had only gotten 5 star reviews for the last 6 guests so tracked it back to this chap who gave me 4 stars for everything. Surprising as he was a young guy working interstate in a local gas refinery for a week and really only used the place to sleep. I guess he found it a bit dull but he was working 12 hours a day. If people do mention the bed (Ikea mattress on a slatted base) it is to say it was very comfortable but I know you’ll never please everyone. I prefer firm Asian style beds myself. Maybe he thought he was being funny but I would have preferred if he didn’t bother not to review it at all.
Reminds me it is summer peak season coming up and I’ll get guests who turn the AC down real low but leave the front door to the terrace open presumably so they can enjoy the warmth but get a nice cool chill when they come inside for a beer from the fridge. Not much i can do about it unless I pay $$$ to install one of those systems they have in the Greek island hotels (even the 5 star ones) where if you open a window or door just a crack the AC cuts out automatically.
As far as people who sleep under a doona/duvet with the aircon on well that’s me also so I can hardly complain.
I had a woman menstruate all over my space (bed from the duvet down to the mattress pad, bathroom floor, bathroom cabinet, towels were as if she had “cleaned” her self with them, all over the couch and throw blankets) it was horrible.
I obviously had to get everything sanitized and professionally laundered so I had to charge her quite a bit.
. She said in her review that I should expect this because I host women and this happens. She also said that the guavas, oats and yogurt weren’t sufficient enough breakfast and that I wouldn’t have her breakfast delivered to the space daily. I DONT EVEN ADVERTISE BREAKFAST.
I’ve been a woman my whole life and accidents DO happen, but if I was in someone else’s home I’d have the respect to take extra precaution and clean up after myself.
We’re considering smart controls for our AC, just the handsets for the time being. They’re about €24 in Spain.
There is also a smart sensor that turns it off if no movement is detected within a room after a preset length of time. It’s programmable to allow for continuous use at night (to avoid turning it off when folks are sleeping) and looks like a standard intruder alarm PIR. Price, circa €50.
When I was researching I remembered this company who were based in your neck of the woods:
I know we will recoup the installation costs in a couple of years, maybe sooner if we have lots of northern European guests this summer!
I have the same AC unit upstairs and downstairs in AirBnB. I’d just like to be able to use my AC controller to turn theirs off through the floorboards when i can hear people outside on the terrace in summer with the doors open (how can I hear that the doors are open? The doors are always bloody open!) and then tell them it is an automatic sensor that cuts the AC if it detects too many people having fun on the terrace when it is a sunny day.
The strangest one I had was when the guest wrote that everything was lovely and then described me as ‘contentious’. I really, truly hope that was a typo and they meant ‘conscientious’.
