This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
Like others here I am over reviews especially when people leave private feedback about things that are clearly listed in the details. We have an antique double bed clearly listed and pictured. Recent guests said we must get a queen bed. Others have complained we don’t have air con even though while they stayed they would not have needed it. Another complained it was not suited to two couples where we clearly show and mention a queen bed and bunk beds.
I have stopped leaving a review unless they do. I don’t know if I am better off reviewing them initially or not bothering. What do you do?
I don’t leave reviews now unless the guests are gushing or if they were horrible. I am over the fact that they are prompted to go through and thrash you on little details that you have actively disclosed a million ways from Sunday and yet they still just have to mention it…
Once you have at least ten good reviews, that is enough and you are best not to solicit more.
The review system is my biggest complaint. Right now I’ve got a Wimdu guest and am so much more relaxed because their review system is funky and far less intimidating.
Sadly, you cannot trust guests. Even the friendliest ones can turn around and shock the hell out of you with an unexpected crack!
I believe that if you Re A super host or if you have say 50 good reviews you should be allowed to cull them and throw one bad one out.
I’m in the same boat. 80 plus reviews and always a pit in my stomach when I get the email stating xyz guest wrote you a review. Not a SH either and don’t care to be.
Don’t leave any more reviews first or wait until the very last minute in the guest time zone if you really want to say something about a guest.
As soon as i understood how ridiculous people can be in their complaints i do not really care that much about not so good reviews. One guy downgraded his whole experience to 4* based on a fact that there is no TV in a room.
He came to the house at 1:30 in a morning, and left at 7:30. He hardly had 6 hours of sleep and then he was gone. WHen would he watch that TV even if it was there??
If they leave 5 stars and private feedback then I honestly think they are trying to be helpful. I stayed in a $170 airbnb cabin recently. It was gorgeous in so many ways. But the lighting in the kitchen was honestly terrible. $50 worth of halogen or LED undercabinet lights utilizing existing plugs would be a major upgrade. Also a shower head was squirting water out the side. So, I gave them 5 stars and private feedback about what could be improved. I guess after being evaluated as a teacher for 3 decades and having it drummed into my head that there was ALWAYS something that could be improved I have a different mindset.
But you did it the right way…with private feedback. What’s with these people who nitpick in the public review section! It would seem like common courtesy to put those small things in the private section. I don’t have a problem with that. The cabin owners may have no idea bout their lights or the shower head. You did them a favor!
I leave a card for my guests that literally says "FEEDBACK’ or sometimes I label it “Constructive Criticism Please”, it’s just a fancy index card.,
In the welcome note they get upon arrival, I ask them to please fill out the the card before they leave with any ideas on what I can do to improve a guests experience. My hope is that this experience gets any complaints out of their system before they write a review.
And the card is usually filled out with some thing I really may have overlooked (one guest wrote it would be easier to keep the grill utensils next to the charcoal in the shed, which was so smart), or they just say ‘gosh, we had a great time, everything was good’.
@konacoconutz, yeah, my theory is that if they are reasonable, they will have gotten it out of their system? Seems to work, I don’t get much in that field in the review.
Are you saying it’s bad form to mention things privately that can be improved? We stayed in a wonderful cabin for a few nights. However there was just a woven shade on the bedroom windows that did nothing to block the light. So I said, privately, “some miniblinds to block the light would be welcome in the bedrooms”. Also, there were two bedrooms down and one up. Both had bathrooms. She has 3 twins upstairs and downstairs a queen in each. My husband and I would have loved to have been upstairs with some privacy and our own bath. So I asked her if she has considered making the upstairs a little romantic nest.
Was that rude?
I didn’t bother to mention that the 30 or so pots and pans that are in horrible shape that a thrift store wouldn’t sell, frustrated me to no end! Trying to sort through the mess was aggravating. But I didn’t pick at all that stuff.
I’m happy for them to mention something I’m not aware of but if they need a queen bed they should make sure they stay in a place with one. My other property has a queen bed. The antique double bed is clearly listed and pictured. People have suggested reading lamps before which I followed up with so I am open to suggestions.
I have received some great suggestions from guests that were left in a kind helpful way. For example something along the lines of:
“We just loved everything and can’t think o f much else to improve it besides maybe offering a blender so we could make our own juice smoothies and better quality linens? But that’s just us.”
Went out and bought the blender and guests have enjoyed it ever since!
Reading lights! You are both so right. After staying in countless cabins and bad hotels over the years, I started bringing book lights, but those are never enough…I make sure each bed has reading lights and over the couch and chairs.
It’s so weird because it wasn’t until my husband and I stayed in our guest room that we realized the bed had a light and end table only on one side of the bed - duh!!
Constructive criticism is always welcomed by me if I am not downrated based on it. For example missing TV in a room. What if I don’t want TVs in guests room on purpose?. Which I actually still debate as its so close to our bedroom and I don’t want to hear it in a middle of the night.
But I improved a lot of things based on private comments. I put pad on matress and bought nicer sheets. Put lamp in nightstand. Shades on bathroom Windows.
