I don’t have any particularly bad stereotypes, but I do find the southern Europeans to be family oriented, pet loving, respectful and totally suited to a homestay. A lot of them come from comfortably off families yet prefer a homestay to an impersonal hotel. These are the best guests. Especially if they bring smelly cheese, yum. I’ve only had one bad Italian who spouted off about Britain being the worst colonial nation. Don’t mention the war lol.
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Bargain hunters. They always find something to complain about no matter how good of a deal they are getting.
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My list is long today:
- -smokers._
In ten years, we’ve had ONE guest who smoked who was respectful and there was no residual
odor in the unit, outside textiles or trash bins. She put butts in a sealed container.
2.-any guest requesting a discount.
The special requests rarely end there.
3.-any guest informing me how they will be breaking one of my house rules, but it’s okay _
_ because they are “really respectful”
4.-same day bookings have all been problematic [for us}
5.-anybody making special requests, (especially if it is listed in our rules as not possible).
so much time wasted with back and forth messages to accommodate or deny request
6.-people asking a buttload of stupid questions (esp. if can easily be answered on their own)
see #2
7.-people asking really specific questions about amenities, like “what type of shampoo and soap do
you provide?” “is this a saltwater pool?”
We have noticed that these people tend to hang out all day at the house and don’t see the city
they’ve come to visit. see #2
8.-I have come to detest hosting newlyweds/honeymooners.
They seem to all have illogical expectations about spending their honeymoon…in my
house.
-
-have had headaches with mother/daughter duos
no idea why. Daughters were the nice ones in every case. -
_-sometimes single business travelers
Some are quite easy, but many can have high-maintenance standards and/or are stressed out -
parents of newborns
can be (understandably) haggard, but also cranky…and demanding, whilst unapologetic and
unappreciative. As if people can’t have and raise kids without being demanding and rude. -
Locals
even the ones with decent explanations as to why they are booking have been problematic -
anyone avoiding correspondence or requests for itinerary/info, etc.
soooooo often this is an indicator that there is something else that is off. -
Guests who have been members for many years, have no reviews, but have used the service.
“is this your first time using Airbnb?” “No, we’ve been stayed in many places” Made this mistake
a few times now and all were problematic. There are reasons why they have no pos. reviews.
and the more obvious:
-
any guest who left a negative review in the past (before we started using Chrome app)
yep, they will do it again no matter how nice you or the accomm. were -
reviewed with “coded” language: “there was a mix-up, but we sorted it out” “thank you _
_ for your visit (no other info)”
would be so much easier if other hosts just told the honest truth about their difficult guest
The biggest one though is anyone making special requests (of any kind). Whether it is: …can we check-in three hours past your cut-off window, or six hours early? or …can we store our luggage there even though your listing states that you can’t and also shows us where we can at the airport? or …can you please provide me with every single place and idea and thought for my holiday as if you are at a concierge desk at the Four Seasons? or …can we bring a third person who is three hundred pound guy with us (to share one small room with one double bed and no floor space)? or …can you please add chocolates or rose petals to the room; this is a special occasion? or …may I bring my pet/child, even though your listing accommodates neither?
Essentially anything that my other easygoing, respectful, cool, chill and appreciative (!) guests don’t ask…or expect.
I’m having an I-need-a-break-from-hosting-day today. It’s summer. 
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Fantastic summary @LetsShareThoughts , I have suffered them all. I would only add those who insist on doing third party bookings.
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I had a #8 recently. She gave us 2* for location. I guess for $59/night they thought their honeymoon would be magical. I hope they want to relive the magic on their anniversary so I can say no. 
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Ugh, the dreaded “location” stars, and from the most tiresome guests of all: newlyweds. So annoying! We have two listings. One where the location reviews are consistently five stars; the other where the location reviews are regularly given four stars. They are literally a few feet from one another, with the listing that gets the four stars being even slightly more private and quiet. ??? Same property. Same neighborhood. Right next to each other. ???
It’s on the map! It’s well described in the listing! Also have hundreds of reviews that also detail distances to attractions, local businesses, and on and on and on.
I do not have enough eye rolls for docked stars for location. Some people are just dumb rubes.
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I’m afraid you can’t just have your rant here! 
I was delighted at all the follow up posts explaining why your guest may be using short sentences!
It seems that if you add “in my experience” at the end of a post, you can get away with a lot more, and the clever ones won’t descend upon your post.
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Hahaha, Barns, you’re right! 
Maybe one can add “in my experience” as a postscript to every post somehow!
Btw the guy who I was talking about is coming in a few days time, and only now he remembered to ask whether there is a washing machine and a freezer in the apartment (info on both is clearly indicated in the description and amenities section).
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Pretty off topic but I have a question. Both our rentals have the usual standard type American fridges - the ones with a freezer section at the top. I have never thought to mention ‘freezer’ in our listings because I just assumed that most people would know that a fridge has a freezer section. Am I being daft? Should I mention that it’s a fridge-freezer?
Hmm, good question. I have a relatively small fridge with a small freezer compartment on the top, suitable for cooling a bottle of drinks or storing a box of icecream. It is a pretty standard type of freezer in holiday homes in my area, and I describe it in detail in my listing. This guy just asked about the freezer, so I assumed that he wanted to ask about the separate part of the fridge, with several drawers for freezing, which big fridges often have. I wanted to clarify that I do not offer such a thing. And in any case, since he’s asking about it 2 days before the trip, he cannot really do much about it. 
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Actually I would also have assumed that all fridges have at least a small freezer section … until I realised that they don’t! Staying in a lovely Airbnb in Cape Town where they had an under-counter fridge - with no freezer section. It was midsummer and we are people who like drinks with our ice! It was a gorgeous cottage and I hate making a fuss so we suffered for 4 days and at check-out I mentioned hesitantly that it would have been nice to have ice … oh, said the host, didn’t you notice the freezer in the laundry room?
Duh! gave her 5 stars all round - couldn’t blame the host for the guest’s stupidity …
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I also thought these don’t exist but recently when I was buying a new fridge for our unit I encountered a small fridge with no freezer compartment. I was a bit surprised, the whole fridge looked pretty useless unless a host also has a separate freezer, like it was the case in your unit in Cape Town. I think it’s an absolute must to have at least a small compartment to cool your drink, ice cubes or ice cream. The problem is when guests decide to bring large quantities of pre-made food, without consulting me about it before booking. It didn’t happen in a while now, but I had that situation several times…
We are well over 50, so as hosts we aim to provide what we would expect as guests and try to make this clear in our property description and pricing. We have identified potential problem groups of guests, but they are not over the 50s. I suppose one possible complaint about them (us) is that they can bore you to death !
Update: the guests in question brought 4 additional people into the apartment at 10 in the evening on their first night!
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I agree! My only low star ratings have came from older folks. 3 & 4 stars on location. One lady left me 3 stars on everything! She was 70 years old. Regarding communication, I replied in her review that she gave me 3 stars on communication despite calling me at 7am on Saturday morning, because she had taken a walk through the neighborhood and got lost. She kept me on the phone for 30 minutes. Also, gave me 3 stars on location despite her family living about 100 yards from my place.
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You listed everything I would have listed. I’m glad I am not the only one with these headache guest experiences.
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I think you have it covered here, definitely my experience. It made me weary reading all the possible painful people we have to try and head off at the pass!
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Wow. Some people.
Do you have a note in your guest info explaining star system(s)? We just put them in our rooms (after reading suggestions on here) and it worked!! Have only gotten one review less than five star overall since (from newlyweds-who never left the house or pool-ugh).
Also…every single one of our negative reviews/feedback/stars, came from guests who had [themselves] done something wrong. Whether is was 1.breaking or disregarding our house rules (or asking if they could and getting a no), or 2. damaging our property, or 3. having difficulty with something than no one else does (like parking, using the tv, reading instructions, etc.)
We have never gotten negative feedback from anybody else. So the woman getting lost and then blaming you, despite rudely calling you early in the morning and you generously devoting your time to assist her, does not come as a huge surprise. This is why reviews are so flawed, imo. You literally need dozens of positive reviews for the retaliatory entitled jerk reviews to show up as obviously biased. (I’m not calling a 70yr. old woman a jerk, btw…our negative feedback mostly came from younger guests), but they ALL fit into the three categories I mentioned. Every single last one of them. ugh…and a thousand eye rolls…
After last week I’m only banning one type of guest … women/girls with fine, long, blonde hair. Lovely young woman, charming boyfriend, no trouble, left apartment tidy … until I collected up enough fine, almost invisible strands to stuff a cushion. Now, how am I going to put that into House Rules …?
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Toatally agree with you