Good suggestions HHAZ. I will start this practice. Thanks for the advice.
A moderator calling another poster a Niwwit lol. Nice.
Understood. I like another persons ideas on how I should run my business. Thats why I posted. I guess I was confused at the moderators position on it being âsurrealâ that I have guests sign form letter saying the cleaning and check-in was to their satisfaction. They do not have to sign if it isnât of course. Its to insure they are happy with the cleaning. I cannot imagine anything surreal about that. It seemed like criticism for something that is a positive for all those involved. Criticism begets criticism in this case.
Good idea. i will start that immediately.
Here are the rules on name-calling KKC. You are a moderator so perhaps you can brush up on the rules so you do not continue to break them.
Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree
You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. Thatâs fine. But, remember to criticize ideas, not people . Please avoid:
- Name-calling.
You are completely correct about name calling. I will modify my post. Iâve changed it to indicate that I disagree with you demeaning jacquo and I especially disagree with your contention that moderators should be singled out for special disdain.
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My suggesting someone may not know how to run a business properly would not be considered name-calling under the rules of the forum. Calling someone a âNitwitâ does. I would have cared except I saw that Moderator notification after your name and thought it was ironic that you started with the name-calling.
Yes, perhaps Jacquo has been longer than me. I started with my first place in 2016 and have 4 of my homes now on the website. I was surprised at Airbnbâs decision to refund a guest 50% of his 4-night stay for a cleaning issue whether we properly documented it or not. I would have thought 50% of one night might be appropriate, I was surprised at the moderatorâs position that its âsurrealâ that I have a guest sign a welcome letter saying they are satisfied with the cleaning. Of course I would question that posterâs business ability. Nothing I have done or said is âsurreal or Nitwitâ. Itâs amusing that the two least helpful messages were from two moderators.
KKC Iâm sorry to hear you are âso sick of these membersâ, Ill reiterate my comment about moderators who are not up for the task to properly moderate to step away from the keyboard and let a member do the task who do the job without name-calling and strange non-constructive criticism.
Anyway. Sorry that this thread has slid downhill. Not my intention. I apologize to the two moderators if my comments were too harsh. No one likes criticism. Thank you both for your hard work and dedication to this website!
Regards
I appreciate the post. I have had a similar experience. It seems all too easy for a guest to make an unfounded claim and receive attention yet when I, as a host, make a claim submit proof, and make numerous follow up calls/emails, my request goes unanswered. I, too, am wondering about their policy. It seems as though we are in a partnership with Airbnb as hosts, but thereâs little support for us. I have taken to having my cleaning crew take videos after cleaning to ensure my place is properly cleaned. All that seems to do is give me the peace of mind that my crew has done their job. Airbnb doesnât seemed concerned with making guest substantiate their claims or allowing hosts to counter with legitimate proof. I just wanted to know if I was the only one having this experience.
This is where you have misunderstood your relationship with Airbnb.
You are not âa partnerâ. Airbnb is an OTA just like BDC, VRBO etc, and their objective is to make money, and the folks who make them the most money are guests, not hosts. Hosts are easily replaceable, guests less so.
The original Airbnb concept, and ethos, is long gone, despite what the young master Chesky says in his various puff pieces aimed at hosts.
JF
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Once they send you a message saying everything is great and that they donât need anything it makes it very difficult for them to later complain. If they do complain, the Airbnb rep will see that first message from guest " everything is great." I do like your idea of guests signing off on a piece of paper but the issue is that Airbnb will not take that into account.
Yes, I agree completely. I have instructed my managers to work within the messaging Airbnb provides as much as possible.
The signature on the check-in letter is to do two things.
- Ensure that the guest is satisfied with the cleaning.
- In the case of those looking to game Airbnb and get money refunded thinks twice because of what they signed at check-in.
It keeps my cleaning personal accountable and guests. It ensures that the guest is happy with the cleaning at check-in. Win, win-win as far as I can see. Some people may not agree but I think it is a reasonable way to do business.
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Perhaps you are correct. I think for my personality tyle using platofrms like Airbnb and Vrbo may be untenable.
The more I consider my relationship with Airbnb I am beginning to see them as simply a portal to my future guests. I think tomorrow I will discuss with a web designer starting a website for my properties and using Airbnb as a website to get new guests. Once I get the phone numbers and email addresses I can create a list to send to a new website. Really its the only way i will feel completely comfortable hosting.
The trick will be whether i can have one website to feature four properties in different parts of the world and optimize them or if I will have to create 4 individual websites.
Russell you are not alone. This is exactly what my post was about. I have all the proof any rep could ask for. Singed letter from the guest at check-in, texts back and forth acknowledging that we would like to go back and fix any problems. The guest denied us that request. The evidence is irrefutable.
Airbnb took the phone call of a guest with zero reviews and matched that against all of my evidence and me being a host with 170 reviews.
I am not a keyboard warier but this got me irritated. This is my first post.
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Thatâs all they have been, for a number of years now, unless of course you got sucked into âthe brandâ.
JF
??? You donât get the guestsâ phone numbers until a booking has been confirmed. And you donât get their personal email addresses at all.
With their phone numbers, I can create a list of clients to send my website to. In addition many emails my co-hosts on their personal emails which I send them in my initial greeting template. I am speaking of previous guests of course
Here is what I wrote.
âSurrealâ is not an insult and yet you seem to have taken it as one. Surreal means fantastic, hard to believe. You should also note that I said that the idea of guests âsigning a letterâ was getting surreal. And please remember that the opinion that something a surreal (or fantastic or hard to believe) is subjective.
I was tempted not to remark on this at all as it is laughable. But I did want to quote it here so that others can see the sort of thing you are writing.
As you have admitted, you are relatively new to this business and Airbnbâs decisions surprise you. If you arenât able to run your business yourself, then youâll have to accept being at an OTAs mercy.
Finally, please remember that the moderators here are aware of the high hit rate of this site and that the majority of people who come here are not members.
Many of them are inexperienced, new or potential hosts. When members here write in response to a question, they are writing to those people in addition to the questioner. We have different opinions but we will correct erroneous information, bad practices or misapprehensions You need to understand that.
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Fair enough. The opinions of this group are the reason I posted.