I agree and you seem like the kind of host that would be receptive & take it constructively. BUT many wouldn’t, might make the guest feel uncomfortable & many ppl are fearful of any kind of confrontation & are not skilled in being assertive. I’m not sure where you live compared to the guest but when one is in a foreign land/house/culture, one is likely to be much less assertive than at home. I’ve stayed in some shockers & just done the ‘keep calm and carry on’ & gone sight seeing & brushed it off. But I wouldn’t give them 5 stars for anything if I had to review the establishment. I figure you know if your internet is crap, bathroom filthy, you never have any milk etc so why would I need to bring it up? Not suggesting that you have done anything to deserve the low ratings in some areas though, esp as her scores are not reflective of your other guests. Don’t take it personally and IMHO I think s 4 star is much better than ‘good’.
Hi @Emily,
Thanks for your feedback. I’m in Bombay, India. The lady referenced at the beginning of the thread is from Israel.
I agree that it’s possible that some people wouldn’t want to criticise a stranger in his home (and in a foreign country) for fear he take it badly. I can certainly see how the dynamics of that would work. In theory, Airbnb’s review system should go a long way towards creating a level playing field, because both sides should be on their best behavior for fear of getting a bad review. But I don’t know how it plays out in practice, because both sides tend to pull their punches.
I travel extensively internationally both for business and with a large family in tow. That’s how I’m able to say that a slow check-in is a real turn off. However, it usually doesn’t happen. Even with Airbnbs it’s usually a quick “Hello and here are the keys.” There have been many threads here with hosts all commenting how they don’t like a prolonged check-in - you can go back and read them, but if you choose to ignore the comments and advice from people and try to defend your stance by having a go at the feedback, then I’m afraid I don’t understand why you’ve asked for help.
@faheem I am like you, check-in takes time with me. It is deliberate and, I think, one of the reasons that I very rarely have problems with guests (I’ve hosted over 500). I can understand people wanting a quick check-in if they are renting an entire property. But I am a live-in host and my guests are sharing my home with me, including the bathroom. They don’t get to treat me like a hotel desk clerk and just collect the keys. No, no, no. This is my home and I expect courtesy and respect. I don’t always get it, of course, but I start from that premise. Nobody gets to skip the house tour at my place. Obviously if they arrive late and are tired, I do it as quickly as possible. If they need to use the bathroom when they arrive, well of course they can do that.
There are several reasons why I take time to “check-in” guests.
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The most important - I want them to know that this is MY home and this is MY territory! It is much more difficult to misbehave when your kindly host has looked you in the eye, talked with you, made you a cup of tea etc.
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I want them to be fully self-sufficient while they are here. I don’t want to be bothered by questions about how the shower works, where is the corkscrew etc etc. Sure I could write everything down but that is not efficient for me. The majority of my guests are non-English speakers but despite that, as we know, most people don’t read anything anyway! Being shown how things work is far more effective and it gives me a chance to gauge how they will be as guests and whether I will need to keep reminding them to put the shower curtain INSIDE the tub, for example. Very often I don’t ever see guests again after check-in and that’s fine with me!
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Generally, guests really like it. They like the fact that I take the time to welcome them, make them tea and have a chat. They have the opportunity to ask questions about things to do, recommendations for nice places to eat etc., My so-called “check-in” process is mentioned very often in my reviews - they felt very welcome, appreciated the information about local bus routes blah blah. Some people want to chat for a while and have loads of questions, others are happy to take my printed info and get to their room. Either is good with me. I just like to have a clear picture of who is staying in my home. I can’t do that without spending a bit of time with them.
So, Faheem, my advice is kind of opposite to everyone else’s! I wouldn’t change what you do. The stars you got from your last guest were clearly a mistake, as she told you. Unfortunately this can happen when people leave reviews on the phone app. I have never been to India, sadly, but if I ever do go I would very much like to find a host like you who would take the time to show me around the property, explain things to me, make me some tea and be interested (or at least feign interest!) in my trip.
So… you’re the kind of guest that just uses Airbnb as a cheap alternative to a hotel, yes? I’m sure you are the perfect guest but there are many many threads on many many groups/forums about the quality of guests who use Airbnb in that way. Please don’t be so dismissive to live-in hosts who have a completely different experience.
I believe the point many are making is: that check-in should take ONLY as long as absolutely necessary, considering every person’s situation is different. Unless the guests is wanting of a longer social exchange.
Thank you Mearns. It’s a frustrating exercise being asked for feeback and then being criticised for it!
Completely agree. The burning question, though, is what constitutes “absolutely necessary” !
That’s pretty presumptuous of you to assume how and why I use Airbnb. And actually pretty rude of you to say I’m being dismissive of live-in hosts. Your interpretation of my exchange with Faheem is off the mark.
What constitutes ‘absolutely necessary’? The things the guest needs to know. In my case:
- Show them Cabana (specially Sirius radio and outside shower)
- Show them Main House (Kitchen and how to light stove, bathroom and mention the fact it has hot water, WiFi and local phone)
- Show them ‘sport’ room with snorkeling and fishing gear
- Outside, show Kayaks (please throw out their anchors when parking them along atoll otherwise they will be in Honduras in a jiffy)
- Climb to upstairs Lookout which floors them every time: point to islands cool to kayak to and best snorkeling/lobstering spots on the atoll.
Any questions, no? See you in X days. Unfortunately, that is when they foil my quick escape and ask: ‘So Fred, what is your personal story’? 
I didn’t mean to offend and apologies if it came across that way. To be fair, though, your remark to Faheem was indeed dismissive, don’t you think?:
"… if you choose to ignore the comments and advice from people and try to defend your stance by having a go at the feedback, then I’m afraid I don’t understand why you’ve asked for help." I don’t want a fight, just giving an alternative opinion, that’s all.
Ha ha! That must take more than 10 minutes, surely? Do you have your phone set to alarm so that it rings at precisely the time you want to go? And then say “Oh so sorry, I really have to take this. Byeeee!” I have used this tactic on several occasions with needy guests.
“Fair enough.” I’d make a shorter response but there’s a minimum word limit!
Haha, good one, many times my lady calls me from the boat, which she is waiting in, to cut the chatter to a minimum. I then role play and say someone is waiting for me back in the mainland.
I take less than a minute per station, I just simply talk fast and have the drill down pat after 150 guests. There is a secret to my madness, having been in business all my adult life - I adhere to one important axiom: always make a product easy to use and requiring no special explanation (aka idiot proof). 
@faheem We check IDs too. But as the host, I give them my ID first for them to examine, then ask for theirs - just one person, not everyone’s - and just snap a quick cellphone photo for our records. Takes two minutes.
I kind of operate in the same way, just on a different scale. This is my house, this is how it works, I am here - look at me! - I’m nice and friendly but don’t even THINK about pulling any funny business. You want information about what to do? Honestly, I’m always happy to do that. I live in a beautiful city so I enjoy helping people get the most out it. But then they’re on their own. They probably won’t see me again. I am very good at disappearing in my own house
Hello everyone,
So, an update about this. I wrote to Airbnb as @Yana_Agapova suggested, via Twitter. Then an Airbnb representative got in touch with the guest, and changed her reviews stars for my listing to all 5 stars. To quote the rep:
I just wanted to let you know that I went ahead and changed the ratings to reflect only five stars after your guest got back to me.
I also wrote to the Indian guy who gave me an overall 4 star rating and 4 stars on arrival. But I have not heard back from him and may not. However, I suspect his rating was intentional, modulo possible Airbnb glitches. He’s a physics grad student, and definitely computer literate.
However, this does make me wonder about a few things:
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Is it really possible for a functioning adult to give the wrong ratings without realising it? You just have to click the stars. How hard is that?
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For everyone giving ratings (either as a host or as a guest), what assurance do we have that the ratings that we give are the same as what is recorded in the system? I have never given ratings as a guest, but as a host, I don’t see the ratings I have given to guests listed anywhere I can see them.
However, per someone’s suggestion on this forum (I forget who), I am now explicitly including my star ratings for guests in the public part of the review. So far it has been 5 star across the board. I don’t know what I would do if I had to give someone low stars. 
It might not be a bad idea for others (hosts as well as guests) to do the same.
- If one does not assign any ratings at all, what happens? Does the system refuse to accept the review? I’m a bit disinclined to experiment with this, and I expect everyone else is too, so maybe nobody knows the answer to that. Except Airbnb, perhaps.
Thanks again, @Yana_Agapova, for the suggestion. If you had not suggested it, I probably would not have contacted Airbnb.
Hi @Wilburforce,
I apologise if you found my reply offensive. However. you wrote:
I don’t think I’ve ignored comments and advice. See the thread above. Several people have suggested modifying my check in to be more guest-friendly, and I agree that would be a reasonable thing to do. E.g.
and
and
I do take exception to words like “disrespecting” and “agony”. While I would not claim to be Sherlock Holmes, I’m neither brain-damaged nor autistic. I think I could tell if someone was uncomfortable.
And I now regret having mentioned the 20-30 minute thing, which everyone jumped on. I’ll like to emphasize that (a) that’s merely an estimate, I didn’t time myself (b) that’s for two people - one person would take less time and (c) that covers a fair amount of stuff.
Also, I’ll point out (again), that there is (still) so far no actual evidence that any of my guests was actually made uncomfortable by my check in procedure.
I’m impressed that anyone could do everything in 5 minutes. My guests usually take a few minutes just to check the wifi/internet is working for them. Not uncommonly they screw up and need help with that too.
But anyway, I can change the check in, as discussed above, to make things more efficient and hopefully more pleasant for the guests.
I don’t want to quarrel with anyone here. We’re all civilized, mature adults. Hopefully we can engage in constructive and respectful discussion, and keep this forum the valuable resource it is. After all, we all want the same thing. For our guests to have a safe and comfortable stay. And make some money, of course.
Hi @Magwitch,
Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, as a host who is inviting a stranger into my home, I do feel like I want to have at least a brief chat with him, her, or them first. I don’t know if it does any good, but if definitely makes me feel more comfortable.
And, as you say, people are very different. And international travellers naturally span a variety of cultures. And one should try to be sensitive to what people want and require.
I should add, as a disclaimer, that I don’t make them tea on check in. Though I’ll add it to the list of things to offer them.
In my case, it’s hard to tell whether they like it. And mostly people (so far) have not had much by way of questions. Including the foreigners, surprisingly. But so far, it is still a small sample size. Maybe I’ll have a different perspective if and when my guest visit number has crossed 3 digits.
Anyway, it’s hard to be super-efficient as well as cover stuff in a sensible way, making sure they understand it. So things can take a bit of time.
Hi @Mearns,
That’s truly an impressive amount of stuff to cover in 5 minutes. i think it would constitute a Whirlwind Tour. 
Do they follow everything immediately? Do you not need to repeat stuff?