We have had many, many 1st time Airbnb user guests, do not have IB on ever and many locals. LA area is huge though… We have been lucky they have all been respectful. But I do look them in the eye and tell them, young or old that they HAVE to be “respectful towards my trailer”
1 Like
Yikes! Nearly as bad as broccoli! All those healthy vegetables are great raw but horrible as a cooked Airbnb rental stink.
1 Like
I live in the US but there are many hispanics of Mexican heritage here in my city of El Paso TX and I wouldn’t think twice if I saw luna lechuga as part of a name. With you being in OZ it’s more unusual. A tendency to attribute characteristics to certain names is a natural tendency that we all have to battle. If the guest’s name had been John Smith this thread would be half as interesting.
2 Likes
Having lived in Mexico for about 20 years, I can tell you that young Mexicans from middle and upper class families, funnily enough more so the girls than the boys, are some of the messiest people I have ever run across. Domestic help is cheap, and even middle class families have maids. These girls have never cleaned up after themselves in their life.
I have only had one young Mexican guest like that, the others were older and very respectful, but I property manage a little cabin next door to me that rents long term. Had 2 young Mexican girls in a row who, to see them, you would never guess. They are well-turned out, with nice, fashionable clothes, beautiful hair and teeth, and done-up nails, they shower often and have good personal hygiene. But they live like pigs. Piles of dirty dishes, dog hair everywhere, unwashed floors, disgusting shower stalls, deep filth.
I had a Canadian guest who booked with me because her son and grandchildren lived here, he had children with a young Mexican woman, but they were separated. My guest came back one day from visiting the grandchildren, who were living with their mother and she was so distraught- she was fuming and on the verge of tears. She said the house of the mother was so gross, with old food caked on the table, a stovetop and counters covered in grease, dirty, stained furniture, overflowing garbage bins, she said no wonder the kids had snot running down their faces all the time. I felt so bad for her, because there was really nothing she could do about it.
The mother of her grandchildren wasn’t poor- she wore stylish clothes, had a nice car, and the father, my guest’s son, gave her money every month, quite enough for the kids and to hire a housekeeper. She preferred to spend the money on clothes and getting her nails done.
1 Like
ah, well, as you were, it does seem weird then! lol
vomit.
in the sink. in the cupboard. on the hand soap. on the curtains… yeah that was worse! we had to run the ozone machine twice.
We’ve had guests break glasses and i have in my house rules they must inform us of breakages and where, so that I can go in and do a double clean up too (after they’ve swept it up of course).
I don’t mind breakages, it happens, but I really hate it when a guest says “a glass broke”, instead of admitting they did it. Had a guest snap off the (old) front door handle, blaming wet firewood that slipped out of his hands… lol. at least he confessed, sent a photo and apologised, and the door handle must be 100 years old, not fancy, and not in use, so it’s fine.
1 Like
Both names are common. I grew up in TX and I’ve known not only a whole family of Luna Lechugas (two surnames put together is typical) but also went to HS with an Estrella Lechuga. Never really thought of her as Star Lettuce though, lol.
1 Like
I think a two is pretty low for the mess was left- I’d do a 4 most likely. A bit careless, but not really over the top or malicious. I’m often shocked at what guests will leave, but if there is no maliciousness or permanent damage or a huge amount of mess then I do a 4. Though I suppose it’s a judgement call as to whether it’s malicious.
1 Like
This thread is another really good example of why star ratings are fairly useless. We have hosts here suggesting everything from 1 star to 4 stars on cleanliness. That’s why it’s important to mention the issues in the written review (keeping tactfulness in mind- “blood all over the walls” is a bit too graphic and unnecessarily embarrassing to the guest).
We all have different standards and expectations of guests, so IMO, I can’t make any judgement call re accepting a guest simply based on star ratings. And how a host rates a guest can have a lot to do with what they normally experience. If a host is accustomed to getting a lot of guests who don’t clean up after themselves, they may think “It’s not so bad”, whereas a host who is used to respectful guests may think “That’s disgusting!”.
6 Likes
Re Mexican names: Mexican names have whatever their given names are, followed by the father’s last name and then the mother’s last name. Women never take their husband’s last name when they marry, they have the same name all their lives.
If a Mexican is giving you a shortened form of their name, as we just use our given names and one last name (some of us might have hyphenated last names, both our mother’s and father’s) they will give their first name and their father’s last name, which is not their official name that appears last.
So José Garcia (father’s name) Sanchez (mother’s name) becomes José Garcia.
1 Like
I agree – it’s a class thing! That’s why I didn’t originally mention nationality since I don’t consider that relevant. Most people develop bad habits when they have someone else cleaning up after them.
2 Likes
OMG you poor thing. And that poor guest – they must have been miserable to have been vomiting everywhere!
No.
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
1 Like
probably, but it was self inflicted. they went to a wedding. Following that, we now put Berocca in the coffee stations. 
1 Like
Hi Lisanddavid,
I’m sorry that happened, but it most likely will happen again, even with people with good reviews…not often, thank goodness.
Re changing the guest’s review, no, they cannot change a review as you can’t change yours. If a review is way off the charts bad with no pix, etc, sometimes Airbnb will take it off if you call them, but not often.
Re your review, it’s not too harsh IMHO at all. I would add that the wet towels soaked into the bedding/comforter/mattress if that is the case. A wet towel on the bed that did no damage, I wouldn’t talk about.
I would definitely put in the smell issue and how long it took to get the smell out. I would also add that the blind cord was broken if you took pix and if it looked like someone misused it.
Regarding food on the floor, parquet or not, if it was something you could easily vacuum up and no damage was done I wouldn’t mention it. Again, pix are good here if you took them. Many guests have no idea how expensive a real parquet floor is. Area rugs could help with protecting the floor.
As far as the average “no review” people, I have over 30% of “no review” people and I haven’t had more issues with them than I do for reviewed guests. The only time I had a problem was when I didn’t check their ID to see that they were actually booked by someone else. That was my bad, but luckily I took pix and sent it to the one who booked and she actually reimbursed me.
Best wishes and again, I’m sorry you had to deal with this. Pam
2 Likes
I think it’s more a matter of mentioning things in the review that make it clear that the guest treated the space disrespectfully, if that was the case.
So if a guest left the place in basically clean and tidy condition, i.e. you can tell they made some effort, it would be petty to mention a bit of food on the floor.
But if they obviously showed zero respect for the place and whoever will be cleaning, left blood on the walls, and all the other stuff the OP mentioned, I think it’s valuable to give some specifics, to make the disrespect obvious.
I had a guest in my private room who cooked a lot in my shared kitchen, always cleaned up after her meals, but was an inattentive dishwasher. I was clandestinely rewashing her dishes because many of them had caked on food and grease. Had she been objectiobable in other ways, I would have mentioned it in a review, but she was a lovely person and a delightful guest, so it’s not anything I would bother to mention in a review.
It’s the sort of thing I might mention privately to the guest, although in this case I didn’t- I don’t like to nit-pick my guests and it only took a few minutes to rewash the dishes that didn’t pass muster.
2 Likes
CHARGE EXTRA CLEANING FEES – double your normal or fees to cover your time and expense at a decent rate. Did you take photos or better, videos? And absolutely review her honestly 1) to warn fellow hosts; 2) cover your *** with ABnB for expenses & repairs; and 3) so she will think twice before doing it again to other hosts.
ALSO POST CHECKOUT PROTOCOLS IN THE SUITE-- add an alert that guests will be charged for not following cleanliness rules. GOOD LUCK!!!
Thanks everyone for your advice, sympathy, and for letting me know that people with no reviews aren’t necessarily guests to avoid!
I did get video, but I don’t know how I could charge extra cleaning fees. Here my newb host status becomes really clear. It’s probably too late for this guest, who checked out more than 3 days ago, but for future reference, in case something like this happens again, is it hard to do? Do guests have to approve the extra fees, do you have to provide video to Airbnb, and how likely are they (guest and/or Airbnb, whoever makes the decision) to agree to adding extra cleaning charges?
Agree, by the square metre, my parquet floors cost approximately 50x more than the Persian rugs I have in the apartment (they’re colourful and cheap!), but honestly I would rather have food on the parquet floor than on the carpet. <shudder> There was so much squishy, moist food on the floor (half-cooked egg, raw meat) that I didn’t want to vacuum it and risk having bits of it spread all over the place. I mopped it all by hand with disinfectant added to a wood cleaner.
I keep vacillating over the review to leave for this guest. I’ve edited it probably 5 times on the Airbnb site (she hasn’t left a review yet). Here’s my latest iteration – I decided to strike reference to bodily fluids on walls of bathroom (too embarrassing for guest, though honestly she should have been embarrassed to leave that there in the first place!) and inject it with a tone of some humour to temper the outrage:
Melanie initially communicated well and reported enjoying the treats we left for her. When we arrived at the apartment after her departure, we felt certain that she made good use of the space because the evidence of her cooking was everywhere. O_O Unfortunately that, and some bathroom mess, entailed rather extensive clean-up and disinfection (raw meat on the parquet floors was distressing), but we appreciated that she washed her dishes and we’re glad she had a good time at our Manly apartment.
And in the private message to her, I wrote:
Hi Melanie, as a new Airbnb user, you may not have realised that staying at an Airbnb is different than staying in a hotel! When you stay in an Airbnb, you are expected to act like you are staying in someone else’s home and leaving the place tidy. Thanks for doing the dishes but I found food everywhere (on the floor, on the cabinets, etc.) and a bit of a mess in the bathroom. Of course we expect we will have to clean extensively after each guest: dusting, disinfecting surfaces, mopping, washing sheets and towels. But every Airbnb host also expects that guests will do basic cleanup after themselves. You might want to keep this in mind if you choose to book Airbnb places in the future. We hope you enjoyed your stay.
Does anyone think I haven’t provided enough information to warn other hosts? I did check the “would not host again” box so she won’t be able to IB with anyone.
1 Like
If you have posted your “house rules” and guest protocols, advising guests what you expect (no food on floors or counters). No vomit in bathrooms (!?!?!) No stains on bedding) guest are on notice to respect your place.
If you don’t demand respect, advantage will be taken. Less taken when you demand. Percentage of problem guests? Around 10%. But with clear boundaries stated that you take no ****, it goes down. And be sure to charge adequate cleaning and linens wash/change fees at fair wages. In my area, that is $30 per hour, per worker.) I add a cushion, as there are always some liberties taken.
Do NOT do cleaning yourself for free/included in room rate!! It will make you miserable! That’s not your job. And when you get good cleaners, guests notice and love the clean space. And are actually incline to leave it in good shape.
1 Like
your assumption is that I can’t clean better than paid cleaners. This is incorrect.
yes, they can either accept the charge, or fight it. In my vomit story, I charged them $125 extra in cleaning fees and they paid it straight away. they were lucky that the curtains were cleanable, the doona wasn’t soiled (we did put it outside in the sun for hours just to air out), the stains came out of all the linens (red wine vomit, we had to do extra spot cleaning after the wash) and I used the ozone machine twice.
agreed. the real damage people can do is scratching/gouging the floor. We’ve had this happen but it was our fault too, the felt thingys had fallen off the couch and we didn’t notice until we saw the scratches. But ours are just hardwood, you can get crayons to fill in scratches, and the house is 100+ years old, these imperfections are just “character” now. Parquetry is specialised, and expensive to repair. Rugs are annoying because they will get stained - we put new rugs in the bedrooms in May and they are covered in stains now, I’m so annoyed. We’re switching over to the those woolen chunky loop style versions, that hide dirt/stains.
You’ve toned down the review quite a bit, be sure to hit her hard on the stars.
1 Like