Ok, so i had my first bad guest and i’m dreading the bad review. I now feel i need to leave a very detailed review in order to defend my good record - i wish i did not have to.
My guest was incredibly unreasonable and i didn’t want to have a huge fight so i just didn’t respond to the his crazy demands to reimburse for stay and cleaning fee. mind you my cleaning fee is $30.
What can i do to mitigate the damage that will be caused by the guests bad review?
I would not leave a review until the last second to avoid prompting theirs. We have discovered that the review period ends at midnight in their time zone on the last day of the review period. You can write it up beforehand so it’s ready to submit. You may get lucky though and not hear from them. Both times I had bad guest experiences they did not leave a review for me, probably to avoid prompting me to leave one. If they do write something terrible, you can respond to it but be aware that the system prints the entire review and your response, drawing even more attention to it. If you respond make sure it’s not defensive. Sometimes it’s better to leave it lie, and let it scroll off the review page.
So just wait. You may not even get a review from these clods.
Be professional and positive, but address the points your bad guest made. Just like Yelp or Amazon, customers will discount one or two negative reviews in light of overwhelming positive reviews.
Try to avoid pointing fingers or blaming, but present the facts and try to be constructive. e.g. I’m sorry you weren’t happy with the size of my two bedroom home, I try to make every experience a great one. The reservation was originally for four adults, so when the size of your party grew, you probably just outgrew my venue.
If the guest leaves a specific complaint, such as “the kitchen faucet dripped”, make sure you fix it and notate that in your response.
Thank you Kona, i will wait but if i miss the review period does that mean that only their review will be published after the review expiration? if i do miss it, will i be able to respond after the fact?
Thanks for the pointers Mark, you make great points and articulate well.
If you find out the expiration time in THEIR time zone (call an Air CSR to be sure of the exact time) you won’t miss it. If you do, yes, you can respond but be careful because you don’t want to sound defensive. Yes, if you don’t review, only theirs will be visible. As I mentioned (I learned the hard way) that when you respond it prints the whole thing! Drawing even more attention to the mess!
Try to see if you can find out the exact time that guest’s review period expires, and wait until that second… A CSR can tell you. I would wait until right until then end. If they leave you one first, then that idea is moot and you can just go ahead and leave one.
Sorry you are haviing this experience. It’s one of the bad things about Air…
KoalaBeach,I really feel for you…sometimes i worry like sick about the review process, even though i go out of my way to make the guests feel welcome etc. In my experience (Ive only been at it a yr), i’ve worried for nothing. I find all guests write a good review and mark you down on stars instead. I find this really two faced. For example, Sometimes I wonder why some mark me down a star for location, when I’m right in the middle of the city centre, or accuracy, when my home is exactly like in all my pictures…etc etc…its drives me crazy. When Airbnb started the thing, that hosts can now see who gives them the star ratings, I was obsessed with it, even going as far as messaging some guests to ask for feedback on why they give a 4star instead of 5 for certain areas. Haha. Some just ignored me, or one lovely girl messaged me back apologizing stating her phone was to blame, and she insisted she give me 5stars all over lol…if we didnt laugh, we’d cry! I think it just shows we care about what guests think of us. We can only do our best. Sometimes you cant please anyone. There is always going to be people who complain for no reason!
I’ll never ever have all five stars… due to many who have marked me down for location and value. I could care less! Nothing I can do about either of those things.
I wish i didnt care as much! I need tips to chill out lol…
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Sunshine, I have found I feel much more relaxed once I got several not only good but awesome reviews on page one… The way I’ve done it may not appeal to some hosts here but I’ve found a way to control it as best I can…This is how:
• Make sure my listing has all the cons disclosed (an hour from town, cistern water supply, rural location)
• Very complete set of guest instructions
• Excessively friendly helpfulness (if you need to ask anything while you are out and about seeing sights, don’t hesitate to text!)
• Never review guests unless there’s been a an express agreement that we will both leave each other positive reviews.
(If you just leave a review without this agreement, it will prompt some guests–even the seemingly nice ones-- to smack you in return with some trivial complaint!!! Trust me, I have learned!!!)
• If I do want to leave a review for a guest, bad or good, and I have not been reviewed first) I wait until 9:59 in their time zone… on the last day of the review period. (Rare: have only done this once.)
• Don’t worry so much about stars. I don’t think people will not book you if you don’t have five. They still book me all the time and I have 4.5. As long as the reviews are mostly good that should be all that matters.
You can’t control the process entirely but you can do a few things… these have worked for me.
Thanks konacoconutz, I shouldnt be worried, all my stars are five on my profile, but this off course could go down, and show on my profile, depending on how many people give 4stars?
I’m also so accurate in my details on my profile so people know what theyre getting.
How do you discuss with guests about the review? I would feel awkward bringing this up…although i have joked about it sometimes, depending on who the guests are.
Well sunshine…I typically don’t have this conversation at all unless the guests are falling down all over themselves loving me and the place.
You will know which guests do this… and which guests don’t!
Also I try to make sure to say goodbye to them when they check out… Often this is when I first hear them gush. “We loved it what a wonderful place, we love it here, what a great location, awesome place… blah blah…”
If they just say goodbye without all the glitter and rainbows, then I obviously don’t have that conversation!
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There’s actually a piece written on just that - how to handle a bad review from a guest on Airbnb. Good luck