What do you take from this host review of guests?

Bearing in mind that the review is from a host with a private room in a shared home…

“X and Y were friendly and left the room clean and tidy. They made full use of all the amenities that we provide and seemed to like our home very much indeed.”

I suppose you don’t recommend them and if you would host them again, you would probably lock up all snacks and free apples.

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Okay, but not complete enough. The host should recommend or not. “We enjoyed hosting them, you will too.” sort of thing.

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As I read it, I felt there was a hidden message. I feel like they took all the amenities, like emptied the basket! Just leave out what you think they will need. Don’t put out extras.

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Pretty cryptic …

Is there a small chance that the listing has horseback riding, paddleboards and yadda yadda and that there isn’t a hidden message that they packed out all the coffee pods and towels?

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It’s typical of some of the infuriating ‘reviews’ that some hosts leave. Yes. like others, it seems to me that the host is trying to tell us that the guests nicked all the loo roll or something. So why not a) don’t leave so much out or b) just tell us the facts?

I strongly suspect that there are hosts out there who leave reviews for the reviewed guest to read rather than for other hosts.

Mind you, I use instant book so never try to ‘evaluate’ guests from their reviews. But I sometimes look at their reviews just before their stay so that I can mention in conversation anything that stood out. In this case it would be ‘I see that you stayed at xxx’x place in xxx. He/she said that you left the place in great shape, that’s terrific. And something about you making full use of the amenities? How lovely. What were they?’

If nothing else, it shows the guest that we hosts do read their reviews :wink:

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I’ve told the story before of the guests to whom I said “hey, do you have any water bottles you need to refill before you hit the road?” (I buy filtered water in bulk for .25 USD a gallon) Yes! they said, thanks so much. They brought in a ice chest of empty water bottles, it was probably a case of the 500ml bottles. And they proceeded to fill them all. At first I thought they were kind of brazen but then I realized this was great and that for less than a dollar I kept a case of plastic bottles out of the landfill, at least for one cycle.

Another time, when I provided breakfast, a man irritated me by eating some of everything I offered and asking for a to go cup for his oatmeal. Instead of being annoyed I tried to be pleased at how he relished my offerings. :wink: A miserly host is just as off putting as a guest who uses it all.

Oh, to answer the question I’d need more information about the listing. I’d want to see other reviews that host left for other guests and the reviews of the guests if they had any. My first impression of this host is a bit negative.

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if these guests ask to stay at my house and I would read the above message I’d scratch my head wondering what they did. I would prefer you be more explicit.

In a similar situation I listed what they took: 1l bottle shampoo, 1l bottle conditioner, all the aspirins, acetaminophen, box of makeup remover, 2 big tubes of tooth papste, extra tooth brushes, 3 unopened soaps, a pair of bunny slippers, they soiled all the bed sheets from the linen closet, set a towel on fire, moved mattresses and chairs from one room to another, makeup stains everywhere, poo on the bathroom floor.

Now future hosts can decide if they want to host them.

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In the entire house I rent I leave toothbrushes, toothpaste, various beauty products in case a guest forgot something; the last guests just treated it as a free market and cleaned out the entire closet.
I know people do that in hotels, but c’mon, this is a private home!

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Thanks for all the replies, guys. Interesting to see that most of you have interpreted it in the way I did, ie. they helped themselves to everything they could and hung around the house a lot.

It is a review that popped up on my current guest’s profile just yesterday. I didn’t mention the specifics in my post because I wanted to garner unbiased opinions! I found this new review interesting because, when they booked, they said they were attending a nearby convention and “we’ll be out all the time so you’ll hardly see us”. That comment gave me a wry smile at the time because I’ve had enough experience to know that guests usually do/are the opposite of what they claim (the worst ones, of course, are those who proudly announce how clean and tidy they are - guaranteed to be slobs).

And I was right. On their first night here they hung around all evening in the dining room eating take-out and talking loudly. It didn’t actually bother me that much and they really are nice girls. But the new review made me wonder…

I don’t actually provide very much for guests in the way of toiletries etc. so they’d be hard pressed to clean me out of anything. My breakfast is pretty simple, just selection of cereals, bread and spreads, some pieces of fruit.
Funny thing is, they actually bought some bread and pastries and left them out but didn’t eat anything. Maybe they were chastened by the review?

Sorry, this has turned into a rather rambling post without any exciting or even satisfactory conclusion :frowning:

Still, it’s interesting to think about how useless some host reviews can be. And we got to read this shocker:

:open_mouth: :scream: BIB: W the actual F???

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I always add “I happily recommend them for your place” if I mean it. I provide tampons and sanitary pads for emergencies as there are no 24/7 chemists within 30km. They go slowly and then they all disappear at once. Given I just paid $600 to get the inlet pipe to the septic tank cleared out and they guys said it was blocked by tampons and baby wipes I’m thinking of adding “and please take them with you or dispose in the bin when leaving”.

to the OP: yes these guests were probably the worst I had. It was a family with a baby and nieces who came for a wedding. the poo on the bathroom floor was from the baby. they must have dropped a diaper and didn’t bother to clean. then the burnt towel was in one of the bedrooms. i cant imagine what they were doing: it was a white towel which was burned in the middle: a dinner plate size whole and it was charred around it.

Easy explanation for the towel, either an iron or a hair straightener left on it, as I found the same thing after a bridal group.

Yes, I do something similar and say ‘always welcome back here’. I leave that out for guests who didn’t do anything terrible but I just didn’t like them much.
Re. sanitary products, you could try putting dedicated disposal bags in the bathroom? I do that and it does help - women feel a bit uncomfortable with putting a used tampon or pad directly into the bin and so are more likely to flush them.

Ah, that does explain things a bit more! I think Debthecat is right that it was hair straighteners. Those things are a bloody menace. I have marks in several places from them, including my own :blush: