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I STRUGGLE like hello to write this…and have never had to write one before.
But I have one more day to submit this- and am worried about what to say.
This is what factually occured. Including my bad choices.
“The first couple days we hardly knew they were on the property. Very respectful. She was a great communicator and I helped her plan her daily fun activities. She sent me questions asking for suggestions, and I sent her links to activities she could book to do with her family. I was prepared to give them a 5 star review. Then the last night, things got complicated. We could hear things get louder, and what sounded like they were having a birthday party. (Singing Happy Birthday) Which I didn’t actually mind- I thought it was wonderful for them to enjoy their family time, doing cake or what not-
but then the party became a Kareoke Party and the singing went until almost 3 am. Which I tried to be even somewhat tolerant of this- as I can appriciate trying to make memories with your teens on the last day of vacation.
However- I wish I had not ignored my rules for them.
The next day they were late checking out.
The maid called me distressed and said they were urgently cleaning and trying to hide what they had done inside…and still had not left.
The maid knocked and reminded them they needed to leave, once every 30 minutes over-the next two hours.
Once they finally left- it appeared they had hung up decorations as she found tape on the cielings and walls- and the fire alarm was hanging from the ceiling. Like they had attempted to dismantle it.
She also found a strange blue green THICK slimey sticky substance in the bottom of the tub, and the tub PLUG was taken out and the drain was plugged. There was two other strange blue stains on the duvet bedding.
I told her to do the best she could.
I paid the maid for the two hours she waited and could not get in to do her job, and I also had to pay for additional hours of cleaning. It took her 8 hours. She is normally does it in about 4 to 6 hours. She worked into the evening to clean and replace and repair everything what was damaged.
I was grateful I did not have another guest scheduled to arrive that night.
It would not have been ready on time.
We also hired a plumber to come and fix what they had done to the drain.
I was disappointed that what seemed to start out as a nice family vacation, ended up being less than nice.”
I would not host guest again. Guest was 2 hours late in checking out and left a huge mess and stopped up the bathtub.
Then 1 star across the board and check the would not host again option.
Personally I would not let on that I was upset as not to tip off guest the review is not going to be good.
I always send the same checkout message:
Thanks for staying with us! I will review you this afternoon when I get the email from AirBnb, I would appreciate it if you took a moment and reviewed me as well.
If you know a guest is partying till 3am presumably against your house rules then why didn’t you contact them as it sounds like you are nearby and ask them to stop @Amy_Loveless
I don’t think it’s fair to leave your cleaner to deal with this situation. Why didn’t you contact them/go over rather than leaving her to have to contact them every half an hour and then disrupt her day by having to stay until the early evening .
Your guests behaved disgracefullly but you need to take more responsibility for managing your listing when things went wrong.
I would have put in a claim with the guests for additional cleaning and damages .
Review ‘Sadly xxx threw a loud party to 3 am resulting in mess throughout the house. They then refused to leave till 2 hours after checkout as they were trying to remove evidence of decorations hung on walls and ceiling and party mess throughput the property. The extensive mess required four additional hours cleaning. Would not host again.’
Agree with the shorter reviews, flag the late departure, mess & tub, mention noise only if you have quiet hours in your rules.
You have two options if next guest has not arrived: 1) Pursue reimbursement for plumber and cleaner with Airbnb, which will likely be an annoying process, but may be worth it depending on the cost, then just move on, OR 2) Proceed directly to just moving on and absorbing as a cost of business.
@Amy_Loveless Reviews should be brief and concise- no one needs to read all the details of how guests behaved in a review, although it’s fine to describe it in detail here on the forum so other hosts can advise as to how to write the review.
i just want to point out here (unpopularly, I suspect) that the host or co-host should have taken more responsibility in this situation.
As @Helsi says, the 3am party should have been stopped. By not doing so, the host appears to be condoning this and breaking her own rules.
Same with the late checkout. The host or co-host should have made sure that they left on time.
Because we have new/potential hosts and also Airbnb guests reading here, I think it’s important to point those things out. Sorry Amy, I wasn’t getting at you, honest. Welcome to the forum.
@Amy_Loveless, I agree with @RiverRock, especially to not let on that you are upset. There is no upside to that. You’ll have to eat the additional expense - but that “is part of the game”. We all must budget for “replacing linens”, etc.
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Here is my version - use as you like:
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"Would Never Host Again. Very messy. Tape on ceilings and walls. Blue stains on bedding, Left us with a ton of extra cleaning. Very late checkout. Clogged our bathtub very badly - we actually had to hire a plumber to fix it!
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1 Stars for Everything. Make sure to hit “No” for "would you host again.
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