Your opinion on a honest host review

What would your review of this guest be?

  1. Nothing was broken
  2. Beach sand throughout the suite
  3. Empty water bottles all over the suite, on the floor, in garbage and not recycle bin
  4. Mirror covered in toothpaste splatter
  5. They did use the dirty dish container as asked for the most part for their dirty dishes.
  6. They did message that they checked out early.
    The place was a mess, but, some people are just messy. It looked like the room of a teenager, you know what I mean. Regardless of how a guest leaves the room I have to clean top to bottom.
    Curious what you would all leave for a review. There was a post about hosts not giving honest review and I don’t want to be that host, but I don’t want to be too hard on guests either.How many points do they lose for not taking off their shoes, as there was sand everywhere. Do you give them a 4/5 or a 3/5 for how they left the suite? I don’t want to be the host that expects every guest to be stellar but I want to give an honest review. I would never leave a room in that state but is it fair to leave a 3/5 for being slobs?
    The guest left one day early for “health issues.” They stated that they loved their stay and felt right at home.

I’d probably leave 4 star review mentioning the overall mess.

That they dragged the sand everywhere was their own problem that they had to live with, unless the sand can now be found in the beds or other somewhat unexpected areas that require significantly more cleaning time, then I would give them a 3.

No damage, toothpaste splatters, empty water bottles everywhere is something that many guests leave behind. I wouldn’t use that as a reason to give less than 5 stars.

I don’t understand how the star system is supposed to represent the quality of a guest.

1 star for burning down the accommodation?
2 stars for just destroying the bathroom making it unusable for following guests
3 stars just for smoking but not damaging anything (also leaving a huge mess with extra cleaning time)
4. stars for a guest who was loud past 10pm but was quiet after they were reminded of the house rules
5 star for a normal person who treats the place like their own by not leaving excessive amounts of garbage behind and putting everything back to where it was.

Does that come close?

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Hosterer, thank you for that. Yes, that helps! I was leaning for a 4/5 for the overall mess and being general slobs. In saying that, I think they were here for a sexcation, and I don’t love that type of guest…only because they are usually messier. Nothing was wrecked and I am sure the Roomba will pick up most of the sand, albeit the shower as I don’t let the Roomba in there.

Where does the sand come from? Is your place by the beach?
I live in a beach town, and sand in the guest quarters has nothing to do with them taking off their shoes- most of my guests remove their shoes before entering. It’s just impossible to come back from the beach without transporting sand- it’s in their towels, their bathing suits and clothes, their beach bags, their hair.

So I wouldn’t mark a guest down for sand. And mirror covered in toothpaste splatter is a ridiculous thing to even think about, IMO. Certainly not something I would expect a guest to clean before leaving.

So of all the things you mentioned specifically, neglecting to put the water bottles in the recycling is the only thing that seems messy to me, but only takes a couple minutes to gather up.

If there were other things you didn’t mention- dirty stovetop and counters, leftover take-out food in the fridge, damp towels on the floor or draped over wooden or upholstered furniture, things moved around and not put back, creating an overall impression that they made no effort at all to tidy up, then 4/5 seems reasonable. If it was just the things you mentioned here, if they were my guests, I’d give them a 5.

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Thanks for that Muddy. I want to be fair to the guests and other hosts with my review. Yes, they were just messy. I realize dirty splashed up mirrors are with most guests, no cause for negative review. I just wanted to see what others give for reviews for just being slobs. Most of it I could pick up easily as you stated. Yes, we have a private beach, but I think they found it too cool to go for a swim. I think they just went down to the beach to enjoy the outdoors and scenery.

I can understand the dilemma, though. If guests leave the place really clean and tidy, as many do, of course they deserve 5 stars for cleanliness. So if others leave it messy, it somehow doesn’t seem right to also give them 5 stars.

But since hosts wouldn’t like guests to mark them down for what seem like pretty inconsequential things, it also seems fair to not be too harsh.

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Airbnb has a specific feedback on the ‘tidying up’ part of the guest review that you can use, but I wouldn’t be too hard on the guest. Some people are just not that organized and they don’t do it on purpose, each one of us are raised differently so as long as it’s not an ‘unreasonable’ mess, I would say treat it as business as usual and move on. Remember it’s a business and they pay for cleaning, so as long as it’s a reasonably cleanable mess, it should be fine.

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Are you serious about the toothpaste splatters?

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Thank you Vero for your thoughts. I charge less than my competitors, and do not charge a cleaning fee, (I know people will say that I do, just included in the price, but I don’t agree) as the suite is an independent space in our home. I gave them a 4/5. As Muddy stated, if a super tidy awesome guest is 5, how can a super messy slob guest be as 5 as well. I didn’t publicly say they were slobs, I just gave them a number review and left it at that. There was a recent post stating that hosts should be honest in their review so I am trying to be that host. I don’t want to be super harsh on guests, nor do I want to give every guest a 5 star if they are not a 5 star.

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I’m not sure how hosts figure that it’s included in the nightly rate or not.
I don’t charge a cleaning fee either, but I also have a 3 night minimum. So the hour and a half it takes me to clean and prepare the guest quarters divided by 3 nights works out to a half hour per night. That cleaning time, plus utilities and amenities provided adds up to basically the first night’s fee. Every night past that is profit.

JJD. My questions are about an honest review. I stated that splatters on the mirror are pretty common, it is part of hosting and happens with most guests. Would I give them a 4/5 for splatters, of course not. Hope that clears that up.

I have never heard of a guest mentioning to me the size of MY cleaning fee, or how it impacted their choice of airbnb. Most of the anti-‘fee’ thing makes no sense - you don’t get to cherry pick the fees charged at a hotel, and they charge per day a number of fees. “I’m going to the Hilton because I don’t like fee xxx charged by Marriott”… nope, not a real thing.

And seriously, a cleaning fee is a 1 time charge spread out over their booking. $200 fee for a 10 day stay? Total $10/day. A ‘resort fee’ from a hotel is much more and stays the same price no matter how many or few days you stay.

Hosts that charge a cleaning fee can do so, as it is their Airbnb, so they make the rules. I choose not to charge a cleaning fee.

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I am with you on this, I do not charge a cleaning fee either. I prefer to keep it simple and it works for me.

RR

If their “mess” didn’t cost you more than a few extra minutes, why are you even complaining? I would react the way you did to my kids when they were teenagers, but not with someone paying to stay in my accommodations.

I think just about everyone in this group scrubs their Airbnb top-to-bottom every time. It doesn’t really take more than a minute longer to vacuum a sandy floor compared to a “a few days of dust” floor.

Now --if someone leaves behind a mess that actually takes significantly more time, that that’s legitimate cause for complaining… but just because you didn’t like the way the mess looked? That kind of judgment is not our role as hosts, unless the guests are our grandchildren.

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…ummmmmmmmm

202020202020

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Agreed.

If THAT makes your blood boil, maybe being in the hospitality business isn’t a good match for your temperament – especially since you’re going to Windex the mirror anyways.

To be fair, folks, Thunderlake simply listed what they found when the guests checked out, so we would understand what exactly the “mess” consisted of . He/she didn’t indicate that they were considered terrible guests because of it, that it would take an inordinate amount of time to deal with, nor that they would never be accepted back.

They were just asking for opinions on what to leave as a rating and review, seeing as how we are always harping on leaving honest reviews and seeing as how many guests do leave it clean and tidy and obviously deserve 5 stars for that. So does a guest who leaves a place messy, regardless of whether it’s not a big deal to clean up, also deserve 5 stars for cleanliness?

That was the gist of the original question, not whether sand on the floor is a hassle to vacuum up.

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Spark, WOW, just WOW. Please read Muddy’s last post. I asked a question about what others would leave for a review, as reviews left by hosts has been questioned in the past. I never once said I was angry, nor did my blood boil, over the messy guest. Please take a moment or two to review what I have written, because your take is that I should not be hosting. I think that you should retract your point of view as it is extremely offensive.

If someone wants to be messy without creating any extra work for the host, what business is it of the hosts?

I would never have sought advice from this forum on how to review, because it wouldn’t bother me so it wouldn’t eve occur to me to mention it in my review. Presumably you are thinking of downgrading the review (and punishing the guest) because it IS an issue with you. It is clear from your comments that you were annoyed or – to use a metaphor for “annoyed” – it made your blood boil.

To me – complaining g about this (if it doesn’t really affect cleanup time) is like complaining about the clothing worn by the guests if they wore ripped bluejeans because I think that “look” is messy.

I stand by my earlier comments.