Post by High Priestess on Oct 10, 2015 16:24:10 GMT
Laura shared Oct 9 2015
Review for guest whose friend didn't follow house rules
My husband and I have a higher end property in the mountains of __________. Though not new to hosting , we have not experienced this kind of situation before, so I thought I put it to the group. My question is should I leave a review for a guest who's friend broke house rules by letting their dog on the furniture resulting in hours of extra cleaning? She paid the $100 additional cleaning fee without comment. We have a high star rating and I don't want to jeopardize it, but she is new to Airbnb and has no reviews. And, if I did leave a review what is it fair to say? It wasn't her dog and I feel she was gracious enough to rectify the situation. Any advice is appreciated.
Cynthia:
Just be honest and factual. They can't see your review before they post their own, so shouldn't be an issue.
Andrew (andrew)
Actually, if there weren't any other problems with the guests, I'd let this one go. For several reasons:
1. The guest is not a dog owner, so the problem you experienced won't be repeated in future stays.
2. The guest took full responsibility for the incident and compensated you fairly, which reflects well on her character. Commentary suggesting that the guest is a rule-breaker or a cleanliness hazard would give an unfair impression to prospective hosts, when actually this is the kind of person we want - one that rectifies a mistake graciously.
3. If dogs are allowed indoors, it's all but inevitable that eventually a guest will fail to keep them off the furniture 100% of the time. It's not entirely outside the guests' control in theory, but in practice the animals have a will of their own. With that in mind, I feel pretty sympathetic to the situation. However, if your rule was "no pets inside the house," a negative review would be richly deserved.
Juliet and Ed:
I like how you say dogs have a will of their own. So true! I'm not a dog lover but one night I offered to have a neighbor's dog spend the night at our house. It was only ever in the kitchen, in fact I shut it into the kitchen at night. Next morning, I found it in the living room, relaxing on the couch. I was pretty amazed, and impressed!
Kim:
I agree with Andrew, I would not mention it. If a dog sleeps on your bed at home, you tell your dog to lay down on a dog bed, you go to bed, when you wake up the dog will be next to you. No ones fault. The dog was acting normal, the guest tried to follow the rules. $100 is a lot extra for a dog on the furniture, and she paid it, I would not mention it. When you accept pets you need to expect fur and extra wear and tear on the house. I don't accept pets because I worry about fleas, poop/pee in the house, barking, and most importantly if it behaves poorly or kills any of my animals. But accepting dogs (and cats) is a unique niche and definitely you can charge a premium for allowing them.
Laura:
Thank you all for your insights. The guest actually emailed me a little while ago saying how sorry she was that this happened. She was very appologetic and expressed the hope that she and her husband could stay again in the future. It all ended well.
Kim, I did want to clarify. My husband and I are dog lovers and typically travel with our three dogs. So we do understand dog behavior. This was really exceptional or I wouldn't have brought it up. In this case, however, the fur coated the sheets, the furniture, the duvets - everything. It was clear that the dog had been sleeping in the beds, etc. There was also an odor that had to be erraticated. I only mention this because I wish more hosts allowed pets. We have for some time now and have never had a problem until now. Generally speaking the people we've had who have brought their pets have been very respectful and clean. This was just a fluke I am sure.
Queenie & Ted (queenie&ted):
Like any aspect of hosting, you're playing the odds. Eventually, we will all have a horrible guest, get a bad review, allow a furry dog. I'm always grateful for the 14 day review period because it gives hosts and guests a chance to cool off before publishing a public review that they may later regret.
Ed & Hugh:
Just say that the party did not follow house rule, however they paid for the damage they did.
Andrew (andrew):
Technically it's the dog that didn't follow the rule ;-) I don't think I'd use this wording myself, as most hosts would outright refuse a guest if a review indicated that they broke rules and damaged property. If the guest was not so terrible as to deserve getting effectively blacklisted from future use of the site, these are exactly the terms I'd avoid using.
Fleur (fleur):
My dog is extremely well trained (she is from a guide dog organisation but didn't make the cut, she is a reject lol). The only place she is not allowed is on our bed. I find her hair on our bed. Of course i never see her on our bed but she is sneaky. I think not allowing animals onto furniture is something that is impossible to monitor unless they are crated.
Deborah (High Priestess):
THis story is a good example of why I dont' allow guests to have their friends over to my house, and I recommend that others set this up in their house rules as well. Guests will feel responsible to you in a way that their friends may not. Friends of guests may take liberties that your guest would not. You can require that your guest(s) have read the house rules and agreed to them before they book - - but it's harder to ensure that guests' Friends have read your house rules.
That said, if the guest was as apologetic and willing to take responsibility for the situation as you describe, I would not feel a need to mention this in the review of the guest. For me, the guests' attitude, apologies, and willingness to take responsibility, count for more than any damage they do or any breaking of house rules.
As a related example -- I recently had a guest who assured me that before booking she had read all the house rules. So imagine my surprise to find that near the end of her stay she received not one but two or more packages mailed to my home, and I very clearly state in my house rules that guests may not recieve mail at my house. So I talked to her about that and she was very apologetic. Okay, so I thought, I will let that go, I won't mention it in my review of her, since she apologized. But then, come check out day, I email her in advance notifying her of check out time at 11am, and find that at noon when I go to clean the room, she is still in her room in pyjamas, nothing packed to go. I tell her that she has to leave, she is late leaving, and she insists, in a practically scolding tone, that she will not be rushed, she wants to have a relaxing morning. I am flabbergasted, and communicate that she must leave quickly, but do permit her more time since it is clear that she is nowhere near ready to go. Returning later at 3:30pm I find her still in the room, at this point I am irate. I insist that she pack up immediately and I go in the room and start stripping the bed and cleaning. So now it is clear that this will be mentioned in her review, that she did not follow house rules, received mail at my house, and 4 hrs after check out time was still in the room. It would be a different thing if when I found her in the room at noon, and asked her to leave, she had apologized and left immediately. Since she insisted on staying and did not apologize, my review of her will definitely reflect her disrespect.
Review for guest whose friend didn't follow house rules
My husband and I have a higher end property in the mountains of __________. Though not new to hosting , we have not experienced this kind of situation before, so I thought I put it to the group. My question is should I leave a review for a guest who's friend broke house rules by letting their dog on the furniture resulting in hours of extra cleaning? She paid the $100 additional cleaning fee without comment. We have a high star rating and I don't want to jeopardize it, but she is new to Airbnb and has no reviews. And, if I did leave a review what is it fair to say? It wasn't her dog and I feel she was gracious enough to rectify the situation. Any advice is appreciated.
Cynthia:
Just be honest and factual. They can't see your review before they post their own, so shouldn't be an issue.
Andrew (andrew)
Actually, if there weren't any other problems with the guests, I'd let this one go. For several reasons:
1. The guest is not a dog owner, so the problem you experienced won't be repeated in future stays.
2. The guest took full responsibility for the incident and compensated you fairly, which reflects well on her character. Commentary suggesting that the guest is a rule-breaker or a cleanliness hazard would give an unfair impression to prospective hosts, when actually this is the kind of person we want - one that rectifies a mistake graciously.
3. If dogs are allowed indoors, it's all but inevitable that eventually a guest will fail to keep them off the furniture 100% of the time. It's not entirely outside the guests' control in theory, but in practice the animals have a will of their own. With that in mind, I feel pretty sympathetic to the situation. However, if your rule was "no pets inside the house," a negative review would be richly deserved.
Juliet and Ed:
I like how you say dogs have a will of their own. So true! I'm not a dog lover but one night I offered to have a neighbor's dog spend the night at our house. It was only ever in the kitchen, in fact I shut it into the kitchen at night. Next morning, I found it in the living room, relaxing on the couch. I was pretty amazed, and impressed!
Kim:
I agree with Andrew, I would not mention it. If a dog sleeps on your bed at home, you tell your dog to lay down on a dog bed, you go to bed, when you wake up the dog will be next to you. No ones fault. The dog was acting normal, the guest tried to follow the rules. $100 is a lot extra for a dog on the furniture, and she paid it, I would not mention it. When you accept pets you need to expect fur and extra wear and tear on the house. I don't accept pets because I worry about fleas, poop/pee in the house, barking, and most importantly if it behaves poorly or kills any of my animals. But accepting dogs (and cats) is a unique niche and definitely you can charge a premium for allowing them.
Laura:
Thank you all for your insights. The guest actually emailed me a little while ago saying how sorry she was that this happened. She was very appologetic and expressed the hope that she and her husband could stay again in the future. It all ended well.
Kim, I did want to clarify. My husband and I are dog lovers and typically travel with our three dogs. So we do understand dog behavior. This was really exceptional or I wouldn't have brought it up. In this case, however, the fur coated the sheets, the furniture, the duvets - everything. It was clear that the dog had been sleeping in the beds, etc. There was also an odor that had to be erraticated. I only mention this because I wish more hosts allowed pets. We have for some time now and have never had a problem until now. Generally speaking the people we've had who have brought their pets have been very respectful and clean. This was just a fluke I am sure.
Queenie & Ted (queenie&ted):
Like any aspect of hosting, you're playing the odds. Eventually, we will all have a horrible guest, get a bad review, allow a furry dog. I'm always grateful for the 14 day review period because it gives hosts and guests a chance to cool off before publishing a public review that they may later regret.
Ed & Hugh:
Just say that the party did not follow house rule, however they paid for the damage they did.
Andrew (andrew):
Technically it's the dog that didn't follow the rule ;-) I don't think I'd use this wording myself, as most hosts would outright refuse a guest if a review indicated that they broke rules and damaged property. If the guest was not so terrible as to deserve getting effectively blacklisted from future use of the site, these are exactly the terms I'd avoid using.
Fleur (fleur):
My dog is extremely well trained (she is from a guide dog organisation but didn't make the cut, she is a reject lol). The only place she is not allowed is on our bed. I find her hair on our bed. Of course i never see her on our bed but she is sneaky. I think not allowing animals onto furniture is something that is impossible to monitor unless they are crated.
Deborah (High Priestess):
THis story is a good example of why I dont' allow guests to have their friends over to my house, and I recommend that others set this up in their house rules as well. Guests will feel responsible to you in a way that their friends may not. Friends of guests may take liberties that your guest would not. You can require that your guest(s) have read the house rules and agreed to them before they book - - but it's harder to ensure that guests' Friends have read your house rules.
That said, if the guest was as apologetic and willing to take responsibility for the situation as you describe, I would not feel a need to mention this in the review of the guest. For me, the guests' attitude, apologies, and willingness to take responsibility, count for more than any damage they do or any breaking of house rules.
As a related example -- I recently had a guest who assured me that before booking she had read all the house rules. So imagine my surprise to find that near the end of her stay she received not one but two or more packages mailed to my home, and I very clearly state in my house rules that guests may not recieve mail at my house. So I talked to her about that and she was very apologetic. Okay, so I thought, I will let that go, I won't mention it in my review of her, since she apologized. But then, come check out day, I email her in advance notifying her of check out time at 11am, and find that at noon when I go to clean the room, she is still in her room in pyjamas, nothing packed to go. I tell her that she has to leave, she is late leaving, and she insists, in a practically scolding tone, that she will not be rushed, she wants to have a relaxing morning. I am flabbergasted, and communicate that she must leave quickly, but do permit her more time since it is clear that she is nowhere near ready to go. Returning later at 3:30pm I find her still in the room, at this point I am irate. I insist that she pack up immediately and I go in the room and start stripping the bed and cleaning. So now it is clear that this will be mentioned in her review, that she did not follow house rules, received mail at my house, and 4 hrs after check out time was still in the room. It would be a different thing if when I found her in the room at noon, and asked her to leave, she had apologized and left immediately. Since she insisted on staying and did not apologize, my review of her will definitely reflect her disrespect.