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Post by queenie&ted on Oct 14, 2015 2:46:15 GMT
I have seen a flurry of posts recently where hosts are disappointed that a difficult guest left them a bad review but the host did not review the guest. PLEASE, review every guest that you have even if it is not creative or original or poetic.
As a host, I give great weight to fellow hosts’ reviews. If you say you’d host them again, then I’m really looking forward to meeting them. If you say nothing, I’m lead to believe I’m hosting a new Airbnber. If you hosted a guest and you would NOT like them to darken your doorway again, please let the rest of us know! This is not a safe secret to keep! Demanding, dirty, or rude guests need to be identified for all hosts. Even a casual “Jane stayed with us for 2 days” will give me a clue that she was not a good guest.
Airbnb gives us 14 days to write a review. If a guest has been difficult and you’re at a loss for how to word a graceful, factual and unemotional review, please take that time to go to a forum and get some input from other hosts. Airbnb is already taking the position of the ‘guest is always right’. If we hosts don’t speak to each other, any semblance of trust in the review system will be lost.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 14, 2015 3:34:45 GMT
Amen, Amen, Amen Queenie!! This is so important, you are quite right. I think there is only one guest I have had for whom I didn't write a review, and I regret that one instance. It can be difficult to write anything critical in a review, so many hosts will gloss over "issues" with the guest . I don't believe in highlighting every minor problem, certainly, but I do believe in mentioning more serious issues, and in particular, problems in the "attitude" department. I can forgive a number of things if the guest has a good attitude and is sincere. BUt a bad attitude is something that should be taken into account when writing the review, even if one need not directly mention this issue. For those who find that they are caught in limbo, not having much positive to say about the guest, but also feeling that the "issues" with the guest were not problematic enough to warrant mentioning in a public reivew, the "strangely uninformative" or content-less review is an invention we community group regulars and New Host Forum regulars developed quite some time back. I dont' know if it was me who mentioned it first or Julie and Eric, or someone else, but great minds think alike and we collectively came up with the idea that a review of a guest such as:  Would be our host-to-host "secret code" for saying, "ahhhh...you probably don't want Jane as a guest. Think twice about Jane."   |
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Post by catchafire on Oct 14, 2015 3:46:59 GMT
We had a very strange couple staying with us a while ago. And I called them out on it on our review.
"HOST BE WARNED. XXXX and XXXX stayed with us for one night and came across as a very friendly couple and at the time we were very happy to have them stay. However, despite us saying if they have any problems or if there was anything amiss to please let us know, Lindy decided to leave us a note of numerous complaints! From us hanging out our washing and having a muddy puddle in our front garden (it had rained the day before!), to us not providing flowers in the room, and that we had not provided breakfast (because the website is Airbnb, so everyone should provide breakfast apprently). They were also under the mistaken impression that our accommodation was somehow located in a vineyard, despite the fact nothing in our description would have indicated so. We were left perplexed and really wondered if their expectations were grounded somewhere outside of reality."
I was then contacted by another host who wrote the review directly above mine. Thanking me for writing a honest review, they had a dreadful experience with this guest, but still wrote a positive review.
"Our only complaint about xxxx and xxxx was that their visit was far too short! They are a fantastic couple and we would have loved to have hung out with them longer . They were great with our son and very independent, gracious and friendly guests."
It is super important that we keep everything straight, for the sake of other hosts and for the guest, maybe they would learn something about their behaviour.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 14, 2015 4:07:39 GMT
Yes, that is the kind of warning that helps. "HOST BE WARNED" in caps is a very attention -getting!!(asked Catchafire to post the review text instead of posting the link to the guest's profile page....) Some guests need to be "flushed".... 
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Post by catchafire on Oct 14, 2015 4:54:15 GMT
Ok done.......not so used to being on tippy toes in NZ! lol
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 14, 2015 4:55:15 GMT
Here in the good ole litigious USA we have that little problem of litigation to worry about...some of these things are not clear, but I like to be on the cautious side...
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Post by Dee on Oct 14, 2015 20:27:16 GMT
I had a guest that I felt uncomfortable with as I thought she was arrogant and abrupt when she spoke to me. She arrived around 10.50pm, with a male friend who waited outside, she dropped off her bags and went back out. When she came back around 12.30am I was upstairs, but she never came up, so after 10 minutes I came down to see if she was OK, she still had her boots on, which I told her no shoes in the house(also told at check in) she said that she was getting the wi fi password and going back outside to lock the gate. I said I would do it but she insisted she wanted to do it, so I left her to it, when she went out, she didn't return for another 15 minutes which made me suspicious, I firmly believe that she was checking that the coast was clear to try and sneak her male friend in.
Q1, why would she not lock the gate when she came in?
Q2, why would it take 10 minutes to get password right in front of her?
Q3, why would it take 15 minutes to lock the gate when she went back out?
Everybody locks the gate before opening the door to enter the house and if she was smoking, she could have done that in the garden, with the gate locked.
I've only had about 8 guest and she's the only one I've felt uncomfortable with and not trusted, do I write a review and what do I write? She hug me when she left and said I had a beautiful home. Also she has been on Airbnb since June 2011 and has no reviews. Any thoughts please?
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 14, 2015 20:46:46 GMT
Hi Dee
I think a very helpful guideline in questions about how to write a review is you want to be careful to stick to facts and be objective.
Which means unless you are quite certain that she snuck in another person then definitely do not mention that in the review , also just saying that you felt uncomfortable with somebody is not advised in writing a review.
Feeling uncomfortable with somebody is very subjective -- sometimes we are uncomfortable for very good reasons because the guest is doing something fishy but -we can also feel uncomfortable for reasons that have nothing to do with whether or not that person was a good guest. And we may be wrong in our suspicions about a guest I know I have been wrong a few times in suspicions that I had .
So if I were you I would not say anything negative in the review of this guest , unless you have something specific that you have not mentioned here ---just having somebody take 15 minutes to write down the password is odd but it's not something that I think should be mentioned in a review
When I am wondering why I feel strange about a guest or uncomfortable, I will pay more attention to what actually is going on so that I can find out in case the guesses trying to hide something from me .
I hope this is helpful .
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Post by queenie&ted on Oct 14, 2015 22:53:45 GMT
Dee, since you don't have a specific reason for feeling uncomfortable (even though I say trust your gut always), it might be best to give the review Deborah suggested - "Jane stayed with us in October 2015". It is odd that she has been a member since 2011 and has no other reviews. Other guests may have had a non-specific bad feeling about her as well.
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Post by Dee on Oct 15, 2015 18:41:38 GMT
Thanks guys, wasn't going to mention anything above, just wanted to give you a better picture to help me to decide whether to write a review and if so what do I write. I've got it now.
Thanks again
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Post by fionad on Nov 4, 2015 9:02:05 GMT
I must admit that I haven't yet written any negative reviews. On the few occasions I didn't feel like writing a good one, I have left no review at all.
I had couple of Australian girls with no reviews who cleaned the house out of hot water. It wasn't so much that they did this, but that they denied it when asked. They didn't know that I had heard one of them shout 'are you alright in there?' to the other! But I couldn't actually prove it so didn't want to accuse them publicly in a review. So no review.
Likewise my karaoke-at-the-top-of-their-voices boys. Couldn't give them a good review, but it also felt a bit churlish to give them a bad one. So no review.
On a couple of occasions, I've dealt with the issue at the time. I had one guest who said he would be here at 12, then texted at 12:30 to say he was still in London (2.5 hours away) and finally arrived at 6pm. We talked about it when he got here, I explained (very clearly!) why it wasn't on, he apologised all weekend and is exceedingly unlikely to do it again. So I wrote him a good review and he wrote me one too.
I do wonder how effective negative reviews are anyway. If I got a bad one as a guest, I would just set up a new profile and start again. I wonder how easy this is and whether Airbnb do anything to catch people doing this? I could probably manage it by using my middle name, a different weblink and a different email address.
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Post by salvia on Nov 4, 2015 14:09:42 GMT
Regarding your karaoke boys the "sandwich review" (good & less good things combined) could be an option. And if you word it like " If xxx would respect/do xxx a little bit more/better/more considerate they would make great guests" or something along the line it gives a hint to future hosts to evaluate a potential problem. Maybe next time the guest^s issue does not materialize again because situation, listing or hosting style is different. I like the way you dealt with the apologetic guest! But the (really) bad ones or professional scammer will find their way to create a new profile.
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Post by High Priestess on Nov 4, 2015 16:04:48 GMT
I think one of the reasons Airbnb is moving towards requiring Verified ID for all users, is to stop guests from just deleting their account and setting up a whole new account, whenever they get a bad review. Guests need to be aware when they first use Airbnb, that they should be on their very best behavior in the first reservations they ever book. They need to be aware of the power of a bad review, when it is their only review, sitting big and bold on their profile page. Airbnb should actually issue warnings to new guests about this, I think, so that guests are more careful to behave well and be considerate when they first book a place.
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Post by Kristi on Nov 4, 2015 19:14:06 GMT
It will be wonderful when everyone who inquire's has been Verified. Hey I even see lot's of Host's who are not Verified.
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Post by CC on Nov 5, 2015 0:27:50 GMT
Do you like this one? I would not host Gertrude again. I had several indications that she did not read my listing before booking. She wanted to make sure the house was perfume/air freshener free; personally, rather than book cheap & then impose my own selfish requirements in a shared situation, I would get a hotel room. She left the room nice, but reeking of what I think is vinegar. When I reminded her of something about the washer/dryer, I again realized sharing or considering others is not her thing. Hyper-concern about herself is. She was worried about being next to the WiFi modem; that's truly a new one on me, but I doubt she could get cancer in a few days' stay. She brought a special pillow that she "designed." Of course--she needs a special everything. She was quick to communicate her needs, but slow to respond to me. Then, when the trip was over and she was out the door--she called me to basically let me know how to run my business. I put a lot of effort into wording my listings & profile to avoid guests like this, but when people don't read....
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