Post by High Priestess on Oct 30, 2015 15:06:12 GMT
Andrew shared Oct 30 2015
Badly-reviewed guests
We often talk here about how and when to write negative or mixed reviews for our guests. But I'm curious about what you all do when you get a request from a guest who has a negative review in their profile.
Do you decline outright? Ask the guest for more details? Contact the host who wrote the review? Or just let it go and hope for the best? I'm sure it depends a lot on what the problem was, but I do wonder what kind of impact even a mildly negative review has on a guest's ability to use Airbnb.
Friederycke and Jeff
We have never received a request from someone with a bad or even neutral review. I think what may happen is that they stop using the profile that has the bad review and either create a new one or let another member of their party make the reservation. Friederycke
Rosanne
I have never seen a bad review for upcoming guest. If they had a bad one, I would not accept their reservation. I once asked Airbnb about contacting a person that had hosted one of my not so nice guests and they said they frowned on Hosts contacting other Hosts? (Not sure why)
Jeannette (jvo)
I've only had this happen once. I declined, and thanked the host (local, here) profusely.
Mary and David
I've also never received a request from someone with a negative review. If I did, I'd balance it with all their other reviews - and it depends on the context of the bad review ie: what their "crime" was.
Kristi
Hey Mary & David! I am another San Clemente Host. How are you guys doing? Nice to meet you here!
Mary and David
Hi Kristi! I LOVE your listing and have shown it to my husband several times as what, I think, is an ideal setup for airbnb. Would love to have a place with a separate casita - sigh - next house.
nathalie
I received a request for reservation from a guest who had only 1 and very negative review when host has plenty of good reviews. It seems that there was a big issue because guest thought having booked a private room and it was a dormitory. The listing was pretty clear it is a shared room. So it is guest fault not to have read the description. I accepted the booking because i rent a whole place (not a shared room) in writing almost the listing description in the pre approving message. The guest replied it would be fine. So i accepted because there was no other red flag and the reason of the issue (shared room) does not apply to me. Now the real reason of the issue is that the guest did not read properly the dedcription and if i decline all the prospects who do not read carefully the description, i close the business. They'll come in december and i'll tell you if it had been a good idea to accept them.
nathalie
This is why it is important to know why you put a negative review. Because one guest can be ok for a listing (ex noisy people renting a house in the countryside with noone around) and ko for an appartment with thin walls.
Kristi (Kristi)
Seems like I do get a lot of newbies that don't even have reviews. My last guest was fantastic and it was comforting to know she had stayed at fellow forum's home in San Fran. I accepted her immediately.
Deborah (High Priestess)
I have had several guests inquire, who either had a bad review, or had a slightly critical comment in their review. My orientation is to assess each situation independently, depending on context. I tend to believe what hosts write of guests, more than what guests write of hosts, for reasons we have all seen numerous times, but even so, there is the possibility that a host has exaggerated the situation. In the case where the guest has a bad reivew or critical comment in a review, I read over all their reviews, and then read the listing and profile information of the host who reviewed them critically. If that host seems solid and sensible in their whole presentation, I will tend to have a lot of confidence in what they wrote about the guest.
SInce I know that for many hosts it is hard to bring ourselves to write something critical of a guest in their review, I take it seriously when this happens. As stated in my "Red Flags for Hosts", any critical review of the guest is a red flag. (see globalhosting.freeforums.net/thread/455/red-flags-hosts )
In most every case where an inquiring guest has a negative review or critical comment by a host in one of their reviews, I have not accepted that guest. In some cases that negative review is so heavily negative that the decision not to take that guest was easy to make, and pretty much an instant decision. In other cases the criticism may be mild. In those cases I may ask the guest to explain what that host meant in that review, and what happened there. I have done this a few times. For instance, one man inquired to stay at my house, who was visually impaired. Not totally blind but just impaired. A previous host he had stayed with said that he never turned a light off in the house and didnt' clean dishes adequately. I asked the guest about this review. He responded in a way that indicated he had felt chastened and that the review was a good wake up call to reflect on his behavior. THis was a perfect, humble response which showed he fully intended to be accountable for his behavior and so I was very encouraged. If he had responded defensively or said that what the host had said was not true, I would not have accepted him.
I told this guest that if he was going to stay in my house he would need to be more careful about turning off lights. I told him that he would be given his own set of dishes to use, and so if he didn't wash them well, that would not effect others. He was overall a decent guest, though his visual impairment did create one problem, which was that when he ate meals in his room (I allow eating in the bedroom) he dropped food on the floor and didn't realize it because of his poor vision. This did not cause damage, but could have. I think if I had the choice to make again I might have said no, but overall it went fine.
THen I had another guest inquire recently whom another host had stated was "forgetful at times." I directly asked the guest what he thought this host meant, but the guest failed to respond to me with any reply at all, by 20 hours into the 24 hours I had to accept/decline his reservation request, so I declined his reservation request. No communication, no reservation.
Deborah (High Priestess)
I had at least one guest inquire, who had an extremely negative review. She was a young woman, and the host who gave her that bad review was also a young woman. Sometimes young people who aren't quite mature enough to be hosts may say something unprofessionally, but in this case, after looking over other reviews that host wrote and much other material on the hosts' listing and on the guest's profile, I tended to believe the host, who stated that the guest made many complaints. It had clearly been a very unpleasant situation. I did not ask the guest any questions, I just replied to her inquiry that "I'm sorry but the room actually isn't available after all for those dates you are interested in."
Badly-reviewed guests
We often talk here about how and when to write negative or mixed reviews for our guests. But I'm curious about what you all do when you get a request from a guest who has a negative review in their profile.
Do you decline outright? Ask the guest for more details? Contact the host who wrote the review? Or just let it go and hope for the best? I'm sure it depends a lot on what the problem was, but I do wonder what kind of impact even a mildly negative review has on a guest's ability to use Airbnb.
Friederycke and Jeff
We have never received a request from someone with a bad or even neutral review. I think what may happen is that they stop using the profile that has the bad review and either create a new one or let another member of their party make the reservation. Friederycke
Rosanne
I have never seen a bad review for upcoming guest. If they had a bad one, I would not accept their reservation. I once asked Airbnb about contacting a person that had hosted one of my not so nice guests and they said they frowned on Hosts contacting other Hosts? (Not sure why)
Jeannette (jvo)
I've only had this happen once. I declined, and thanked the host (local, here) profusely.
Mary and David
I've also never received a request from someone with a negative review. If I did, I'd balance it with all their other reviews - and it depends on the context of the bad review ie: what their "crime" was.
Kristi
Hey Mary & David! I am another San Clemente Host. How are you guys doing? Nice to meet you here!
Mary and David
Hi Kristi! I LOVE your listing and have shown it to my husband several times as what, I think, is an ideal setup for airbnb. Would love to have a place with a separate casita - sigh - next house.
nathalie
I received a request for reservation from a guest who had only 1 and very negative review when host has plenty of good reviews. It seems that there was a big issue because guest thought having booked a private room and it was a dormitory. The listing was pretty clear it is a shared room. So it is guest fault not to have read the description. I accepted the booking because i rent a whole place (not a shared room) in writing almost the listing description in the pre approving message. The guest replied it would be fine. So i accepted because there was no other red flag and the reason of the issue (shared room) does not apply to me. Now the real reason of the issue is that the guest did not read properly the dedcription and if i decline all the prospects who do not read carefully the description, i close the business. They'll come in december and i'll tell you if it had been a good idea to accept them.
nathalie
This is why it is important to know why you put a negative review. Because one guest can be ok for a listing (ex noisy people renting a house in the countryside with noone around) and ko for an appartment with thin walls.
Kristi (Kristi)
Seems like I do get a lot of newbies that don't even have reviews. My last guest was fantastic and it was comforting to know she had stayed at fellow forum's home in San Fran. I accepted her immediately.
Deborah (High Priestess)
I have had several guests inquire, who either had a bad review, or had a slightly critical comment in their review. My orientation is to assess each situation independently, depending on context. I tend to believe what hosts write of guests, more than what guests write of hosts, for reasons we have all seen numerous times, but even so, there is the possibility that a host has exaggerated the situation. In the case where the guest has a bad reivew or critical comment in a review, I read over all their reviews, and then read the listing and profile information of the host who reviewed them critically. If that host seems solid and sensible in their whole presentation, I will tend to have a lot of confidence in what they wrote about the guest.
SInce I know that for many hosts it is hard to bring ourselves to write something critical of a guest in their review, I take it seriously when this happens. As stated in my "Red Flags for Hosts", any critical review of the guest is a red flag. (see globalhosting.freeforums.net/thread/455/red-flags-hosts )
In most every case where an inquiring guest has a negative review or critical comment by a host in one of their reviews, I have not accepted that guest. In some cases that negative review is so heavily negative that the decision not to take that guest was easy to make, and pretty much an instant decision. In other cases the criticism may be mild. In those cases I may ask the guest to explain what that host meant in that review, and what happened there. I have done this a few times. For instance, one man inquired to stay at my house, who was visually impaired. Not totally blind but just impaired. A previous host he had stayed with said that he never turned a light off in the house and didnt' clean dishes adequately. I asked the guest about this review. He responded in a way that indicated he had felt chastened and that the review was a good wake up call to reflect on his behavior. THis was a perfect, humble response which showed he fully intended to be accountable for his behavior and so I was very encouraged. If he had responded defensively or said that what the host had said was not true, I would not have accepted him.
I told this guest that if he was going to stay in my house he would need to be more careful about turning off lights. I told him that he would be given his own set of dishes to use, and so if he didn't wash them well, that would not effect others. He was overall a decent guest, though his visual impairment did create one problem, which was that when he ate meals in his room (I allow eating in the bedroom) he dropped food on the floor and didn't realize it because of his poor vision. This did not cause damage, but could have. I think if I had the choice to make again I might have said no, but overall it went fine.
THen I had another guest inquire recently whom another host had stated was "forgetful at times." I directly asked the guest what he thought this host meant, but the guest failed to respond to me with any reply at all, by 20 hours into the 24 hours I had to accept/decline his reservation request, so I declined his reservation request. No communication, no reservation.
Deborah (High Priestess)
I had at least one guest inquire, who had an extremely negative review. She was a young woman, and the host who gave her that bad review was also a young woman. Sometimes young people who aren't quite mature enough to be hosts may say something unprofessionally, but in this case, after looking over other reviews that host wrote and much other material on the hosts' listing and on the guest's profile, I tended to believe the host, who stated that the guest made many complaints. It had clearly been a very unpleasant situation. I did not ask the guest any questions, I just replied to her inquiry that "I'm sorry but the room actually isn't available after all for those dates you are interested in."
