Call for more attention to composing guest reviews!!!

[Huaai0]

Hi all,

Although I have seen posts providing tips about composing and evaluating guest reviews here and there on the forum, I still would like to start a thread to call for more attention to composing guest reviews!

The reason is because I have seen too many positive guest reviews, some of which may not truthfully reflect the guest's personlaity, lifestyle, manners and behaviours. General and vague reviews may mislead other hosts, let alone inaccurate reviews.

- Everyone has an issue in some sense. Instead of saying he or she is a joy to host, you should identify what strikes you most about this guest's personality, lifestyle, manners and behaviours. For example, if this guest is super friendly, clean and tidy, but tends to take over your kitchen by cooking too much, this can be a non- issue to some hosts, but can be an issue to some others. So, it would be great if you could state it in your review for the sake of other hosts. 

- If the guest is not terrible and not wonderful either, it is more important to be as descriptive as possible, because we want to know who is going to enter our open house! Many guests I guess would fall into this category and we gotta be more careful about what we put in the review. 

- Be specific in your review so we can determine if we can handle this guest's issue or not. For example, I see that one of my guests' revious review indicates this group is "diasppointing." How? In what areas? As a matter of fact, when I'm hosting him, he IS disappointing! I only regret 1) that I did not track his previous reviews further 2) did not ask the previous host to elaborate what about his guest disappointed him. 

Truly important.

[Momi0]

@Huaai0  Thank you so much for the compliments!  If I send you a booking request, Please take comfort in knowing that I have earned my 5 Stars as an ABB guest too and I really am a wonderful person who also got Straight A's from her very strict German teachers. (Strict Chinese father expected nothing less from me)  HAHAHAHA.  Hope I made you laugh again. 

[Zed0]

I agree @Kiersi0
I hope people read between the lines when I omit that I would welcome them back etc.  I ONLY put that I recommend to other hosts if I really do mean it.  If I don't put this, then I hope others will see that it was not perfect.
I am lucky that I have only had a few guests who were not good.  The worst one, I simply did not leave a review because I could not find the words.  She did not leave one for me either, she was very embarassed about what she did when she was drunk.
When I read others reviews and they say the person was a perect guest, I feel confident they will be fine.  However, a one or two night stay can be no problem, but the same person may stay over a week with me and things are not so perfect.  
The nature of this form of income is problematic.

[Huaai0]

@Zed0

That is so true! Up to now, all the great guests are those who stay a few nights (3-10). Long term guests (14 nights to 2 months) are not so great. 

[Huaai0]

@Kiersi0

I've been pondering "reading between the lines" today! 

One guest made several mistakes the first three days, including leaving the stove on for hours unattended till i got home and saw it. Some people said no big deal but an electrician friend of mine said that was definitely a fire hazard. I talked to my guest about it, and talked to Airbnb, who thanked me for giving her a second chance. 

The thing is, if I should put it in her review. She has improved since that incident. And, it would be misleading to put in the review that she is a great guest, flawless and perfect. Should i say "some mistakes during thefirst three days but significanly improved afterwards. overall a good guest." but this will still scare sway potential hosts. 

It is such a hard task for me...

[Huma0]

As others have asked, what is the point of the guest star rating system if no one can see it? Being able to see it would not solve all of the problems mentioned on this thread, but it might go some way towards it.

For example, if a guest frequently gets 3 stars for cleanliness, then you pretty much know this is going to be a problem area. Likewise with communication. Following house rules is a bit more complicated, because it's hard to know which rules they broke and whether it would be something that would bother you. A lot of the complaints mentioned on here seem like very small things to me, whilst others I would not be able to tolerate at all! Still, if you see several hosts have given the guest low stars in this category, it's definitely a warning sign...

This is a very interesting thread. I've been thinking a lot recently about if I should mention certain negative points in some reviews as I've had a few guests recently who drove me a bit crazy, but then they are not bad people per se and also I don't want to come across as being frequently negative/picky in my reviews.

For example, should I mention that these guests do the following (these are each different sets of guests by the way) and how should I word it?

1. The couple who clearly agree to the check in time, then then start messaging me 5.5. hours earlier saying they are on my road and want to be let in, plus immediately want to do laundry, which is not available as stated in house rules. I said no, after which they were not particularly friendly. Barely any interaction with them during a six night stay, but they were clean and quiet.

2. The couple who take long and noisy showers late at night, followed by endless blow drying of hair after midnight (house rules say please don't do this after 11 pm) and leave bathrooms in a terrible, dirty state twice a day. Leave lights on all night. Brought me a nice gift and were super grateful when I cleaned their room/replaced their linens.

3. The two girls who make a hell of a lot of noise (repeatedly slamming doors, bashing furniture, very loud talking) during the day, including very early in the morning, but quiet at night. Leave hair all over the bathrooms and block drains with it. Expect a set of fresh towels daily. Leave me a small gift and a nice note.

4. The lady who is very friendly in her communication prior to arrival and in constant contact to ask for advice, but is not at all friendly when she arrives and seems to be annoyed that I am wasting her time with a house tour. Avoids interraction to the point that she goes straight to the room and starts messaging about leaving her luggage here, even though she knows full well I am in the kitchen and she could ask in person. Happy to ask for advice/favours, but otherwise does not want to see me/speak to me at all.

These recent guests were not my favourites! My dilemna is, why should I give them the same 100% positive review as other guests who were truly lovely and followed the house rules? But, then again, if I start nit picking about this stuff in my reviews, won't it put off other guests?

[Zed0]

I just typed out a long reply @Huma0 & it came up as "Aunthentication failed" so it has been lost.

I defintiely agree and I am sure all others will, we need the star ratings to actually show!!!!
I was astounded to discover they don't.

[Huma0]

@Zed0, that's annoying, but thanks for trying anyway!

I'm sure someone has already started a thread in Host Voice about the guest star system, but if not, perhaps we should petition on there for this to become visible.

[Huaai0]

@Huma0

Interesting cases--

1. The couple who clearly agree to the check in time, then then start messaging me 5.5. hours earlier saying they are on my road and want to be let in, plus immediately want to do laundry, which is not available as stated in house rules. I said no, after which they were not particularly friendly. Barely any interaction with them during a six night stay, but they were clean and quiet.

Apparently they took things personally. One of my currentl guests suddently turned from an outoging person into an uncommunicative one after I reminded her of the stove left on for hours unattended. She was taking my reminder personally. However, the next day when she wa out all day I did her laundry. In this case, as a felllow host, I would hope that you could put these points in your review--

"Requested an early check-in 5.5 hours in advance, requested immediate laundry albeit unavailable in the house rules. Uncommunicative and minimal interaction. Clean and quiet, though."

The above review will help me decide if I should take them or not. My answer is: yes. They just had unrealistic expecations and caused no harm and no extra labour. And they were clean and quiet, which was what I want. 

2. The couple who take long and noisy showers late at night, followed by endless blow drying of hair after midnight (house rules say please don't do this after 11 pm) and leave bathrooms in a terrible, dirty state twice a day. Leave lights on all night. Brought me a nice gift and were super grateful when I cleaned their room/replaced their linens.

"Late night showers, endless hair drying sound after midnight, needed substantial maintenance in the bathroom. Friendly and grateful to the extent of buying me a nice gift."

Seeing the above review, I will not take them, no matter what gift they buy me. Gifts cannot ruin my soul. Late night showers and midnight noise are very bad manners and not respectful. 

3. The two girls who make a hell of a lot of noise (repeatedly slamming doors, bashing furniture, very loud talking) during the day, including very early in the morning, but quiet at night. Leave hair all over the bathrooms and block drains with it. Expect a set of fresh towels daily. Leave me a small gift and a nice note.

"Very noisy, slamming doors, bashing furniture, loud talking during the day buyt quiet at nights. Left hair all over the bathroom and expected fresh towels daily. But left me a small gift."

I would not take them if I see the review, but some others may do. Leaving hair is fine as this is something we need to deal with but slamming doors is aweful. 

4. The lady who is very friendly in her communication prior to arrival and in constant contact to ask for advice, but is not at all friendly when she arrives and seems to be annoyed that I am wasting her time with a house tour. Avoids interraction to the point that she goes straight to the room and starts messaging about leaving her luggage here, even though she knows full well I am in the kitchen and she could ask in person. Happy to ask for advice/favours, but otherwise does not want to see me/speak to me at all.

Ah, this one reminds me of one of my recent guests. Asking for advice but antisocial after check-in. I would take her as a guest. She is a guest not a friend. I would respect her wish to be left alone. Maybe she was mourning for the loss of her pet? 

To conclude, only specific reviews like the above can be helpful; not "a joy to host" "great guest" "highly recommended". Otherwise we still do not know who is coming to our house. 

[Huma0]

@Huaai0 thanks for taking the time to respond in detail. Yes, I suppose those would be truly honest reviews but they seem a bit harsh. I guess you have to weigh up what is and isn't a big deal for you, e.g. leaving hairs v slamming doors. Some people aren't bothered so much by noise, but are by uncleanliness, and vice versa.

I think the honest responses would be right as long as the host communicated to the guest asap that there was a problem and gave them a chance to change their behaviour.

In these cases:

1. I wouldn't necessarily mention the laundry as many guests ask for this despite my house rules. I usually say no and that's the end of it. They didn't make a fuss about it. It was just awkward coming directly after the check in drama. However, I would definitely mention the check in issue as I felt they were so disrespectful regarding that. They messaged me more than once confirming they would respect my check in time, when they had no intention of doing so. Instead, they decided if they just showed up at the time THEY wanted to check in, I would have no choice but to let them in. It's also kind of stupid given that I had already told them there were other guests staying who wouldn't have checked out yet.

2. This couple, I told them please do not shower with the cubicle door open and flood the bathroom floor (already told them that on check in, but reminded them after they did it), not to leave the lights on all night, not to blow dry their hair at 1 am. They stopped doing all these things. I did not remind them to not shower late at night or mention the dirty bathroom (I actually threw away their soap instead, which improved the situation! I did supply them with alternative soap and shower gels, by the way). It seems that they simply could not read or digest my rules, but if I reminded them not to do something, they did actually listen.

3 & 4. I never brought up any of the issues with the guests, so not sure if I would go into detail in the review. I'd have to think carefully about those.

In the end, none of the above guests left me a review and so I didn't leave them one. I know that doesn't sound helpful, but at some point, I got sick of spending time writing reviews for guests who could not be bothered to leave one for me, so now I don't leave one until they do.

[Melanie189]

If a guest has a sub par review, why is the host penalized for declining the request?

[Huma0]

@Melanie189, or anyone else who knows, could you explain how exactly the host is penalised when they decline a request? I've never really understood how that works. If you respond within 24 hours, why should you be penalised at all?

[Melanie189]

From what I understand,  and please someone with more experience enlighten me, your listing loses rank and is placed further down.  And if we decline too many, our listing can be removed all together.

[Zed0]

I didn't know this.  I think it is terrible!  I decline a person if I get bad feelings or they don't answer my questions.  I should have the right to make that choice without being penalised!!  Come on Airbnb, that is madness!  That is basically saying we can't choose who we let into our homes!!

[Kiersi0]

I was just in a situation where a man messaged me asking to break one of my house rules (he wanted his two adolescent daughters to get to share his room). I said no and we had a pleasant exchange about it where I stuck by my rule despite his cajoling, and I tried to offer him a second room but he wouldn't take it. 

The inquiry was still active at that point and he did not withdraw it, and I didn't want to go over my 24 hours so I declined. He should have withdrawn it but didn't. Why should I be penalized for the other person not using the platform properly?

[David126]

@Kiersi0 Sounds like an inquiry, if so all you need to do is reply.