REVIEWS: “To tell or not to tell.” HOW TO empower yourself and the host community.

[Cathie19]

Too often, I see the constant concerns and fears of hosts in how to handle a review?

HOW we handle reviews says more about ourselves, then the guests.......

THE HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS AND QUESTIONS:

             To write or not to write?

             To be a nice person, or not so nice?

             To show my emotions or respond as a professional?

             To be detailed or obscure?

             —————————————

WHY BOTHER?  

* Airbnb  is meant to be a friendly community based rental platform.

* We rent our space/s to gain a monetary profit.

          - Yes there are many positives to being within the community and we grow as         individuals; and sure, we make friends along the way, but we can do all this volunteering our time for a charity etc.

* Nobody needs unnecessary  bureacracy in their life (Help centre, resolution centre, insurance claims, police in their life.

* Nobody needs upset neighbours, cleaning companies or self cleaning  exhaustion, grief, heartache, loss of self esteem, anger and bitterness and financial loss in their life.

[I personally feel that not reviewing is really a poor and negative response, as inaction is poor assistance for the community. This pattern of resistance eventually will only reward bad guests, making monkeys out of us all. (see no evil,  hear no evil, speak no evil) 🙈🙉🙊]

BECAUSE: 🔍

The REVIEW SYSTEM, with all its flaws, is about weeding out the guest who doesn’t want to learn the rules and expectations of the Airbnb community.

Weeding out the guest who doesn’t want to engage on the levels needed to meet the individual expectation and personalities of the hosts. Yes we are all different, as are the guests... We set these expectations via our “settings”, house rules and other information.

BUT remember, guests also have their own criteria, so the transmission of information and constant communication keeps the roads smoother and more easily travelled.... 

WRITING REVIEWS: 🖊💻⏰

We are all different and will respond as such. You may not agree with me, but here are my humble review guidelines. 

                            ==================

1.  DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF!👌🏼

A broken glass or plate is a consumable. Unless you left a Waterford crystal glass for use. Then that’s your issue, and insurance or security deposit. 

2. NEVER REVIEW UNTIL you have thoroughly inspected the space, cleaned and ticked your departure checklist as everything in place and no damage or missing items.  👀 🙌🏼

3. IF PROBLEMS 🙀

Photo document damages etc straight away and send to Airbnb immediately, through Airbnb. 👎🏽

(Self protect: If unsure of an incoming guest, photo document the space and items before they arrive) 👍🏼

4. THINK 💡🤐

Remember to think .... “if I was the guest, would I want this published forever about me?”

Draft a review, walk away for some time, then come back within 24 hours and look at it objectively to be sure you are getting the wording right.

5.  BE TIMELY ⏰⌛️

The revenge review is a rarity, and can be counterbalanced by your other reviews and how you handle previous guests. If you wait till the final day and hours to post a bad review, please note: 

**** In a 14 day window, if you delay a review,  a bad guest can potentially be booking another 14 homestay spaces! Those hosts will NOT thank you for your delayed review. 

6. DO NOT GET SUBJECTIVE OR EMOTIONAL 😭😡🤬😱😩😩

This includes a response to a review. You will appear a bad host, over scary, a nit picker and someone other guests won’t want to be near. It will turn potential guests away.

You will look the problem! 😳😳😳😳😳🤐

7.  BE OBJECTIVE........ a response to each allocation of the star system.✅

8.  REVIEW accurately according to Airbnb.✅ This is my yardstick:

COMMUNICATION                    

excellent (5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).   great (4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).     limited....(3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️)

[Noting if they were less then a three, I would have felt uncomfortable and cancelled their booking via Airbnb support.]

OBSERVANCE OF HOUSE RULES.                

(minor flexibility on small stuff should exist.)

core values/ house rules

 excellent (5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).    Great to average (4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).   limited..(3⭐️⭐️⭐️).  But a serious breach would receive a 2-1 stars with a report to Airbnb plus blocking them from rebooking, and a “did not follow all reasonable core house rules.”

RESPECTFUL OF THE HOMESTAY SPACE

excellent (5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️). great (4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).  limited..(3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️).

However a serious concern would rate a 1 Star plus  a phone call to Airbnb to assist with cancelling the booking.

CLEANLINESS    

 excellent (5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️). great (4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)   limited....(3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️).  

Seriously uncaring/ revolting = 1 Star.

Between a  3-1 Star = “better suited to a motel”.

Report guest through Airbnb system and block from rebooking.

NB: A guest can still receive a 4 to 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and technically be a reasonable guest in all categories, BUT be very needy and extraordinarily time consuming in communication and whilst in situ

= “better suited to a hotel”

🌻AND ALWAYS: Keep a review - professional, honest, but without the nitty gritty detail.🌻

Food for thought?

🙂

Cathie

[David126]

AirBnB is a 5 Star system, never actually left a review less than 5 but if I did might as well leave a 1 star.

The point of 2, 3 and 4 Stars escape me.

[Cathie19]

A 3 Star restricts their booking.

lower stars reduce their average and is visible to IB hosts. Continued low star pattern runs the risk of Airbnb removing them from the platform.

[Anonymous]

The "Thumbs Up/Down" ("Would you recommend this guest?") is what counts in terms of restricting bookings. The star ratings are mostly there to make the review system feel symmetrical when it obviously isn't.

There isn't much point in thinking about star ratings for guests. The only hosts who can see them are using IB; the hosts who actually care about screening guests for prior hosts' feedback wouldn't be using IB in the first place.

If there are any exceptions or caveats to your recommendation of a guest, or any problems that cause you not to recommend them, don't limit your feedback to the star rating -- spell it out in the written review.

[Christine615]

The problem with written reviews - you can't alter them after the fact.

Here's my situation (and I'm still mad about it). Guest with two good reviews stays at my place. She and her husband and  teen boys are on a road trip and headed home. Stays at my place and says she sees ants (albeit tiny ones). I say I'll come over and take care of it. Get to the kitchen and - no ants. I even took video and photos. I knew what kind she was talking about because I'd seen them in the neighborhood and in my own backyard (very small - but tend to seek shelter if rain swamps their nests). Even so, I took things out of cabinets, sprayed inside, wiped down the counters and put out clear traps. One week later (no ants in the trap). So I went above and beyond.

But while there noticed that the family was doing all of their laundry from their road trip (tons of it), had moved my furniture and brochures around to accomodate their own stuff and coolers, drank all the sparkling waters, and ate all the snacks. I have a rule "no food in the bedroom" after guests (last year) left crumbs and one spilled red wine all over everything. I have a breakfast room and a dining room so there's no reason to eat in the bedrooms. But  while cleaning found a coaster by one of the teen boys bed and empty packages of fruit chews on the dresser and crumbs under the couch cushions.

Still, she did clean the apartment and tidied up before they left. So I didn't sweat the small stuff and gave her a good review.

What did she do? She gave me a good review but only 4 stars. Then sent a private message to  Airbnb that my apartment had ants because it was dirty, that the whole house was dusty and needed a good cleaning especially the baseboards. She also added that I needed to upgrade the landscaping (the garden in the front is so new the bushes still have the tags on them and it's clear the mulch, flowers and hostas are also newly planted). Oh - and I need to replace the screen door (our storm door is glass btw, not a screen door). 

I am livid.  I can't leave her a public response because her public review of my place is good so I don't want to call attention to her complaints to airbnb. And to add insult to injury, one of her boys broke the glass on the tray that holds the tv and DVD remotes and covered the damage with brochures. Too late to call her on it.

Sometimes I wish there were a way to retroactively "ding" a guest. For now I'm exploring ways to put something on her profile so she can't book me ever again.

For the record, the guests before and after this woman said the apartment was sparkling clean and exceeded their expectations. 

You can't please them all, but I really wish I could take back my review. Hard when you get a note in your guest book saying how amazing the place is but they do the passive aggressive thing and send the opposite opinion to Airbnb. Grumble grumble.

Luckily it doesn't match other guests comments about the place.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Christine615

From what I understand, if you flag someone's profile and block them, they won't be able to book with you or send you messages. 

Imo, you were way too nice in your review......I would have mentioned the excessive laundry and that not all house rules were respected along with a few positive points. 

[Cathie19]

Hi @Christine615. Do as @Jessica-and-Henry0 stated. If they annoyed you enough to not want them back. You can go to your inbox messages and click on them. At the top on the write hand side above details is ......

- click on the “dots” which will give you the drop down box. 

- choose “report”

- follow the link to “next” etc. Finally, you can block the guest. (If you change your mind you can unblock)

When reviewing my past guest list a while ago, after learning we had the ability to block, I did just that - about six months after a guest checked out. We even got a glowing review from them. Generally a good guest, but the extreme family issues we had to endure are not something we would knowingly welcome again. Emotionally draining in an extremely negative way.

Just block and move on. 🌸

🙂

Cathie

[John28]

Yes, I completely agree.  You find out a lot after the guests leave and you have already left them a good review.  For my example, I had guests who took over my entire upstairs, and wanted to tell me about how Hawaii was formed when the Great Flood happened and the Earth was only a few hundred years old and they lived their lives by the Bible.  Then after she leaves, and I am washing the sheets and making the beds I discover that I have pillows and towels missing, and my bathroom amenities were half gone, and on top of that they left with the key.  Now, I didn't think much about the key cause I had an extra one , but I kept asking for the key and for them to send it ASAP with tracking.  Well, I get an envelope in the mail with the cut-out of a key missing.   Airbnb did refund me 50 dollars, and someone also hacked into my account at the exact same time they refunded it to my checking account and not my savings account where I have all of my payouts go.  I have been up late several nights and I see a big white truck coming down the hill towards my house, and I will be sitting on the front porch.  It is usually about two am or so (yes, I stay up late a lot), at any rate, this big white truck always shines its lights directly at me then turns the corner and goes back up the hill.  There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to be driving that route unless they are riding by to see if I am home.  Well, last night I was not out on my front porch, but I fell asleep on the sofa.  I currently have guests staying with me, so I hate to be down here, but I have a pinched nerve or something and can barely walk.  Anyway, when I got up early this morning my back door was open, and I swear to God I had not been on the back deck last night because I can't even walk.  So, I beleive these people and thier friends they brought over have a key and are riding by and waiting for me to leave.  I am going to get the locks c hanged ASAP, but I feel like I should be able to change my review so that other people are warned not to have them as guests!!!!!

[Anonymous]

@Christine615 I've always wondered what happens when someone uses the "private message to Airbnb" portion of the review form. It sounds like you're aware of its contents in great detail, so apparently it's not "private" at all! How did it get transmitted to you?

[John28]

Yeah, someone used the private review when I stayed with someone, and I am not an idiot.  I realized why suddenly I have people showing up at my house who don't even go upstairs to see the room, but suddenly don't even want to stay because "I am on something".  It pissed me off to no end.  That her holier than mighty self who features a picture of her holding a wine glass would report me for apparently my friend left a pill from her medicine bottle in the bathroom.  I knew why that girl was showing  up and I messaged the "hosts" and asked her why she had obviously said something to Airbnb, and I offered to take a drug test and give them the freaking results, but to have someone show up at my house and I have spent hours cleaning and determine instantly because she is a mental health worker that I am on something was ridiculous.  It so ticked me off because I am not on anything that I am not precribed, and that is nobody's business but my own. 

[Christine615]

@Anonymous

It shows up when I look at my list of reviews under "Private Feedback" the section says it won't show up in my profile or on my public listing. Her "public" review is positive and raves. But privately, under the section for "Cleanliness" she also marked bugs and dust and wrote a comment that my home could use cleaning especially in the corners and baseboards but did tell them that I took care of the ants right away (I recleaned but couldn't find any signs of ants).

I don't think Airbnb cared since she's such an outlier to my other reviews. And no one can see her comments but me.

I chalked her up to being OCD.