unlisted property

[Mei-Ling0]

I have had two bad tenants in a row and this is a new listing with Airbnb. The first smoked and damaged my property and yeh 2nd found everything to complain about, fishing for a free weekend. The majority of my business comes from HomeAway. If I unlist or snooze my listing, will a negative rating still show?

[Lisa293]

@Mei0-Ling 

If you snooze or unlist your listing it will remove the listing from the profile page but not the reviews.  If you have reviews as a host or as a guest, these will never be removed from your profile page.  The only way to get rid of them is a) the guest changes them or b) to delete your profile altogether and start all over again.  I haven't tried this so I do not know if they just dig up the old profile and repost it.  

Don't review the guests until the very last moment or they will be prompted to send a review in order to read yours.  If the damage was nominal don't go to the resolution centre as this will ususally just prompt a negative retaliatory review because you only have 48 hours to claim and most times the guest has not written their review prior to being informed that you have lodged against them.

Often these types still write something pleasant and just knock down on points as other potential hosts may find their review and it will reflect on their character too.  Since 2012 we have only had 3 bad guests from airbnb - strangely enough 2 in a row for us too.  We have 9 listings so statisticly you should be able to hope for better experiences in the future!  All the best.

[Mei-Ling0]

Thank you Lisa. She checked out a day early because she didn't think the ants in the house didn't have anything to do with her and her daughter's leaving food all over the floors. I received a note that she left me a review, so I'm waiting out the 14 days. It sounds there's is virtually no way around it, other than write an honest review from my point of view, but since I'm new to Airbnb with no reviews (though I'm a 5 star rating on other sites), and she's been reviewed well in the past as a guest, it seems it ca have unfair results for me either way.

[Andrea9]

@Mei-Ling0

That's interesting, you're profile doesn't show any guest reviews at all, so they somehow got removed!? That would be great.

Seeing that you're a new host with Instant Book turned on, I'd suggest turning it off in the beginning for a while. Being able to start up a short conversation with guests to  vett them to see if they and their requirements are a good fit for the property is often a good way to avoid most complications and bad reviews. Doing that you can also get a better sense of them and gut feeling before accepting the booking. It's not a guarantee, yet it's as @Lisa293 says, many guests seem to be out for unfairly won freeby stays. 

Many hosts have realized that checking in a day later to see if everything is alright and telling them to contact you if there is a problem etc. works well too to avoid later stupid or made up complaints.

And make sure to keep everything on the booking message page as paper trail (casually reiterate or confirm conversations done outside of it) because ABB have access to them and will use that in case of refund claims etc.

[Mei-Ling0]

Thank you. She just submitted a review so I'm waiting out the 14 days. I know it won't be a good one, so I'm thinking about just unlisting altogether, since I do better on the other sites. I'm just wondering if it will show once the 14day period up if it's snoozed or unlisted. I'll make changes as you've suggested.

[Lisa293]

@Mei-Ling0

I would strongly recommend you do not delist.  We got a profile in 2012 and put airbnb on the back burner.  We have noticed a dramatic increase in bookings over the years.  For us, they are generally the 5th most popular site for generating revenue.  This past week we have had more airbnb bookings than booking.com which is our normal leader.  We are in off season as of today as the whales have left.  This will be the case until Christmas.  

We have so many airbnb bookings for the off season it is now not worth shutting off even with no real chance of collecting from a damage deposit.  You have to go with whatever channel is going to bring you the bookings.  If you want to block out peak period dates and leave them for another site, that is fine, but for filler dates, airbnb is another platform where you get to advertise for free.

We have our own website and have also seen a dramatic increase in direct bookings which is always great when you can save that 14% commission that other OTA's charge.  I think this may be related in part to airbnb as we have been operating since 2012 and you have to attribute this spike to something.  It seems to be running on a similar graph to airbnb bookings.  Related?  Don't know...

We have been advised by airbnb to collect damages from guests that trashed one propery from incoming guests as the guest replied to the resolution centre that the property was dirty and damaged when they arrived so we got no payout.  Like we would really leave 2 dozen beer bottles and cigarettes strewn on and burnt into our deck for incoming guest.  Anyway, some of our rates are higher than on other channels for this very reason and we still get bookings.

You have to decide if you want an extra platform to fill otherwise vacant nights - perhaps at a higher rate for the greater risk factor.  You need to remember that you have control over dates that you release and who you book to.  A lot of our guests are converts from the Stayz platform so for the most part we have had no problems and can say absolutely that 98% of our airbnb guests have been great.

Sorry for the late reply.  If you put @ and then Lisa, your message will reach me.  Hope the review was okay and you sent an appropriate reply...

[Robin4]

@Andrea9 Hi there Andrea....are you seeing others profiles???? I have not seen another profile for 10 days! Forum moderator Kirstie has told us that it is a glitch in the system which would soon be rectified, but yours is the fourth post I have seen that suggests that some on this forum are actually seeing other profiles!

I am really begining to wonder what on earth is going on here!!

Cheers....Rob

[Andrea9]

Hi @Robin4

No, nothing at all visible here. The link keeps going back to community even though @Lizzie (I think) mentioned days ago this week that everything would be back to normal a day later.

If you're referring to my comment on this thread about seeing somebody's profile, that was 3 wks ago. According to media (no, not the 3-letter ones) there was a cyber attack from inside the US that disabled or affected some large corporations, amongst others Airbnb, PayPal, Dyn. Either that really jumbled Airbnb's site or gave them a good opportunity to effect some changes... 

All I can say is, am getting more and more discouraged with spending my own valuable time here and feeling like having my skin sliced off bit by bit...

Though I do miss seeing the regulars like you!

Cheers, Andrea

[Robin4]

@Andrea9....God I can be a fool at times....but I am only a male! Yes I should have looked at the date of that post of yours.

Andrea, you will always see an old regular like me. Like you, I rant and rave about how Airbnb treats us but, I have just had another lovely night courtesy of Airbnb guests. I never cease to be amazed at the beauty in the world and the wonderful people who walk up our driveway..... and into our lives.

I guess I am so involved with this forum because I truly want others to experience what I do...I see so much negativity, and I want to 'balance the slate' by infusing some of the positivity that Airbnb has bought into my life.

Nevertheless I still would like to think that the effort I do put into being an Airbnb host was worth it, but Andrea, we are being 'short changed'!!   Cheers....Rob

https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/5724253?s=b14U

[Andrea9]

@Robin4     :/)