I thought self check-in was convenient for guests but one left a bad review claiming safety issues

[Sean433]

This recently happened to a friend of mine and I am wondering what off-site hosts thinks of the self check-in protocol...

The friend hosts a building that has 3 apartments. The entrance to the building is opened via a special key that guests obtain from a lock box. Once they obtain the key, they open the building door which automatically locks once closed (nobody can enter building without this special key). Then the guest goes upstairs and enters a code in a keypad lock to enter their apartment. The only person that can possibly enter the building itself are the other guests staying at the other 2 apartments, the cleaner and the host. Each apartment door has its own unique door code so nobody can mistakenly enter into someone else's apartment.

So the guest writes a really bad review saying that the lock to the apartment door is broken (she thought the building key door also opens the apartment door- wrong!) and that although there is a keypad lock on the apartment door, anyone can enter her apartment.

The host asked for my advice on this one- I told her to just kindly message the guest and clarify that nobody can enter except for herself and the cleaner and to ask her to contact airbnb to remove the review due to the misunderstanding and her review being innacurate.

The guest replied that the cleaner may not be honest and should not have access to the apartment and that they should have been given physical keys instead. At that point, I became very upset on behalf of the host because:

1)  Every  hotel or airbnb I have ever been to always allows the possibility for the cleaner or host to enter because a physical key usually has a few copies (how else would they clean)

2) The description clearly states the door has a keypad entrance.

3) Virtually every off-site host these days either have a keypad entrance or lock box or will eventually move in that direction as this is the trend.

So, my question is, how would you resolve this issue because her reputation looks really bad now due to this review and the guest seems to not understand that in all cases in all accommodations, there is always a potential for the host or the cleaner to enter. Whether it be with keys or with a keypad. 

And my second question is, how would you avoid this from happening again? I myself have a self check-in with keyless entry at my listings and fortunately, I have never had a nutcase write a negative review about it. On the contrary, every loves it and always provides a 5/5 rating for check-in.

Or is this just a crazy person who doesn't understand that all accommodations are vulnerable to a dishonest cleaner to enter and since this is the case, she should not be staying in any hotel or airbnb unless the host lives on site and does not hire a cleaner but cleans herself.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sean433  there is a frightening amount of stupid people everywhere around us and we become painfully aware of them when we start hosting 😄

We had a lock with a physical key but we changed it to digital lock because all non-European guests struggled with it.  Now, our new smart lock does all the hard work by itself and all our guests have to do is to close the door manually... but even this simple task is too much for some of them. You can't beat stupidity no matter how hard you try 😄

[Anonymous]

@Sean433  I think the host should write a public response to the review to correct any misinformation. I'd like to think that a guest with half a brain would recognize that physical keys have duplicates, and that cleaners could just as easily have copies of those as access to digital codes. But one thing I learned from my American upbringing is that you can never underestimate people's capacity to be really stupid.

[Sean433]

@Anonymous @Branka-and-Silvia0 

I told her if convincing the guest to remove the review fails, then you have to reply..

She is new to this and she mistakenly hit save reply after she just wrote "Hi"

So now, her reply to the bad review only says "Hi" which makes her look even worse I think.

I told her that she may just have to deactivate and re-post the listing. It's a shame that 1 person can have such an impact on hosts, especially newer ones.

[Cash8]

If you live in a big city, there's a decent chance that there is a Keycafe kiosk nearby. They get the peace of mind of using a physical key, and you don't have to do any meeting up with guests to check in/check out. You give them access to your keys for a specific time-frame, and only they can retrieve the keys during that time frame. (or anyone that you give ongoing access) Still, I think this guest has an unrealistic expectation of privacy when you're in an Airbnb, there are still plenty of hosts that will actually be in the same flat or house that you're renting a room in, which in my opinion isn't the ideal guest experience either. Try out Keycafe. I'm pretty sure Airbnb hosts get some free pickups when they sign up through Airbnb. They're an Airbnb partner. I used to work with small businesses on their marketing focusing on review sites. People give arbitrary star ratings and are more likely to write a review if they feel they had a bad experience than when they have a good one. Best option is to just keep the volume of guests high, and keep the experience great. Adding something like a simple letter in the room for each guest, welcoming them, can leave a great impression on people.

[Linda108]

@Sean433   While our fellow hosts often are quick to call the guest stupid,  I would vote to see this guest as seriously anxious about being a guest in an unfamiliar surrounding and is trying to normalize her feelings at the expense of the host.

Are we willing to call this new host stupid because she did not know how to provide a reply?  NO. Just anxious about a guest review and perhaps the whole process as a newbie. 😛

While that guest may not ever become less anxious, pretty sure the host will learn a lesson and join this great club of hosts that have had to learn lessons about hosting. 😄

[Sean433]

@Linda108 

The guest had 5 reviews from other hosts. She is not new to airbnb. Maybe new to self check-in with a door code. Whatever happened to asking the host your concerns to figure out if your assumptions are incorrect before writing a damaging review?

The only lesson she learned was that some guests do not have common sense or poor communication skills.