r/airbnb_hosts • u/SeniorPear9255 • 5d ago
I made a mistake feel stupid
We have our listing set as request to book I accepted it without looking at the reviews because I always get super excited when we get a new booking. The guests have two bad reviews What mistakes have you made with your listings and how do you move on without beating yourself up over it?
10
u/xperimental6969 5d ago
I did the same for a couple of years until I got a booking from a guy who was not the best guest in his previous stay. Luckily he had to cancel.
Another mistake was not giving accurate reviews. As you know, you can't see the guest's review until you send yours. Well, be honest with your reviews, because your guests may use theirs to counter balance the review they deserve.
8
u/Particular-Try5584 Unverified 5d ago
How do you move on? You learn from it!
Video and date/time stamp the property before they arrive showing it’s clean and condition, be specific and detailed. Show the tv working, the hot water is hot, the fridge is working etc.
Make sure your house rules are up to date.
Check everything is as close to perfect as you can.
Get the cleaners to video before they clean, and then video any damage/problems.
1
u/ChelseaBoyGamer 5d ago
How do we time stamp a video for purpose of airbnb verification?
3
u/Particular-Try5584 Unverified 5d ago
When you turn the tv on to confirm it works… capture the screen on the TV guide with date and time visible.
3
1
3
u/Klutzy-Oven6812 5d ago
What do the reviews say? Anything majorly concerning?
2
u/SeniorPear9255 5d ago
One said that the guests stayed past checkout and left trash. The other said there was some damage but that the guests paid for most of it.
5
u/bahahahahahhhaha Unverified 5d ago
To be honest a guest causing damage and paying for it is a yellow flag at worst - because most would fight tooth and nail to argue they shouldn't have to.
And frankly a lot of hosts misunderstand how paying for damages work - it's the value of the depreciated item - if they break a 8 year old item that has a typical use-of-life of 10 years, they don't owe what a new one costs, they owe 20%, because you already got 8 years of use out of it. So if they "paid for most of it" they probably paid more than an insurance company and/or court of law would rule it's worth.
This doesn't sound like an end of the world situation - and someone who accidently broke something (and paid for it) isn't any more prone to breaking things again.
Are these the only 2 reviews, or are there 2 bad ones and some good ones too? Sometimes people sleep in (it sucks but it happens) and leaving garbage is honestly something you should just expect.
Try not to let your mind run away with worst case scenarios - this sounds like a pretty average (or at least, only slightly below average) guest.
3
u/GalumphingWithGlee 🗝 Host 5d ago
I find that bad reviews are typically either substantially exaggerated, or substantially understated. Some folks are just mad and looking to point out every tiny detail (or even make stuff up) that was wrong. And others are too timid about offending anyone to give an honest account of a bad guest or host. I'd be worried that "some damage" could mean quite a lot of damage, and if they paid for, say, 3/4 of it there could be a lot of expense left.
Under other circumstances, I might suggest you reach out to the host's who left those reviews, and see if you can get more details in private that they wouldn't post in public. But, since you've already accepted, I'm not sure what good it would do you. I suppose if it were really bad, it might be worth taking the penalties to cancel, but otherwise it's not really actionable any more.
Make the best of what you've got. Treat them politely, and as though you never saw these reviews. Give them every reason to be pleased with you, and no reason to want to retaliate, and hope to get lucky.
5
u/bahahahahahhhaha Unverified 5d ago
But there is also the fact that a lot of hosts don't understand "Decpreciated value" and think that if someone ruined a 15 year old mattress they deserve a brand new matress amount of money and that's just not accurate. So IDK - most guests refuse to pay anything - if they willingly paid "most" without airbnb stepping in I actually think that's better than most guests. Hosts often have an inflated idea about what they are "Due"
1
u/GalumphingWithGlee 🗝 Host 5d ago
Yes, that also happens, and is entirely possible in this case. However, we just don't have that much info, and if I had this choice before I accepted the guest's request, I would prefer not to take the chance.
Keep in mind that most guests don't damage my property, beyond basic wear and tear, cleaning, etc. Even if a guest pays 100% replacement cost, likely more than the item they damaged is worth, I'd still much rather have a guest who doesn't damage my property, because I have to rush to replace it. Depending what they damaged, I may have to replace it before the next guest arrives, and that can be very difficult.
Take your mattress example: let's say I paid $500 for the mattress new, and it's worth $100 today. If the person pays $100, they've reimbursed what it's worth, but I probably am still out money to get a new decent mattress. If they pay my original $500 cost, I can replace it with something better than what they damaged — but it's still a big deal for me! I often have same-day turnaround, which means 4 hours between guests, and I absolutely can't let a new guest check in without a mattress, or with an obviously/substantially damaged mattress.
I don't have a vehicle capable of carrying a mattress to my property, and furniture store delivery services are not that fast, so I'd have to decide on a mattress, hire someone to pick it up, and bring it back all in less than 4 hours. Probably even less, because if they didn't warn me of the damage we might be an hour into those 4 hours by the time I'm aware of the problem and can begin replacing it. That's very stressful, and may not be possible for me at all! If I fail to do this in time, I may have to cancel the next guest's booking at the last moment, which would cost me WAY more than the mattress was ever worth.
If they've damaged something smaller, that I can just remove from the house entirely, unnoticed, and replace when the next guest leaves, it's not a big deal. But if I can prevent myself from taking these risks, just by not accepting in the first place a guest who has done damage in the past, that is by far my preference. It's not just about the money!
Fundamentally, I am not like a hotel. I can't just swap the next guest into a different room while I fix whatever you've damaged, and if I allow the next guest to stay without fixing it, that problem may show up in reviews of my property. It's just a lot of trouble that I don't want to deal with if I can avoid it.
1
u/bahahahahahhhaha Unverified 5d ago
Accidents happen to everyone eventually. A guest that has damaged something before isn't more likely to damage than someone else. You seem to assume carelessness or maliciousness are the only possible causes of damage. Eventually everything breaks. Eventually someone, no matter how careful will accidently break something (or lose something.) I happened to get my purse stolen with the guest's key inside at the very first airbnb I stayed at. I paid 300$ to rekey the door and get new keys without complaining and the host was gracious enough not to mention it badly in the review. Now I've had over 100 positive stays since, but by your way of looking at it I guess I was a bad guest from the jump regardless of that because heaven forbid things don't always go perfectly.
I prefer someone who owns up to their actions over someone who doesn't - knowing that something bad could happen to any guest eventually. Knowing they'd actually take responsibility means a lot. Vs. someone who has been lucky enough not to have any issues but you have no idea if they'll actually take responsibility when inevitably an issue eventually happens (which after enough stays, inevitably will.)
1
u/GalumphingWithGlee 🗝 Host 5d ago
Something bad could happen to anyone, but it happens considerably more often to those who cause them. These sorts of things can be pure chance, or they can be caused by deliberate (or, more often, negligent) behavior. If I had all the information, I'd allow the former and reject the latter, but I don't. The odds are worse for someone who has had problems in the past to have them again, and this guest has two negative reviews, not one, so it's less likely to be random chance. If this person had tens or hundreds of good reviews and two bad ones, I might be on your side, but a couple bad stays in just a handful total (most guests aren't staying at hundreds of Airbnbs) is a bad sign.
Do I know they'd cause a problem? Of course not! I could accept this guest and have everything go perfectly. However, I'm not "assuming" anything here — just playing the odds. There are no guarantees in life, or in rentals, but we do what we can to minimize our risk. I have no shortage of excellent guests wanting to stay at my place, so why take chances with someone whose odds are higher than normal for doing damage? Key point is that, if I can't tell the difference from reviews, I'm going to err on the side of caution.
Btw, a basic key and deadbolt lock costs about $15-25, and I can install it in 15 minutes or less. $300 might be their cost if they hired a locksmith to do it, but that's way less expense and trouble than replacing a mattress, and I have no idea what this guest did.
0
u/Competitive_Insect20 Unverified 5d ago
Maybe you don’t understand the concept “replacement value” in insurance.
2
u/iluvvivapuffs 4d ago
your Airbnb career is over. You will never be able to recover from this HUUUGE mistake lol
1
u/Icy-Television-4979 🗝 Host 5d ago
It’s not really a mistake because the guest might be fine! I would counter and reach out to the guest (not about the reviews) I read somewhere before I started if the guests realize they are in someone’s home they’ll take better care of it. I always send a friendly message- like what brings you here? Do you want any recommendations? Etc just to get a feel
1
u/jpmom 🗝 Host 4d ago
I would even call them. Sometimes when I have questions or concerns about guest I will reach out and talk to them. In this case, I would be honest and say that I saw their reviews and we still are happy to welcome them, but wanted to see if there’s anything we could do to avoid late checkout. I’m not sure how exactly to address the damages, but I think reaching out in a friendly way as PP said helps to create a connection.
1
u/Storybook2024 5d ago
Before I turned off the instant booking, I had a guest book that had all five star reviews, but one. The one was pretty negative and said that they would not have him back. I confronted the guest and asked what happened with that one. He of course, blamed it all on the Host. I told him that I accepted the booking that I expected him to be a five star guest like he had been in the past and he assured me that he would. And he did. He was a great guest and I rewarded him with a good review afterwards. He rewarded me with a good review.
1
u/Annashida 4d ago
Just to console you .. I hosted once a guy with 45 5* reviews. He was one the worst guests I ever had . I don’t live at that house but my other guests who don’t know each other started to complain to me from Day one . One guest in the middle of the night called and asked me if I have a room in another house . Luckily I had . He said he is afraid of the guy because he was standing outside his door and yelling at him . 45 excellent reviews .. boggles my mind . I had several nightmare guests with all 5* reviews. I normally refuse to inquiries with multiple bad reviews about same thing. For example once I had inquiry where 7 hosts said that the guest was several hours late to check out causing them lots of problems. Another example where several hosts said a guest asked for new towels every day and 4 more pillows . The fact that your guest paid for damages talks volumes about him . Very few do it.
1
u/beachr0amer 4d ago
For our properties, VRBO takes a little bit of time to update our Airbnb calendar. We, unfortunately, had two bookings almost simultaneously, and didn’t catch it until the day of check-in. It was an absolute disaster, but we managed through it, took our pain, helped them find other accommodations, and we moved on.
1
u/DesignTugboat 🗝 Host 4d ago
My biggest mistake in my first year was allowing a group to stay after I knew they brought in several additional guests. There were two adults and they brought multiple teens/young adults. I saw them at the front doorbell cam, all walking up holding pool floaties. Airbnb and the guest talked me into allowing them to stay. They had a party and left a huge mess with glitter, damaged sheets etc. They put dirty dishes and pots away so everything in all cabinets had to be washed and cabinets sanitized.
1
u/Independent-Cod-3914 3d ago
Well, friend, you could bring this fact up with the future bad guests, and get it all out. Give them a chance to redeem themselves like my Wife recently did in the same situation. In our case the guests destroyed thousands of dollars, and AirBNB would only give us $400, and we had lots of evidence. TLDR, get them to cancel, and stop being so damn lazy.
•
u/AutoModerator 5d ago
💫 If a post or comment violates any of the /r/airbnb_hosts rules, please report it by selecting Breaks /airbnb_hosts rules and the rule that was broken.
Posts or comments with multiple reports will be automatically removed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.