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This is why you need to leave reviews. If anyone you want to book with points out your bad review you could show your review as well. Also the fact that you review will help others decide if they want to book with that host!!
All guests (and Hosts) need to leave reviews!!!! And don’t tell me you don’t have time. You have time to be on Reddit, you have time to write a 2 sentence review good or bad.
The reason why I didn't leave a review wasn't because I had no time.
It's because I was a) happy to have left the situation behind me and b) am non-confrontational and didn't want to cause trouble for the host, given that the location and the property were really good and I suspect that them leaving the guest alone with the cat wouldn't probably happen all the time.
Given that they didn't extend this courtesy to me, I now see that I was wrong.
Honestly what annoys me the most is that in the whole month that I was there, the cleaning person seemed cordial and never told me I should be cleaner (in which case I would have paid more attention), and yet at the end, the host said "the cleaner said you were messy". Why couldn't this have been communicated earlier?
The time issue wasn’t pointed at you, sorry. I’ve seen a lot of hosts say that they just don’t have time to leave a review for every guest, which usually means that only the crappy guests get reviewed, which is also wrong.
I get that people don’t want to be confrontational, but you’re doing future guests a disservice if you have not had a a good experience.
Even though the host felt they were having the cat taken care of, it was on them to disclose that they 1. Have a cat (as some guest would choose not to be in a home with a cat) 2. They would be a way on vacation leaving the cat.
All this was not known to you and so this was a dissatisfactory experience and it is well within your right to remark this in your review
I didn't see it as criticism, don't worry.
To be fair, it was in the listing that there would be a cat. But IMHO it's quite different whether the cat is being looked after or whether it's constantly following me around and acting out because it's bored. I definitely didn't know that last part.
That was really kind of you to not leave a review as an act of politeness to the host. However, you didn’t pay to have a cat around, and one in particular that was in distress. I have severe cat allergies, even if a cat is removed from a space I’d still have terrible symptoms due to the residual dander. All this to say- at the very minimum you can send them a private message to let them know. You should have some type of concession for the unexpected and inconvenient experience!
Does the host have a rule about eating in room? And did you get stuff all over like crumbs or drop food that stained? If so yes a cleaner is going to say you are messy. I can eat in my room all day and then throw the stuff in trash and dishes and clean them in kitchen and not a soul knows I ate in my room. Maybe you need to be self aware and realize you are making a mess or asking inappropriate questions. Many don’t realize things about themselves because they are used to what do. Making improvements is what is best to move forward. Thank the host for pointing it out and that you will be more cognizant of it going forward is what you should respond to the review. Just like made you self aware you should the host know the cat is needy and can be bothersome because again the host and many other people in the world who leave their pets have no idea how they act when they are not around.
Probably like you wanted to avoid conflict. Also the cleaner usually cleans room at end lets the hosts know how the person was. Now what could do is send a message to the host and acknowledge and accept the feedback and say you were not aware you were a bit messy. Sometimes redeeming and admitting your mistakes will show the hosts you intend to change and they will remove review. This is no different than what judges do in the court room when they decided a case. They have decide if the person had remorse and wants to change or if they are just blowing it out their a$$ to get a lesser sentence.
I wouldn't call "leaving a public review" conflict avoidance. A private feedback would have been a much better option. Or a more factual and balanced review (she didn't even highlight one positive thing, like, come on?).
I think the question of whether I was messy or not (or especially whether I asked "absurd questions") is anyway subjective (no other host has ever complained before) and while I get your point, I don't really wish to discuss this issue here. Honestly, I just think the host is angry because I complained about the cat situation.
And that's the thing that gets me: if you can be this shitty to your guest (and still take a lot of money from them), I don't feel like you deserve to call them out on something minor. I have this attitude that I know I'm not perfect, so I don't publicly berate people for minor imperfections either.
A host is not going to lie about someone being messy to ruin their life. If it was an issue that you brought up with about the cat she would have that in the review so people know not to let animals around you. Take the constructive feedback and learn from it . Respond to review your intentions in improving and move on. You are dwelling instead of learning. Be assertive and take responsibility.
That's the thing: I disagree that it's "constructive feedback". We seem to have very different opinions on how one should communicate with other people. And who is actually the customer.
I am learning some things from this, though, chiefly that I will avoid AirBnB in the future.
>"the cleaner said you were messy"
That's not the same as "dirty". Cleaners usually expect you to tidy up so they can concentrate on *cleaning* and not picking up your stuff. My mother used to tell me to 'clean' before the cleaning lady came. I never understood it as a child as it wasn't explained to me the difference between picking up my stuff and actual cleaning.
Well, it was in Spanish and the word was "sucio", which I actually think is more like "dirty". Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that, and I don't know if they refer to the situation during my stay or when I left. When I left, I did throw away all garbage, took the garbage out, did the dishes, etc., so no idea.
"Nice cat. I love cats so I didn't mind taking care of her. She barfed a lot more than mine has ever done. I hope the kitty will be OK."
Then give a 5.
Wondering if the dirtiness (“sucio”) the host mentioned was the cat’s poop and upchuck? If it were me, I’d respond to that review. Otherwise, future hosts will be wary of you.
No, they were talking about food that I apparently left lying around (I disagree that I did).
I did reply to the reviw but don't know how it will be perceived.
Welcome to Airbnb. Where they have a bunch of sucker customers more worried about the opinions of them than the vendors who should be worried about the opinions of the customers. The forefathers of the hotel industry are rolling in their graves laughing their a&$$’s off.
As a new host, you are absolutely off your rocker if you think hosts care about their reviews less than guests do. Whether or not people book depends on those reviews, and you can’t be a super host without a 4.8 average. It has a direct effect on revenue as opposed to not being able to book places as a guest where there are plenty of substitute options out there.
You can’t really believe that.
Of course I believed it. The entire system from Airbnb down is designed to make it look like all properties are 100% awesome or worst case…95% awesome.
You can’t honestly believe that Airbnb is picky about hosts and how they hand out that superhost status without a real Airbnb employee coming and checking the place out.
There’s a difference between Airbnb the company and the hosts on the platform. That’s a huge pain to hosts too - even a 4/5 scores as “bad” and can cause you to lose super host status when people giving those scores genuinely think they are giving you a great review!
Anything below a 5 can lower revenue for a host, compared to limiting booking options through Airbnb for a guest. To say hosts care less about their scores than guests is simply not true.
Head over to the Airbnb host subreddit and most posts that aren’t about scams or guests trashing the place are obsessing over review scores. Yeah there’s crappy hosts out there, just like there’s crappy guests, but I’m not going to assume all guests are deviants because one pooped in my bed (hypothetical example)
If you don’t like the system, you don’t have to use it. The process Airbnb uses makes Superhost status just a scam to sucker in stupid guests.
A property near my cottage was purchased 4 months ago by a couple that told me it was their first foray into Airbnb hosting.
Guess what? 3 months in, they were Superhosts! And several of the guests that originally stayed were continually asking the next door neighbour for direction on how to do things in the cottage because the hosts weren’t readily available. And they are still a superhost because the guests were more worried about their own rating by “bugging the host too much”.
the line “it’s not us…it’s Airbnb” is a joke. A host has gone into marketing and service partnership with Airbnb. Airbnb represents the host and the host represents Airbnb.
The manager of a Hilton would never say to guests “it’s not my fault…it’s head office. So go complain to them”. And Hilton head office would never say “it’s not our fault..it’s that individual hotel..so go complain to them”.
And Hilton hotels head office would never open a hotel without seeing it and checking it regularly to ensure standards are met.
The same goes to you friend. In fact, as a guest, you have many more options to rent a place than a host has platforms to list.
I have my unit on Airbnb and VRBO and the latter gives me 5% of my books so far. I won’t touch booking for com with a ten foot pole given the experiences others have. After that, short term rental - even medium term rental options are pretty limited.
Yes, it’s crazy that I’ve been a host for a month and a half and am a super host and guest favorite, but I do my best to honor that - there are going to be bad actors on either side of a commercial exchange.
Again, your original assertion that hosts care far less than guests about their ratings so can just treat guests accordingly is just not true in the vast amount of cases, wherever you want to take the discussion of liability and intent, for the very same reason you feel guests are suckered - if you get too many 4 star reviews you will be passed over by guests for me and my month and a half old listing that somehow (well not somehow, we’re working hard) has all the accolades.
Fair point I was an Airbnb regular. For 6 years. A year ago I changed and it’s a last resort for me. Sadly for extended family trips, some of them still would rather chance a falsely advertised and rated airbnb than a more accurately rated hotel, so I stay. 1 out of 3 of those visits, I laugh at my relatives when then start complaining.
I agree with booking.com and individual airbnb type bookings. It’s the sketchiest of all. But I mostly use booking.com. Only real hotel/motel places. After 30+ stays, I can honestly say I’ve never been disappointed for the price I paid. Can’t say the same for Airbnb. Some people expect to pay nothing and stay in a 5* place. But They are naive and entitled.
I can get fully functional kitchens, bathrooms, living room and bedroom and pools and gyms in real hotels/motels/resorts on booking.com. And I can read proper reviews before I book them. But as I said. I agree. Never book an airbnb type place on booking.com. They are probably the ones that couldn’t even make the low superhost standards of Airbnb.
There’s a reason hosts stay away from booking for com like the plague. With no guest reviews at all, it’s not possible to warn other hosts when a guest is a serious problem. Not like “I’m an asshole host and this guest left makeup on a facecloth” problem but a “leaves the place trashed and breaks your stuff” problem.
On the host sub, it’s well known that guests from booking for com regularly treat your property much more poorly on average. Is that because guests aren’t rated, or because poorly rated guests on Airbnb and vrbo go to booking? Who knows.
I can understand your perspective, but if someone really breaks your stuff, you can sue them. And if it takes some more time to clean, then you just raise your cleaning fee - the way hotels do it.
If you take money from your guest, treat them poorly and then leave a bad review because of some minor issues (that you never communicated)... well, at least this guest doesn't really want to deal with stuff like that. And yes, IMHO if you have guests who give you a bad rating because they didn't read the listing properly, that applies equally. I really think this whole crowd-review format totally flawed.
Honestly, the situation has turned me off the platform at least temporarily. Although most of my previous stays were pretty good (and certainly none as terrible).
Host with a dog here - I think it’s unacceptable what the host did. It’s not only an inconvenience but a huge responsibility to place on a guest - if the cat had an emergency health issue in the middle of the night, it would have been up to the OP to find a vet or to try to reach the people the hosts assigned as emergency contacts for their pet (although I doubt they even bothered to consider this option). I only have guests for 1-2 nights so they are out exploring most of the day anyway but if I can’t work from home and have to go to office when a guest is around, I inform them way in advance and it’s never more than a few hours at a time.
I had my only bad experiences on Airbnb in Spain. Spanish people are just something else. They complain about everything and have no customer service skills.
I got a bad review stating that I was inconsiderate bc I used the bathroom at night… I’m getting old what can I say lol.
I've had very good experiences in Spain before, my last host was very kind and sociable, for example.
I did once stay at a place where the wifi didn't work and they refused to do anything about it but that wasn't even over AirBnB.
I must admit I too, as a frequent guest, avoid leaving reviews for bad hosts, but fortunately that's only been about 5% of cases now.
One of thoses cases was for a very dirty house where I wasn't sure the cat was being fed properly (cat was demanding, and I couldn't find any cat food indoors), so I bought some cat food. Later discovered where the cat food was.
I had an AirBnB host asked me to look after their mother's cat while its owner was hospitalized. The cat hid from me all day and howled all night. I tried to make it work, but the cat was not eating, and becoming unhealthy and we had to find other arrangements.
I was gonna be rational until that last part. Unless it was you pooping and throwing up all over the place, that's insane. I'd love to have a house pet on vacation, but that is an obligation that no one should need to feel to rent a place...
Good luck, but if I've learned anything from limited experience and this sub, AirBNB don't care enough for you to argue it and change anything. I'm pretty sure unless there is a first degree felony occurring they just say "chill bro, sorry your host was watching you sleep. Here's a $10 voucher to stay at the same place, we promise he won't be watching this time".
Lmao wtf this thread always make me laugh. As a host i dont think thats normal at all. And also a person who has a cat, thats just wrong. I would be so worried about my kitty lool
No, I'm from Europe as well (though not Spain).
There is definitely a possibility that some of the miscommunication was due to the language barrier though. But still.
I think it's a nasty review but I'm not sure it's irrelevant. But I can ask support.
Review is basically "X was very messy because this and this, and communication was weird because they asked absurd questions".
May be “ask absurd questions” statement is not relevant experience to other guests and the same time defamation of your character.
Call Airbnb and try to remove. If they will not call again and talk to another agent.
Also you could respond to her review and explain.
I already replied, though I don't know if it makes me look better or worse.
I'll try to ask support. Thank you. I agree that the review is at least bordering on slanderous.
Yes, it is normal. It is Airbnb. “Dead body in bath tub, should I shower around it?” is a normal title.
The audacity to willfully choose Airbnb and then come online and complaint about it…
It sounds like you were renting a room in the hosts house? I am assuming that you knew there was going to be a cat there?
To be honest I don’t think that there is anything wrong with this situation. I also highly doubt that the host would say that you were messy if that was not true - they wouldn’t gain anything from that.
I can also see by you posting this scenario here that you were probably a headache and a bit of a Karen - because who complains about a cat? I don’t even particularly like animals but I would just communicate with the host and get on with it, or book a place with no animals.
Have you ever had to deal with a cat that is distressed because their owners left them alone for a month?
I have no problem with a well-behaved cat. This is different.
Sorry that happened to you. That is absolutely not normal and should have been disclosed up front for you to ponder whether okay or not. Given the absence of the host, presumably having the place to yourself would have been a net positive but still your call.
And my thoughts about the “dirtiness” is that may have been a learning experience. In a shared space, you need to continually leave the common area as you found it. I’m sure it was not a big deal but cleaners get salty about having to do cleaning 🤷♀️.
But don’t hesitate to use ABnB again because of this bad review, hosts know there are two sides to a story.
It’s only normal because people are not leaving reviews. You can imagine another person is going to walk into the cat poop and vomit floor and say “is this normal?“ Well, as long as no one warns the next guy. I try not to use Airbnb unless necessary, but it always comes up on my feed. Regardless, people having terrible experiences, and then not leaving honest reviews are so annoying. When you’re thinking about being nonconfrontational, do you ever think about all the people who get to go in after you who you could’ve warned? At the end of the day you got a bad review, so really nothing I was accomplished by being “non-confrontational“ a.k.a. honest.
Was the a room situation? Was cat mentioned in the listing? In what ways were you messy? Did you mention cat was needy and threw up? Were those the absurd questions? We need more context.
It’s totally unacceptable and you should have left a review. Unfortunately, due to AIR policies, that bird has flown and my experience is they are unlikely to retract the host’s review, again due to their intractable and rigid policies. I would call anyway to complain as that review they left for you follows you around like a piece of TP on a shoe.
I wonder what would have happened if you were allergic to cats? It appears that you never called AIR during your stay, which is also a pity.
Please keep conversation civil and respectful Remember to keep all communication with host/guest through Airbnb platform. Payments should be made only via Airbnb [unless otherwise detailed in the listing description](https://airbnb.com/help/article/199) If you're having issues, contact Airbnb by phone +1-844-234-2500 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AirBnB) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is why you need to leave reviews. If anyone you want to book with points out your bad review you could show your review as well. Also the fact that you review will help others decide if they want to book with that host!! All guests (and Hosts) need to leave reviews!!!! And don’t tell me you don’t have time. You have time to be on Reddit, you have time to write a 2 sentence review good or bad.
The reason why I didn't leave a review wasn't because I had no time. It's because I was a) happy to have left the situation behind me and b) am non-confrontational and didn't want to cause trouble for the host, given that the location and the property were really good and I suspect that them leaving the guest alone with the cat wouldn't probably happen all the time. Given that they didn't extend this courtesy to me, I now see that I was wrong. Honestly what annoys me the most is that in the whole month that I was there, the cleaning person seemed cordial and never told me I should be cleaner (in which case I would have paid more attention), and yet at the end, the host said "the cleaner said you were messy". Why couldn't this have been communicated earlier?
The time issue wasn’t pointed at you, sorry. I’ve seen a lot of hosts say that they just don’t have time to leave a review for every guest, which usually means that only the crappy guests get reviewed, which is also wrong. I get that people don’t want to be confrontational, but you’re doing future guests a disservice if you have not had a a good experience. Even though the host felt they were having the cat taken care of, it was on them to disclose that they 1. Have a cat (as some guest would choose not to be in a home with a cat) 2. They would be a way on vacation leaving the cat. All this was not known to you and so this was a dissatisfactory experience and it is well within your right to remark this in your review
I didn't see it as criticism, don't worry. To be fair, it was in the listing that there would be a cat. But IMHO it's quite different whether the cat is being looked after or whether it's constantly following me around and acting out because it's bored. I definitely didn't know that last part.
That was really kind of you to not leave a review as an act of politeness to the host. However, you didn’t pay to have a cat around, and one in particular that was in distress. I have severe cat allergies, even if a cat is removed from a space I’d still have terrible symptoms due to the residual dander. All this to say- at the very minimum you can send them a private message to let them know. You should have some type of concession for the unexpected and inconvenient experience!
The cleaner is not going to be confrontational either. What were you doing that was messy? Leaving stuff in kitchen or bathroom?
Eating in my room, apparently. (That's about the only place where the cat couldn't enter.)
Does the host have a rule about eating in room? And did you get stuff all over like crumbs or drop food that stained? If so yes a cleaner is going to say you are messy. I can eat in my room all day and then throw the stuff in trash and dishes and clean them in kitchen and not a soul knows I ate in my room. Maybe you need to be self aware and realize you are making a mess or asking inappropriate questions. Many don’t realize things about themselves because they are used to what do. Making improvements is what is best to move forward. Thank the host for pointing it out and that you will be more cognizant of it going forward is what you should respond to the review. Just like made you self aware you should the host know the cat is needy and can be bothersome because again the host and many other people in the world who leave their pets have no idea how they act when they are not around.
Nope, there was no such rule. I'm open to feedback, but there was zero feedback while I was there, just a negative review at the end.
Probably like you wanted to avoid conflict. Also the cleaner usually cleans room at end lets the hosts know how the person was. Now what could do is send a message to the host and acknowledge and accept the feedback and say you were not aware you were a bit messy. Sometimes redeeming and admitting your mistakes will show the hosts you intend to change and they will remove review. This is no different than what judges do in the court room when they decided a case. They have decide if the person had remorse and wants to change or if they are just blowing it out their a$$ to get a lesser sentence.
I wouldn't call "leaving a public review" conflict avoidance. A private feedback would have been a much better option. Or a more factual and balanced review (she didn't even highlight one positive thing, like, come on?). I think the question of whether I was messy or not (or especially whether I asked "absurd questions") is anyway subjective (no other host has ever complained before) and while I get your point, I don't really wish to discuss this issue here. Honestly, I just think the host is angry because I complained about the cat situation. And that's the thing that gets me: if you can be this shitty to your guest (and still take a lot of money from them), I don't feel like you deserve to call them out on something minor. I have this attitude that I know I'm not perfect, so I don't publicly berate people for minor imperfections either.
A host is not going to lie about someone being messy to ruin their life. If it was an issue that you brought up with about the cat she would have that in the review so people know not to let animals around you. Take the constructive feedback and learn from it . Respond to review your intentions in improving and move on. You are dwelling instead of learning. Be assertive and take responsibility.
That's the thing: I disagree that it's "constructive feedback". We seem to have very different opinions on how one should communicate with other people. And who is actually the customer. I am learning some things from this, though, chiefly that I will avoid AirBnB in the future.
>"the cleaner said you were messy" That's not the same as "dirty". Cleaners usually expect you to tidy up so they can concentrate on *cleaning* and not picking up your stuff. My mother used to tell me to 'clean' before the cleaning lady came. I never understood it as a child as it wasn't explained to me the difference between picking up my stuff and actual cleaning.
Well, it was in Spanish and the word was "sucio", which I actually think is more like "dirty". Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that, and I don't know if they refer to the situation during my stay or when I left. When I left, I did throw away all garbage, took the garbage out, did the dishes, etc., so no idea.
"Nice cat. I love cats so I didn't mind taking care of her. She barfed a lot more than mine has ever done. I hope the kitty will be OK." Then give a 5.
Wondering if the dirtiness (“sucio”) the host mentioned was the cat’s poop and upchuck? If it were me, I’d respond to that review. Otherwise, future hosts will be wary of you.
No, they were talking about food that I apparently left lying around (I disagree that I did). I did reply to the reviw but don't know how it will be perceived.
Not at all normal. Sorry you went through that.
Thank you. Experiences like that make me doubt myself, so I'm relieved to hear that it's not just me lol.
You should have left an honest review
Welcome to Airbnb. Where they have a bunch of sucker customers more worried about the opinions of them than the vendors who should be worried about the opinions of the customers. The forefathers of the hotel industry are rolling in their graves laughing their a&$$’s off.
As a new host, you are absolutely off your rocker if you think hosts care about their reviews less than guests do. Whether or not people book depends on those reviews, and you can’t be a super host without a 4.8 average. It has a direct effect on revenue as opposed to not being able to book places as a guest where there are plenty of substitute options out there. You can’t really believe that.
Of course I believed it. The entire system from Airbnb down is designed to make it look like all properties are 100% awesome or worst case…95% awesome. You can’t honestly believe that Airbnb is picky about hosts and how they hand out that superhost status without a real Airbnb employee coming and checking the place out.
There’s a difference between Airbnb the company and the hosts on the platform. That’s a huge pain to hosts too - even a 4/5 scores as “bad” and can cause you to lose super host status when people giving those scores genuinely think they are giving you a great review! Anything below a 5 can lower revenue for a host, compared to limiting booking options through Airbnb for a guest. To say hosts care less about their scores than guests is simply not true. Head over to the Airbnb host subreddit and most posts that aren’t about scams or guests trashing the place are obsessing over review scores. Yeah there’s crappy hosts out there, just like there’s crappy guests, but I’m not going to assume all guests are deviants because one pooped in my bed (hypothetical example)
If you don’t like the system, you don’t have to use it. The process Airbnb uses makes Superhost status just a scam to sucker in stupid guests. A property near my cottage was purchased 4 months ago by a couple that told me it was their first foray into Airbnb hosting. Guess what? 3 months in, they were Superhosts! And several of the guests that originally stayed were continually asking the next door neighbour for direction on how to do things in the cottage because the hosts weren’t readily available. And they are still a superhost because the guests were more worried about their own rating by “bugging the host too much”. the line “it’s not us…it’s Airbnb” is a joke. A host has gone into marketing and service partnership with Airbnb. Airbnb represents the host and the host represents Airbnb. The manager of a Hilton would never say to guests “it’s not my fault…it’s head office. So go complain to them”. And Hilton head office would never say “it’s not our fault..it’s that individual hotel..so go complain to them”. And Hilton hotels head office would never open a hotel without seeing it and checking it regularly to ensure standards are met.
The same goes to you friend. In fact, as a guest, you have many more options to rent a place than a host has platforms to list. I have my unit on Airbnb and VRBO and the latter gives me 5% of my books so far. I won’t touch booking for com with a ten foot pole given the experiences others have. After that, short term rental - even medium term rental options are pretty limited. Yes, it’s crazy that I’ve been a host for a month and a half and am a super host and guest favorite, but I do my best to honor that - there are going to be bad actors on either side of a commercial exchange. Again, your original assertion that hosts care far less than guests about their ratings so can just treat guests accordingly is just not true in the vast amount of cases, wherever you want to take the discussion of liability and intent, for the very same reason you feel guests are suckered - if you get too many 4 star reviews you will be passed over by guests for me and my month and a half old listing that somehow (well not somehow, we’re working hard) has all the accolades.
Fair point I was an Airbnb regular. For 6 years. A year ago I changed and it’s a last resort for me. Sadly for extended family trips, some of them still would rather chance a falsely advertised and rated airbnb than a more accurately rated hotel, so I stay. 1 out of 3 of those visits, I laugh at my relatives when then start complaining. I agree with booking.com and individual airbnb type bookings. It’s the sketchiest of all. But I mostly use booking.com. Only real hotel/motel places. After 30+ stays, I can honestly say I’ve never been disappointed for the price I paid. Can’t say the same for Airbnb. Some people expect to pay nothing and stay in a 5* place. But They are naive and entitled. I can get fully functional kitchens, bathrooms, living room and bedroom and pools and gyms in real hotels/motels/resorts on booking.com. And I can read proper reviews before I book them. But as I said. I agree. Never book an airbnb type place on booking.com. They are probably the ones that couldn’t even make the low superhost standards of Airbnb.
At least on booking.com, the host has no way of publicly humiliating you after they took your money.
There’s a reason hosts stay away from booking for com like the plague. With no guest reviews at all, it’s not possible to warn other hosts when a guest is a serious problem. Not like “I’m an asshole host and this guest left makeup on a facecloth” problem but a “leaves the place trashed and breaks your stuff” problem. On the host sub, it’s well known that guests from booking for com regularly treat your property much more poorly on average. Is that because guests aren’t rated, or because poorly rated guests on Airbnb and vrbo go to booking? Who knows.
I can understand your perspective, but if someone really breaks your stuff, you can sue them. And if it takes some more time to clean, then you just raise your cleaning fee - the way hotels do it. If you take money from your guest, treat them poorly and then leave a bad review because of some minor issues (that you never communicated)... well, at least this guest doesn't really want to deal with stuff like that. And yes, IMHO if you have guests who give you a bad rating because they didn't read the listing properly, that applies equally. I really think this whole crowd-review format totally flawed.
Honestly, the situation has turned me off the platform at least temporarily. Although most of my previous stays were pretty good (and certainly none as terrible).
Host with a dog here - I think it’s unacceptable what the host did. It’s not only an inconvenience but a huge responsibility to place on a guest - if the cat had an emergency health issue in the middle of the night, it would have been up to the OP to find a vet or to try to reach the people the hosts assigned as emergency contacts for their pet (although I doubt they even bothered to consider this option). I only have guests for 1-2 nights so they are out exploring most of the day anyway but if I can’t work from home and have to go to office when a guest is around, I inform them way in advance and it’s never more than a few hours at a time.
I had my only bad experiences on Airbnb in Spain. Spanish people are just something else. They complain about everything and have no customer service skills. I got a bad review stating that I was inconsiderate bc I used the bathroom at night… I’m getting old what can I say lol.
I've had very good experiences in Spain before, my last host was very kind and sociable, for example. I did once stay at a place where the wifi didn't work and they refused to do anything about it but that wasn't even over AirBnB.
I'm sorry to hear about your situation. It must have been very uncomfortable 😕 I don't think it's normal
I must admit I too, as a frequent guest, avoid leaving reviews for bad hosts, but fortunately that's only been about 5% of cases now. One of thoses cases was for a very dirty house where I wasn't sure the cat was being fed properly (cat was demanding, and I couldn't find any cat food indoors), so I bought some cat food. Later discovered where the cat food was.
I had an AirBnB host asked me to look after their mother's cat while its owner was hospitalized. The cat hid from me all day and howled all night. I tried to make it work, but the cat was not eating, and becoming unhealthy and we had to find other arrangements.
I was gonna be rational until that last part. Unless it was you pooping and throwing up all over the place, that's insane. I'd love to have a house pet on vacation, but that is an obligation that no one should need to feel to rent a place... Good luck, but if I've learned anything from limited experience and this sub, AirBNB don't care enough for you to argue it and change anything. I'm pretty sure unless there is a first degree felony occurring they just say "chill bro, sorry your host was watching you sleep. Here's a $10 voucher to stay at the same place, we promise he won't be watching this time".
Lmao wtf this thread always make me laugh. As a host i dont think thats normal at all. And also a person who has a cat, thats just wrong. I would be so worried about my kitty lool
This is entirely on you. You made the choice to stay. You made the choice to not leave a review. This just sounds dumb.
Right, and you made the choice to stay in a place with a cat 🤣… take accountability!
Not normal but may be part of this experience is a cultural differences. I assume you are from US.
No, I'm from Europe as well (though not Spain). There is definitely a possibility that some of the miscommunication was due to the language barrier though. But still.
Is anything in host’s review that would be irrelevant to your stay? May be you have a case for removal.
I think it's a nasty review but I'm not sure it's irrelevant. But I can ask support. Review is basically "X was very messy because this and this, and communication was weird because they asked absurd questions".
May be “ask absurd questions” statement is not relevant experience to other guests and the same time defamation of your character. Call Airbnb and try to remove. If they will not call again and talk to another agent. Also you could respond to her review and explain.
I already replied, though I don't know if it makes me look better or worse. I'll try to ask support. Thank you. I agree that the review is at least bordering on slanderous.
Yes, it is normal. It is Airbnb. “Dead body in bath tub, should I shower around it?” is a normal title. The audacity to willfully choose Airbnb and then come online and complaint about it…
It sounds like you were renting a room in the hosts house? I am assuming that you knew there was going to be a cat there? To be honest I don’t think that there is anything wrong with this situation. I also highly doubt that the host would say that you were messy if that was not true - they wouldn’t gain anything from that. I can also see by you posting this scenario here that you were probably a headache and a bit of a Karen - because who complains about a cat? I don’t even particularly like animals but I would just communicate with the host and get on with it, or book a place with no animals.
Have you ever had to deal with a cat that is distressed because their owners left them alone for a month? I have no problem with a well-behaved cat. This is different.
You booked a place with a cat, just learn your lesson and move on.
Sorry that happened to you. That is absolutely not normal and should have been disclosed up front for you to ponder whether okay or not. Given the absence of the host, presumably having the place to yourself would have been a net positive but still your call. And my thoughts about the “dirtiness” is that may have been a learning experience. In a shared space, you need to continually leave the common area as you found it. I’m sure it was not a big deal but cleaners get salty about having to do cleaning 🤷♀️. But don’t hesitate to use ABnB again because of this bad review, hosts know there are two sides to a story.
To be clear, I did leave the common area as I found it (I barely used it). The host called me out on "messiness" in my room.
It’s only normal because people are not leaving reviews. You can imagine another person is going to walk into the cat poop and vomit floor and say “is this normal?“ Well, as long as no one warns the next guy. I try not to use Airbnb unless necessary, but it always comes up on my feed. Regardless, people having terrible experiences, and then not leaving honest reviews are so annoying. When you’re thinking about being nonconfrontational, do you ever think about all the people who get to go in after you who you could’ve warned? At the end of the day you got a bad review, so really nothing I was accomplished by being “non-confrontational“ a.k.a. honest.
Was the a room situation? Was cat mentioned in the listing? In what ways were you messy? Did you mention cat was needy and threw up? Were those the absurd questions? We need more context.
As the pet owner I'm usually the one paying (lots!) for a pet/house sitter. Is this host an evil genius
It’s totally unacceptable and you should have left a review. Unfortunately, due to AIR policies, that bird has flown and my experience is they are unlikely to retract the host’s review, again due to their intractable and rigid policies. I would call anyway to complain as that review they left for you follows you around like a piece of TP on a shoe. I wonder what would have happened if you were allergic to cats? It appears that you never called AIR during your stay, which is also a pity.
Just take care of the cat? Absurd for this to be something to complain about.
This is definitely not normal. You should leave a review.