Upset by a negative Airbnb review. Should I do anything?

[Daddyjammy]

AIBU to be upset by the bad review we've just been given as guests? Worried it will impact on being able to rent other places.

Our family's always had great reviews from our hosts in the past and we try to be as considerate as possible, so this has quite upset me.

We had a lovely stay (won't mention where but in the UK) and left a glowing review of the place, which, to be fair was pretty immaculate when we arrived.

Checkout was supposed to be 10.00 which is at least an hour earlier than we've ever had before and we did try to get up and out in time but with two teenage kids we had managed to get all of our stuff out of the house and by the car by 10.40 and I was just doing final checks, cleaning kitchen and hoovering when the cleaner arrived. She was very curt with me as I was still on the drive but she was able to park on the road just 5 yards away then virtually threw me out of the house before i could even grab the (tied up) rubbish bags to put in the bin and recycling. We had hoovered the night before, cleared away all of our breakfast and generally tidied but apparently didn't put everything back in its right place, "moved artwork" (absolutely no idea what this could be) and left so much dog hair on the sofa it took an extra hour to clean (the dog, which we had checked was ok in advance, was banned from the sofa when we were there but may have got up there when we were out but we certainly didn't notice much hair).

Turns out the cleaner was the owner's mum so I'm guessing I caused offence by mentioning that she was "brusque" with us and maybe they're upset that we broke a dessert bowl, although I left a tenner to cover for this and offered more if I hadn't left enough, or that we accidentally used their Netflix account rather than our own (is that really bad form?).

Genuinely not sure if we sound like really bad guests and need to up our game or if we've come across a particularly picky host who expects too much from guests paying over £1,000 for a week with one bedroom and a sofa bed in a (quite nice) little house.

Surely this isn’t for real how can you read your OP back and not think you did anything wrong?

@MattHancocksSexTape

managed to get all of our stuff out of the house and by the car by 10.40

Soon becomes

We had got all of our stuff out of the house by 10.00

Changing your story because things aren’t going your way?!

Exactly!!

Wow you do sound like awful guests....who is 40 mins late at check out. You be charged for another day if it was a bed and breakfast or hotel. Also you broke things are left hair.

Sorry OP, but I think YABU.

I spent my life going on 'self-catering' holidays with my parents (a mixture - some Butlins, some small operators, some sole operators with one flat... obviously no AirBnB back in the day though) and we were never late leaving, or 'caught' still there when we should have been out.

And we did that from when me and my DSis were about 3 years old until we were about 17, so no excuses at all (sorry) about there being teenagers in your scenario, and no excuses about 'still cleaning'.#

You just sound disorganised in that respect.

As for breaking something and using their Netflix 'by mistake' that's probably pretty bad form tbh.

When I first started reading your OP I was kind of 'on your side', but as soon as I got to the end I had changed my mind.

You just sound full of excuses, and it's that typical OP "AIBU"? Mumsnet "Yes" OP "No I'm not"

YWBU to check out late - early checkout times are totally normal at the moment - ours was actually 9am! they do this so they have time for a thorough clean and then leave the property empty for a few hours before the next guest check in.

YWBU to leave your dog unattended in the property I think - most dog-friendly properties specify that you can bring a dog but shouldn't leave it unattended, especially if there are places it's not supposed to go e.g. on the sofa.

However don't worry too much about the negative review. Chalk it up to experience - it is unlikely to jeopardise your future holidays. I had an unjustified negative review once - saying we had left the place in an awful state when really we hadn't. You can put in a response to a negative review - I put something like "I am really sorry you weren't happy with how we left the place, we thought it was reasonably close to the state it was when we arrived but if you have any specific issues please let me know" which the host never replied to. I think tbh that the host was getting us confused with a different guest booking because on the day we checked in, there was a delay because the host was having to sort out an emergency cleaner for a different property which had been utterly trashed and had guests due - but that was nothing to do with us and not even the property we were renting. Anyway, we have been able to make other bookings since with no issues, I don't think the one negative is too worrying for hosts generally. You could put a response saying that you were very sorry that you were late checking out and whilst you did your best, you know this wasn't good enough and you will make sure you do better next time. That will be seen by any future airbnb hosts when you make bookings elsewhere, and they will take from that the info that you are generally a reasonable person and not a nightmare CF, who just had a bad day on that particular checkout occasion.

You just sound full of excuses, and it's that typical OP "AIBU"? Mumsnet "Yes" OP "No I'm not" confused

But some of us she’s not (that) BU. She has done nothing really bad at all.

We managed with a small baby and dog to be out by 10am yesterday in an Airbnb! You are definitely being unreasonable I’m afraid.

Not a fan of AirBnb. You’d think there would be some competition. I mean there’s a huge opportunity surely for an apartment/holiday home provider that doesnt charge their customer £100-£200(!!!) “Service fee” to book a weeks break with a few mouse clicks. I mean, is there any other online business charging customers that kind of money for a reasonably straight forward click and book service? It’s actually insane when you think about it. The vast majority of hotel booking sites are free at point of use, and yet AirBNB charges extortionate sums.

What is difficult to understand about check out at 10 am. And dog hair left. All not brilliant. Still you paid quite a lot and didnt do anything awful. Just forget about it.

@shouldistop

You mention you left the dog in the air bnb when you were out. Even the most dog friendly places I've stayed say they can't remain there unsupervised.

I don't think most of those things in isolation warrants a bad review but all together then it's quite annoying and bad form.

However I would echo PP above, we have holidayed with our dog for the last 10 years and each and every cottage that we have stayed in has a very clear rule 'do not leave your dog unattended in the property'. The pet is in an unfamiliar property and could get stressed, scratch the doors, bark or whine or just lounge all over the furniture and beds. I would be very surprised if that rule wasn't in your T&Cs.

Sorry OP YABU

1. You hadn't left by 10am
2. You hadn't cleaned /emptied bins by 10am
3. Blocked the cleaner from parking (even though she arrived at 10.40)
4. Broke a bowl
5. Used someone else's Netflix
6. Let your dog climb on furniture when you weren't around

Yea... You weren't the best guests so understand their negative (and honest) feedback.

Checking out late isn't good. The rest is possibly subjective.

10am check out is pretty standard, especially given the increased cleaning required currently.

With teenagers it should have been easier to check out on time! I manage it with preschool and primary age children, it's not hard.

@supermoonrising yeah I'm well put off them now! it seems like the "hosts" have too much power and aren't always 100% professional. I want to relax on holiday! i broke an espresso pot once but tbf it nearly exploded in my face so it was tit for tat and nothing more was said. but I hate to even have to think of finicky things like dog hair, one breakage etc
the big lesson seems to be leave on time!

Managed to leave with two teenagers by 7am… no excuse for lateness.

Agree 10 am is pretty normal checkout time , in fact a lot of places ask for check out at 9 or 9.30 at the moment .

I also think that even if a rental allows dogs you need to be cleaning their hair off the sofa / cushions etc

I think that £1,000 is expensive for a one bed flat but perhaps that's the going rate this summer and we were lucky with our accommodation which was cheaper.

I am interested how Air B&B works in terms of reviews . Does their review of you get published if you didn't review them ?

@rainbowandglitter

Why is having teenagers an excuse for being late out? It's more understandable if you had a baby or toddlers but not for teenagers. They help you pack up surely?

Well clearly it's not.

If we're playing Airbnb top trumps our checkout time this summer was 9 am and I have three teenagers. And we managed.

You weren't 4 minutes late leaving, 40 minutes late getting out is taking the piss.

I travel regularly with 3 children, 13/11/5, I’m a single parent.

It’s easy to clean the final night, have your stuff packed and ready to go.

Ffs.

Sounds like your main mistake was doing all that cleaning. All I ever do is put rubbish out and make sure there is nothing really awful to deal with - like a filthy loo or sand all over the floor. Sometimes they ask you to strip beds, but if they don't I leave them - because when I ran a B+B I wanted to see the bedding on as easier to see stains. You should have left on time though, there's no excuse for that.

The strict check out time is required by the cleaners to undertake a higher level of sanitisation during the pandemic. YABU.

All this "leaving places as clean as we found it" - why?? A good cleaner is going to go over it all again because not everyone is good with their cleaning hygiene (like using the same cloth on the loo, the bath and the floor...)

Why is everyone commenting on Netflix and the broken bowl?
The negative review didn't mention them.
I'd always take the complaints at face value and there's no point guessing if anything else was an issue. They'd have mentioned it.

Only moving stuff from where they were and the dog hair.

I can imagine that they are extra careful not to leave dog hair for the following guests. Did you hoover the sofa in those 40 min, at all?
And they will have a place for everything or they will have to look for the items, which takes time and can be annoying. Maybe they had to look for the art work (whatever it was).

Yabu. I have small kids and was out by 9am as requested

Out of curiosity, what is the ‘something’ you would consider doing if there was agreement you weren’t unreasonable?

You could reply to their bad review, confirming that you did in fact do all the things they’ve stated, but you don’t think they should have given you a bad review because although you checked out late, left your dog, and used their Netflix you don’t think it’s a big deal.

However, I don’t think it would make you look better to potential future hosts.

Omg, hilarious replies, op these are the same people who say things like "yabu and grabby to expect your parents to buy you a bday card past your 10th bday".

What a load of absolute nonsense.

Over a bloody grand!!

40 mins late due to cleaning!! What a load of tosh. Can't wait you reply with your op? Ie tidying up etc?

It's so bloody rude.

Was the accommodation advertised as having Netflix?