Airbnb host gave us a bad review!

[airbbbnb]

This is the first time I have used Airbnb. So perhaps I'm not versed at how to properly use it.

However, we spent up from 3.5 k for a house for a week and I think we had to pay around 200-250 for cleaning.

This was in a southern European country.

We have two young kids and we had a nice time but had to leave early due to a family emergency.

We stripped all the beds and put all towels and sheets in the washroom.

We cleaned the kitchen and sweeped the floors.

Some rubbish was left in the bins outside, because the weekly collection came after we already left.

We apologised for this and they told us not to worry.

We received a bad review - all around the fact that we left all the bedding and towels in the washroom and that they could see children's finger print marks on a lot of surfaces and on windows. They also mentioned that there was some sand on the floor under the beds. Obviously we didn't sweep well enough.

I don't really understand why I need to pay a cleaning fee if I need to clean windows ?

I'm never using Airbnb again.

The difference between booking.com and Airbnb is that no review is requested of the holiday maker from booking.com unless they wish to reply to someone's review.

I've only used Airbnb a couple of times but have had a less than glowing review from VRBO
as nephew and his family were last to leave our shared rental property and they aren't renowned for their cleanliness and they managed to bungle up key return despite my very explicit instructions.

This is all very extreme. Not to use air b n b again over one bad review, instead of just not using that host, and putting a fake good review up as you’ve unusual and irrational superstitions about reviews.

its very unhealthy way to react over something so minor

How selfish! Your glowing review might mean that another family spends their hard earned money on booking a place with smelly sheets. All because you couldn't be honest!

It's very dishonest of you

@fedupwithbeingcold

No it's not !!

The place was great, yes the sheets smelled bad, but I could rectify it.

Overall the place was really nice and another family will have a good time there.

I looked at the overall picture when I left my review and decided that the hosts had been really really lovely to us and the sheets / internet situation could be lived with and it wasn't worth leaving a bad review for that. So no it was not dishonest !!!!

Don't be put off using AirBnB - it's not like all hosts are part of one large corporation. I have my property on there and I have never left a bad review, nor have I expected the guests to clean after themselves. I have cleaners coming in before every guest. Obviously, I would be pissed off if you trashed the place or had a pet chewing on furniture or something outside of normal holiday mess.
To be honest, guests aren't angels either when it comes to reviews. Someone left me one start review the other day because of bad weather.

I think the cleaning expected from the guest also depends on the country. In France in chain holiday apartments our experience was that you were expected to leave the place pretty much immaculate. The list of cleaning tasks before you left was a page long, and that appeared to be perfectly standard.

Don't write off all AirBnBs because of one experience OP. It's specific to that host and not the platform as a whole.

I've used it 3 times in the last 2 years and would rate my first 2 experiences as 5/5 stars and my last as 4/5 stars. Thanks to using an AirBnB rather than a hotel, we were able to stay in a lovely apartment in Cap Estate, St Lucia overlooking the Royalton golf course and views of the Atlantic for just under $600USD for the entire week which was a steal! The area was beautiful (celebrities have homes there) and filled with 5-star resorts (Body Holiday, Sandals Royalton, Cap Maison) but totally unaffordable if we didn't book through AirBnB.

So what I'm saying is, don't miss out on huge savings and potentially great vacations in the future because of one experience.

You gave a glowing review because.... Karma?? That's nuts and very unhelpful.

This is why I don’t use air bnb. It’s not a holiday if you have to worry about cleaning etc.

I have used them twice and that was years ago.

I also don’t like the fact that some hosts leave all their belongings there. We booked a cottage in Wales and it was so cluttered with the host’s stuff. We now book through “holiday cottages” for U.K. cottages now.

I think the reviews are only posted publicly once both have been submitted. If I get a bad feeling about the host in any way, I don’t leave a review.

There’s the problem that if you make any sort of complaint to the host, you then cant risk leaving a review because they’ll be expecting a bad review and will leave you a bad review in retaliation. Mostly we’ve had good experiences but in one house, there were no smoke detectors and the host kept the front door permanently locked so there was no way out except through the kitchen which meant walking though every room. Then when I complained he belittled me and said I was having an ‘episode’!! Airbnb did nothing. Nothing’s regulated so there’s no guarantee that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors will be fitted.

I use Airbnb regularly and rely on reviews to help me make an informed decision. Smelly sheets are absolutely unacceptable and I would want to know.

Sounds like you both left false reviews then

To me it's not great but overall, we had a nice time and I was able to revivify it. The house wasn't dirty overall and it didn't ruin my holiday.

I use Booking dot Com, who often have the same properties on but without the extras and chores.

Interlinked Fire alarms in every room is now regulated. (Carbon monoxide alarms are a legal requirement to meet building regs.) Anyone with a holiday let who doesn't have interlinked fire alarms can be closed down. You need to complain to the fire brigade in the area the property is in, they have the authority to close the property down.

Air BnB, booking.com, cottages.com, Sykes etc don't regulate self catering properties they are merely advertising platforms

It's the host who adds the rules to the property, it doesn't matter what platform you book on.

I don't use it much now exactly because of this, some hosts seem to pocket the cleaning fee.

I have read on MN to take photos of how you leave the place.
A tip I will use in future.

I was going to say this! I wonder if that's why so many people have camper vans? There aren't really any other good accommodation offers in France apart from relatively expensive hotels (Campanile upwards). Budget hotels (FI for example) are unspeakably grim and tent camping isn't for everybody.

It could equally be considered bad 'karma' to leave dishonest reviews that may lead to others booking a shit place.

We rented an Airbnb and the owners’ horrible dog harassed, chased, growled at and finally bit me. (I love most dogs and they mostly love me.) Then the owners left us a vile review, accusing us of various things that were not our fault including not following the checkout procedure, which they had not described anywhere (we treble checked). They did not mention the dog bite!

Needless to say in the absence of written or verbal guidance on checkout procedure we left the place clean and tidy, took the rubbish to bins, and left the key exactly where they had left it for us.

There was no option to respond publicly to their negative review, only to post one of our own prior to their posting their review of us (so we could not respond to their review), though maybe that has changed since judging from an PP, and there was no route to ask Airbnb to remove it. I will never use Airbnb again.

Having said that however, after decades of both DH and I staying in hotels across the world without trouble, last year a hotel that we stayed in for one night before leaving for holiday called us while on holiday and accused us of stealing their bloody hairdryer and iron from our room!! In fact we had not even noticed that there were, or were meant to be, those items in the room as we had no need for either. They threatened to set the police on us! They never apologised. We won’t be going back there.

Yes it is stupid. You've undermined the process entirely and will actually contribute to the loss of people's livelihood because reviews from either side, are inauthentic.

I had one bad review from an Airbnb in France, I think as previous posters said the French are very fussy. It did put me off so I use booking.com instead now so I don’t have to worry about being slagged off when returning from my holidays.