Latest / Short Term Rental Problems and Solutions / Fairness and Justice Don't Matter to AirBnB. Good Luck with Reviews
Transcript
- Jeremiah Noll: Admit it, you expected guests and contractors to act like you. expectations are not always realistic. Now you've realized it's not all sunshine and five-star reviews. That means you're in the right place. Bad reviews can gnaw at you and they eat away at me too. Today, we answer a common question that every short-term rental host has to deal with eventually. And I offer some advice to help minimize the occurrence of these less than great reviews. That's because this is the community where we talk about the gross, awkward, and the operational messes, as well as the real strategies that help you keep going instead of quitting. Because you are not a quitter, and this industry is somewhere where you can win. Welcome to Short Term Rental Problems and Solutions. Let's get right into today's question. Good evening, Jeremiah. Are Airbnb guests rating on some sort of scale that nobody understands anymore? I just had a guest who loved the house and raved about it in their review leave only four stars. And it bothers me so much more than I expected. Partly because I got a two star review three weeks ago that was completely out of my control. I figured out how to challenge the review, but it hasn't worked. And I only get one more shot. Thanks, Cheryl. Cheryl, this is timely. as I'm recording this podcast, it's springtime in the Poconos and that is our season. That's when things are slow, things are ⁓ low priced and with low prices comes poor quality guests and bad reviews come from poor quality guests. so I'm right in the middle of actually two different retaliatory reviews. And you would think that Airbnb would follow their own policies. ⁓ That would be nice. That would be ideal. And have to admit, it's very challenging to run a business in an environment where the rules are not actually enforced. Their policies are not actually followed. But I could rant on that another time. And maybe I will later in the show. ⁓ But They are in process of being resolved and I think that they will be resolved. Maybe I'll make a comment on this. ⁓ gonna be posted on YouTube. ⁓ I'll make a comment on this later, getting into the details of that ⁓ it's ⁓ its final step. But these are ⁓ ⁓ situations of retaliation from a guest and Airbnb has already denied our request to take them down twice. So when something clearly violates their policy and they still won't back you up and follow their policy, that is a sign that you are building a business on a foundation that you cannot trust. And so I have a message for Airbnb if this ever gets to them, but as a short-term rental host, you cannot build your business on a foundation like that. When something is completely out of your control, and they were not following their own policies, how are you supposed to plan for that? You know? It's completely messed up and it's completely unfair and I feel your frustration. I deal with these things all the time now, but it wasn't always that way. I remember my first four star review and it happened actually because the guest wasn't warm enough. The guests had come from like Jamaica or Grenada or some like tropical climate. they were in New York for a little while and then they came to ⁓ for a little getaway. ⁓ I I smart. I had Mysa thermostats in my house ⁓ and those give you the opportunity to put a maximum temperature. So I thought, wow, ⁓ this could save me some money. Because I mean, you would imagine sometimes guests arrive at house and it's chilly. So what they end up doing is turning up the thermostat as high as it goes. And then once it's too hot, they open doors and windows and they turn down the thermostat to a reasonable number. So I thought, well, now they can only set it up to 75. Because in my mind, I couldn't think of anybody wanting to be more than 75 degrees in the house. Well, this guest was different. For them, was chilly and they wanted to be comfortable and I want them to be comfortable, but... In that moment, I wasn't that wise yet. I had not learned this lesson. And so they actually left a four-star review saying that the house was wonderful ⁓ that they'd definitely return, but that ⁓ it wasn't warm enough, that the heating system doesn't work. And so I responded to it thoughtfully. And we can talk about responses later in this episode, but it did hurt. It really bothered me. And I'm still talking about it today. So obviously it still does. know, once you have done this a few times, once you have 160 5 star reviews and there's one four, it's really not all that bad when you put everything into perspective. You're gonna need a little bit of time to process this. but this is gonna be particularly difficult if you're a people pleaser. And admittedly, I am. ⁓ I like when people are happy with me. I like making peace ⁓ ⁓ feels unresolved when somebody leaves ⁓ less than stellar review. ⁓ sometimes it's just that they don't know ⁓ four stars is gonna hurt your feelings. So my second four star review actually came from a different guest who, it also bothers me. They just don't understand the rating scale. They had a great time. They actually got personalized service from me. couldn't figure out how to use the induction stove. So I actually visited five minutes after they reported it. I was there and I showed them how to use the induction stove. We had a pleasant 15 minute conversation after that. And then I left and they enjoyed the rest of their stay. By all accounts, it was a raving review. They just left four instead of five stars. Did their thumb slip or something? They never answered my question when I asked them what could be better. sometimes they just don't understand the scale. So another time a guest actually left us a five-star review, but they also walked away with $400 that we should have had. that was a guest actually conning us because they knew that they could pull some shady crap and that they could get a hundred dollars of us. ⁓ And when they asked for 350 because of this, I was very surprised. But we offered them $400. and we expected them to not leave a review, but then they did. And that was unexpected. So then I left them a one-star review because what they had done was they checked into the house, they put a bottle underneath the couch, they put some of their own hair on the bedding, and they took photos of these things. And then they complained about charcoal being not included, even though the listing describes that charcoal is not included. So. The guest actually did not report any of these things until the following day, which they could have actually even slept on the bedding, know, but they still have the photos and they reported it the next morning. And said, ⁓ we feel comfortable using the sheets or the beds. So we slept on the couch. Well, there's nine people, there's two couches, do the math. How is that even possible? They're lying. They're obviously lying, ⁓ but. At the time, our host, the one who was communicating with them, felt like the best situation was to just not leave anybody reviews. Like, you don't leave one for us, I won't leave one for you. We'll give you $400, dollars just go away. Now, is this a violation of Airbnb's terms and conditions? Yes. But Airbnb is violating their own terms and conditions. So it's kind of justified in this situation, don't you think? So they left us a review, I got the notification of that. So I left them a one-star review. and I put in there that the retaliated against us and threatened to leave a bad review if we didn't send him $400. This is extortion. It's actually like a form of blackmail. ⁓ I left them a one-star review. Well, the guests got really pissed off. They called Airbnb and they got the review taken off of their profile. So just so that you know, this guy's running around. He knows all the rules of Airbnb and he knows what to do and he's got a five-star history. He's got like five reviews that are all five stars. And the one that I put up warning you about him has been taken down. So you're not gonna know. He's just gonna go to the next house and potentially do it again because there's absolutely no consequence for him. Now this probably screams of injustice. And if you're getting upset right now, I love it. I got very upset about this as well. We're definitely on the same page there. But like, ⁓ What's going on is that Airbnb is a publicly traded corporation. They have to keep profits above everything else. So when a corporation keeps profits above everything else, they don't care if they're doing the right thing or the wrong thing. They're worried about getting sued, what it's gonna cost them and things like that. until those lawsuits actually do come, there's not really much that they're going to do to satisfy you. And is completely messed up. completely wrong, but it's Airbnb. It's the way that they are. And it's not something that we should accept either, I haven't seen any class action lawsuits to jump into. So basically, Airbnb, they want their guests to keep on booking. So if a review like that, that warns future hosts that this guest is going to probably scam them, keeps that guest from booking a house ⁓ keeps a host from accepting that reservation, Airbnb is gonna take that review off at the first request from the guest. They're gonna do that. And got hundreds of examples ⁓ of type of injustice. where as the host, I'm being deprioritized. it's always Airbnb. This has never happened with VRBO. VRBO actually said to me one time, ⁓ Jeremiah, we feel like your point of view is just as valid as the guests. So we cannot force you to give them a refund. that was so refreshing. I felt like I was in a new world. And so made moves to prioritize VRBO. It just doesn't seem like we get the same traction on that platform across all of our listings. So we a very strategic approach with our listings and pricing and things like that that I can get into another time. But today we're talking about reviews. So let's into what's really going on. So sometimes it's a really scammy guest ⁓ and it's because refund might only go to the primary guest. but they might get a free ride. So like I had a situation one time where there was like five families staying in a five bedroom house and that one family used their credit card to pay for the reservation. Well, it was like $350 per person. So they collected 350 from everybody and they chipped in their own 350 and they use their card while the refund only goes to their card. The other people didn't know that this first person was planting evidence, was scamming the property host. None of them knew about any of stuff. So that one guest is now getting a free ride because they got a refund of their $350. That's all they were looking for, right? So stuff like that happens. ⁓ Some of our guests are aware of the practice where a host will actually pay for a good review. know of a property manager in Philadelphia, not one around here, but they actually call every single guest. at checkout or after checkout, and they ask, how was your experience? Do you feel comfortable leaving a five-star review? And if the guest ever indicates that something was below par or that it wasn't really worth five stars, they start offering credits. Like, wow, I'm sorry to hear that. So it sounds like you feel like you may be overpaid for this a little bit. So how about $60? If I credit you $60, a cash app or Venmo, how would you feel about your stay then? and then they just keep on going up in increments until the guest says, you know what, that sounds fair. Like send me $400, I'm just not gonna leave a review at all. And that's what the host actually does. So once that happens one time, it's not unlikely that that guest is gonna move on to your house and expect a similar treatment because they have all the power in this situation. And you're supposed to keep all of your communication on the platform. And guests do not know how to ask for this stuff on the platform. So sometimes you get text messages or phone calls because they have your number during the stay. Anyway, so this ⁓ is the reason why this stuff is happening. It's not that the guest is actually unsatisfied with how clean the house is. They're just looking to save some money or they just, know, ⁓ is tight. Funds ⁓ different. The economy is tough right now, right? So. also seen a guest plant evidence when they arrive at the home, ⁓ the bottle under the couch. Now, how did I know they planted that? Because we actually had photos of the space under the couch that were taken the day they checked in. So I know that there was not a bottle under there. The doesn't know that I know that because that's not very common in our industry. ⁓ And should be, it really, really should be, but it's not as common. So sometimes guests will actually just plant evidence. in order to get some sort of a refund because they feel like they overspent, you know, especially once they get there. But it's like single time that the sort of thing happens, the guest is saying, oh this is the reason I booked. So I've some examples. ⁓ It's disappointing that the jacuzzi jets were full of dirty water. That's the whole reason I booked. I can't believe the Lantern Festival was rescheduled due to bad weather. That's the whole reason I booked. There were crumbs on the counter in the kitchen and that's kitchen is the whole reason I booked. The mattress is uncomfortable. The reviews said that the mattress was comfy and that's the whole reason I booked. We get dumb little things like this. No, you booked because of a location, you booked because of how it looks, you booked because of the reviews, you booked for a multitude of reasons. You booked partly because of the price, right? If the price was bad, you wouldn't have booked that house, even if it said it had a comfy mattress. So, the problem comes down to a totality of all these different situations and the guest feeling like they have a value or not. let's get into some of the reasons I believe that guests leave reviews below five stars. ⁓ they feel like they're getting ripped off. So if they feel like they're getting ripped off, then obviously you're not providing the kind of value to that guest that they are expecting. And sometimes literally just want revenge. ⁓ I've hosts get downright rude with guests saying things like, ⁓ that's not true. Like just calling them out saying, ⁓ you're a liar. And this is a hospitality business. You have to treat it like hospitality business. Guess what? The customer's always right. And even when the customer's wrong, the customer's always right. So you have to think through those things. You can't approach these situations with a lot of pride and ego you've got to put... fairness and justice aside. Like you might be able to appeal to that with your guests, but to them and to Airbnb they don't care about fairness and justice. And a lot of times your guest doesn't care about that either. They care about their wallet, they care about their pride, and they care about their ego. And sometimes the guest that you're communicating with isn't even at the house. But ⁓ if they feel like you were rude, or if they feel like they were ripped off, then this is the only way they can get revenge, is to leave you a bad review. next reason is altruism. And I like to think that this is most guests, that if they leave a four or a three or two star review, ⁓ that's often just because they're trying to warn future guests. ⁓ it's not that their experience was a one star experience, ⁓ just that Something was off. So either they walked in and it was really dark and dingy and old and like the photos showed it being completely different. ⁓ know, maybe they didn't realize that it's downwind from like a pig farm and there was a smell in the air whenever they were outside. It could have been a number of things. They feel like they have to warn future guests about these situations because then nobody else will get into the same situation they got into. And then another one, they just don't understand the scale. you know, like there's four star hotels out there, there's five star hotels out there. Sometimes four is the highest that you can get. a four star general, or not sure if that's the highest, but you get it, right? ⁓ So they don't understand the scale ⁓ and like star hotels are actually really nice hotels. So they might also compare it to other houses, not based on price, but just saying like, well, I've stayed at a better resort. I've stayed at another home that was nicer than this. So compared to that one, this one should be five stars. thing that they might do is they're trying to adjust your number so that it fits ⁓ idea of what your house actually should be. So if it's not perfect and ⁓ got there and it was five out of five, they're like, well, this place isn't perfect. I need to leave them a four or a three or a two because I would have been happier with my stay if I was expecting it to be a 4.8. Like this stuff actually happens and there's not a whole lot we can do about it, unfortunately. I am gonna get into some ideas and what works in a moment. I ⁓ a guest one time that left a four star review because ⁓ reported that there was some scary aggressive wildlife ⁓ we didn't do anything about it. What am I supposed to do? You're in the woods, right? There's snakes, there's foxes. Foxes are very rare, you're not gonna see another one. If you see one during your stay, that's a lot. There are some bears out there. There's nothing I can do about the bears. Most people want to see them. They're like little teddy bears. They're not aggressive. They're not going towards you. What am I supposed to do about wild animals? You're in the woods. If you don't like wild animals, don't come to the Poconos. If you don't wanna see bears, don't go to the Smokies. That's kind of what we're known for, right? Is the wildlife. So... leave a four star review because we didn't send out a trapper into the neighbor's yard to like scare away the bear? Like what? You get it, right? You get where we're going with this? can be done? The answer, expectations, balancing value and listening. So it's about managing expectations. Some guests just have unrealistic expectations. They might walk into a house and they're, expecting these like ⁓ edited photos to be their reality. And that's always reality. So you also just might have old photos. So I've seen listings that are still using pictures from 2020, but they had the house repainted. They had the deck redone. things are different colors now. Furniture has been completely replaced and they're still using old pictures just because those were really good pictures. So you have to update these things because guests are mismatching their expectations with reality. When they get into your house, they're expecting something that's well lit. And as it turns out, you don't have the lamp in that room anymore. So there's all kinds of things that can lead to this, but highly edited or misleading photos is one of the top things that cause guests to have unrealistic expectations. If they have unrealized expectations, what you're actually gonna get is a poor review because they're trying to warn future guests to not have those expectations. And that's altruism, but it's actually not a bad thing because you're advertising something that it's not, right? So we need to get this right. And I'm not saying that you have to pay for $300 of photos every six months just to keep everything updated, but when you do make updates, make sure you take pictures. Even if it's the last photo in your listing, you can also put... descriptions and captions on your pictures. So there's a lot of things you can do. But one example I want to give you is this ⁓ Antler A-Frame. And it's a house that was a top performing two bedroom house in Tobyhanna. And it caught my eye because I was reviewing through Airbnb site to see the top homes. And below three bedrooms, this was number two. It was doing really stinking good. It was outperforming lakefront properties that were three bedrooms. this house, had a really nice rustic quality to it. The decor was on point. Everything about it was doing really well. It had really good teams that were maintaining it and turning it quickly. was taking one night stays and all kinds of benefits, right? So that home got sold to somebody. The person who bought it actually used AI to edit families into the photos. So they had professional photos taken. But another thing that they used the AI for was to eliminate the houses in the background. So what do you think their four star review was about? Their four star review was a guest saying, just so you know, these photos are highly edited. This house is portrayed to look like it's in the middle of the woods and there's nobody around, but it is not. So the host had this very defensive response to it saying, You know, like it says it's one acre. Like you have to get a grip of what an acre feels like because this is an acre and you're not on top of your neighbors and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in reality, the photos are highly edited and they're still up. the wasn't expecting that. ⁓ And you might be able to edit your photos so well that you trick people into coming to your house, but then you're going to get bad reviews ⁓ and you're going to be taken off of page one. and you're not gonna show up in search results and you're not going to be successful in Airbnb or VRBO. So some things to think about because that's actually how this works. Another clear ⁓ of ⁓ photographs was a house over in Pocono Summit and Stillwater Lake Civic Association. And I actually know the owner. I met him at a conference and we talked about cleaning services. That owner had some... like cheap property manager, one of the ones that's not all that great, took photos and primary listing photos that they have is this beautiful pool and it's not at the house. They're misleading people to believe that this pool is at the house in a couple of ways. Number one, it's the primary photo. Number two, there's no pictures of the backyard. Number three, there's only one picture of the pool. So it's not like you can look at the pool and see in the background that there's a house or other houses or anything like that. Number four, it's part of the description. It says there's a pool. So guests are arriving at this four bedroom home thinking, ⁓ wow, why is there no pool in the backyard? And they actually have to drive five minutes to get to the pool because it's a community amenity and it's shared. And it only has certain hours that it's open and closed. You can't swim at night. And if you wanna walk, it's 15 minute walk. So people are booking this house because it says pool in the title. It says pool in the description. The first picture is of this gorgeous pool and it's a community amenity. That is completely misleading. And it's only a matter of time until a guest is not willing to take a credit in order to leave a good review. They are going to be unsuccessful with their strategy. I don't know whose idea it was, but it's not gonna work long in my opinion. But that's misleading your guests. Another thing is descriptions. Some negatives ⁓ being undisclosed. Remember I mentioned earlier that like the house could be downwind from a pig farm. ⁓ the wind shifts in different directions, but this is something that you should be disclosing to your guests in case it causes them inconvenience, discomfort, whatever. Sometimes also just the tone of your messages. like I mentioned before, like telling a guest, ⁓ that's not true, like directly contradicting them is just, it's going to give them this feeling that they're not getting what they were expecting. They were expecting to have a host that was sympathetic, that was nice, that was listening to their problems. And what they're actually getting is a host that is telling them they're a liar. And that sort of stuff does happen. So another thing is about value. See, it's about rebalancing the scales. So the guest sees that they're paying for a reservation that's $2,000. They're expecting an experience that's worth $2,000. Now that's not always the case. There are high demand weekends and our dynamic pricing will price those weekends up. This can be a problem. and you make more money, but now the expectations of the guests go up. So I actually had a guest, it was one of the first three guests staying at a house right by the Pocono Raceway. And it was a very expensive weekend because they were really close to the Pocono Raceway and the race was happening that weekend. So very high demand, but this was a brand new listing. This guest just wanted a place to go and hang out while they were hiking. They had no interest in being there for the race. So... the premium price that they were paying was just because of, you know, the time of the year that they were going. So the guest felt like they weren't getting the value that they were paying for. They were paying $2,000 on a house that would normally be priced around a thousand, but it's because of the weekend that they went. So they left a bad review because they felt like it wasn't worth what they were paying for it. And they didn't go for the race either. Sometimes this dynamic pricing that we're including should have a maximum, but that's up to you to decide what the right number is. I'm just saying that there's times when, those high demand you've got to really roll out the red carpet. You got to go above and beyond for those guests to provide additional value. That way they don't feel like the scales are unbalanced. Sometimes it's just because the didn't cooperate. Think about like in a ski town, when it's raining. Like that completely sucks. It's one of the reasons I don't like this part of PA that in the winter time, it does actually rain. ⁓ so if we have good weather and it's snowing or it's just below freezing all the time, we have a great ski season, but there's a lot of situations where people are booking these stays well in advance, three months, two months, whatever, and cancel within 10 days because they see the forecast as showing 40 degrees or they see the forecast as showing rain. ⁓ And sort of thing happens. ⁓ that could ruin an experience for the guest because now they're not skiing, they're just like hanging out and sitting in your house watching Netflix, something that they could have done at home. you have to think about that part of the experience too. Like sometimes it's just outside of your control. So in a situation like that, make sure that you're communicating with your guests and offering them some sort of credit. They should recognize that this is outside of your control, but by addressing it during their stay, it's gonna rebalance the scales. You know, the guests understand that the reason they're paying for this or this much is because of when they booked everything else, all the that you're providing and then offer them some additional value with the credit. I think that's the right thing to do. But you know, ⁓ if you it's okay. You're just risking a four star review. ⁓ And sometimes do that. It's not retaliatory. ⁓ It's about experience. ⁓ So, ⁓ know, the Airbnb review guidelines. You'll see what I'm talking about. a guest can leave a bad review because of the weather. Another thing is sometimes guests are just in a really bad mood because they booked your house for like a getaway, ⁓ getaway or for a birthday and somebody's getting in a fight or grandpa dies ⁓ they can't get a cancellation. Something goes on that's completely out of your control and it completely sucks. In situations like that, the best thing that you can do as the host is to rebalance the scales, offer some additional value, extend their stay. offer them to come back someday in the future at a discount, do something to add value for them so that the scales feel like they're rebalanced. Otherwise you are risking a less than stellar review. Another one, sometimes like there's just like a swarm of locusts. I know it's like a plague. So one time I stayed at a house in West Virginia and what I wasn't expecting was all the flies. West Virginia is a farm town. ⁓ whole area is just farms and mountains. And I stayed in an area with some farms. So guess what I was finding a lot of? Flies. I actually could not find a fly swatter. So I went to Walmart, which is 45 minutes away and I bought a fly swatter so that I could kill these suckers and you know, try and enjoy my reservation. So sometimes guests just have these unrealistic expectations because I should have thought I'm going to farmland. There's insects, there's a lot of insects actually as it turns out. And there's not a whole lot that that host could have done about it. Could they have had like a ⁓ fly trap outside? Yeah, but those things, they really stink over time. Could have had a like a bug zapper? Yeah, I'm getting too far into this, but you get the idea. you can manage expectations about something like insects. ⁓ But also sometimes it just comes in a swarm, right? in the Poconos, there's a certain time when we get a lot of ants ⁓ and there's a certain time when we get a lot mice and there's a certain time when there's a lot of like bugs outside, like gnats. ⁓ And those are usually short-lived. It's like a weekend, right? if you know from your team, that's like in the region, that there is this situation going on. You can also put that in your guidebook and kind of warn people about it. Take it, you know, case by case though. And ⁓ know, ⁓ you present it is completely up to you. I'm getting off track. So thing is like, it's about negotiation too. So a guest wants to feel like they've won. So if they ask for a hundred dollar refund, I offer them $150. ⁓ If they ask for a $300 refund, I act shocked and surprised, but I don't wanna discount their experience. And I ask them, well, do you think $350 would be fair? Or they say a number and I say, sounds fair. I'm not gonna go back and forth and continue to negotiate because if I win and they lose, I'm risking that review being bad. And that's a problem as well. You may be able to trick them into saying, I will leave a five-star review if I get a $200 credit. If you do that, you have strong grounds for a retaliatory review if you do not give them the credit. However, this is not a nice little gotcha because remember we started this conversation talking about how Airbnb doesn't follow its own policies. If you can't rely on Airbnb to take that review down after the guest extorted money out of you for a good review, then it's actually a risky move. It's not just like, oh I caught ya. Now I'm gonna not get a review from you at all because Airbnb will take it down. Good luck with that. And I would avoid it at all costs. just saying. But another thing is ⁓ about giving them an audience. Some people just want attention. Sometimes people just want some empathy. Sometimes they just want someone to validate their feelings. If you are, giving them attention, empathizing with them and validating their feelings, they're a lot less likely to seek revenge by posting a bad review. you have to think ⁓ your audience. Some of these are just old folks that don't have anybody to listen to them. And they're sending a message, hey, can you text? Can you call me? ⁓ they want to just have somebody to listen to them. They're going through all these problems. They're dealing with rain. They're dealing with all kinds of things. And now this is your problem because we're in hospitality and it's a people business and you thought it was a real estate business but then you got into operations and you realize that you really don't like this side of it. that's the case, don't just mismanage it. I would recommend finding a co-host. Airbnb has a lot of affiliated co-hosts and there's also co-hosts that you can find as well. I did an episode on how to find a high performing property manager. You can use that to find a co-host. Find somebody who's going to listen, right? Listen to your guests because that in and of itself offers value. Another thing that I always do, I will blow the problem out of proportion. What I mean is if the guest says like, was a bad experience, I can't believe, you know, that the trash at the curb was torn out of the trash can. I was scared that the bear was gonna attack me when I noticed that there was trash all over the ground. I would have oh my gosh, that is so terrible. ⁓ so sorry that you had to deal with that. I'm gonna make sure that that never happens again. I'm gonna have somebody over there very soon. So I'm focusing on solutions, but I'm also validating feelings and their fear. I would have been scared to death. How did you even stand? I would have been weak in the knees. I probably would have fainted in that situation. ⁓ Now you it. I don't mean go over the top. Be genuine, but ⁓ act like. their experience was not an exaggeration of the facts. Validate their feelings, show them that you care and that you believe what they're saying because to the guest, that is their reality. They experienced this and they're the only person who can actually tell you what they were feeling. it with legitimacy, right? The guest is always right. ⁓ The customer is always right. when they tell you how they were feeling or how they felt because of something, you need to take that seriously. So, ⁓ perfect example. The dishwasher wasn't working this weekend. I feel like that was an inconvenience worthy of a credit. ⁓ I'm so sorry that you had to deal with that. ⁓ I doing dishes by hand. There was a couple of times when I didn't have a dishwasher and ⁓ it way worse than I imagined it to be. I thought, hey, I'd be able to handle that. But like I was like halfway into the dishes, my back started hurting and I just didn't want to do them anymore. But then it bothered me that there were unfinished dishes. So I'm so sorry that you had to deal with that. I've done it a couple of times and it bothered me so much. Do think that $150 would be like a reasonable compensation for that terrible experience of the dishwasher not working for you this weekend? and see what they say. If they say, well, I was thinking more like 200. Like, ⁓ you're totally right. 200, I don't know what I was thinking with 150. Let's do 225. Would that make you feel good about, you know, about this inconvenience and putting it off? I really appreciate you waiting until Monday for this to get fixed. Make sure that they know you're going to get it fixed. This is not some long standing thing. No. you might be processing a claim on Monday and it's gonna take three more weeks to get it fixed. But don't tell that guest that it's gonna take three weeks to get fixed because they might feel like it's necessary that they warn future guests, remember? So then what about retaliatory reviews? we could talk about this for hours ⁓ it bothers me to no end that Airbnb will not follow their own policy. It used to be ⁓ you escalated an issue like this, ⁓ would actually get a human being, but what they have now is AI scrubbing through these and making responses. So the AI is not actually even accurate. It's not very good. and it doesn't take everything into consideration. I feel like when I challenge a review, it's like they're looking only at the review and saying, ⁓ no, this could stay up. And they're messaging you back, but they're not actually looking through any of your evidence. I actually submitted, ⁓ well, you get 2,500 characters and I submitted a very thorough argument that was 2,300 characters. So a lot to say there. said it, outlined it very clearly. is clearly a retaliatory review. And 13 photos supporting my claims. And here's two PDFs also supporting my claims. And this is a retaliatory review. Well, a day later, hey, Melanie's ⁓ review not gonna be taken down. I've been denied. So now I get one more try. So, I'm gonna try again. And if that still doesn't work, I'm gonna call Jenny. Now, if you watch some of our previous episodes, it'll bother her if you watch the one on YouTube, because before recording, she didn't realize it was gonna be recorded, like for YouTube. So, but check it out. fantastic. She's the the the volunteer representative for this region. And so when Airbnb doesn't follow their policies, I get her involved. And so we're gonna see if Airbnb follows their policies because she's able to shake some sense into them or if not. If not, you're gonna see me leaving some comments on this video about what's going on after that. Because again, it's not right. It's not good and it affects me and my pocketbook. And you know, I can respond to the review. So there's a few things to know about your response to reviews. Do not make it defensive. Make sure that you get to the resolution as soon as possible and keep it short enough and professional, not defensive and shut it down. A lot of your guests are looking right past your five-star reviews when they notice that you're not 5.0. They're looking for the reviews that identify is the bed uncomfortable Is it too hot in the summertime? The AC can't keep up. Is it too cold in the wintertime? The heat can't keep up. They're looking for these kinds of things they know that the reviews are the only place they're gonna find that. ⁓ they're not gonna find it in the five stars. They're gonna find it in the fours and the threes and the twos. So as they're searching through doing their final stuff, they're looking for any other warning signs because all this marketing sounds good if it's true. But if it's not true, it's the reviews that are gonna tell me. So the guests are looking through for that sort of thing. And when they get to the four, they're gonna read through that review. Or when they get to the one, they're gonna read through it. And then your response is the only thing that's gonna change their mind. So if that guest says, this host is creepy, they watch the camera like a hawk. So do not do anything in front of the camera. Don't spend any time in front of the camera. Know that you're being watched all the time. If you get something like that, Airbnb will probably not take it down, but the way you respond is important. So I would recommend utilizing AI for something like this. You have to train AI on your own you go through, all right, I need to keep this short, simple, to the point. And these are all the reasons, all the things I would like to say to that guest. ⁓ of these things should I say, recognizing that potential guests are going to read this review? I need to get to the answer right away and follow Jeremiah's recommendations, whatever. So I would be responding to that guest with something like, and again, I would tell AI all this and then have it give me five versions where I'm getting to the answer right away. Melissa, I've taken the camera. ⁓ I have ⁓ real good for watching it. I don't have any reason to need it. Honestly, it was left there by a previous homeowner and I never connected it to anything. So I've taken it down. Hopefully this makes you feel comfortable returning one day. You were a good guest and I'd be happy to welcome you back. ⁓ my gosh. saying something like that, that is not even connected is gonna make that potential guest think, oh wow, you know, this is genuine, it's honest, it goes right to the point. And it's, they don't have to click see more, right? If you get into some fluff and it's not important and they don't see the whole reason, they don't see the main part of it, then they're not gonna click see more. The guest that said that Antler A-frame was misleading because of the photos, the property operator, the homeowner I bet responded very defensively. It was very defensive. It was a very bad example of how you should respond to bad reviews. And this wasn't even a bad review, was a four, which I put into perspective, right? But the previous homeowner that had that house that made like $96,000 in a year didn't use doctored photos. They didn't edit out the houses behind it to make it look like it's in the middle of the woods. And they didn't have lifestyle images. So this is somebody who bought a house and then is trying to, you know, kind of do their thing to make it perform even better than this $96. Like that's not enough. So they're also not experienced enough to you know, get the kind of business that the last person was doing. So it's like Avery Carl was saying, just because a house did $90,000 last year doesn't mean it can do $90,000 under your management. That income is much more a reflection of the management than it is the house. You know, so sometimes the asset that you're buying, you're misrepresenting that to be the home. And really that's just what that home can do. So think of it this way, NASCAR race cars. If one of them won the Cup, you say that it's worth three times more or five times more than a regular race car. Would you? No, you would say that it was the driver and their skill that led them to ⁓ that That's why people wear, ⁓ that's they wear shirts that say Dale Earnhardt. It doesn't say like, race car number 31. The property is performing partly because of that. But I am getting way off topic here. We were talking about ⁓ responding to bad reviews. So related to those retaliatory reviews, I think Airbnb not following their own common sense policies is going to cause us, hosts, to lower our pricing on VRBO and see if we can get some more reservations there. And when guests realize that pricing is lower on another platform, Airbnb is gonna start noticing. If we can do this across the board, where instead of prioritizing the pricing on Airbnb, we're actually prioritizing it on other platforms, booking.com, whatever you use. then your reservations will probably still keep up, but you're prioritizing other platforms. I actually had a guest last week tell me, hey, I noticed that the price was better on VRBO. So can you match the price on VRBO? And they're on Airbnb. And they're saying this to me. And I don't wanna get flagged by the bots. I'm like, no, you came to me from Airbnb. I would like to host you through Airbnb. because I know this is all being recorded and being monitored by the AI gods of Airbnb. So what telling them. What I really want them to do is book on the platform that charges less. ⁓ And ⁓ you that's pretty self-explanatory, I think, but I was unwilling to lower their price on Airbnb to match VRBO. I said, look, each platform has its own fees. I end up with about the same amount either way. I would rather you book on this platform because that's where you came to us. Because it doesn't make any difference to me. reality, I'd rather not have to deal with their bad reviews. If they bring in a bad review, I'd like much rather like to deal with ⁓ VRBO customer support because they're a lot more fair to homeowners. But hey, this is not sponsored by VRBO ⁓ not sponsored by booking.com and it's certainly not sponsored by HostAway. I'll tell you what I do and it seems to work. It seems to help. I educate the guests about what a five, four, three, and two and one star review means so that they understand that four star is a very negative thing. It means that you would never come back to this house because it's not something that's worth its price. A star ⁓ is, know, I forget I have something clever for that too, ⁓ but a two star is, this is criminal, you need to put this host in jail. And a one-star review means I am so upset, I wanna do as much damage as possible. And I think guests take this kind of if they do read through it. Before I got into short-term rental hosting, I thought doing this was like begging for good reviews and that you should just be able to earn those reviews. but I was not experienced enough to know that a lot of guests don't understand the scale and you do have to actually educate them some because Airbnb views a four star review as a failure. If your house gets down to 4.0, you will be taken off the platform. That's how seriously they take these reviews. You've got to have five stars and at the very least it's to be 4.8 for you to maintain superhost status. So. some things to know about. If out of 20 reviews, you get two that are fours, you're at a 4.8. That ain't good. You'll lose Superhost. So that's one thing that I do. The next one, I'm gonna read you this message. I send this out automatically at one o'clock the day a guest checks out. And this is, you know, shortly before they get their reminder from Airbnb to leave a review. Just a quick thank you for leaving the home in such great shape. I truly appreciate how respectful and communicative you were during your stay. I'll be leaving you a great review in the next day or so and hope you feel comfortable doing the same. If anything about your experience wasn't quite five stars, I would really value hearing it directly here rather than learning about it in a review. Your feedback helps me fix things quickly so future guests never run into the same issue. Even small details matter, whether the mattress felt too firm, the pillows too soft, or anything else that stood out. If anything else came up during your stay, or if there's anything we discussed already that still didn't feel fully resolved, please feel free to share it here. Thank you. So now why this message works. It's an empathetic audience. It's offering them the opportunity to speak, and I'm gonna take their issues seriously. It tells them that they're getting five stars. I think this makes them ⁓ ⁓ of guilty if they don't leave me five stars. Sometimes a guest is just worried that you're gonna leave them a bad review because of maybe the mess that they left that they didn't leave the towels in the right place. Sometimes they're worried about that and you know They don't wanna taken advantage of where ⁓ they get a four star review and they gave you a five. So they might just you a four. So this is me making them feel guilty about not giving a five because I already told they're getting five stars from me. I actually prefer when guests tell me what review they're going to leave. It also tells them that I'm gonna be fixing whatever they brought up. So there's no need for them to warn future guests. Most people are good people. And if they recognize like that that dishwasher is gonna be fixed on Monday after I check out, there's no reason why they need to warn the future guests that they're gonna have to do their own dishes. It's kind of irrelevant. If they know that like, you know, just because there was dog poop in the yard this time doesn't mean that there's going to be dog poop in the yard in the future, that you took it so seriously, you gave them a big credit, they don't have anything to worry about, it's definitely not going to be there next time and they believe you, there's no reason for them to put that in their review. Unless it's, you know, with a positive tone. I mentioned to him like something kind of minor at the house and he took it very seriously. I don't think that's ever going to happen again. What you have to put into perspective is that your guests, when leaving a review, feel like they're speaking to future guests and they're gonna write in there what they wish somebody had written for them. So if it's a positive thing, they're going to actually sometimes spend time writing something positive. If they feel like they have to warn a future guest, they're going to put that in their review. So that's actually how you have to look at this. So sure, there's some guests out there that are gonna like scam you, they're gonna plant evidence, they're gonna do all kinds of things like this. as long as Airbnb is not actually enforcing their policies, showing that guest proof that that area was clean before they arrived is not gonna do you any good. Arguing with them, telling them that they're lying, these are all things that are gonna get you a review that you cannot get taken down. So you have to play the game. You have to swallow your pride, swallow your ego. and let go of your feelings and ideas of justice. And you have to let Airbnb do its thing. If you're going to use it, you have to accept that that's the reality now. If it changes, obviously we'll talk about it in the comments. Now, another thing to think about is that even if your guests rate you with five stars, if they leave a four out of five for value, you're still gonna be knocked down in the search results because Airbnb promotes the listings that have the most value. The ones that they perceive have the most value and the reviews play into that. So you wanna keep tabs on that. If your guest asks for a $400 refund and... You don't feel like it's justified. Just remember what their opinion of the value is going to be. Even if you bribe them, right? Even if you bribe them with a credit to give you a five-star review, it doesn't necessarily mean they're going five stars all the way down. You know cleanliness, price, location, blah, blah, blah. So if today's episode sounds familiar, you're not alone. These are the challenges no one talks about when they sell the dream of easy passive income. but they're exactly the problems that make or break your operation. If you've got a situation you wanna share, then please email me your question or reach out. info at galvanizedmanagement.com. Your problem might be the next one that we break down. And Cheryl, I'm hoping that this information this episode helped you, share it with another host who's in the trenches. Like and subscribe too... so that we can reach more people organically. That's how we make the industry better. I'd also love to see you follow me on TikTok at Galvanized Investments and Facebook and YouTube at Galvanized Management. Until next time, stay steady, keep learning and keep building something real. This is Short-Term Rental Problems and Solutions.