I got a bad review on Airbnb and here's what you can learn from it

Travel
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I got a bad review on Airbnb at the end of last year. A stay in Montenegro, saying I was a mess and did not leave the place at what it should be.

Yeah, it sucks.

It is extremely annoying and unfair. But sometimes, life throws you a curveball, and what you can do is figure out how to deal with it.

And although this is written specifically for Airbnb, I believe the principles applied to all of the review websites.

Alright, ready? Let’s get rolling.

First - Get a good review

Hold up. Hold up. Before you start throwing rocks at me. Let me explain.

It’s an obvious one but can be easily overlooked.

The most important thing during an Airbnb stay is don’t treat an Airbnb as your home.

Here’s what you should do instead:

  1. Keep the property clean
  2. Be reasonable quiet in the place
  3. Be friendly and polite toward the host

Simply put, I think for both ethical and practical reasons. You should aim for getting a good review first.

Second - Your gut feeling is telling you are going to get a bad review

From time to time, even if you take all the possible precautions to do with cleanness, noise, and general respect and friendliness towards the host, things could still go south.

And now it’s time for you to do some damage control.

The technique is as follows:

  1. Apologize
  2. Ask for a late checkout (so the host can leave a review right on the spot)
  3. Give a small gift

Usually, the host would not leave a bad review in front of you, I would say the chance of this working is about 80%.

Third - You get a bad review. How to deal with it?

In this situation, I would assess the ratio of the good/bad review in my account.

If you have an overwhelming amount of good review, I would say forget about it. Let it be the tears in the rain.

But if you are like me, a naughty boy, you have three options:

  1. Contest the review : the chance of this working is very low
  2. Increase the ratio of positive reviews : go for the instant booking option. And then ask for a good review after your stay
  3. Cry Create a new account : Delete the old one and get a new one. Lay low for 6 months then get a new one.

Alright, this is all I get. Let me know what you think. Sometimes I think I over analyze things a bit too much, but I also think some of the techniques could help you guys out.

3 Likes
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I think there are both pros and cons to different assessments and this is true of really all things, be it housing or something else. In fact, people tend to always apply for a variety of assessments, if I’m something of acquiring and today these review sites are online even though by how much. However, one must always remember whether it is an impartial review or an evaluation community :sleeping_bed:. Sometimes it also comes to my mind whether someone has only gotten good reviews. This is quite common in Chinese online stores, for example, meaning shoppers leave only commendable reviews. Personally, I’ve never stayed in airbn :house_with_garden: accommodation and right now I wouldn’t dare do that either. I cannot trust that the previous resident could not have been a carrier of the Korona :drop_of_blood: :brain: virus and therefore I am not currently staying in any other public place like the hotel :hotel:. Quite frankly, right now I’m not staying and I’m not traveling either. Otherwise, everything you said there, I think, is very good behavior and if you also take into account the views of the landlord, there should certainly be no bigger problems. Hopefully in the future you will get better reviews and why not because you do seem like a smart guy :+1:. :muscle:

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Thanks man. I plan to do more post like this.

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Sounds like a very great plan, so I’ll be looking forward to your next posts here on the site. This is a nice place to really read how people have experienced different situations here, and maybe you can learn from them for the future. Reading different writings gives you a much better idea than just one trying and making the same mistakes over and over again. There are quite a few like-minded citizens around the world here moving around the globe.