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Well in this sense AirBnB has a much more powerful tool, the host also reviews the guest. So when we consider hosting you we don't look at the possibly bad revi

Well in this sense AirBnB has a much more powerful tool, the host also reviews the guest. So when we consider hosting you we don't look at the possibly bad reviews you left, we look at the reviews other hosts left on you.

greggman3 7y ago
My reviews as a renter are high and in fact I've often left the place better than I found it. But that doesn't mean I don't feel pressure to not leave a bad review because of the reasons I stated. Case in point, I rent a 1 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles for 4 weeks. I arrive and it's clearly a couple struggling to make in in movie production. They tell me they are expecting funding for a documentary but that it's come a week late so they are going to go stay with friends for the next week since they rented the place to me. The place a single sofa in the living room and a king size bed with only sheets. There are no lights in the bed room except a string of christmas lights. The advertised wifi is them leaching off the neighbors which only works in a corner of the apartment and only sometimes. They say I can hang out in the lobby for free wifi but "the lobby" is just an outdoor hallway. They leave and I debate my options since I need to be somewhere for 30 days. I ended up staying. I check the fridge. It's disgusting and sticky inside. The bathroom and shower are also gross, clearly uncleaned for many many months. So I go buy cleaning supplies, clean the entire bathroom, the entire kitchen, and pull out all the removable surfaces from the fridge and clean them in the now clean shower. I then make do with this "crash pad" for 4 weeks. Now the question is, do I leave them a bad review? I think many might see it as my moral obligation to warn others. But I also know it's a struggling couple. Probably 24-28yrs old. IIRC I gave them 4 stars but mentioned the wifi in the review but the review was still "Jack and Jill are a very friendly couple ...." because it just feels wrong to be mean to people you know AND it also feels wrong not to warn others. I don't know if there is a perfect solution. For example maybe I could have talked to them about the issues and asked them to pledge to do better? Maybe AirBnB could let me delay my review until the next person rents and I can ask if the issues were fixed? For example removing the "has wifi" setting. There have been others where I never met the owners in which case bad things were more likely to get me to write a bad review but I still left the worry that if I did I'd be labeled a "user who leaves bad reviews, don't rent to them"

greggman3 7y ago

My reviews as a renter are high and in fact I've often left the place better than I found it. But that doesn't mean I don't feel pressure to not leave a bad review because of the reasons I stated. Case in point, I rent a 1 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles for 4 weeks. I arrive and it's clearly a couple struggling to make in in movie production. They tell me they are expecting funding for a documentary but that it's come a week late so they are going to go stay with friends for the next week since they rented the place to me. The place a single sofa in the living room and a king size bed with only sheets. There are no lights in the bed room except a string of christmas lights. The advertised wifi is them leaching off the neighbors which only works in a corner of the apartment and only sometimes. They say I can hang out in the lobby for free wifi but "the lobby" is just an outdoor hallway. They leave and I debate my options since I need to be somewhere for 30 days. I ended up staying. I check the fridge. It's disgusting and sticky inside. The bathroom and shower are also gross, clearly uncleaned for many many months. So I go buy cleaning supplies, clean the entire bathroom, the entire kitchen, and pull out all the removable surfaces from the fridge and clean them in the now clean shower. I then make do with this "crash pad" for 4 weeks. Now the question is, do I leave them a bad review? I think many might see it as my moral obligation to warn others. But I also know it's a struggling couple. Probably 24-28yrs old. IIRC I gave them 4 stars but mentioned the wifi in the review but the review was still "Jack and Jill are a very friendly couple ...." because it just feels wrong to be mean to people you know AND it also feels wrong not to warn others. I don't know if there is a perfect solution. For example maybe I could have talked to them about the issues and asked them to pledge to do better? Maybe AirBnB could let me delay my review until the next person rents and I can ask if the issues were fixed? For example removing the "has wifi" setting. There have been others where I never met the owners in which case bad things were more likely to get me to write a bad review but I still left the worry that if I did I'd be labeled a "user who leaves bad reviews, don't rent to them"