Airbnb Complaints from Guests: How to Prevent Them | Hospitable.com (2024)

If you are planning to rent out your property on Airbnb, you should get ready to face Airbnb complaints from guests. Vacation rental issues happen even to the best hosts, but you shouldn’t forget that these problems, big or small, may quickly turn into bad reviews.

Bad reviews can scare away potential travelers and have a negative impact on your listing’s overall visibility. And you certainly don’t want that.

Some issues may happen due to miscommunication or because some of the guests may be difficult. Still, you need to make sure that you, as a host, don’t make any avoidable mistakes. Download our guide on the horrible hosting blunders and ensure you don’t recognize yourself in any of those situations.

But there is no need to worry too much because most of these issues can be fixed or prevented. Read on to learn how to avoid the most common Airbnb guest complaints and ensure your Airbnb reviews are helping your business.

What Are the Most Common Airbnb Guest Complaints and How to Prevent Them?

Handling complaints from guests are the biggest source of stress and anxiety for many Airbnb hosts. But the good news is that it’s possible to prevent most of the issues and get 5-star reviews from your guests.

Of course, Airbnb guest complaints will happen from time to time, and different guests may have different issues. And while it’s almost impossible to please every guest, using Hospitable, you can keep those complaints to a minimum.

Here are some practical tips on how you can deal with common Airbnb complaints.

Lack of Communication

Communication is one of the major points in guest reviews, so it’s important to get it right to improve the guest experience by providing accurate information in a timely manner. And it also helps you build good relationships with your guests.

No matter how detailed your listing or welcome book is, your guests are still going to have lots of questions, both before and during their stay. And if you are not there to answer them promptly? You are most likely to get negative reviews.

It’s important to communicate with short-term rental guests during pre-booking phase, between booking and check-in, during their stay, and post-stay. You should be quick in responding to any questions.

Virtually all communication on Airbnb and other platforms happens via messaging, so it can be overwhelming to be always available to your guests and respond on time. And if you manage multiple properties, it’s even more challenging to craft personalized messages that build trust and rapport.

And if your guests want to come earlier or leave later, you can answer early check-in and late check-out requests automatically, depending on your calendar availability. By making your guests happy, you can get more positive reviews and increase your income. With Hospitable, you will improve your guest experience all while saving you tons of time.

Your place is not that clean as expected

Complaints about cleanliness are the most common ones out there. Your guests expect your rental property to be as clean as an upscale hotel room. And if you miss any spot, they won’t think twice about commenting about it when they leave you an Airbnb review.

These Airbnb complaints are easy to prevent. Hire a cleaning team and create a detailed, room-by-room Airbnb cleaning checklist for them to follow while they’re there. It will help you ensure that they haven’t overlooked anything while preparing your rental property for guests.

You can use Hospitable to assign tasks to your team automatically. You will be able to automatically notify your cleaners about any same-day turnover and ensure your property will be cleaned before your next guest checks in.

Issues with Wi-Fi

Sometimes, guests might have trouble using the electronics in your home. Some devices may be complicated to use or require some additional explanation.

Be sure to leave detailed instructions for your guests on how to use each of the appliances in your home and how to connect to your Wi-Fi network. Include these how-to instructions and detailed house rules in your house manual.

Tell your guests exactly what to do if the Wi-Fi doesn’t work. For example, you can explain where the router is located and how to reset it. Share the username and password for your Wi-Fi account to guests in multiple places. It’s best to send them a message via Hospitable before they even check-in.

Access problems

Many Airbnb guests complain of access problems, too. For example, there might be a stuck lock or a jammed door, or you or your turnover team could forget to update the codes on your keypad. There are also common issues with garages, gates, and lockboxes.

The best thing you can do to prevent these problems is to install a keyless smart lock. You can control them easily with just your mobile phone.

With smart locks, you can easily grant or deny access to your property. This way, you can facilitate self-check-in and check-out for your guests by using passcodes that simply expire when your guests check out.

Think that creating unique codes for each guest is tedious? Hospitable will help you automate this task. You only need to connect your Hospitable account to one of the many smart lock brands we integrate with and watch the magic happen.

The application will help you automate creating individual door codes for your guests based on their check-in and check-out dates and phone number. Then it will be a breeze to change codes as needed.

Conclusion

Most of the common Airbnb complaints from guests can be avoided with some careful planning and preventive effort. But even if an issue arises, keep calm and focus on a solution as a responsible Airbnb host.

Some hosts make horrible mistakes. It’s ok, just make sure not to repeat them. Download our guide to learn from mistakes of others.

Do your best to reply in an apologetic and empathetic way and inform your guests about the steps you are taking to help. And, of course, resolve any complaints quickly before they become a bigger problem because actions speak much louder than words.