Annie Reneau
The best guests are: The ones who really see the space as their home away from home and love and treat it accordingly. We put a ton of work, thought and heart into remodeling and making our two Airbnbs warm and welcoming spaces with everything someone would need, so when people voice appreciation and gratitude for that, it means a lot. (And repeat guests, of course!)
The worst guests are:
1) Those who show up early or stay after checkout time without requesting it ahead
of time. It messes with the cleaning schedule.
2) The ones who leave a fabulously glowing review, saying everything was great and
they recommend the place, no complaints, but only give 4 out of 5 stars.
On Airbnb, 4 stars means something wasn't satisfactory, so it's really confusing
and annoying if someone has nothing to complain about but knocks off a star. We
have hundreds of 5-star reviews, and a 4-star review hurts our ratings, believe it or
not.
Annie Reneau is a writer, wife, mom of three, and associate editor at Upworthy.
She and her husband run two short-term rentals in a Pacific Northwest college
town.