What NOT To Do In An Airbnb.

Here's how to annoy your host and ruin your rating.

My Yosemite country house has been rented pretty much all summer and is getting great reviews for its thoughtful design, luxurious amenities, and well stocked kitchen. Photo by Sara Ligorria-Tramp.

My mom stayed at an Airbnb recently and was relatively aghast at a note left by the host. “Here’s a few things you can do to ensure you get a Five Star rating!” it read. The reason it rubbed my mom the wrong way is that it made her feel like it was her job to please the host, not the other way around. It set up the energy in the house not as a carefree guest-first experience, but more as a means to an end to efficiently get the host money, on his terms. From a host standpoint, I sort of understood it. The host wrote the note not only to communicate his needs, but also as a reminder that everyone here is trying to get a good rating, so let’s all get along!

Airbnb works primarily on a rating system. The host rates the guest and the guest rates the host. If you’re a host, your rating is crucial to getting more bookings. And if you’re a guest, your rating is crucial to being able to stay where you want to stay. It’s a system that mainly works, though with a few huge flaws that can lead to less-than-ideal outcomes.

As someone who was obsessed with grades and GPAs in high school, I can’t tell you how crazy it makes me that I don’t have a 5.0 rating (I have a 4.98 from 51 reviews). In my defense, all the non-Five Star ratings came from before I took over management and cleaning (since then I’ve only gotten Five Stars). But I’d still like my rating to be better. I am a “Guest Favorite,” a “Superhost,” and “In the Top 10% of homes” so I’m doing okay, but I have worked myself to the bone trying to make this place perfect, so I don’t wanna settle for less than a perfect score.

There is a downside, however, to the whole rating system. One thing I don’t like is that you can’t really be direct with your guest (or host) about things that could potentially offend them or cause them to leave you a bad review. For example, if something breaks, a host might not want to be like “HEY DID YOU BREAK THIS?” for fear the guest will be annoyed at being accused and leave a bad review. Alternatively, I find that guests can be shy about asking questions because they worry they’re going to seem needy. My kitchen has a lot of stuff in it, and sometimes I worry guests don’t find half of it because they don’t want to annoy me by asking. For the record, most hosts would rather you ask than go without because they want you to have a good time and thus leave a good review. But because everyone is trying to be “nice” all the time, sometimes guest needs and hosts’ ability to be honest go out the window to preserve niceties.

I’ve lucked out with Airbnb guests, I tend to have people who are very clean and orderly in my house. I’ve given almost all of them Five Star reviews but a few people have done things that were a little annoying. Below are some examples of things I would have docked people for if I were meaner.

What NOT to do in an Airbnb…