First off, I'm sure many hosts who visit these boards are thankful for OCM's like yourself, along with Bhumika and Jenny, who at least try to provide a compassionate ear.
Honestly, though, AirBnb needs to come up with a different name other than "retaliatory reviews" and saying hosts can get them removed because that is not what's happening. Being "retaliatory" means you're seeking REVENGE for something that happened to you. In effect, if you lie and exaggerate your story, all the better because AirBnb does not factor "truth or fairness" into their decisions.
I tried to dispute a "R" review, could prove (by video) that guest lied and exaggerated part of his 1-star review. He also forgot to mention getting 1 night of 2 refunded even due to my strict cancellation policy.
Despite getting at least 45 straight 5-star reviews over the past year, all that instantly vanished as his review cut my 4.89 rating down to 4.82. None of this "something doesn't smell right" was taken into consideration. AirBnb's position was the guest is entitled to his "experience" opinion. I seriously doubt he was even warned, as AirBnb threatens to do in their "policy", for violating my listing details and house/ground rules.
Situations like this can't be easy to find solutions to and my experience falls way short of what others have had to deal with. Still, by coddling these manipulative guests who are very steadily learning how to get free nights by creating imaginary issues, AirBnb is creating a situation that is going to drive hosts away to other platforms.
Hosts are expected to put their safety at risk kicking guests out of their homes and then 1) not receive anything close to what the damages were, 2) not get consistent and/or reliable support from AirBnb (even if they called the company from the very moment guest entered the home), 3) received no call-back even though CS promised them one, 4) see the company take the guest's word without proof, and 5) have to suck up a bad review on top of everything because the guest was smart enough to not specifically threaten "extortion" from the host in writing their review.
The company cannot have it both ways, as a third-party website which wants to stay neutral as they bring together 2 parties wanting to do business, or as an employer who is retaining the right to "deduct" payment from hosts and leaving them little choice but to tolerate rude/lying/destructive guests. Oh sure, we can leave a bad review, but it's easy for a guest to create a new profile. In the meantime, the host has to constantly worry if standing up for their own house rules is worth taking a hit on their rating.
I doubt there is any other system on the web where a 4-star rating is literally a death blow. For example, here's what an average person expects from a 1-5 rating, and what AirBnb's model for Superhosts is. Also, with this review system, this is what happens.
Host A:..............5*...........................................................................average: 5.0
Host B:..............5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....
…........................5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....5*+5*+5*+5*+5* + 1*........average: 4.8
So host B looks worse compared to host A who has one 5* rating.


Maybe AirBnb can consider making the "Overall' score, truly that...an AVERAGE of all of the other ratings for Communication, Cleanliness, Location, etc., not just it's own separate category. That would relieve a lot of pressure off of hosts' shoulders. There. That's feedback.